Greg Schwem on “Hotel Humor” & Life’s Everyday Absurdities (Hour 2)

From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin.

It's Night Light 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, come on.

Here's Pete Schwabba.

Dude.

And Greg Bach.

Dude.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

My name is Greg Bach and across the state from me right now is Mr. Pete Schwabba joining us from, uh, let's see, I wrote down last night, uh, Halloween St.

Nixville, U.S.S.R.

So,

Pete's in Marinette.

Those are suburbs, those are suburbs of Christmas City, USA, and I'm sorry I didn't have my camera on, pal.

That's fine.

No one knew that until right now.

Like I'm like,

oh, I thought I was like, oh, my camera's not on.

So I'm still getting the hang of this radio thing.

Okay.

Well, speaking of radio, thank you so much for listening us tonight.

We really appreciate you being here.

Whether you are listening us on the radio or you were listening on the civic media app.

or watching the radio as Pete likes to say on Facebook, YouTube, or the platform we still call Twitter.

You can always be part of the conversation by calling and texting 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream as well.

You can do that.

We'd be happy to read those as long as they are in context and FCC appropriate tonight.

Folks, we have a great show.

We have Kevin Dospoi from the, he's the director of forward analytics to talk about Wisconsin's economic performance since 2017.

And I'm not going to spoil it for you, but it's not good.

But we'll talk more about that and their report.

They just recently put out regarding Wisconsin's progress in, you know, the United States and being a, you know, prosperous area.

And then in the second hour, Pete, this is your friend of yours, right?

Greg Schwem.

Greg Schwem, yes, a former and current stand-up comedian who writes a nationally syndicated column called The Humor Hotel for Tribune Media Services.

Very funny guy, great writer, and yeah, he's a nightlight favorite.

I'm excited for you to meet him.

How are you tonight, Pete?

I'm doing well, Greg.

You know what?

I love weekends, but I love doing this show.

And it is a Tuesday night.

We are in the thick of the week.

It's

just great to be on the air, great to be on the air with you, Dom holding down the fort in Madison.

I love talking to people and informing them.

Occasionally, we like to think we make them laugh, which is always fun.

So it's just great to be on the air in the beautiful state of Wisconsin on this Tuesday night.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

Awesome.

How are you doing tonight, Dom?

By the way, Dom and Apple, Dom and Appleton.

I want an apple, I'm hungry.

Dom in medicine right now is on the ones and twos.

Mr. Dombly, how are you?

I'm doing pretty

good.

I got a lot of sleep last night, so I'm feeling re-energized, refocused.

Okay, there you go.

Yeah, new man.

What's a lot of sleep?

Yeah, what

does that count for?

For me, it's been eight hours.

You know, usually I get like six or five.

Now I'm starting to get full eight hours.

What

time do you go to bed at night?

I go to bed around

midnight.

That's not that I mean that for 22 years old I would say midnight still for for 22 years old as well as the job you hold where you work more in the afternoon afternoon evening I would say midnight's not bad because you wake up at 8 and then you still have time to get your morning together you're not like sleeping until 1235 like I

gotta get dressed and my roommate sometimes you know get some little mad at me sometimes I'm pretty loud when it hits that 1130 mark but I don't know I'll tell him you know that's okay

I'll

be quiet

Pete, you want to

take this

one?

1130 like he's already in bed you mean and you're out having a party is that is that the problem

I tend to I tend to speak in my Not not in my indoor voice when it hits 1130 at night.

So something I gotta get better at I think but who are you

talking to?

Who

are you talking to at 1130 at night?

You know I'm online I'm just walking

around the house right now.

I'm going to make some soda I am going to do what do you I don't understand

But like in your normals like like Dom you're a great guy

Yes, exactly yes, that's what I do and I am a big video gamer so I kind of talk loudly there see there you go I was waiting for

that.

I had a feeling that that's what you were getting

I

say and I didn't want

to say it

but It's okay to pump your soul.

Go ahead Greg.

I was gonna say I first I thought you meant like

1130 in the morning, your roommate is upset with you.

I'm like, uh, suck it up, dude.

It's 1130.

Most people are halfway through their work day by that point.

Come on, man.

But yeah, maybe, maybe just be, be, be, uh, be aware of that.

Be aware of that.

I think you're a pretty good guy, Dom.

I would not take any crap from that roommate of yours.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Pete Schwabba starting fights

on the radio.

He's been badmouthing Dom for close to a year.

I'm coming to the defense of our producer and friend, Dom Lee.

Wait, what did I miss?

It all happened when you were in Phoenix.

Was he the first host of this show?

They're like, they can't work together.

Get him out of here.

Get that Shlub Greg Bach on the show.

No, he was producing the show.

And Dom undercut him, threw him under the bus, literally.

And now this guy, he's, you know.

Well, he also doesn't pay for dinner, so, you know.

True.

Is it Taco Tuesday, Dom?

Oh, it is

Taco Tuesday.

It is.

It's Taco Tuesday.

We'll be right over.

OK.

Yeah, we got a great show tonight, folks.

Let's do our question, Greg, and then we can tell people about why they need the app.

All right, it is time for the night, like question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

I absolutely love this question tonight, if I do say so myself.

I, as a person who has not had a drink in a little over three years, not court ordered or anything, I just decided to take a break, and

I stuck

with it, but that doesn't mean, Greg, I don't like talking about drinking.

I

find

that is the new drinking for me.

