Political science professor Andrew Trexler on the political media diet. (Hour 1)

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It's nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes Sharp humor and plenty of personality.

You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

It's news and culture without the noise.

Yeah, I'm on!

Here's Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Dude!

Dude!

Hey, welcome to Nightlight everybody!

We are live on a Wednesday night here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I am Pete Schwab is sitting across the state and a different angle tonight than me is Mr. Greg Bach.

Hey, buddy.

How are you?

I'm well.

How are you doing Pete?

Doing very

well.

I

don't know why I said like a Pete.

I wanted to say Peter, but I also don't know if Peter is a name that you don't like.

Maybe you don't enjoy being called that.

No,

it's acceptable.

It's a biblical name.

Peter was the rock.

I am not that but no, I don't the rock

with Pete the rock is Dwayne Johnson We all know that don't try to

here's what I think we should set a precedent going forward if you call me Peter I'll call you Gregory and now that's how we'll know we're in this realm of That's how we'll know

we're in trouble

Peter

Peter Peter What's your middle name?

What's your middle name Pete Pete?

It really is I'm a junior.

I'm Thomas Peter.

Yeah

So I spent a lifetime.

That was

just so wonderfully delivered.

Like, it's Peter.

My name is

Peter Pete.

My name is Peter Pete Schwabba, junior.

My father is Peter Pete Schwabba, senior.

They called me Pete so that he wouldn't confuse us.

But I just, it's like every time I call somewhere, I get a check.

Hold on a second now.

Who's this and what are you and what's your social security?

It's been a lifetime of, I'm glad I was born, don't get me wrong.

But yeah, it's a little bit of a headache.

What about you?

What's your middle name?

My middle name is Steven.

I'm named after my maternal grandfather who I never met in my entire life and no one has ever spoken a kind thing about.

Oh dear.

It was a, he was a complicated fellow, but still it's just like, and it's funny, you bring that up after what I just brought up.

Um, I texted my mom the other day and I said, why didn't you ever name me Frederick after my, like, was there ever a chance you could have named my, me Frederick?

Cause that was my father's name.

Frederick and Fritz are both family names and it just never seemed to be the thing.

So yeah, I just, I know like, where'd you get Greg?

Like we just both liked it.

I'm like, okay.

All right.

Do you think anyone's ever hated their middle name so much they mosey down to the courthouse and say I want to change my middle name I don't think I've ever heard

maybe I have to imagine in the in a world of 8 billion people there has to be someone who did my wife actually changed her full name and made her maiden name officially legally her middle name okay because she didn't want to she didn't want to hyphenate right and I told her I told her the outset before we got married I said look I'm not gonna ask tell or anything I'm gonna say this and once and only I said

Change your name.

Don't change your name hyphenate your name do whatever you want.

I don't care It doesn't matter to me.

I don't have a dog in this race.

I'm not making a demand and will there be no pressure?

From my family to do so and she goes no, I'm taking your life.

I'm come back I'm like, okay, cool, but she then legally changed her name So now her maiden name is legally her second middle name.

So she has a forename.

She's a four Lord's

that's that's complicated

But, you know, if that's what she wants to do, if that's her comfort zone, that's

fantastic.

Yeah, exactly.

Like I said, I was like, honey, you do whatever.

Like, you're marrying me.

I should be paying for this, for you to have to, you know, change your name.

Because it's not just because nowadays women, and well, in some states, men too, you get married, you can change your name at the wedding and you sign a thing and boom, you're done.

But with her, she had to go through the process of...

She had to put a notice in the paper.

She had to go to court twice.

She had to do all the things.

I'm like, honey, you didn't have to do any of this.

That's true love, though, Greg.

You know that's a girl that is never going anywhere.

My

wife loves court and legal processes.

Can't get enough of it.

Yikes.

I remember.

Yikes.

So divorce is always an option.

No, I remember when we got married in 1996 and people would say, well, is Mary going to take your name or whatever?

And I go, no, I'm going to take hers.

It's going to be Pete and Mary O'Neill or Mary and Pete O'Neill.

And the look you get when you say stuff like that, because they're fearful that you're telling the truth.

And I wasn't, obviously.

But who cares?

I mean, it's just like the whatever.

But it's fun to mess with people.

