Kerstin Larson on the Milwaukee Film Festival (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,

I'm on!

Here's Pete Schwabba.

Dude.

And Greg Bach.

Dude!

Welcome to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.

Happy Tuesday, everybody.

It is great

to have

you with us.

A couple

dudes here.

One dude in Northern Wisconsin.

That's me, Peachwava, Christmas City, USA.

And the other dude in Radio Park in Racine.

He doesn't live there.

He works there.

And dude number three of the Yatter Hey Triangle as one of our listeners so affectionately calls us.

Dom is in Madison working the board.

Hey, guys.

Hello.

Hello.

How are we doing?

Good.

Very good.

I'm ecstatic.

This is an amazing day.

Wow.

That sounds like some big arch talking right there.

Yeah, I wish.

Tom is a fan of the Big Arch Burger.

He is.

He's working on a sponsorship currently.

I'm doing quite well myself too.

It's a good day.

It's still a little chilly for my liking for April, but I'll take it over.

30 below snowy and or even like 35 degrees and raining.

I'll take it.

So this is fine.

It's good.

But it's, it's been a good day so far.

So my wife's birthday,

I was just going to say, you got some big, something big going on in the home front there.

Well, it's my wife's birthday today.

She is home right now.

She's relaxing.

She, she took the day off, but like any good American, she took the day off, but then also attended a meeting she had to go to.

So that's where we're at in the world.

She voted.

She did vote as well.

Today is election day in Wisconsin.

If you haven't voted already, the polls are open until 8 p.m.

Do not forget, we have a stupid rule in this state where you have to bring your ID to vote.

So make sure you bring that ID.

If you do not have an ID and you'd like to obtain one, the DMV will be open later than usual.

So check the website, see one that's going to be open in your area.

But today is election day and you can find out more about if on your ballot by going to my vote.

You still have a few more hours before the polls close, so make sure you let your voice be heard.

This is a big year.

We're voting for local races in your municipalities.

Maybe a question on your ballot, but also we have the state Supreme Court as well.

So again today is election day.

Happy election day.

and get out there and vote.

And if you've already voted, let us know about your experience.

You can do that by calling or texting 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.

You can leave a comment on your live stream or get a touch with us.

No, that's it.

Those are the ways.

Oh, you can also get a touch with us via the Civic Media app.

I knew there was one more.

Civic Media.

Yeah.

And we do

not forget to vote for school board races.

Those are very important

as well.

Those are very, very important.

Very, very important.

School board.

your city council, your county board of supervisor, that's where the real meat and potatoes happens that affect you directly in your neighborhood.

That is the stuff to know about and really be aware of what's going on.

So yes, myvote.wi.gov, you can see your ballot, see what's on there.

So you can do some research in these last few hours.

I unfortunately did not have time, so I'm gonna do that right after the show tonight.

Luckily, my polling place is right by my house and it's spring elections, so I don't expect there to be a line, but.

I'll wait in line because democracy is amazing.

But yes, it is my wife's birthday.

She went to lunch with her mom and she's having a good day relaxing.

I got her some presents and it's really fun.

Yeah.

How much did you spend?

I spent 3,275,522 dollars and 78 cents.

I think that's swell.

I think that says love like no other.

That was kind of a personal.

What are you going to do later, Greg?

You're going to go out and vote as am I. And then what are the three of us doing?

We're going to go, well, I'm together.

We're hanging

out.

I was inviting

myself to your

wife's birthday dinner.

Well, there's no birthday dinner.

We did.

Oh, so OK.

So here's the thing is, no, there's no birthday dinner.

We're going to be in.

We go to bed in a few hours.

I don't I don't stay up late.

No, we did.

So my wife is all about experiences like she, you know, she'll

Like I gave her a fan dango gift card and there's some people will say well That seems kind of impersonal knew a fan dango gift card makes her so excited because then she gets to buy the movies She wants to buy but then I gave her this you know Smallish movie poster not very big, but like something you'd see like basically the size of I don't know it's

eight by 17, but of the great Gatsby.

She loves that book.

She loves the movies.

Oh, nice.

So I gave her that.

But this past Saturday, we mentioned this yesterday, we went out to dinner, we did bowling, and this Saturday I have a big surprise planned for her that I'm not telling you about.

I'll tell you more about that next week.

But I'm giving her like experiences throughout the month because that's what she really, she likes, she likes.

making memories with people and that's what's very important.

So like today was like, it's the birthday.

I gave her some gifts.

They weren't huge gifts, but it's wrapped around all this thing for her for the month of April.

And also, by the way, she's not the type of person who says, it's my birthday month.

Never says that.

I just wanted, she's a really great person.

She takes care of everybody.

She loves everybody.

She's always concerned for everybody else and I want to give her some spotlight and some love.

So that's what I'm doing for her.

Wow.

Dom, the bar is raised.

Where's your

girlfriend's birthday?

I know you're not married, I'm just saying.

Greg is sort of lofty.

I gotta take notes, Greg.

I gotta take notes,

because that's impressive.

And Dom, a birthday big arch is not going

to cut it.

She hates the big arch burger, so.

What?

It's only me.

Oh my gosh.

Are these the first cracks?

That's the first cracks.