So tonight's

question is, it's National Cocktail Day.

What is your cocktail of choice?

Folks, I feel like this is gonna be a popular question because we're in Wisconsin We'd like to have cocktails or beer or whatever and it doesn't even have to be something I Mean typically a cocktail has booze, but could be a mocktail.

Yeah.

Yeah

Yeah

for me if you want to if you get home at night and you want to kick your feet up on the porch and drink just a nice crisp cold glass of

of club soda with a lime.

That's your

cocktail.

That's your thing.

You do what you want.

You live your life.

That's what

I say.

Absolutely.

And that's kind of my drink these days.

I love a club soda with lemons.

So let us know, folks.

855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

You can also text us.

If you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or what we like to call Twitter still, and...

You can also text us on the app, which is very easy to use and you must have a civic media app Why is that Greg?

Why would I need

the civic media app Pete Schwabba resident of Christmasville?

Oh, you're so close.

Okay

Because, my friends, it's time for the keyword in the break into spring multi-state text to win contest.

That's right.

Your chance to win $200 today and be put into a grand prize drawing for a brand new mattress set from Verlo.

And all you need to do is have your civic media app open right now or throughout the rest of the hour.

You have the entire hour of five o'clock to participate.

But this is what you're going to do.

Open up that app, find a station, WAUK, and you're going to text in the keyword right now.

And that keyword right this moment is...

CHIC CH I C K like look at all the baby chick.

Well look at the baby chick on the ground chick CH I C K Text that in via the civic media app.

You can't text it in regularly You can't call it in you can't put it on the live stream not like it.

You have to use the civic media app

Text it in.

You have until six o'clock tonight.

If you don't have the app, download it right now, not just because of the contest, but because you can listen to us anywhere in the world.

You can get your news.

You can.

It's great.

So it's a great app.

Absolutely free.

Download it.

Text in the word.

Check C H I C K for the break into spring text to win multi-state contest.

Good luck.

Your next opportunity will be in the seven o'clock hour.

But yeah, definitely text those.

And like Greg said, it's free.

It looks like that you can't afford not to have the civic media

app.

read.

All right.

Very good.

So, uh, yeah.

Can I say something really quick?

I'm sorry to

interrupt you.

I was,

so I was in Arizona last week and I was in my mom's car.

She took her car to Arizona.

We were driving around the area and something I noticed that made me really smile was that when her dash came up with her, uh, uh, like Apple car play, there was right there.

Civic media app right there.

Oh, that's fantastic.

He can't even

play,

right?

No, she can't she's not allowed to play right now.

She's going.

Yeah.

Not fair.

That's what she's saying right

now.

And that's debatable.

But I think it's cool that even though she can't play, she still has the civic media app.

So

good for you.

Absolutely.

That's awesome.

We've got a lot to get to tonight, folks.

Two

great guests, a great question.

What is your favorite cocktail or what is your cocktail of choice?

Let us know, text in, be part of the show and we will read it on the radio.

But right now we've got some, I would say three big or at least medium sized stories to get to.

I'd say they got some hugeness.

Okay, fair enough.

All right.

The first big story.

So Dom, I'm Dom.

Well, Dom too.

I'm talking

to Dom as

well.

Sorry.

I'm like

trying

to close.

Oh my gosh.

So many ads you get on the by the way, really quick.

When you pull up a website with news, you're like, I want to read this.

And then all of a sudden, like 14 layers of advertisement, like

just pile over

and you can and then like some very nice.

They put the close button right there where you can see it.

You're like, cool, I'm going to close that out.

Don't worry.

I'll watch that new John Hamm show later, but then you either have to wait for like 15 seconds and then the little X appears or It just sits there

and does

nothing

it's terrible Greg pop-up ads on the internet have made me hate consumerism I am so tired of being told what to buy or what I should be spending my money on it's annoying

It would be less annoying if it was just shots in the dark as far as like, maybe you like a new handbag or maybe you want it.

But because I say something to the effect of like, oh man, I'd like to buy a new watch, then it's all watches.

I'm like, you don't know me.

They listen.

They listen.

They know me.

All right.

The funny thing is, this isn't even one of the, this isn't even the first, but it

should be.

I tangent real hard and I apologize.

So I'll get back to it.

So

Pete, Dom, you know how.

The president in the United States has been railing against mail-in voting for years now, calling it a hoax, calling it a scam, calling it terrible, calling it unsafe, calling it a steal.

All those things, you know how he did that for so long?

Well, he just voted recently by mail in a Florida special election.

What?

Oh yeah, of course.

What's

good for me,

but not for the, it's, you know, that's how he's, you know, as the president, the president Trump says, the save America act has common sense exceptions for Americans who use multi mail in ballots for illness, disability, military or travel, but universal mail in voting should not be allowed because it's highly susceptible to fraud.

And what's funny is that right now in Wisconsin, there's a man on trial for trying to defraud.

mail-in voting.

So it looks like the system works.

It works so great that the President of the United States uses it.

Endorsed by Donald Trump, mail-in voting.

He seems pretty confident and not worried that anybody's going to commit fraud or mess with his vote, which begs the question.

It reminds me, Greg, of in 2020 when Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Voss showed up to vote in a mask, gloves, and other protective gear and said everybody

else it's completely safe.

I'm just, this is a fashion thing.

I'm not really worried about catching COVID.

Before you talk to

you guys, I got to be hosed down with a silkwood shower, then I can vote.