Oh, I love that.

I love that stuff.

I remember when my sister said she wasn't going to take my brother-in-law's name.

And I was shocked for about five seconds.

I was like, wait, what?

And then I realized, oh, this isn't any of my business.

What do I care?

I don't care.

Like, I was just serious.

And then after that, I'm like, yeah, do whatever you want.

Call yourself.

You know, Amy Wackadoodle, I don't care.

You're living your life.

It's fine.

Don't call yourself that.

I

mean, hey, live

your life.

Hey, live your life.

Life is a little sweeter tonight, Greg, because Tucker is here tonight.

Our senior producer of Nightlight.

He is on the premises.

And I don't know if I just made things awkward, but hi, Tucker.

Well,

Tucker is, to be fair, Tucker is always here, but like tonight, if you're watching the live stream, you can see him on the live stream.

This is a reason to watch the live stream is Tucker, our senior producer.

He's always, I don't want to say lurking, that makes him sound creepy,

but he's

always there.

He's always there.

But it's a great, it's a great way to log on right now and see if Tucker is how you pictured him.

He's a handsome guy who has the stubble, I like that, Tucker.

The stubble,

and yeah, yes.

You know what,

actually, Tucker, move.

Just get off the screen.

It's off, put in your two hands.

Get away.

Go away, go away, you're making us all look bad.

It's like a handsome off between he and Dom, so I don't know what to do.

Oh,

thank you.

Between the oh, eh, who's

the more handsome of the two fellers?

I don't know why I went Irish pirate, but I did.

Speaking of a sweet show tonight, we are talking to Andrew Trexler, who is a professor from the University of Wisconsin, Madison to talk about navigating politics in the current information landscape.

And then in the second hour, we will be talking to make sure I got this right.

I was like, Tom Castle, he's a singer, songwriter and sailor and teller of tales.

That's, that's, that's an entire title.

I like that.

He's doing a show on March 28th called Dan CV, Confessions of a Great Lakes Pirate.

So we'll be talking

him in the second hour.

And we'll be talking to all of you about the question of the night.

Pete, is it time to get to the question of the night?

It's Dom's call.

Dom, what do you say, buddy?

Let's do it.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay,

question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

It's registered dietitian and nutritionist day.

I think we spelled dietitian wrong.

What is something, the question is what is something you wish you could stop eating?

I've had dietitians on this show from time to time.

I love talking to them.

And

so we should line something like that up.

But for the time being, folks, weigh in tonight.

Let us know what you wish you could stop eating.

We've all got that one food or, you know, that one food group that we think if we get rid of it, it would make us more healthy.

I've got a few of them.

But I think, I think dietitian is spelled D I E T I C I A N.

Right,

okay.

Well, you know what no one would have known had you not said

I

think

people know what we mean

no known

Oh, wait, we misspelled it on

the

social media.

Oh,

I thought you

meant on

our doc.

I'm like, why are you doing this right now?

I was probably in a hurry last night and just sent what I had to Amanda.

And she just didn't.

And she just, I'm throwing Amanda under the bus when it's really my fault.

That's the kind

of

guy.

It

really is your

fault.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5 Civic, be part of the show.

Be part of the fun, everybody.

And tell us what is something you wish you could stop eating.

You can also.

text us on the app.

Go ahead, Greg.

And if it's dirty, we won't read it.

So, you know, just...

I don't want to say I purposely did not put the word food in there, but it is a little bit open to interpretation.

So you can send whatever you want.

We may or may not read it.

That's the key.

Exactly.

Exactly.

If you are watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, and or ex Twitter, not only did you see Tucker's handsome face, but you can also drop us a stream comment.

Let us know what food that you wish you could stop eating.

So we'll have fun with that one.

And if you want to see more of Tucker and less of us, please let us know too.

It'll hurt, but at least we'll know the truth.

We could turn our cameras off, Greg, and just put a picture of Tucker on the feed.

Yes.

That

would be better.

I don't think that's a bad idea.

Hey, Dom, right now, is Tucker blushing right now?

Is he smiling, or is he like, please?

He's just laughing every single time you bring up his name.

I

think it's

working.

The funny thing is to put Tucker's picture up there, we have to run it by Tucker because he is the senior professor.

