On The Edge Of Culture And Comedy with Keegan Kelly (Hour 2)

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across

Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Tom Allmaw, along with Aaron Zommer and our producer and engineer on the board.

It is six past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, May 8th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinites here at the World Headquarters of Civic Media, downtown Madison State Street.

Zommer's the skies are blue.

It's a great day.

We're going to have the Madison Night Market for our listeners on WMDX.

Or if you want to take a drive into Madison from other parts, that gets underway later on this afternoon into the evening.

We'll have a booth right down on State Street.

Stop by and say hi with fabulous cash prizes.

Well, at least in Keychain.

Yeah, not cash prizes.

No cash.

But I hear we have stress balls, which, of course, my first question is, why was I aware of this?

Because if there's anybody that could use a stress ball, then I'm going to be me.

As long as you know, they are John and Gordy's.

Oh, they're John and Gordy's stress balls.

All right,

very good.

I

think so.

I'm not sure.

Well, we're going to be

here tonight.

So if you're in the Madison area, stop down to the Madison Night Market.

It's a great family event.

All kinds of local merchants.

Our booth will be across the street here on State Street right in front of Overture Center.

So looking forward to nervous anticipation to that.

Big day today on the show coming up at 330 Keegan Kelly from Crack.com.

a little segment called On the Edge of Culture and Comedy with Keegan Kelly.

I love the alliteration, so Keegan's joining us at 3.30.

Then also, what's worse, in the second hour, I think somebody, CP writes these, I take a fence to it.

It's a, what's worse, losing hair or gaining weight.

Damn.

I'm affected by both, so I'm not sure, which is worse.

Also, in the...

Our two we're gonna have our friend and

ongoing contributor, Matt Flynn, two-time chair of the Democratic Party, a practicing Catholic and attorney.

He's going to be here on the big international news of the day.

And we also have a representative, Amon Rivera-Wagner, joining us here at the bottom of this hour, talking about AmeriCorps and the local folks at the Green Bay area who are having to fill in due to cuts from the Trump administration.

But first of all, a couple of breaking news stories today.

First of all, courtesy of CBS News.

This is what Matt Flynn will join us in hour two.

to discuss.

Yes, there was a white smoke today at the Vatican in Rome.

The Cardinal-electors of the Catholic Church elected an American today to serve as the new Pope, Chicago-born.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, was elected and accepted as fate as the next Bishop of Rome, leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

Prevost, the first Pope ever from the United States, chose Leo.

the 14th as his papal name.

The new pond of identity was revealed about an hour after white smoke emerged from the chimney above the assisting chapel at the Vatican, signaling that a new pope had been chosen with a decisive vote by the cardinal electors gathered for the papal, or the papal, is it papal or papal, the con cleave to elect the pope.

And he will say it that way.

So

big

day, big day for...

It's papal.

Papal, thank

you.

Around the big day for Catholics, around the world, and also I think just a major international story.

A lot of this was seen as, were the Cardinals going to choose someone more in the vein of Pope Francis?

Perhaps.

looked at or viewed as a more progressive, forward-thinking pope?

Or were they going to go back to a more conservative, and by all accounts, people who watch these things will get mad to take an hour, too?

It appears they've chosen Cardinal Priebus as someone who's going to continue largely what Francis had started.

In fact, I watched his opening remarks today, now going as Pope Leo XIV, and he started off to paraphrase the churches here for everyone.

to signal that he's going to be a more open pope, perhaps, in the vein of Pope Francis.

We'll continue to talk about that in hour two with our friend, Matt Flynn.

But right now, the other breaking story of the day here in Wisconsin, this, according to Milwaukee Journal sent those Hope Carnap, the Democratic law firm, a Democratic law firm, has again asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to

reconsider the state's congressional boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterms, a request the court had previously rejected.

Elias Law Group, chaired by Mark Elias, who has led previous voting access laws to Wisconsin and across the country, filed a petition with the High Court on May 8th, that is today on behalf of Wisconsin voters.

The firm argues that the congressional maps that were drawn were based on quote unquote,

least change principle.

The court abandoned when it struck down the state's legislative maps in December of 2023.

The concept

refers to favoring maps that minimize change to the existing boundary lines.