After a quick delousing, I like to go in and here's what I thought was funny too, the SAVA in regard to the SAVA.

A recent report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that the cases of male voting fraud occurred in only

.00043%, I might have added an extra O, but you get the point.

That's a lot of O's.

It's still very

small.

It's still, it's four cases out of every 10 million

mail votes.

Are you kidding me?

We're wasting legislator's time on this nonsense, and then he goes and does it anyway.

What the heck?

Yeah,

of course.

Of course he

does.

We've got a couple other stories we'll get to.

I don't know if it'll be as much fun as this one, but I guarantee they will be informative.

And that is all coming up the question of the night, folks.

What is your cocktail of choice?

This hour's keyword in the break into spring multi-state text to win contest here we're doing at Civic Media is chick, C-H-I-C-K.

We are coming right back for more Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach with Dom on the Board coming back.

It's Nightlight on the Civic Media Network.

That's how you come out of a break.

Little David Bowie.

Welcome back

to Nightlight,

folks.

I'm Pete Schwabba.

Sitting across the stage for me is Mr. Greg Bach.

And holding down the fort in Madison is Dom Lee, also known as Dom Lee.

We are glad to have you with us on this Tuesday night here on the Civic Media Network.

Gorgeous.

Is it just me or does it feel so good when it's the light out?

This was just a couple weeks

ago.

This

was terrible.

No, I am a huge proponent.

If we're going to get rid of the back and forth every

year, twice a year.

I just want to make it so this is what we're on all the time where we have lighter for longer because I can't, I just, I'm sorry, but 4 30 4 45 5 o'clock dark is just, it doesn't feel good.

It just doesn't.

I don't

like it.

Yeah.

There's that old phrase.

It's, you know what?

Where I come from.

I've never understood that, but I don't

understand what that means.

I've never heard that in my life.

Oh, seriously?

Yeah.

All

right,

well, folks, if you want, we'll talk about that during the next super secret show coming up at the break.

But right now we've got a couple more things to get to, right, Tom?

Tom?

Who's Tom?

Big story.

Oh, I said Tom.

Oh, I think you said Tom.

I'm like, who's Tom?

No, Tom Lee doesn't work.

Hey,

Greg, this is

the second story.

And this is interesting because for the last week there has been speculation.

Mostly on social media, I would say that Benjamin Netanyahu has been taken out assassinated, whatever you want to call it.

And now they're saying on again, on social media, I don't know how reliable the sources are, but that he is dead and they're using AI to show

that

he's still alive.

So in an effort to prove that he's alive, he posted three videos and people are saying that that looks even more AI.

It's weird that you post more than one to prove it so maybe there's something here, but it seems a little suspect

I would say like I watched the we can't play the video here because of copyright and because there are cussing But the video we watch that kind of points all this stuff out You know if I'm a world leader if I'm anybody and their speculation that something's happening me first of all Thanks for caring that makes a lot.

Sure.

Thank you, but I would set up some things like

you know, a live thing, an interview, something that is more reputable than these, these social media posts that even like as the, as the Instagram video that kind of talked about this shows, even if it's not AI, it just looks weird.

Like you are, you are in charge of a country.

If you want to prove to people that you are still alive and you're fine and whatnot, then set up like an interview on your, on your networks.

set up an interview with an American network, something where we can see your face, you can talk about what's going on, but this just seemed like, even if it's real, and I think it's real at this point, it still is just a swing and a miss attempt to try to both say, hey, I'm here, but also look cool.

Also, Mike Huckabee never makes you look cool, so there you go.

They didn't have to pay him.

Yeah, I don't know what to make of it.

Honestly, nothing would surprise me anymore.

There's

just too much money to be made from this and that or to keep a conflict going, whatever.

Nothing would surprise me, but apparently there just isn't as much proof.

So there you go.

We've got another big thing to get to.

We got one more story to get to.

There we go.

The third big story.

Folks, if you go ahead,

Greg, if you know anything about me,

You know that I not only love the TV show, Reacher.

I love the movies, Reacher, and Reacher, the second one with Tom Cruise.

They're fun movies, fun TV show.

I've never read the books because they're always checked out the library because everyone's dad has them.

No lie.

Flying home from Arizona on Sunday, dude sitting next to me with a Reacher novel.

And I almost said, is that any good?

Is it like the TV show?

Because I'm thinking about getting one.

And I'm like, oh, no.

I have to put socks on over my, under my sandals.

But, so this TV show Reacher stars a gentleman named Alan Richardson.

He's been in a lot of, he was on, I think it was from Friday night lights.

He was, he's, he's been on Brooklyn 99.

He's very, very funny, like big, like Arnold Schwarzenegger 2.0 version of an actor like right now, big dude, very funny, very honest, very good follow on Instagram.

He got into some, he got, there was some, there was some tumult.

yesterday when a video was released of him beating up a guy in his neighborhood.

And what we've come to find out now is that the reason why there was a back and forth, if you will, is because Alan Richardson was riding on his motorcycle with his children on their on their motorcycles.

down this road and this gentleman thought they were going too fast, which they apparently were not.

And he decided to stand in front of Alan Richardson's motorcycle as he approached.

And if you watch the video on Alan Richardson's motorcycle or on it, like his body, he comes to a very hard stop and his bike goes up and he falls off.

And this guy decides he's going to get all up in his grill about stuff, yelling at him and saying, you got to slow down.