It really is.

It's a

matter of copyright and personal law.

I think personal law is something I just made up, but you know, still,

if I

can make it up, it means it's a thing.

That's what the world, that's the world we live in now.

I made things up and they're now things.

We can go to the Google.

We can go to the Google.

What should we, let's, we got to talk about a few things going on today.

Quickly, apparently, too.

Maybe we're going to talk about one or

two.

Well, let's get through as many as we can because there are things going on in the world, Dom, if you would mind leading us into a nice segue into the next segment.

The first big story.

The right wing of the Republican Party appears to be fracturing a little bit in regard to the war.

I saw this on

Yahoo News, which you know it's gotta be true.

Yahoo!

It sounds like yodeling every time you talk about Yahoo News.

So apparently Joe Rogan, who some would argue had a big part probably in President Trump getting elected.

Even though he doesn't want to say so.

I

know.

And you know what?

I don't know if he pushed him over the top, but it certainly didn't hurt.

probably a bunch of 20-year-old boys maybe that wouldn't have voted, voted, I don't know.

But he is very influential, no question about it.

Immensely popular podcast, almost as popular as Nightlight.

And he endorsed Trump before the 2024 election.

He has come out and said he's not in favor of this war.

He doesn't like where it's going.

He joins Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, and Coulter.

And then you've got the other guys, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, who are still staunchly pro-Israel and pro-Trump on this issue.

So I don't want to make

it.

I mean, it's it's it's very interesting because you know when we I feel like when you see People coming out against it who are part of I don't want to call maybe the elite or the intelligentsia It's very interesting because you feel like they're not allowed to speak poorly or against whatever is going on and you know Tucker well Tucker Carlson is kind of mind-blowing in the past year with some of the interviews He's done, but I still think he's a slime ball at his core

Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultz have been very interesting because they've been guys who've been like, we have Trump on the show.

We're talking about Trump and blah, blah, blah.

And as soon as things go haywire, they're like, we didn't do this.

like Andrew's shows like, Hey, we had nothing to do.

I'm like, yeah, you did.

You had him on your show.

You had him on your show.

And then after he won, you said, we got him elected.

Like you took the credit for that.

And now the things are happening.

You don't like or quote, not what you voted for.

Okay.

You're saying, well, we didn't have anything to do.

It's not our fault.

Well, now you're saying fault.

So I guess you might think there's a problem there.

It's what you're thinking in your brains.

They're buddies, comedy comedians as influencers, man.

Yeah.

We all know that Edward R Murrow was a

before he became a world-class journalist.

Not a very good one though, let's be

honest.

No, he's impressionable.

Terrible.

Oh my gosh, it was a

hack and tell us street jokes.

That's what I kind of, I don't mind, okay, if you like Trump and you supported him, you endorsed him on your podcast, that's great, but all the stuff he's saying and complaining about now is like, you didn't see that coming?

You either were so easily fooled or, you know, that's what I can't figure out about Joe Rogan.

He's never just gonna come out and say I was wrong, I don't think.

No.

I don't know.

Interesting.

Well.

I mean, it just comes down to the fact that like, if like, I will, that statement you just made, I'll amend it for myself as far as like, if you support Donald Trump and you wanted to vote for him and you want to talk about him in your show, that's fine.

If you support

everything, that's

great.

But these guys who used him as a ratings.

uh bomb to like get people watching and to get your influence up to get your engagement and clicks up and you don't really care about this stuff or you think well this is what i want it then you didn't care about it in the first place you just wanted the pop from having him on the show that's where my problem also is as well

i think also it's just interesting to me this that there are these fractures in that party which is oftentimes really

rank and file like they they

go

by the party lines like the Democrats are fractured over the place on what so it's just interesting to me that it's these people who are disagreeing in particular.

I suppose.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

We're going to take a very short break, folks.

And when we come back, Andrew Trexler will be here.

He's got a PhD in polypsi.

And he's a professor at UW-Madison.

And he's going to talk to us about voting and navigating the political landscape here with all the information coming out.

It's going to be a blast.

Great to have you with us tonight.

It's Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

My name is Greg Bach here in Radio Park in Racine across the state from me and actually both in Madison this evening.