It

was our first

argument.

I hope not.

I have to say, I am totally with your wife.

Give me an experience.

Give

me some time with you.

You

are?

You are?

Oh.

Well, we talk on the phone occasionally when you're acting up.

But no, I like those experiences and spending

time.

Give me a

lunch with you or play a game.

Let's

take a

walk.

Something.

I am tired of stuff at this

point

in my life.

I don't want anything unless it's something really cool.

Yeah, we got a fun show tonight.

Hey, the NCAA tournament is over finally.

And I know I did a lot of talking.

Finally.

It was not a great tournament this year.

And I came out guns blazing three weeks ago.

Um, saying it was the greatest sporting event in the country.

And oftentimes it is, but not a ton of upsets and not a great final four in my opinion.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

I mean, it's, it, what would have been, okay.

So besides Wisconsin, cause it's easy to just say, well, Wisconsin, what would have been the most exciting version of this whole thing for you?

Honestly,

more upsets,

a highly seated team or lower seated teams beating.

highly seeded teams.

I don't think we saw a lot of that this year.

Don, back me up on that.

I just don't think there was the thrills that there typically are.

It could be because of NIL money and the teams are more stacked.

I don't know, but I hope that I hope it's an anomaly and not becoming the norm.

Why does NIL money have anything to do with that?

Like you've been you've said that a couple of times and I don't understand why NIL would be a factor in the final four.

Well, you're buying players.

I mean, it's no different than in many ways professional sports.

So let's say a team like Iowa State a smaller division one school that's a powerhouse in basketball

you know, they might not have the money.

I mean, Wisconsin might not have the money to compete with a Michigan or, you know,

a Duke or

NCA.

So you've got guys like, it's like these players that go to these football factories like Georgia and Alabama, you've got five star recruits that go there to sit on the bench instead of going to another school

where they can play right

away.

And I think it's similar to

basketball.

So that makes sense.

I just, I did not understand the correlation to that.

So thank you for explaining that.

I love learning about college sports.

I'm here to help.

Pete,

who do we have on the show tonight?

We've got a great show tonight.

We've got coming up at 535, a very, very smart, accomplished person who we really enjoy talking to.

He is a professor of evolutionary anthropology in global health at Duke University, and he's got a PhD.

Very impressive, Greg.

Dr. Herman Ponser will join us at 535 to talk about metabolic health and some of the data and some of the research he's done.

And it's fascinating.

You

really want to listen to this one, folks, because he talks about health in a scientific way.

It's also very understandable, but he also dispels a lot of myths.

There's a lot of things that people, including myself, we all say about health ourselves, our bodies, because it's just what we've been told, whether it's...

parents or whomever and he really gets into it.

But I mean, it was scratching the surface of the conversation.

I like to have with them down the road, but it's a great, it's a great conversation.

Great conversation.

And then in the second hour, we've got Kirsten Larson.

She's the program director of Milwaukee's film.

They do such an amazing job.

They're a top notch organization.

They own theaters in Milwaukee.

They run programs and the Milwaukee film festival is right around the corner.

And she will be here to discuss some of this year's offerings.

So those two great guests tonight, it'll be fun.

But I think before we do anything else, Greg, we need to get to our question.

Actually, before we do that, Pete, speaking of the film festival.

tonight.

Yes, we are running our winger way into the Milwaukee Film Festival.

Civic Media welcomes the Milwaukee Film Festival 2026 to the Oriental and Downer theaters from April 16th to April 30th.

I'm totally reading this.

Their newly released lineup has been something everyone should be checking out and MKE film dot org.

And to celebrate, we're going to give you

That's right.

You the chance to win a pair of tickets to a film of your choice as long as it's not sold out.

So check out the lineup.

Tune in during while you're here right now.

Stick around because in the second hour, we'll be giving you that keyword.

You'll be able to text in and then one lucky winner will get two tickets to the Milwaukee Film Festival taking place later this month.

So we'll be doing that all week.

And then next week, we'll have another contest.

So yeah, second hour.

Get ready.

Key word coming.

Have fun.

Pete.

Now it's time for the question, I believe.

Lots of chances to win.

Yeah, Tom, let's get to our nightlight question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

OK, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

OK, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

All right, Wisconsin, are you ready for this?

It is National Beer Day, not regional.

It's National Beer Day.

So finish this sentence.

Hey bartender, give me a fill in that blank.

What are you ordering?

What is your beer of choice?

Hey bartender, give me a finish that sentence.

It's national beer day 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.

As Greg mentioned, you can also text us on the app or if you're watching the radio on the stream, drop us a stream comment on YouTube, Facebook or ex Twitter.

So be part of the show.

It's always

more fun.

Yes,

please.

And thank you.

And thank you in advance.

Uh, should we get to some current events?

Let's get some

current events.

Let's get events

with our currents.

The

first big

story.

There he is.

Square.

Uh, so it looks like we are easing, not easing, working, walking, moving our way closer and closer to the grand deadline set by our president, uh, where he said this past, uh, he said yesterday.

No, he said today.

I thought it was this weekend for some reason.