And long story short,

is that yesterday that dude, what was his name again?

Ronnie something.

Ronnie Taylor.

Ronnie Taylor ghosted right to TMZ with scratches on his forehead and starts talking about how this guy is, you know, speeding down the way.

And it's, you know, I tried to warn him.

Well, we saw more video and we saw exactly what happened.

And this guy didn't have to stand in front of the motor.

It's like, he could have called the cops.

He could have gone about it like the way you do it as a neighbor and as a, as a human, but he decided to get all up in this guy's face.

And Alan Risen retaliated.

You know,

and it's there's a lot of stuff.

That's a little suspicious.

I'm with you on Reacher Greg I'm one of the people I like the TV show and I love Tom Cruise.

I like the different Reachers Yeah, yeah smaller and kind of a badass and also like a giant like Alan Richardson both great show movies and shows and He's never really caused a problem like this was strange because the video that was posted initially was from another neighbor and only showed the part of it altercation where Alan Richard Richardson was punching this guy on the parkway so

Something kind of stunk right from the get-go.

I don't believe that this guy who I've followed for a couple years is gonna randomly pick a fight with a guy in front of his two kids It's just it's off-brand for him and it made no sense and now and the guy calls himself Ronnie

instead of Ron.

That's red

flag.

Well, I also just say this and people have pointed this out in the TMZ interview behind him on a hat stand is a make America great again hat.

So I'm just going to leave that sit there as a statement.

I'm going to say anything else.

And I think I think you should take us to the break because we have things to do.

And I'm just going to say that I'm just going to say that you make whatever connections you want.

I'm just here living my life as an American.

I didn't see that because I only see people.

But I totally accept it.

All right.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We are coming back after the break to talk to Director of Forward Analytics, Kevin Dospoy.

We are going to talk about the Wisconsin economy.

That's all coming up next.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

My name is Greg Bach, coming to you live from Radio Park in Racine and sitting across the state from me in Marinette, Wisconsin is Mr. Pete Schwabba in Madison.

We have Mr. Dom Lee on the boards.

You can always be part of the conversation 8557 524842 8557 5 civic leave a comment on the live stream.

We are streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still still call Twitter.

You can text.

Our live stream comments your answer on our question for the night, which is in celebration of National Cocktail Day.

What is your favorite cocktail?

It doesn't have to be alcohol.

It can be a mocktail.

It can be a simple drink.

Whatever you enjoy, let us know.

Drop a comment on the live stream.

put a text through, call us in a little while in the second hour when we're talking about it.

We'd love to hear from you.

In the second hour, we are going to be talking to Greg Schwem, who is the writer of a syndicated column called Hotel Humor.

He's also a stand-up comic, and we want you to stick around for that.

It's going to be a great talk.

But right now, oh, and really quick, the word of the hour, the keyword for the...

breaking the spring text to win multi-state contest is chick C H I C K text that in via the civic media app for your chance to win $200 and a grand prize of a verlo mattress set.

So chick is the word C H I C K on the civic media app.

Good luck.

All right, Pete, are you ready to bring on?

We're gonna bring it on a guest right now.

It's time for guest.

What am I doing here?

I'm stretched out during the break.

I got all set.

I'm very excited to talk to our guest.

Well, I've got questions.

Me too.

Our

first guest of the evening is the director of Ford Analytics.

Please welcome to the show Kevin Dospoy.

Welcome to the show, Kevin.

We're really happy to have you here tonight.

How are you doing?

I'm doing really well.

How are you?

I'm doing very well.

Thank you so much for asking.

So we brought you on to talk about a report that Forward Analytics put out with regard to the economic shape of Wisconsin.

So let's start at the beginning.

Tell us about Forward Analytics and the indicators that you used for this report that you put out.

Sure.

So Forward Analytics is a research organization.

We publish free research on our website that covers

every major issue facing the state.

We try to tackle every major issue.

We've written on anything from housing affordability to childcare accessibility and affordability.

And now we have written our recent report on the overall state of the economy in Wisconsin.

And to do that, we looked at a bunch of different metrics.

We looked at population growth, labor force growth, real GDP and measures of income and then poverty.

And we looked at how Wisconsin does

As a whole as a state and then we also wanted to rank how Wisconsin does compared to every other state and the nation as a whole

You said in a recent interview when you look at Wisconsin like in an isolated situation There's growth and it seems somewhat healthy, but it's when you compare us to other states that we seem to be lacking How is the climate different in those states and what are they doing or how are they showing more growth than us?

What are they doing differently?

Sure.

So it's an interesting point in that when you look at Wisconsin as a whole, look at real GDP.

Over the past seven years, Wisconsin has grown over 10% in real GDP, which sounds really healthy.

It's a really good growth rate.

But when you compare it to the national rate, nationally, the GDP has grown almost 20%, 19.5% or so.

So Wisconsin is lacking, we're lagging in that one metric.

And we looked at other states and saw

you know, what are they doing differently than Wisconsin?

And a lot of it has to do with two of the metrics that we measured.

We kind of measured them as a pipeline, if that's a good analogy.

Population and labor force are the fuel of that pipeline.

They go in and they impact the real GDP, which is the output, and then the outcomes, income measures we measure.

per capita personal income, median household income.

But a lot of the states that are doing really well in a lot of these metrics, it starts with doing really well in those two inputs, the population growth and the labor force growth.

And something that you mentioned in that article too was something called the prime age workers.