We have Pete Schwabba as well as Dom Lee, both in our HQ studios in downtown Madison.

If you want to be part of the conversation, 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

We are streaming on Facebook, YouTube, the platform we still call Twitter.

The question of the night is what is something you wish you could stop eating because

Again Pete, is national dietitian's

day?

It's national dietitian and nutritionist day and we're wondering if there are things out there that people wish they could stop eating.

There you go, and you can always drop a comment in the live stream drop a text message You can get the civic media app where you can listen to the show and call text as well as a small little tease ahead We have a text-to-win contest coming up next week more information in the coming days So you want to get that civic media app because that's the only way you could participate in our state multi-state text-to-win contest here at civic media, but yeah

Please, we'd love to hear from you throughout the show.

And we got great, great programming ahead in the next hour.

We're going to be talking.

Oh, my goodness.

I've got all these things open up here.

Tom Castle, who's a singer, songwriter and stage performer, but his new show coming up later this month.

But now I'd love to welcome our first guest to the show.

He is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Mr. Andrew Trexler is our guest.

Good evening afternoon.

I guess it's still daylight.

Good afternoon, J. Andrew.

How are you today?

I'm doing well.

How are you all?

I'm doing quite well.

Pete, how are you doing?

I want to speak for you.

Take

the show in a different direction.

I don't think it's worth getting into right now.

It's just great to have Andrew here.

I'm doing great.

Thanks, Andrew.

It's great to have you here.

So one of the things we wanted to talk about with you is, you know, is we

looked at our we were looking at her she talking about what we're going to go over and one of the things is is the navigation of politics in the current information landscape and you know i am someone of an age where i can remember when the landscape was the nightly news the newspaper the radio that's pretty solid like other magazines of course but now it's an

a barrage and onslaught I hear it referred to as a fire hose.

What do you see as, you know, you have, this is your forte.

What do you see in this world?

How do people navigate with so much coming at them at all times from almost every direction?

Yeah, we often refer to this as a very fragmented media environment.

There are many different places where people can get news, do get news.

A lot of it comes down to building habits.

Different people have certain

information streams that they grew up with that sometimes they hold on to.

Some it is a function of the social circles that they're in, the apps and the platforms that their friends tend to use.

A lot of it is driven by what technology companies decide to put in front of us.

That is in large part governed by our own choices.

We're often quick to blame algorithms for

everything that's wrong with the media environment and a lot of that is just algorithms are trying to keep us on the platform and so they're responding to our own choices and over time those habits build to produce a very unique information stream for really each individual navigating the space today.

Andrew, when it comes to voting, you hear things in the news like what the president wants to do or what different political factions want to do, like, oh, no more mail-in balloting or absentee ballots.

Speaking of getting information to people, we've got midterms coming up probably faster than we think.

How would they, what's the best way for them to navigate?

How can I vote?

Because frankly, even I'm confused right now.

I know how I'm going to vote and I can still do that, but for those who vote differently or absentee or at home or whatever, what do they do and where do they go to find out that information?

Well, the best place to get that kind of information is usually from the county or the city website that's gonna provide information on exactly where your polling location is.

what voting times are, when the election is first and foremost.

There are opportunities for media organizations to provide that information to the public more directly, but oftentimes breaking news gets in the way.

It's not easy to remember to sort of always remind people about those kind of very basic things of, you know, how do I register to vote?

Where do I find my polling place?

Who's on the ballot?

When is the election?

What time do polls close?

These kinds of basic pieces of information for somebody who is seeking at the best place to look is kind of from official sources.

But there are certainly some public good that can be provided by media organizations to keep that information.

sort of top of mind when when discussing politics and particularly elections.

Just before you were talking about as far as like people like the way from where they get their information from and you know we can often see the you know you know there is a lot of discussion of siloing yourself off and algorithms and whatnot and for folks out there who are just like I just want reliable news sources I mean

Is there such thing, honestly?

Are there resources out there where it's like, I know that I'm going to get the most journalistic, like down the middle, I'm going to get the information I need, or is it just a matter you have to just be able to trust whatever you are willing to trust versus?

I don't know.

I just feel like the people out there just don't feel confidence in the way they take in news because they're always afraid of the biases.

Is there a way to get around that?