I thought it was actually on Easter Sunday, but he didn't today he said that quote a whole civilization will die tonight Unquote and this is from the story from PBS if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline to strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz something he said didn't even matter to America But whatever while the Islamic Republic urged the young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets Yeah, he's also saying things like it's power plant day and it

And maybe it'll happen tonight, because he always changes his mind, Pete.

Yeah, and I mean, is

that leadership?

A whole civilization will die tonight.

Those are such ominous, dark words.

That's

something Skeletor says.

That's like a

movie

character.

If a movie character said that, you'd think the writer who wrote it was a hack.

That's what I don't understand here.

Like this war shouldn't even have, in my opinion, be happening.

But now all Iranians will cease to exist.

And

there is pushback.

I'm going to start calling Trump to mort.

Seriously.

He's like an evil creature.

It's just ridiculous.

Who's, exactly Pete, who's pushing back right now?

Who's the nobody, nothing loser pushing back on this whole thing?

The Pope.

The Pope was giving him a hard time.

The Pope was speaking up.

Pope Leo.

Said you know this is we should be working towards peace what you expect out of the Pope

and I'm

glad he's more and more and more people Greg are speaking up, but I mean

this

is just not enough

Come

on.

No, I mean, honestly, it should be people within the White House speaking up, but we can't rely upon them.

Can we?

So they'll just get fired.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

We have two more stories to discuss.

Folks, you can answer our question of the night on National Beer Day.

Hey bartender, give me a blank.

Fill in your beer.

Be part of the show.

We love it when you do.

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

That was a good call, Tom.

I had a feeling.

Outstanding stuff.

You can do magic.

Welcome back to Nightlight, folks.

I am Pete Schwabba.

He is Greg Bach.

And if you have not voted yet, get to the polls.

They're open

to eight

o'clock.

Lots of good stuff on the docket, if you will,

on the

ballot.

So yeah, get to the polls and vote.

Question of the night is it is national beer day Finish this sentence.

Hey bartender.

Give me a blank.

What is your beer of choice?

Be part of the show and let us know Should we get back to our big stories?

They're

big.

Let's get back to our big stories

huge huge you

the second

big story Greg this one's you because I I have to admit I didn't even notice this until you said this so

Enlighten us.

This is crazy.

So Artemis two is on day seven of its flight plan.

It's making its it wrapped around the moon.

It's went there for the first time in a long time.

It took a bunch of pictures.

We'll get to that in a moment, but it's starting to make its way home.

It's a 10 day mission.

I will say this.

I am not super thrilled about this one.

And I'll tell you why it's because the fact that Elon Musk and space has it.

Space X has anything to do with it.

It's not a lot.

It's still a NASA mission.

NASA's running it.

But the fact that his fingers are in our space, our space mission is just bothers me.

I don't like it because that just means he gets our money to.

No, thank you.

I'm happy they're safe.

I'm happy that's good.

But here is the most alarming thing.

for me is that they, they're taking pictures of the moon.

They're taking pictures of the earth.

They're getting great shots that we haven't been taking before.

They took a picture of the earth in 2026 and Colbert put this up.

They put a picture of 1969 earth next to 2026 earth and the lack of ice in the picture this year is terrifying.

Yeah, we're

in trouble.

We are

big time trouble.

I have to say, and hopefully, you know, maybe even by default, that's some of the good that comes out of this.

If people alert other people to what is happening, you can't put the ice back, but

hopefully

you slow it up a little bit.

I mean, this is a, they have traveled 248,000 miles.

And I wasn't even that excited about this, Greg.

I love space.

I love stars, everything.

I was kind of like, well, we've already been to the moon and we've been on it.

What is this all about?

But, you know, they worked the toilet thing out.

I was happy about that.

We didn't, but we're not even on the moon this time.

This is just flying around them.

They're not going to the moon until 2028.

Okay.

So again, like I'm all for space exploration.

I'm all for discovery.

I love science, data, research, do all of those things.

One, get Elon Musk's dirty little footprint

on

anything we do, but also like

This is great.

It's, it's, I think it's a, you know, so it gets some, it makes people excited.

I've heard a lot, a lot of people saying that they're excited for this.

They're having a really good, a lot of people are cheering for it.

And that's great.

But for me, like I would love a Elon less space program person.

I'm with you.

We totally agree on that.

Our earth is on

fire.

That's why people come into Michigan and Wisconsin, right?

I

don't know if that's good

or bad.

All right, I think we're ready for our third big story.

The third big story.

Greg, speaking of our president, you know, a lot of people, they don't, his own party has not stood up to him at all.

I saw a clip today of Marco Rubio on

X

in 2016 talking about Trump when he was running against him in the primary and how he is today.

He's a lap dog.

That's kind of the pattern, but the NFL really hasn't been that.

I will say this about the NFL.

They're genius marketers and they have stood up to the president.

You know, there was pushback, not just the president, the far right because there was pushback on the Super Bowl halftime show and they wanted to have bad bunny.

And they said, no, we're having him.

And there was, they don't, they haven't really cowered to the president.

And now this Florida attorney general said that he thinks that the Rooney rule has,

is, what did he say, blatant race and sex discrimination.

The Rooney Rule allows teams or forces them, if you will, to at least interview minorities.

It's not saying you have to hire them.