And you say in the interview that from 2000 to 2010, the state was doing well to attract people here.

But in the past 15 years, that's declined.

The question I wanted to pose is kind of interesting because it's the wording of it all.

What has either changed or not changed to create this problem?

Sure.

So that prime working age population, that's like the labor force, 25 to 54, or some people measure it 25 to 64.

We measure 25 to 54.

So that's that prime working age population.

It's where you're

you know, starting to form families, you're raising your families, you're typically purchasing a single family home.

If you're going to purchase a single family home, you do it in that age bracket.

That is that prime working age population.

So if you look back from like 1990 to 2000, Wisconsin did really well at attracting people of that age group.

And a lot of those people were from people from Illinois, but from other states too, Wisconsin did really well.

They did less well from 2000 to 2010, but still overall, there was a lot of net migration into the state.

And then it's gone down ever since.

And currently from 2020 to 2030, we're on track to surpass the previous decade, but it's still relatively low.

So a lot of that has to do with, and our research has shown, a lot of it has to do with affordable housing, affordable childcare.

and really affordable housing where jobs are located.

So we measure that in a separate report that we've written on housing.

This report just looks at population labor force and those other metrics.

Is there an area of the state in your experience that is not lacking as much, where growth is much better because it's an average

But are there areas where, you know, you can go and these things are, we do compete with other states.

Southern Wisconsin, Northern Wisconsin, bigger cities, smaller cities, wherever.

Yes, I think Dane County is kind of an outlier in those two population and labor force growth metrics.

There, you know, there's a university system that's a state capital.

It's kind of a job center.

It does really well with those.

However, housing affordability is, it's a big issue in Dane County.

One of the interesting things that we saw was that we have a lot of population growth areas specifically in northern Wisconsin, which is kind of surprising to a lot of people when they read it.

We have seven counties that are, I think, in the top 20% nationwide in terms of population growth.

And some of those are in northern Wisconsin.

However, we have no counties in the top 20% in terms of labor force growth.

Top 20% nationwide.

So what that means is that the population growth is driven by either Children you know people zero to 18 or not in the workforce Oh or 65 at older who are retired and not in the workforce You know what we see in Wisconsin is a lot of that population growth is driven by those that are 65 and older retired not in the workforce Specifically in the northern counties in Wisconsin.

That's where the population growth is is It's driven by that age cohort

When things like this come to light because I thought it was very interesting the way you framed it is that you know, Wisconsin is growing but still lagging when people see these types of things, you know As far as the attractiveness of Wisconsin for both, you know the family and for businesses, how do things like this affect that as far as the

the marketability of the state.

Not just counties, because people can look at Milwaukee and say, I want to move to Milwaukee, but it's like Chicago.

They don't think Illinois, they think the state of Chicago.

But when you see these types of things in these reports here, it does affect how attractive they can be, whether it's moving your family there or bringing a business there.

How do these types of, not your reports so much, but the information there in

affect the attractiveness of the state then for against say like in Illinois or Minnesota.

Sure, I mean against you say the state of Chicago which I think is an interesting phrase because you know it's true.

I mean when you think of Illinois you think of Chicago and there's that huge big city vibe that younger people really are attracted to and it's hard to compete with that right.

Now Madison and Dane County I think do a really good job competing with that.

with the university system and the social amenities that are existent in Dane County.

In terms of how it represents the state, we're trying to bring information to light in an easily understood format for local leaders and state leaders.

And we're trying to, if you notice in the report, we don't prescribe any policy prescriptions or we don't advocate for any policies.

We just want

We want the information to get into the right hands for people to look at and say, look, this is nonpartisan.

It's nonpolitical.

We're not advocating for anything.

This is the information in as easily understood format as we can provide.

And here you go.

Make the right decisions.

So in terms of how it reflects the state, I think it's important that the right data and the correct data is out there.

Our guest is Director of Forward Analytics, Kevin Dospoy.

He joins us here at Nightlight.

We're talking about the overall state of the economy in Wisconsin, housing, labor force, all kinds of fun stuff.

You mentioned just a moment ago, Kevin, that Northern Wisconsin, you're seeing growth, but not necessarily in the labor.

What is drawing people to Northern?

I live in Northern Wisconsin.

I'm in the Marinette area, and we have a couple of big companies here, but...

Oftentimes people don't move here.

They move to a city halfway between here and Green Bay because as you said, they want to be closer to bigger cities.

What is drawing people to northern Wisconsin in your opinion?

Sure.

So there's two things there.

First, you mentioned that people want to live in bigger cities, but they commute to these other areas where these jobs are located.

There's an interesting phenomenon called stretch commuting, I think it's referred to, where people are living further and further and further away from work these days.

But what our report looks at is what we've written about before is specifically after COVID is when we saw a lot of the population growth in northern Wisconsin.

And the data doesn't 100% show this, but we're pretty confident that that through inferences that this is true is that what happened is

people either through remote work or retiring early, they moved full time to their summer homes, summer cottages, winter cottages, whatever, and they moved full time to these residences because what we saw was that the population grew, housing starts didn't grow any more than normal, new construction and homes didn't grow any more than normal.

So you have an increase in residents that are there full time.

You don't have any increased tax revenue because there's no new bills to raise any additional tax revenue.

You might see an additional bump in sales tax revenue because people are there full-time.

But then you also see, since people are there full-time and they're typically retired, they're drawing more or typically that age groups uses more social services in terms of EMS services, things like that.