Of course, new maps for the State Assembly and Senate greatly reduced the GOP advantages of the Capitol and allowed Democrats to pick up several seats in November, though they fell short of flipping either House or the state legislature.

Elias Group filed a similar petition last year asking the court to reconsider the U.S.

House boundaries, but the court rejected that at the last minute push.

That's according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

And I would note that the

Supreme Court race that we just got done having, which Judge Susan Crawford is now Justice-elect, hinged at least partly, if not largely, on this concept that this would happen here now joining us at the table.

We're honored to say so in our studios.

Nick Ramos, who's the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Nick, thanks for coming in last minute to discuss this breaking news.

Todd, you know you can call me anytime, brother, and I'm there, man.

I'm just happy that we get a Thursday to talk about something that is long overdue in Wisconsin.

And I'm just grateful that we can have these kinds of conversations because the people need to be educated and know what is taking place right now.

And I think, again, to pick up on the Supreme Court race from the spring, today's filing by the Elias group, I think as a surprise, no one.

Most people knew this was coming, right?

Yeah, I mean, as you correctly stated at the top of the call, you know, right after the state legislative voting rights, I mean, the voting, like, maps and coming off the heels of that, then we see this legal challenge, but we were running up against an election not that far down the road.

And so I could see why the Supreme Court here, you know, didn't want to rock the boat, especially in a presidential election year.

But right now we're in a kind of not a hiatus because the work is still going on, but we're in a sweet spot where I feel like the court can.

entertain these arguments and I think that the arguments that the Elias law group are making as far as the violations of the Constitution when it comes to free speech, when it comes to separation of powers, when it comes to some of these other issues that really we want the fairest maps possible because Wisconsin

every election cycle is always close and we want to make sure that the maps are actually representative of the people and not artificially drawn by lawmakers to try and game the system and gerrymander themselves into seats that they'll never lose because there's no real competition.

I'm not sure this is just obviously breaking today.

I'm not sure if you had a chance to kind of review the actual filing or you're familiar with some of the things in there, at least tangentially or not so much.

I read through again, you know, this is very breaking news.

I mean,

so I read through the press release and then I got to skim through the

the link on the press release that takes you to the lawsuit and

the

filing.

So I got to read through a little bit of it, but I'm not well versed entirely

in that.

I appreciate that because it's breaking news.

But just from past discussions about that, explain to people what perhaps the major argument here in this court case is to ask the Wisconsin State Supreme Court to reconsider the lines at this juncture.

Well, I mean, I think.

By now in 2025, it's not.

I think most people know that Wisconsin has lived under some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country.

I remember going through law school and studying the maps and a Harvard researcher said something like the maps in the Democratic Republic of Congo are more are better than what we have in Wisconsin.

And don't be fooled, ladies and gentlemen.

the Democratic Republic of Congo is not a democracy.

So that's not high praise by any stretch of the imagination.

And so where we're entering this space and we're looking at just how the maps are currently situated.

I mean, back when this was a case in front of the court for the state maps, contiguity was the main argument.

It's these maps, the districts, they have to be touching.

They have to be connected.

And.

Folks for years disregarded that and we've been living under the same maps Congressionally I got I mean you know you mentioned 2022 and they decided the least change but like These maps continue to be some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country when you're talking about the congressional ones and so good on the Elias group and good on you know folks being able to challenge that because

the people are not being clearly represented.

And you see it when you study the data that they've been drawn so meticulously that it will safeguard Republicans and Republican safe districts.

And then we can talk about some of the other districts for Democrats for the Congress, but it's just, it's due.

It's been far too long and we need to make sure that people are accurately being counted and that their voice and their vote actually matters.

And again, I'm not an attorney.

You are.

You went through law school.

But to go back, so people that maybe aren't as familiar or nuanced into this, political geeks, I'll call myself that.

You are.

So what happens is we have a word I'm looking for.

Sensors?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sensors every 10 years, they take the census.

They say, OK, there has to be X number of people roughly in each.

Legislative and or congressional district and they draw the maps and the Wisconsin State Legislature does that the governor can veto it if they can't get to a consensus that ends up going to the courts So this is kind of that's the short reader side just version of how we get here And so last year the basic argument argument was as you said that the legislative maps weren't contiguous other words there were islands

of one district within another one, that the lines weren't touching.