It's saying you have to interview them, and

Florida has a problem with them.

It's a diversity thing.

You have to have an interview that is diverse.

That's it.

One position, that's it.

And here we go with the Florida attorney general making a big, cause Florida's the big like no DEI.

Yeah.

Okay.

Maybe not DEI, but the guy who lives in your state loves to hire his kids for things.

So nepotism ain't so bad.

Which is why DEI exists in the first place.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Um, but yeah, this is good to see him push.

And Roger, it does feel like it's not going anywhere.

Say what you want.

Do whatever you'd like.

Uh, we'll wait it out.

We're fine.

And I'm, you know,

Again, I'm, I'm, you know, there's a lot of things we can talk about the NFL that are wrong.

I can go on for decades about that stuff.

But, uh, this was one good thing to see that came out of the NFL.

And also, yes, you're right.

Then pushing back or just not even really listening to the hype over bad bunny or right over Kendrick Lamar or over black lives matters or over anything else that made their little group so upset and get all up in their fields and their snowflake tears.

But yeah, I mean, this, I, I just like that Godel was like, yeah, we're going to keep it.

Next question.

Yeah, he said it's been around a long time.

We've evolved it, changed it.

We'll continue to do that, but it's staying and I'm with you.

It's just like, you know, at some point you have to say, you know, because they were worried about losing fans at one point, but that never happened.

Anyway,

so, you know, and when I mean, I think having Jay Z as the guy who is in charge of their halftime show and top of the fact that, and I think people will talk about this more in the coming years, but I think Taylor Swift.

dating and getting engaged to Travis Kelsey, bringing young fans, young girl specifically to the NFL.

Just to watch her, they've talked about this already, that it's turning them into fans.

So it's better to reach out to all groups of people, include ever.

I know inclusivity.

What a dirty word, Pete.

But when you include more people, you get better results and you'll have more fun.

Absolutely.

Well said, my friend.

Okay.

So, uh, talk about the Easter Bunny too.

Maybe we'll do that later.

All right, we are coming back, folks.

We're going to break for the news.

When we come back, we're going to have an outstanding discussion with our new friend.

We talked to him a little earlier.

Dr. Herman Ponser, metabolic.

He's everything, an evolutionary anthropologist, and he's a phenomenal interview.

And that's coming up next.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg.

Bye.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We are coming to you live on the Civic Media Network.

Our next guest is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University.

Joining us now on Night Light is Dr. Herman Ponzer.

Dr. Ponzer, welcome to Night Light.

Thanks

for having me,

guys.

It's so great to have you here.

You know, I was reading this article you wrote for Scientific American about your daughter's

birthday party and you use these analogies about birthday cake and how we eat it now as opposed to when we were kids.

Can you tell us a little bit or tell the listeners a little bit what you mean about when you talk about an energy budget regarding our bodies and metabolism?

Oh, yeah.

So, you know,

Energy is what makes life happen, right?

There is no, without energy, without calories, there is no life because everything that your body does requires energy.

Whether you're growing up or growing old or your immune system or moving around, all of it, you know, you need energy for all of it.

And so we can think about an energy budget the same way we think about kind of a cash budget, right?

We have income and expenditures.

Our income is our food that we eat.

And the expenditures are all the things that our bodies spend those calories on.

Again, everything from your brains to your heart, to your immune system, all of it.

When we think about, so like, I gotta say, like when we when I found out that your title, which is evolutionary anthropologist, I think a lot of people can think themselves, oh, we're going to be talking about civilizations and all this stuff.

But when we're talking about metabolism, you know, we see a lot of

Hmm.

I don't know.

We see a lot of things on social media that try to tell you what your body can, can't do, metabolism, calories, all these things.

But from your studies, what are things that people should know that they just can't get away from when it comes to their own metabolism as far as thinking they can manipulate it, change it, when it's really maybe set the way it is.

But what are the hard truths people need to know about their bodies when it comes to this topic?

Yeah.

So, you know, the reason that an anthropologist

you know cares about metabolism is again it's just essential to understanding how our bodies work even how our systems work right where we evolve as hunter-gatherers what is that that's a way of getting calories right some hunt some gather we share those calories and it had a huge effect on our evolution so you know energy is everywhere if you're an anthropologist um and of course you know

These days it's relevant to our daily lives because of questions like obesity and diet and exercise, right?

The energy expenditure, you know, our metabolism is wrapped up in all of those kind of big questions.

And one of the things that we've kind of discovered in the work that I've done over the last few years is that a lot of what we learn, especially on the social media space about how we can boost our metabolism or that kind of thing.

Most of that's just total hooey.

You know, none of us is real.

You know, so for example, probably the biggest one.

this idea that you can boost your metabolism either by eating some special food or even really using exercise to boost your metabolism.

It's actually really hard to change the calories you burn every day.

If you exercise, of course you burn more calories while you're exercising, but over time our bodies adjust so we don't burn as many calories.

The net effect isn't as big as we would like it to be.

This idea that there are super foods that boost your metabolism, that's all pretty much

So, you know, I think we think about our metabolism as something that we can really control and easily manipulate.

And that's the reason that we're having all these problems.

That's usually never the case.

Wow.

Yeah.

That is depressing.