So there's no additional tax revenue.

It's costing counties and local governments a little bit more money.

And we see that population growth, though we're not seeing a growth in labor force because they're typically aged out of the labor force.

Wow, okay, I mean that's I never you never think about that I know I have I have friends who have done what you described just what you said and on top of the fact that like access to certain things too as far as like

We've got hospitals closing in those areas.

There's less access to certain services that just blows my mind that they would move there and possibly have to travel two, three hours to a hospital.

But we're talking to Kevin Dospoy, who is the director of Forward Analytics, and we're gonna take a break in a little bit.

But I wanna kind of pose a question to you now with regard to...

With Ford analytics, you say it's non-partisan, non-political.

You're not prescribing any sort of fixes to this.

But I feel like what anyone says, it's non-political.

The first thing people want to say was, oh, it's non-political.

OK, well, it's going to be political.

But with Ford analytics, how do you, and we'll take your answer after the break.

But looking at what you do and how do you approach people who want to immediately shut you down saying anything in there that disagrees with me,

has to be political.

So therefore, I don't want to listen to it.

How do you break through that noise and say, no, here's the details.

Here are the statistics.

You do with it what you want.

But we'll talk more about that with you on the other side of the break.

We are talking to Kevin Despoys from Ford Analytics discussing the economic viability of Wisconsin in their new report, which will be in our show notes when you go click at civicmedia.us slash shows.

You are listening to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here.

Don't go anywhere.

Stay tuned and stay close.

Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

My name is Greg Bach and Radio City in Racine.

Radio Park, not Radio City at Radio Park.

In the city of Marinette, you got Pete Schwabba and in Madison, you've got Dom Lee.

We are here with you tonight.

You have a few more minutes to text in the keyword for the break into spring text to win multi-state contest on your Civic Media app.

You must have the app to participate and I'm just gonna say real quick.

Brody and Richland Center, we got you.

But it was the wrong word.

The word is chick, C-H-I-C-K.

Like, look at the baby chick on the ground.

So it's chick, C-H-I-C-K.

A few more minutes to do that for your chance to win $200 and a grand prize drawing of a brand new mattress set from Verlo.

But good luck, and your next opportunity will be in the seven o'clock hour.

We are going to continue our conversation right now with Kevin Dospoy, who is the director of forward analytics discussing

a report as well as an article on Wisconsin's economic viability and something I very much used a lot of words to ask in the previous segment was with your group being non-partisan, non-political, and you're just offering the data, how do you break through the noise of people who don't want to accept the information you have, whether it's the regular person sitting at their phone or maybe the politician who can actually do something with this information?

Sure, it is that's a difficult question because it's

a

difficult process, right?

We have I think that we've built a reputation for being non-partisan and non-political in that a Lot of our research is strictly data.

It's just presented in a very, you know, we try to present it in a really easy to read format now You know there have been instances where we've had

you know, people from either side of the aisle say, well, what about this?

What about that?

We're not going to write about any specific policy from the left or the right.

We're

not going to do that.

But we've had, for instance, we wrote about, we did a report on childcare.

And this was during the days of childcare counts when that was all being kind of renewed.

You know, there was a lot of pressure to say, does this one policy work?

Or does this one policy or deregulation work?

You know, what's the right answer?

Unfortunately, the right answer is a little bit of both.

We're not going to advocate for an individual policy, but we're going to give you the data that show what may work or what has worked in other states or other communities.

So it's difficult, but I think it's doable if you're just persistent enough with accurate and easily read data.

Great.

Kevin in regard to Wisconsin being an older state I read something that you recently put out that said the 65 to 84 age group in Wisconsin increased by 40 almost 42% That's incredible in 10 years And the population between one and five Decreased like by 10% or something like that when it comes to the housing market like here in Marinette.

I see houses in town that are just

basic houses for $200,000, which doesn't sound like a lot in Madison or Milwaukee, but here in this little town, that's a ton of money.

Do you see a change or anything kind of swaying in the housing market, given our older population in the near future, like a lot of these people own homes?

Do we have, is there a silver lining we can at least look forward to housing prices coming down?

Oh, that is another tricky question.

So when we wrote about, no, that's

what I'm here for, right?

Just trying to get as much information out of you as I can here.

So we wrote a report specifically on housing, and then it was a little bit ago we wrote one on aging care and kind of the elder care sector, I guess is the right word.

We wrote about the

increased demand in nursing homes such as living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, things like that.

And I think that's where we came up with that, where we estimated that population growth.

And more and more, the demand for skilled nursing facilities, which are those facilities that need the highest level of medical care, the demand for those facilities has been decreasing, you know, since at least when we measure the year 2000.

The demand for beds in those facilities has been decreasing because

the care that's provided in that lower level of the residential care apartment complexes, the facilities like that, assisted living facilities, has gotten better and increased and has been more funded.

But as we're seeing now, more and more people are choosing and they're able to what's called age in place.

And that just means staying in your home.

You don't want to sell your home.

You don't want to move into an assisted living facility or a skilled nursing facility.

the baby boom generation kind of moves into that 65, 75 plus age range, they're choosing to age in place because they

can.

You know,

they just have to make, you know, sometimes they may have to make modifications to their current home, whether that's, you know, single story, wider hallways, bathroom modifications, things like that.

So that's becoming more and more popular and it's keeping people in their homes longer, which is, you know, it's a good thing.