Are there places you can go that you feel like are trustworthy?

Yeah, certainly.

So one recommendation that I often come back to is just diversifying your new sources.

So for many people in this day and age, the primary way that they get breaking news in particular is through social media.

And social media is valuable in the sense that it provides information very quickly.

So it's very up to date.

But oftentimes it is not

sort of verified sources that are reporting the most recent news.

And so, you know, it's not an ideal source for getting verified facts.

And so, when I say diversify your sources, I don't necessarily mean, you know, read some stuff on the left and read some stuff on the right, but also, you know, take a look at local media and national media, international media to get a sense of what's going on in a more holistic kind of way.

We're going to be speaking more with Andrew Trexler from UW Madison when we come back here on nightlight.

If you have any questions, 855-752-484-2855-75 civic drop a comment on the live stream.

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Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

I am Greg Bach here in Radio Park in Racine and across the state.

Oh, dropped my pen there.

We have Mr. Pete Schwabba in Madison along with Dom Lee.

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Call our text 855-752-484-2855.

75 Civic, leave a comment on the live stream.

We are currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

In the second hour, we'll be talking to Tom Castle, who is a singer, songwriter, and stage performer, talking about his newest show coming up later this month.

But right now, we're going to continue our conversation with Andrew Trexler.

He is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

And from one.

a political science bachelor holder to a professor of political science.

I understand there's a difference in respectability.

But the point is, one of the things that you've talked about in the past is news organizations being under informed.

Can you speak more about that and what that means not only for them as an organization, but for us as a

readership?

sometimes use the term under informative to describe news coverage as we typically see it today, particularly on the national scene.

Basically, what I mean by that is there are some individuals who pay quite a lot of attention to politics.

They follow

the

news every day.

They're very active on social media.

They follow journalists on social media.

They're sort of up to the minute.

Those individuals have a large sort of existing stock of political knowledge that helps them understand the news as it sort of unfolds day by day.

But much of the public does not engage in the same kind of behavior.

So they tune into politics more intermittently, often around election time.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

We have a lot of evidence in political science that people can use what we call informational shortcuts to make good decisions when voting at the ballot box.

But the kinds of news that they tend to encounter when they are trying to get information on politics is often using political jargon and referencing the kind of minutiae of political events that have occurred over previous months and years.

And that make it really difficult for somebody who's kind of just tuning in to kind of figure out what's going on.

And so this is what I mean by under informative news.

It's not uninformed necessarily.

There's actually a lot of really good content there, but it requires somebody who is paying attention on kind of a constant basis to really get a lot of value out of that information.

I contrast this with what is sometimes called public interest style coverage, which really focuses on sort of bringing forward the policy relevant or governance relevant things that are important for people to know when they're making political decisions and put that content in a really accessible format.

So using relatively simple terms, relating it to issues that people know about and care about, it makes it easier for people who sort of tune in irregularly or encounter political news content more incidentally to really understand it and connect it to the preferences that they have, the issue positions they have, and make more effective decisions when navigating politics.

As a professor, what do you see in the classroom?

Like another generation is coming up.

How do you try to encourage them to stay informed knowing that you probably have people from both sides of the political aisle in your classroom as a challenge for a professor?

How do you encourage them to stay informed?

Yeah, so one thing I like to do in my media and politics classes is having my students take a lot of the surveys that I put.

in front of the American public on their existing media habits.

And sometimes that can be quite eye-opening for my students.

We have a lot of really in-depth conversations about the kinds of value that things like social media can provide versus some of the sort of older form.

a way of getting the news.

I still get print newspaper, for example,

because

I find it's more effective for me to get a holistic view of what's happening with some highly fact-checked and solidly reported content.

That's not something I can spend an hour every day doing.

But I try to build in habits that are oriented towards things that are a little bit more rigorous, I suppose, in terms of reporting.

So we have conversations about what kinds of value can shows like yours provide, what kinds of value can television programs provide.

And since for many of my students, these are not things that they

spend a lot of time engaging with already.

Many of my students, you know, in my surveys, you know, actually stayed quite explicitly, hey, I'm actually like thinking about changing my habits a little bit and trying

to build

a plan on how to be better informed sort of long term going forward.