Even better.

I mean, you know, we, metabolism becomes this black box that we blame, you know, as you gain weight in middle age, you think, oh, well, my metabolism is slowing down.

Like I'm in my forties.

My body certainly feels different than it did when I was in my twenties.

But your metabolism is no different in terms of the calories that your cells are burning every day.

It's no different when you're 44 than when you were 24.

It's just hard to believe, but it's true.

I'm sorry to interrupt, Pete.

Would you just repeat that for all the folks out there?

Because honestly, I think it's true.

We're told all these things over our lives that your body does this, that, and the other thing.

But I want you to say that, again, our metabolism doesn't change over time.

It's just it's the way it is.

It's really rock steady from the early 20s.

So the last golden era for all of us, metabolically, is high school into college.

Oh, god.

That's it.

had as fast a metabolism as when you were two years old, it turns out.

That's that was really the, it peaks, we all peak too soon.

You know, and then it's sort of, and that's why is it so high?

Well, because your cells are so busy doing all the work of growth and development, right?

And as that slows down, and you finally hit like your adult size, adult frame, you know, early 20s,

guess what you're kind of done your metabolism is going to be right there wherever it is wherever it's parked it's there until you're you know basically until you're 60 um and it starts declining a little bit then but like yeah the idea that your metabolism is the root of your problems or that a slow metabolism means you're destined to gain weight or that you can really meaningfully change your metabolism a lot by going to the gym uh i'm sorry guys it doesn't doesn't really work that way

Well, I'm out of here because I want to get skinny.

Two is my best

year for a lot of reasons.

Um,

yeah, I learned to talk.

I mean, you know, probably feeding yourself.

So last, so last time you really impressed anyone's like, look at him walk, look at him talking.

Then they were done with you.

Everybody catches up.

You had a posse, you

know?

It's so funny because I've done no research compared to you, my own rudimentary trial and error, but I remember being on the treadmill about three years ago for like 30 minutes and I burned like 55 calories.

I'm like, well, this is pointless.

Like how do you, because you said that in an article I read recently that between 20 and 60, your metabolism, metabolism doesn't change.

And that shocked me.

How do you, is it just eating less?

Is that the only way?

for better metabolic health?

Well, if what we're talking about is losing some weight, like let's say you've got some extra weight that your doctor says, look, you need to lose some weight, you're going to be healthier if you do.

If that's you, then the best lever you have, the best tool in the toolbox for this is eating less.

And, you know, there's lots of ways to do that, you know, people try different diets and all the different, all the diets that work, work the same way, whether it's your low carb or vegetarian Mediterranean, if you're losing a weight, it's because

you're eating fewer calories.

And that's really, that's it, you know, but people have a different experience with that.

Some people say, oh, on this diet, I felt like I was full all the time.

I didn't feel miserable.

That's great.

Well, then stick with that diet, right?

But so that's, that's all diets work the same way.

And diets really the best way to manage your weight.

Well, and I think that, you know, everything you're saying there, so

I'll bring up a point.

We talked to a friend of ours on the show last week about this.

She runs a wellness center in Madison.

And when it comes to this topic of losing weight, I mean, what we see now are folks who are selling products, whether it's shots, pills, superfoods.

creams, salves, drinks, whatever it is.

Everyone's trying to sell something that will lose you weight, but really when it comes down to it, it's always the same thing.

You have to manage what you eat and get some exercise in there too, that's always good for you.

And that's always the basis, because if you're gonna take on a diet, that's fine, but then you should make it.

And I'm asking this as a question.

If you're gonna take on a diet, then that means you have to make that diet your...

consistent diet it can't just be well I'm on this diet for six weeks and let's see what happens because after six weeks what happens then you're like well I can eat nachos now and then what happens is your body takes over and your body wants to get back to where it was and then if you stop exercising then you start gaining weight because your body's at it and then you start feeling awful about yourself and you're right back where you were six weeks ago because you thought this little bottle of pills would do you well.

Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head with that.

If you don't have any of these lifestyle changes that, you know, people want to adopt and, you know, for all the right reasons usually, but if it's something that you can't stick with because it makes you feel unhappy or miserable, you know, what I like to say is, look, I'm not a doctor and I'm not a dietitian or a wellness person, but I am an anthropologist.

I study people for a living.

And what I can tell you is if you don't like it, you won't do it.

And that's true the world around.

You know, I've had a chance to work all sorts of fun places around the world and it's the same everywhere.

If you're miserable, you stop.

So yeah, you know, and that's why, well, sort of an example, the new, probably the only thing that's been really new and effective in the past 10 years or more in obesity research are these new GLP-1 drugs, right?

Those really are effective.

Are they the first thing you should do?

No, the first thing you should do is try to find a diet and lifestyle that gets you to a healthier weight, of course.

But the reason those pills work or the injections work is it's just because it makes you eat less.

That's the trick without feeling like you're hungry all the time.

So it really always comes down to the diet.

When you're in Tanzania gathering data and studying the health and eating habits of small villages, what did that teach you?

And how does their overall health compare to those of modern-day Americans?

Yeah, thanks.

This really got me started on this journey of doing metabolism work that ended up being relevant to the obesity question.