People want to age in place.

They spent their whole life.

you know, building and paying for their home.

They want to age in place and now they're able to.

But that is reducing the number of homes on the market.

Fascinating.

Yeah.

I just wonder for folks, you know, of Dom's age, will they ever have that?

Like, you know, will there ever be an afford?

Will there ever be before?

Or what is their version, I guess, of an affordable house will be one day.

But that's for another conversation.

Before we get out of here real quick, I'm going to ask a super serious question, Kevin.

Are you ready?

Are you ready?

Ready.

It is National Cocktail Day.

What is your favorite cocktail?

It doesn't have to be a

cocktail.

I'm really simple.

I'm just another light guy.

There you go.

That's all it takes.

That's a great answer because your head is flooded with numbers all day.

I'm sure you just want your drinking to be easy.

Something to relax, right?

Something to relax.

It's real simple, real basic.

I'm happy.

There you go.

For me, like I go to a ballgame, I drink a high life.

I'm not drinking one of these $40 beers or cocktails.

I'm like, no, give me a big can of

I'll take that for $13.

Thank you very much.

But Kevin, thank you so much for being here.

Kevin Dospoy is the director of Four Analytics.

You can check out all of the information in our show notes by going to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Look for Nightlight and you can find our show there for you to read this for yourself.

Because as he said, they put this into ways that we can read as we're not data.

We're not data brains.

It's easy to ingest and take in the information and make your own decisions on what you think is important.

So Kevin, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate your time tonight.

Thanks, Kevin.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

All right, folks, we're going to come right back after the news.

But when we do, it's going to be talking about your thoughts on National Cocktail Day, as well as talking to our next guest, Greg Schwem, who is a writer of the syndicated column, Hotel Humor.

Don't go anywhere.

Also, last few seconds.

Last few seconds.

Chick, C-H-I-C-K.

Text it in via the Civic Media app.

Good luck.

You're listening to Nightlight.

Stay tuned and stay close.

You've got nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Call our toll free number now.

Headlines, culture and real conversation.

And

now our feature presentation.

Here's Pete and Greg.

Welcome on back to nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

My name is Greg Bach.

I'm sitting here live at Radio Park in Racine.

We got.

All across the state from me, Mr. Pete Schwabba.

And then over in Madison, Mr. Dom Lee on the boards, you can always be part of the conversation, 855-752-484-2855-755.

Civic, leave a comment on that live stream.

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

We still call Twitter.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the break into spring text to win multi-state contest.

That word is now closed.

I saw some new, some words coming through.

If you missed it, don't worry, 7 p.m.

that entire hour, tune in, stay here.

You'll get a brand new keyword and then everything starts again tomorrow with seven more chances to win $200 plus your opportunity to win a brand new mattress set from Verlo.

So good luck and stay tuned.

Really quick, I just want to throw a shout out to Breton Brown, dear, who referred to our Marinette.

uh, Racine

and

Madison as the Yadar hazer triangle, yadah here triangle.

So I really like that.

That's a t-shirt.

So I'm just going to put that out there.

That, that's all I got to say about that one, but that was wonderful, Brett and brown deer.

Thank you so much.

Um, good first hour guys, right?

Yeah.

I want to say too, I think that, uh, Christmas city, USA here, Marinette brings more street cred to the Yadar hay of that triangle.

You guys are.

sort of closer to civilization.

We're holding down the fort here when it comes to the outer hate, but you will find people in Marinette that go, oh, that's a UP accent.

You know,

and I'm like, oh, across the river.

Yeah.

Okay.

Apparently the continental divide runs between a man at Monomony.

But

yeah, that's the funny one.

I like that.

They just want desperately not to sound like people in Fargo.

That's what they want.

I just, I just, I mean, I

Yeah, as long as you don't say milk or bad bag or whatever.

I'm good.

I'm good.

Uh, before we get into the question of the night, Pete, if it's okay with

you,

I want to give a quick update on one of our big three stories from earlier in the show.

Oh yeah.

If you're just joining us right now, you can always listen to the first hour by going to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Look for nightlight download.

It's two episodes a day.

You can always catch up, but we had a first hour just now.

We're in the second hour.

We have our big three stories in the beginning.

And one of the stories we talked about was Alan Richardson being involved in a scuffle while really controlling the scuffle as he beat the crud out of neighbor for what I believe were real reasons.

And if you want to find out more, go back and listen.

We talked about there.

But this is via screen rant by way of the Hollywood Reporter.

Alan Richardson will not be facing criminal charges after getting into an altercation with his neighbor.

Brentwood Police Captain Stephen Pepin stated, after reviewing available evidence, including video footage and witness statements, authorities determined that no criminal charges will be pursued.

Mr. Richardson's actions were found to be in self-defense.

Wow.

What a surprise.

I never thought I'd get goosebumps for justice ever again.

All right, baby.

He you know first of all you got to be a little crazy to mess with that guy Let's say you even know how to fight or you took a martial arts or something his sheer mass Yeah, and I was surprised Greg when I read this article today.

He's six three He looks like he's like six nine on that show and it's probably the way they shoot it But he is a mountain of a human being

you say you said crazy to fight him

I'm going to take it a step further.

I'm going to say you are incalculably stupid if you try to fight him, unless you look like him or you're like one of those small, we all knew those small guys growing up who just got into fights for no reason because they were trying to prove something.