I want to follow up on Pete's question a little bit because, you know, talking about, you know, having these conversations with the younger people who are seeing the world in a way different way that I may have just when I was their age.

I don't know because of the level of on what you teach.

Do you have people who come through who say.

I'm taking this course to fill this and I don't, like, do you have people who just don't believe in the process, maybe taking the course either to find out more or to just fill a, you know, a credit, but I mean.

Do you have anybody like that who just is I don't know how to say it correctly because I imagine a lot of the folks a lot of kids who are taking your courses are very into politics They you know, they are up on the news But do you see kids on the other side are like I don't really care about this stuff But they're here to learn and they learn something and they maybe change their mind

Yeah, so as you said many of my students since I am a media and politics scholar many of my students are

you know, taking a lot of journalism classes, taking a lot of political science classes.

They are typically very engaged, but that's just the average, right?

So I

have students who are extremely politically engaged.

I have some who barely, you know, engage with the news at all.

And I think for both ends of that spectrum, I have students who, you know, taking my course.

develop a plan on how they want to modify their media habits.

For people who are very politically engaged, they want to spend more time with contents that is sort of less rapid fire, so spend a little bit less time on social media, not to cut it completely out of their diet because they still get value, particularly for breaking news, but sort of complement it with things that are a little bit slower form, longer form.

to deepen their engagement rather than the five-minute, very shallow, what we call news snacking that they're used to.

And then for folks who don't engage with the media much at all, I'm trying to build a habit where they are able to get some continuous engagement with the news in a way that doesn't feel like it's overwhelming them.

That's often an issue that we

we find with people who avoid the news in general, they just find it very overwhelming and so

finding

a habit that works for them that can provide some informative value in their life without sort of taking over everything is a really constructive path forward.

Our guest is professor, assistant professor Andrew Trexler.

He teaches political science at UW-Madison, and he has a PhD in polycyte from Duke University.

Do you ever have to pull those letters out with your students and just go, listen, tough guy?

Like if they get too big for their britches, you just throw the PhD at them?

Fortunately, I have not had to do that.

Perhaps it will happen at some point in the future.

You never know.

It's good to

have if you need it.

That's

all I'm saying.

When you have, you know, there's MSNBC, there's Fox, there's different factions of news, and everybody seems to have their bias, and that seems to be okay right now, or expected, I should say.

What's better, fact-based bias or apolitical lying of people getting their information wrong on both sides?

Like, what's more harmful?

I don't think if people are telling the truth,

if there's a bias, okay.

But I mean, what do you think about that?

Yeah, we have a lot of conversations about this question.

It's difficult even to define necessarily what we mean by bias.

The word gets thrown around a lot, but people are often hesitant to actually give a really clear definition.

So I would certainly make a distinction between presenting information, but with...

you know, some exclusions or omissions that might be relevant from outright misinformation or disinformation, sort of intentional lying.

Those two things are different to me and they have different consequences for the media environment.

That's not to say that either are like purely acceptable, but again, it's difficult to define exactly what we mean by bias.

Any

I'm any news organization and honestly any voter to I'm just going to have a particular perspective on the world.

And so again, it's helpful to diversify your media so you're not getting all of your information from a single source, no matter how much you sort of align with that source politically or otherwise.

Just to get a sense of what other.

news outlets are covering what else is on the agenda.

I think a useful exercise that I force my students to go through is to

Look at several different media outlets for several days in a row to see what each of those different outlets are identifying as the top news.

So I think that can be a really eye-opening exercise for my students to say, well, we often think of like, okay, today's top story is this, but on these three outlets, that was true, but on these other outlets, it was a completely different story.

And so diversifying your media outlet

your media diet in a way that you can get a more holistic picture of what different news organizations are prioritizing can be helpful in getting you a better picture of what's going on.

Again, it doesn't need to overwhelm your life.

It's not something that you need to spend hours every day doing, but engaging with the news regularly to the depth that you're comfortable with can be productive longer.

And you've been teaching for a few years now, and because it's media and politics, because media changes so quickly in how we take inner information, how do you, as far as your teaching syllabus, the classes you do, how do you evolve those as a way to keep up with what's going on out there to help inform the students who are coming through on.

Taking in information and as you put making a better making building a healthier media diet like how does that?