I think most folks would say, yeah, that ain't right.

And so the Supreme Court stepped in and redrew that.

Now, in this case, it's not so much the contiguous part of it, as I understand it, but rather that they're not compact, that the lines just simply don't make sense.

Take the third congressional district, for instance, which goes, if you go kind of...

east and west, it actually goes just north, I think, of the Twin Cities latitude wise all the way down to the Illinois border.

That ain't exactly compact, Nick.

That's pretty spread out.

Yeah.

And you don't have to be a cartographer to recognize that.

And, you know, constitutionally, like, our maps need to have equal protection.

And I continue to say all the time that, like,

for years folks have been undercounted not being put into areas that don't make sense as far as what typical map drawing is like and it's because of the gamesmanship and I think no matter what we have another census coming in 2030.

We have a real opportunity to actually fix this problem and it's advantageous for everyone, not Republicans, not Democrats, not Independents, everyone to be able to create a better process that we can actually be able to make sure that partisan gerrymandering never happens depending on what party is in power at a given moment.

We want to make sure people are actually represented.

My former boss, Dale Schultz, Republican in the state Senate worked very closely with Democratic, now the late great Tim Cullen in the state Senate to work for fair maps, particularly for the legislative side, but also the state legislature, but also the congressional side.

And I remember Senator Cullen saying on numerous occasions in private and on this program, I don't want new maps that favor Democrats.

I want fair maps.

And so I look at this quote by the Elias Law Group partner here in the release saying, quote,

Johnson's current congressional map is unfairly rewarded Republicans with a significant electoral advantage and will continue to do so for the remainder of the decade.

Unquote.

Now, you know, that's one quote.

I don't want to take that and read too much into it out of context.

To me, to my ears, as someone who left the Republican Party in 2011, I'm not sure that's the right argument to make because I want to come back and talk about it after the break here.

A lot of people will understand the current maps for Congress in Wisconsin are not just based on 2020.

You have to go all the way back to 2002 when there were inside deals cut amongst incumbents, both Republicans and Democrats.

And I think we ought to talk about that a little bit as well.

We'll come back and talk on the inside of Congressional Maps in Wisconsin, this breaking news with Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and more.

It's the All Ball Show for a Thursday on the Civic Medium.

Ready Network.

you

Welcome back to the Tollball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

22 now past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, May 8th.

Direct from the playlist of our current guest right here sitting at the table at the Civic Media World Headquarters, Nick Ramos.

He's the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign talking about this news breaking this morning, reading from the story of Milwaukee Journal's sent note by Hope Karnop, who

talking about the fact that the Elias Group, a liberal group chaired by Mark Elias, has filed a new lawsuit in Wisconsin, going to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, asking them to reconsider the congressional boundaries.

This, after the liberal court last year re-drew or found that the current, the then current

state legislative boundaries were not constitutional because in large part they were not contiguous.

In other words, the lines did not define a contiguous line, did not define the district.

You got these islands of one district in another.

Now the Elias group is coming and asking the Supreme Court again to look at the congressional maps.

And Nate, we were talking a little, or Nick, pardon me, we were talking a little bit before about

the fact that the argument here seems to be, from what we're reading right now, that the current congressional boundaries are simply two partisan or favor one party over another.

Is that your basic understanding of the Elias Group's argument?

Yes.

And I think you were saying before we went to break the fact that you don't feel like that's a winning argument in today's day and age.

Look, I'm no lawyer, so I mean, I'm gonna defer to people who are.

I'm just saying from a layman's standpoint, and you know, I'm a little old here, I'm a little long in the tooth, but I was actually around in 2002, and I could give a little insight to our listeners that...

I ran John Sharples' congressional campaign in 1998 in the primary when my former boss Scott Kluge, who represented this area here in Madison, yes, as a Republican, believe it or not, a moderate Republican.

And he lost out, and that's when Tammy Baldwin got elected to Congress for the first time, and then he ran again in 2000.

He lost to Baldwin in a less than 1% margin, and the Republican Party tried to recruit Sharpless to come back again in 2002 and run against Tammy in her second term in the House.