My colleagues and I wanted to understand, how many calories do you burn every day if you're a hunter-gatherer?

Humans evolve as hunter-gatherers.

No population today is a time capsule.

But if you're a population that is still hunting and gathering, like there are a handful of these cultures left, there are a way to ask the question.

If I grew up in that culture, what would my body be like?

about how many calories would they burn?

And so we went to Tanzania, we worked with this amazing community called the Hadza community.

They hunt and gather wild foods, no machines, guns, plumbing, electricity, nothing.

They live in grass houses in the middle of Savannah.

They hunt, game with bow and arrow, women gather wild plant foods.

It's amazing.

And it's a lot of work.

They get tons of exercise just by virtue of daily life takes a lot of effort.

And so we knew going into who are so sure that they would be burning tons more calories than Americans do because they're so physically active.

And so we go there, we use this, you know, state of the art technique that we would use your friend probably from the wellness center, be familiar with this.

We use this in the US all the time, this isotope tracking technique to measure calories burned over like a week, week and a half.

Get the data back and our shots to find out that it's the same energy expenditure.

as Americans, even though they get more activity in a day than most Americans get in a week.

And so that was the big shock.

And so that's where we were sort of coming at it.

Change our perspective and our direction of our research coming at these kinds of questions, because we realized how much metabolism is sort of adapting to lifestyle in an interesting way.

That is, I mean, again, all this information that I've been reading about you and what you've been talking about here is blowing my mind because this is something I personally have been interested in for a long time.

I'll talk a little bit about what I said with our, and she's a diet, she's a registered dietitian too.

I just remember like she doesn't just run, she runs a wellness location, but she's a dietitian as well.

But for me, weight loss has always been a huge struggle and I've,

found my own path in the past year that's really worked for me.

But it's gone through a lot of evolution on its own not to use your term loosely on there.

But like, when you have conversations with folks like us in just like regular situations like dinner parties or out in the world, or the students you teach, how do you put out this information in a way that is one, again, no pun intended, digestible.

But also, so like, you're kind of, I feel like you're coming at us with the hard truth about our

bodies, but there are a lot of folks again who have these thoughts because they watch TV and movies and whatnot.

How do you present it in a way where they're like, okay, I get this, I understand more of it instead of just saying, well, the guy on on TikTok said I could lose weight by just looking up at the sky for 10 hours.

Yeah.

Gosh, I mean, you raise a really important set of questions there that are bigger than this discussion.

There's the sort of the death of expertise issue, right?

Where if I am on

TikTok for five minutes, I know as much as somebody who spent their career studying some phenomenon, right?

I

mean,

that's everywhere.

So it's bigger than my research.

The answer is, I think, you know, well, first of all, having conversations like this, I'm so glad to be able to talk with you guys about this,

right?

I mean,

I think it's important to do this.

And it's important to talk to the scientists who are doing the work and not just the people who are, who are, you know,

taking that science on board into their own practice or whatever, I think that's important too.

But I think going to the source, I think is one way to do it.

You know, and trying to be open about what the data is saying, what they don't say, you know?

So like people, you know, it just is not true that you can manipulate your metabolism in an easy way, the way that we're often told.

And that's hard to kind of sell as, you know, there's no money in telling people that, right?

There's no exercise program to sell.

But it's the data.

So I don't think if you enjoy it and have a fun time talking about it, if people like to talk about

it.

Absolutely.

Let's

pick up right there.

We're going to do a very short break.

Our guest is Dr. Herman Ponser.

He is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University, very similar to doing a radio show.

Yes, very nice.

We're coming right back

with many more questions for our guest after this.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg

Bach.

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you By now you should have somehow realized what you gotta do I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now Welcome

back.

This is Nightlight with Peach Wamba and Greg Bach.

We are in the middle of a great conversation with our guest

He is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University.

Dr. Herman Ponser is with us over the stream.

Herman, I wanted to ask you about water, because metabolically speaking, that I probably have never said or sentenced like that before, but what?

First time for everybody.

You hear people say you need two gallons of water a day.

Then I've heard

people say actually

too much can tax your kidneys.

From a metabolism standpoint, what is a healthy amount of water to keep our bodies functioning and metabolically solid?

Yeah.

This is one of those questions where it's like, what were we doing for the 200 million years before anybody was walking around with a thermos to make sure that you had the right amount of water?

The answer is your body tells you when you're thirsty.

And if you drink when you're thirsty, you're probably

doing the right amount of drinking.

And, you know, anything counts.

So, you know, people say, well, if you're drinking coffee, that dehydrates you.

That doesn't really, that's not really correct.

Coffee is water and, you know, with some extra fun stuff.

So it's great.

And so, you know, depends on your recipe, I suppose, but that any, any beverage, you know, is fine within obvious limits.

I mean, you know, but so the answer to that question is it depends on your body and it depends on

your diet, like how much water are you getting in your food?

Because that counts too, right?

So if you eat a lot of food, a lot of water in it, fruits, for example, then you're going to have to drink less.

So there's no one answer to give you, but rather than making it complicated, let's make it simple and say, if you're thirsty, drink, you know, if you are going to the bathroom and you notice it's always bright yellow, then maybe you're not drinking quite enough.