How does your teaching evolve with the times because it's so closely tied to media and its own evolution?

Yeah, yeah, I will say I am new at UW-Madison.

I just started this this academic year

So

this is unfortunately my not not my first year teaching.

I did do some teaching while I was at Duke But in that sense there are still many opportunities for my classes to evolve going forward

The challenge of sort of keeping up with the information environment is quite serious.

I have to put a lot of thought in my classes into how to both give my students a picture of kind of the foundations of the discipline

while

also equipping them to deal with rapidly evolving.

media environment.

So, for example, this year we had a lot more conversation around AI in news than I have had in similar courses in the past, because that is an increasingly large part of the news and information environment today.

Andrew, great stuff.

Thank you so much for your time today.

I just want to compliment you.

I love this phrase I heard from you in the research.

Information is the currency of democracy.

So great.

Keep up the great work.

I can't

take credit for that, but

yes.

Oh, OK.

Well, thanks for repeating it.

But thank you so much.

And please come back sometime.

This was very informative and a great discussion.

Thanks so much.

Thanks so much for having me.

All right, we are coming right back after a very short break to, I don't know, get back to our big things, Greg, or something.

We'll figure it out.

Yeah, we can do that.

We can do that.

Absolutely.

Yes, absolutely.

Nightlight with Peach Wabba and Greg Wach on the Civic Media Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Dom is slinging the tunes tonight, man.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

I don't particularly care for them.

I'm just saying you're playing them, and that's great.

What is that song?

It is On My Way, the crooners.

Okay.

Greg, I can only imagine Greg knows everything about the band and how they started.

It

just felt like a knock for me knowing music right there.

Also, welcome back

to

Nightlight everybody.

Welcome back to Nightlight everyone here on the Civic Media

Network.

My name is the made fun of Greg Bach apparently

by

the Mr. Pete Schwabba in Madison, along with Dom Lee, who is also a Madison, along with Tucker, who is also a man.

Everyone's at Madison.

I didn't get the invite.

I wasn't allowed to come up.

They said,

no, thank

you.

We don't have enough room and we find you crass.

Pete's in Madison, thinks he's so big.

It

is great to be in Madison.

I love our state's capital.

I'm looking out at State Street right now on a gorgeous sunny night, a little cold, but it's always fun to be here in Madison.

We got Tucker in the building, he and Dom.

And Dom, you have kind of a new nickname by way of Greg.

He's sort of, when you came back a couple of breaks ago, Greg, you said- What did you say,

Greg?

And Dom Lee, you

said, you called him Dom Lee.

Dom, the

whole one word.

Like D-R-M-L-Y sort of,

Domly.

He's behaving very Domly.

Well, I used to be called DJ, because my middle name, and speaking of, I'm not a big fan of my middle name either, but middle name was Joseph.

So I always was called DJ Lee.

It still is Joseph.

Well, actually, yeah, it is, but I'm thinking of changing it.

That's what I'm saying.

But wait, Joseph is it with a G?

It's with a J, so they call me DJ.

Yeah, DJ Lee.

Joseph with a G?

Like Jeff.

My name,

my name is Joseph.

I always whenever I see that name far away.

I always want to call the person G off.

Hey G off, but it's Jeff

see my my brother-in-law his name is Jeff and he is a G Jeff and I get real defensive when people are like it's not the same like shut up My goodness the same people who also yeah

So you don't, wait, wait, wait, now down really quick.

You don't like your middle name either?

I'm not a big fan of it.

I'm not a big fan

of it.

Why?

Because

I, I don't know.

Because your

name is Stalin?

Well, no.

Okay, there's one now.

No, no.

It was just because everyone called me DJ back in high school, and I just wasn't a big fan of it.

I mean, I'm sure if it was, if it was another middle name, it still wouldn't be good.

I'm not a big fan of middle J names.

It's just something about them.

I don't know.

This is so

fascinating.

I love that.

Before you know, it's the two thing I know about Dom.

He's rickety on dinosaurs.

And his Italian heritage.

And he got all of his Italian upbringing from the Godfather and Jimmy John.

And then he doesn't just dislike his own middle name that begins with a J. He dislikes all middle names that begin with a J.

Listen, you know, I'm putting my hands up.

I'm sorry.