And then Paul Ryan, who was in Congress, told my then friend and boss, John Sharpless, look,

A deal has been cut basically amongst incumbents in the state, both Republicans and Democrats, to protect the incumbent seats.

So the second congressional district, which did include a lot of rural counties around Dane, was headed south to pick up more Democratic-leaning Janesville and Beloit, because Paul Ryan didn't want that anymore.

And so that was the deal.

So my point is, and I'll let you talk in a second, I apologize, but the Derek Van Orton, the Republican who represents

The third district now likes to complain about this, saying, hey, if I get a new redistricted district, it's going to lean Democratic.

The secret is he won in a district that was gerrymandered for then Democrat, Ron Kind, and it went over and picked up Stephen's point.

So my only point is that I don't believe gerrymandering is one party.

Oh, I mean, you're 100 million percent correct.

And.

When you said it I'm like I'm thinking to myself at the end of the day It should be non-partisan redistricting it shouldn't be that anyone party because look people love power people become intoxicated with power and then they forget what they're really there for and you know public servitude is a Noble cause and it's one that comes with a lot of duty and you need to be paying attention and really advocating for your constituents, but it's like

we sit in these rooms, and it doesn't matter.

You can go to different states and see, you know, gerrymandering happen with Republicans, with Democrats, none of it is appropriate.

And Wisconsinites, I think, really legitimately believe that we should be able to manifest our destiny, not, you know, electeds who can then sit here and make the system whatever they want it to be and then cut us out of the process.

And so I think...

Really, at the end of the day, it should all be about not Republicans or Democrats.

But how can we make this the fairest possible process that makes it the most representative maps that actually equate to the populations that we have here in Wisconsin?

And I think demographically, because we are one of those swing states here in the country, we will always be somewhere it could go either direction, but it shouldn't be that one side gets to start at a different part of the starting line than the other.

And so I think a good look at the maps, we're looking at them at the state level.

I'm glad the congressional maps are being looked at.

And we should be willing and ready to be able to make the change that we want to see in this, in the state.

And I think people, the work that we do through the Fair Maps Coalition, we're going to have a grassroots army ready to go to show these lawmakers how seriously we are about this, that this isn't an issue you can just run away from, that we want to see this before 2030.

So would you agree or disagree that the second congressional district, or whatever Glenn Grossman's district is, number, I apologize, I forgot, but he's a Republican, that just like Mark Pocan probably shouldn't be winning with 75% to 80% of the vote, neither should Glenn Grossman.

I mean, the second should get more towards the middle and pick up more conservative areas, and Glenn Grossman should pick up more liberal or

democratic areas.

Would you agree with that?

I mean what I'll say is because you know I am a nonpartisan player in this thing called democracy but I would say when you see those types of irregularities when you see those types of imbalances that

it doesn't feel like it's just off of great campaigning and messaging alone.

You know, like the guys are in the office like, give me each other high fives.

We did it again, gang.

80% of the vote, we did it.

They love us.

We got a mandate.

That's not, that does not feel kosher.

That does not smell right to me.

Let's give Bob Wisconsin Democracy campaign a plug.

We have one minute left.

Where can people go to get involved?

Absolutely.

So if you are interested in being, you know, active in your community, active on issues that

are relevant to our democracy.

We are working on a plethora of things.

And in these times, it's so important to be able to get out there in community with people and be able to express what you want in this process, because it's all about us guys.

And so

Go check out the website, wisdc.org.

You can subscribe to our page, get alerts.

We give you the latest information about state of play, money and politics, fair maps, constitutional amendments, all the goods.

Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Thank you, my friend, appreciate you being here.

Todd Father, anytime, any day you let me know, brother.

Come on back.

We're going to talk of Wisconsin and AmeriCorps with Representative Rivera Wagner after this.

This is the all ball show on the Civic Media.

Ready Network.

having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title of our show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Thirty-five minutes now past the hour of two o'clock Thursday, May 8th.

Glad to have you along on a busy, busy news day.

Glad to have along our next guest joining us live via StreamYard from the beautiful Green Bay area.

It is Representative Amadra Vera Wagner, who is a brand new representative in the state legislature.

Representative, thanks for coming on.