But besides that, you're probably fine.

There

you

go.

Now, I mean, we could, I mean, I feel like we could talk to you for another five hours on this topic, because there's a lot of great things.

But one thing that, you know, I wanted to touch on before we had to let you go was you released a book this time last year called Adaptable, How Your Body, How Your Unique Body Really Works and Why Our Biology Unites Us.

And that, I mean,

is a grand statement and we spoke about it a little bit earlier when you talked about your work in Africa but really what is the if someone's picking up this book what are they going to get out of this as far as like not just how they know their body but how we on this earth are all connected in the ways our bodies operate.

Absolutely I mean adaptability is the human superpower right that's why there's eight billion of us.

and not anywhere near that number of any other primate on the planet, because we're so adaptable, we can live in any ecosystem anywhere.

And that adaptability comes from our body's adaptability and our cultural adaptability.

And so understanding that's really important.

But here's what I wanted to do with the book.

In the same way that I don't think people understand their metabolism very well, and I've done some writing about that to try to help debunk some myths about metabolism, I've been teaching physiology for 20 some years.

And what I know, because I'm confronted with it the first week of school, every semester, every time I teach it, is that people don't get a great training.

They don't have a lot of fluency in how their bodies work.

And that's not just the metabolism.

It's your brain.

It's your heart.

It's everything.

And, you know, I thought, gosh, I wish we could have, I guess, I wish I could help with that.

You know, I wish we could, I can invite people in to sort of take a tour of the body and see how cool it is because the human body is amazing.

Yes.

And, you know, look.

just about every hot button issue that we debate today.

How about vaccines?

How about IQ and educational attainment?

How about race?

How about sex and gender?

All these things, all these topics require some, how can you have that debate if you don't understand how the body works?

How can you talk about vaccines if you don't know anything about immune systems?

It never

stopped anyone before.

Well, exactly.

And the point of the book is not to get people to think like me, that's not at all the point.

But if we don't have a fluency, then we can't even have a conversation, right?

So that's what I wanted to do with the book.

It's like, hey, let's crack it open.

Let's talk about how our muscles work.

And then let's talk about why it is that when I watch the Olympics, I know which countries are going to get gold medals, right?

That feels a little bit scary.

Like, wait a second, is that a racist thing to say?

No, you're talking about training and culture and tradition of different sports in those countries, right?

So like, let's break it all down, make it fun, I hope.

and talk about these systems in a way that's like honest and again, hopefully builds fluency and how your body works.

That's awesome.

Our

guest is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Dr. Hermann Ponser.

So this has been great because what I've learned today is that I burn as many calories sitting on the couch watching TV as hunter-gatherers do in Africa.

That makes me feel pretty

special.

Again.

Oh, no.

I want to ask you, like you teach college kids.

Yeah.

What is their response?

You know, when I was in college, I don't even think I thought about this stuff, maybe

because

it wasn't taught to me, but also because I think I probably thought I had all the answers and wasn't worried about a spare tire at that age.

What is their response to what you teach them along these lines?

I think they are hungry for real information.

I think the next generation, thank goodness, seems to have a pretty sensitive BS detector at this point.

because it's grown up with a lot of this stuff.

And I think they can tell when it's real.

And so, you know, and I think also they haven't had the information, right?

I mean, you know, high school, like my parents are high school teachers, public high school teachers.

I love the school systems and I, but I also know the limitations and how hard it is to get this information across.

And so I think people don't, it's just not there, right?

And so I think there's a real openness to it.

And I'm sure some of them go home and say, you can't believe it.

This guy just told me he's fooled it.

But mostly here, people are open and want to hear more.

Today's lecture was the reproductive system.

And let me tell you, there's some questions out there about how birth control works.

And this is great.

We can talk about the body.

We can have it real world, relevant to what we do every day.

People are open to it,

man.

Greg, I think we should talk about birth control next time.

Me too.

I feel like as two gentlemen in their 40s and 30s, Pete, should really have this discussion.

And invite all the ladies too.

Let them listen to our words of wisdom.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's right.

This was a lot of fun.

Thank you

so

much for your time, Dr. Ponser.

And please come back again and continue to enlighten us, because this is a fascinating topic.

And teach well.

I'd love to be back, guys.

Thanks so much.

All right.

Thanks so

much.

That's Dr. Herman Ponser, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology.

Greg, that's a big title and Global Health at Duke University.

Huge title.

We are coming right back.

Big business card.

Big

business card.

Exactly.

We'll be back after the news, ladies and gentlemen.

Don't go anywhere.

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

Trying to make sense of the world.

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 back.

tonight light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

We are coming to you live from various portions of Wisconsin.

I myself am Greg Bach coming to you from Radio Park in Racine, upstate along the lake in Christmastown, USA, Marinette, Wisconsin, Mr. Pete Schwabba, and then all the way over, completing the Yadahe Triangle in Madison is Mr. Dominic Lee on the 1s and 2s, and we are here with you.

Be a part of the conversation, 855-752.

4, 8, 4, 2, 8, 5, 5, 7, 5, Civic.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

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

Still ahead, we have our second guest of the evening, Kirsten Larson, who is the program director of Milwaukee Film, talking about the Milwaukee Film Festival, which is April 16th through the 30th.