But yeah, I see Alan, if I see anyone on a motorcycle, I'm not standing in front of it, let alone reach her.

No, thank you.

I'll be like, have a good day folks.

I'm glad you're connecting with your kids.

So this guy

obviously wanted to pick a fight with a big celebrity.

Yes.

Maybe he saw it as a payday.

I don't know.

Or he hates Hollywood, whatever it is.

But, you know, that that I my inclination toward when I read the story is like something's not right here.

So that's

a

surprise

me.

Well, and also, I don't know if he knew if it was Alan Richardson or not, but doesn't matter.

It just doesn't matter.

Right.

But this is a guy who was getting too big for his britches.

His hat choices were very clear.

You mean we're talking about Ronnie, right?

Red hat Ronnie over here.

Oh,

red hat Ronnie.

I think you're in

your 50s.

Go by Ron.

Ronald, unless

you're a wide

receiver,

come on.

I mean, I've got like a, I've got like a 75 year old uncle named Ronnie, but he's a Ronnie.

When you look at me like, oh, you're a Ronnie.

You are a Ronnie for sure.

But sometimes it just works.

Yeah, exactly.

Uh, but yeah, I wanted to give that quick little update because

that's what we care

about here at night.

Like the news.

So we break all the big stories.

We break all the big stories.

We can never put them back together again.

All right.

Today, Pete is national cocktail day, which prompted, yes, big day, which prompted the very important question.

But before we get into that, Dom, can you play us the music?

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

In honor of National Cocktail Day, folks, what is your cocktail of choice?

We just heard from our guest, Kevin Daspoi, in the last segment, he goes Miller Lite.

Nice and easy, mellow, nothing fancy, but get as crazy as you want or take it easy as you, take it easy as much as you want.

What is your favorite cocktail or your cocktail of choice?

And it can be a mocktail too, as Greg mentioned earlier.

So

before

we get to some texts, I, one of our faves, Sydney politics on the stream says kitty cocktail,

but he spelled it

K-I-T-T-Y like there's a cat involved somehow.

Pete, I can't drink that.

I can't drink that.

Cause it's the kitty.

I'm allergic to cats.

If you drink it fast enough, you know,

I'm just gonna get, I'm gonna get it all sniffly.

And you don't even get the pleasure of catching a buzz with a kitty cocktail, but

no.

It's

also known as a Shirley Temple that can be quite delicious and refreshing.

Nothing

wrong with

that.

Thank you, Sidney.

He says, Happy Persian New Year, which was Friday and I missed the chance to say it and three.

There's a third.

This is a trilogy text from our pal city.

He says, my girlfriend, Rachel, I know Rachel.

I've met her wonderful

person.

She says,

started a new job Monday.

Please wish her luck.

Well, good luck, Rachel.

It's

Rachel.

Good luck.

Good luck.

And congrats for nailing down a job in this market.

That's pretty

proff to Rachel, right?

Come on.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just no, thank you.

All right.

I think we got to read some texts, guys.

Let's get through some of these listener texts.

Love when everybody participates in the show.

We've got from WMDX, listening at WMDX, 414 says brandy old fashioned.

I knew we were going to get a few of those.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

But the question then is sweet or sour.

And I know people will say it was Wisconsin so sour or sweet, but you never know.

People have their inclinations.

There you go.

For sure.

Let's see here, an author of the Facebook page.

I don't know who this was.

It says, Martini with just a bit of dirt or a whiskey.

Old fashioned sweet.

I don't know what that means.

Wait a minute.

I commented.

You wrote that as the Facebook page, not as

yourself.

See, I don't understand that.

I didn't post the question, but I still, I have access to it.

So I thought I was doing that as Pete Schwabba.

No, you didn't.

Martini with just a little bit of dirt or a whiskey.

So is that you making fun of an old-fashioned sour?

No,

no,

I like

a whiskey old-fashioned sweet.

And when it comes to martinis, I don't like a full-blown dirty martini,

but I

do like a dash of dirt in there, a little olive juice.

Can I, okay, can I tell you a really weird thing?

Please.

Okay, so my wife, love of my life, best person in the world, loves, loves, loves.

Dirty martini the dirtier the better so like she's like pick up the little cup and pour the olive juice in there And it's dirty as possible.

Okay, cool, right fine.

That's good.

Hey, it's olives.

What?

Interesting, right?

So the mix with that and vermouth or did she like Jen or vodka?

She usually gets a vodka.

I can never wrap my brain around that because when we go out for our Bloody Marys on Saturdays, I always take her olive because she doesn't want it.

But if you give her a martini, she's like, the dirtier the better.

I'm like, I don't understand you right now.

Greg, marry that girl.

Oh, a thousand times over.

If I ask her to marry, I ask her to marry me at least once a month.

And she always says, yes, please.

And that makes me happy because the day she doesn't say that, I'm going to be sad.

Let's see.

Mary on the Facebook says brandy old fashioned sweet with cherries muddled if I have the option.

There you go.

That's a, that's a, that's called mixology right there.

Absolutely.

She knows her stuff.

Brian from the nine two zero says seagrams at VO straight up.

I guess.

All right.

There you go.

Thanks

for, thank you, Brian.

Tiff on the Facebook says, I overwhiskied and overbranded in my youth on Wisconsin.

So that usually leads most people in the same.

So I lay off, I have a mocktail or something, not Wisconsin.

So it's vodka, gimlets or martinis for me

now.

Wow.