I'm not a big fan of J middle names.

I'm just not.

And I just

tried

to turn his name into an adverb, which I didn't mean.

I was just like, Dom Lee.

It's Dom Lee.

Dom Lee what?

Dom Lee Lee.

I don't know.

There

you go.

Go by one name.

I'll be okay with Carl.

I like Damley because

we're like, hello, Damley.

Hello,

Damley.

Hello, Damley.

Welcome to the

show,

everyone.

It's got Damley up in Venice, you know why I'm right

here.

Governor.

All right.

Tucker,

I

like that.

What's the quality I said if you all had to change your names, what would you change it to?

Would you rather be a would you rather be different with a different name?

I mean, I don't know who I like I I don't know why I thought about this so much lately But just if I was named Frederick and my nickname was Fritz after my dad, who would I be?

I feel like I don't know if I'd be any different but

I don't know.

I've never really been impressed with Greg.

It's not the, I mean, there's

no,

Peter, like Thomas, like those are strong names.

Those are common names and those are good.

Greg, I don't know.

I've always like waited like, you know, you've never, you've never seen a movie where they're like, Oh my gosh, the terrorists have taken over the building called Greg.

You know, no one's ever done that.

It's like called Jack or John or Parker or whatever.

But it's never like,

Hey, we need to

get on the horn and call Greg.

You know, dude, I think Freddie would be awesome for you.

Freddie Bach.

You could have been a lead guitarist in a band, or that's a great radio name.

You could do anything with that name.

I probably would have been called Freddie as a kid, because my dad's name was Fritz, and he hated being called Fred or Frederick, so I would have ended up being Fred.

No,

I don't know.

I don't know what I would change my name to I always think like like my son is Joe no offense Tom That's okay.

I have a daughter Kate and we went with kind of traditional names, but like Tucker's kind of cool That's just offbeat enough.

Yeah to be sexy and to kind of attract

People like when you go in for a job interview, Tucker, that's a guy you can see reporting to or asking to do something.

That's a great name for the business radio world.

He's blushing again.

Meanwhile, Greg is like, oh, he works in accounting, right?

No, he doesn't run accounting.

He's like, he's the assistant to the assistant director of accounting.

That's what he does.

It's just a very, it's not a bad name.

It's just not a, I don't know, it's just not a name where you're like, yeah, it's not, I don't want to say sexy versus non-sexy, but he's like, Greg.

Yeah, no, it's a good job.

It's a good all-american name.

Pete is on the other hand, I feel like I should be like running a hot dog stand.

Hey, Pete, give me a hot, you know, a red hot.

I don't know.

I don't, it's a good name.

I'm not, but it's hard to say with Schwabba.

And I've heard tons of jokes and tons of jokes.

People have fun with it at Civic Media.

Jimmy Keska, every time I turn around.

Hey, Wabba.

Hey, Peach Wabba.

Well, see, that's the thing I

would never, I would never do that.

I would never, if like, I would never just call you a different name like that.

out of nowhere, that just seems like to me.

That's something

that's a very familiar thing.

I'm totally fine with it, because I brought it up first, because there was a girl in college who thought my name was, there was a girl in college who thought my name was Peach Cobbler.

I don't know how she got there.

And then the comedian, John Regi, used to make fun of my name when I would bring him up on stage and he'd say, oh, Peach Wabba.

What kind of Wabba do you have tonight?

Like as a dessert, he said it sounds like a dessert.

So, you know, it's just one of those names we all have across the bear.

Who would have known this whole conversation would have started off the fact that Dominic Hakes Everyone with a J name?

Anyone

with a J name, you're nothing in his eyes.

I'm just gonna try to ruin the good nature and good reputation of Dom Lee.

Totally.

It all

started with Jimmy John.

It all started with Jimmy

John.

Well, it really started with your whole

commentary on the dinosaurs.

Okay, man.

You're trying to get out of that way,

all right?

Nope.

Speaking of bringing it back, we're bringing it back for the other side of the news break because we got to go to the news and when we come back, we are going to be talking about the question of the night, which is what is something you wish you could stop eating?

And then we'll be talking to Tom Castle.

He is a singer-songwriter stage performer.

Don't go anywhere night light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Stay tuned.

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