We'll get more into that in just a moment, because I got some contest information your way, but we're doing that.

And I know, I know, I know.

Love it.

Very, very, very exciting.

Love it as well.

And then of course we'll be wrapping everything up with the night cup as usual.

So don't go anywhere.

And we might even have, I feel like we've got a lot to talk about right now, but let's.

We're going to start off first with the key word in our wing your way into the Milwaukee Film Festival.

Civic Media welcomes the Milwaukee Film Festival.

2026 to the Oriental and Downer Theater this April 16th to the 30th, and we are celebrating the entire festivities.

You can go check out there.

They just released their new lineup at mil M K E film dot org.

We're celebrating tonight by giving away a pair of tickets to a movie.

So here's what you do.

Get yourself ready to text in the keyword.

The keyword's good for the entire hour.

You get one entry, but you can take the entire hour, think about it, look it up, feel how you think about it, do whatever you need to do.

But here is the keyword for today, for this hour, for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the Milwaukee Film Festival.

camera C A M E R A text in that word spelling counts camera like I'm gonna take a picture with a camera or they shoot movies with a camera.

Text that word in you got the entire hour to do that and you'll enter to win two tickets to go to the Milwaukee Film Festival and good luck to you have fun and if here's the other thing too if you go if you win you go

take pictures and text those in via the Civic Media

app.

We'd love to see what you are up to.

We'll talk more about this with Kirsten Larson in a little bit, but we want to get to that keyword.

The word again is camera, C-A-M-E-R-A.

Yep, I spelled that correctly, so there we go.

Another thing we wanted to say really quick, our Nightlight Movie Club is coming back this Thursday, and we wanted to announce

the movie for this week so you can get yourself ready.

There may even be a quiz for listeners.

We'll let you know more about that.

I

know.

We are going to be watching the Guy Ritchie, in my opinion, classic, The Gentleman.

Find it on streaming.

If you own it, watch it again.

Come be part of the conversation.

We'll be talking about the, you know, the details of the movie, our thoughts on it, and that'll be part of the second installment of the Night Light Movie Club this Thursday in our second hour.

The Gentleman made by Mr. Guy Ritchie.

We'll talk more about that too tomorrow as well.

But I think without any further ado, Pete, I believe we need to restate the question of the night.

What?

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Question.

Here, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Question.

Question.

Questions.

Today is National Beer Day.

So, hey bartender, give me

a blank.

What is your order?

We'd love to know.

Let us know 855-752-4842-855-757.

You can leave a comment on the live stream like our buddy Conrad did.

He said simply spotted cow.

There you go.

Thank you

so much, Conrad.

You're

very familiar with the night light

question.

Good to hear

from Conrad.

Yeah, finish the sentence.

Hey bartender, give me a blank.

Love to hear from you, seeing a lot of stuff coming through on the text line as well as the Facebook page.

Pete, you want to kick it off with some

of the

answers?

Before we get to some texts, yeah, I'll

go and I'm going to say, I'm going to break the trend here.

Not that there won't be others, but I'm going to go with a nice Sam Adams non-alcoholic.

There you go.

Dynamite

beer.

I got to say, as someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s,

And, you know, my dad didn't drink, but he every once in a while would enjoy a sharps.

That takes you back.

Sharps non-alcoholic beer has come quite a ways, even in the past five years.

It used to be, if you wanted a non-alcoholic beer, you had to like suffer through it.

It wasn't always the best, but the technology, the create, like everything about it now feels like, cause I feel like craft brewers got a hold of it.

And while a lot of big companies are like, it doesn't make a beer without alcohol.

Who cares?

There is now a great selection of wonderful not well.

There's great non-alcoholic beers wines all those things out there.

So yeah, that's amazing and there's

I agree with you about the beer I think and I'm here's the weird thing like I stopped drinking about three and a half years ago just on a whim and It's worked out and I loved whiskey and scotch were my drinks

and

I love them I love martini too and some cocktails, but I was never a beer drinker.

Yeah

I got introduced about two years ago to Blue Moon non-alcoholic, also very good.

And a friend of mine that's a brewer said, no, they crush it with the beers.

The spirits aren't there yet.

I've bought non-alcoholic whiskey.

I'd like a little more burn in my whiskey when I drink it, but it still kind of tastes like apple juice.

But yeah, the beer is there.

What about you?

For me, I don't drink a whole lot of beer anymore.

It's usually I set on the...

Facebook page.

It's a bloody Mary with a beer chaser, not spotted cow.

Um, so controversial

opinions,

but, uh, yeah, I mean, if, but I will say this though, lately where we go grab grab our Saturday bloodies, I usually get a Guinness as my, uh, uh, chaser and I've been craving Guinness's like just, you know, a good solid cold Guinness in a glass.

And yeah, I would, I would probably order a Guinness if I was getting a beer.

That's what I would get.

What about you, Dom?

I was also, I also texted on Facebook, Sam Adams as well.

But I really liked the October edition, October Fest edition.

Yeah, that was so good.

And I'd say that's number.

Or I also really liked Angry Orchard as well.

Those are mine too.

I really, really liked it.

I cannot, I can't

do ciders anymore.