How are you?

I'm doing really great.

Thank you for having me.

We just came off the 2025 draft and we're feeling good here in Green Bay.

I was gonna say, I mean, you've been part of this community for some time.

Did you grow up there?

I forget.

I didn't.

So I was, I married the son of dairy farmers who I literally met over craft beers and our love of the Packers.

What's more Wisconsin than that?

Exactly.

His family still has a dairy farm in cross plains right outside of Madison.

So I get to go pet the calves every once in a while.

So that's how we got here.

They call them boomerangs when Wisconsin folks go out of the state and bring somebody back.

So I'm the product of a boomerang with the son of Gary Farmers.

Well, we're glad to have you here.

You're part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Tell us a little bit of what was like having represented that area now, not only living there, but representing the Green Bay area and having the draft come to town.

Well one folks forget this but just recently Green Bay was named the number one place to live in the United States Top 10 to retire top 10 to raise families in and so I know people love Madison, Milwaukee But there's something special happening here in Green Bay.

So it's something I'm incredibly proud of I've had the pleasure of serving as the mayor's chief of staff

Mayor Eric again, Rick, and you know, there's been years of work trying to showcase the talent of Green Bay.

We obviously have our own NFL team and for us to be the smallest football media market.

and hosting the second largest football event really wasn't a testament to how we can do things in a Green Bay way.

We can do big city stuff while keeping our small town values.

And it was really fun.

Over 600,000 people attended.

It was the second most watched NFL Draft in NFL Draft history.

And we had Booyah battles, Kringle combines.

We had a 5K.

We celebrated our downtown.

So we really found a way to make this feel

look like and in bed Green Bay and even some of the biggest shows in the country.

I thought it was just great I mean to see

national TV, all the big shows, all the big names originating from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the amount of, as we say in politics, earned media, free press, the area, the state got off of that.

I thought that was just great.

We're speaking with Representative Ahmad Rivera-Wagner, who represents part of the Fox Valley, the Green Bay area here in Wisconsin in the state legislature.

Representative, I like that, because one of the things we'd like to do on this show is take kind of national or international issues and say, well, how does this affect

Wisconsin.

And you're looking at some of these cuts, the made up agency of Doge and Elon Musk.

One of the things they've targeted is AmeriCorps.

And we got wind of something that the Green Bay Common Council is doing.

I just think it shows the Wisconsin spirit.

Explain to folks a little bit what's going

on.

You captured it quite well.

So AmeriCorps is essentially a domestic Peace Corps.

It has existed in various iterations for over 50 years.

It's always enjoyed bipartisan support from tutoring kids, to having elders volunteer in local schools, to conservation, to medical support.

AmeriCorps is literally embedded in the community where community members get to serve for up to a year, sometimes two years.

They get a stipend, not a salary.

So it's not very lucrative and they get an education award.

This program has been making a major impact in the community for over 50 years across the country.

Over a million people have served in it in this program and over a billion dollars worth of scholarships have been utilized by its members.

This is one, if you want to look at it from a dollar and set standpoint, for every dollar invested in it, we get $17 back to the community of economic impact.

So in any measurement, whether you're conservative or liberal, this is the kind of program that both makes you feel good, but is also a perfect example of what government can do when it gets involved and supports local communities.

Unbeknownst to the members, the directors, the cities,

Doge cut AmeriCorps and gave 24 hours notice that folks midterm, mid-service, essentially mid-job, were fired.

The programs had to shut down immediately.

The people who were paying for milk and eggs, childcare, while they were also tutoring kids and planting trees and helping with medical care, within 24 hours, their entire service was ended with no notice.

And that was stunning to this community.

In Green Bay, we created the first municipal ever conservation core in Wisconsin history.

It's been in the city for about three years.

We've built miles of trails with hundreds and hundreds of acres of invasive species.

We have our own wildlife.

Thanks for being here.

So we've cared for animals.

We've had hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers trained.

We work with schools.

We work with businesses.

This program is beloved in our city.

And 24 hours last week,

Every member, including the director, who runs the program, were essentially fired by the federal government with no notice.

So let

me just find this astounding.

Let me stop you there for just for a second to make sure I'm clear with the listeners.

So the Conservation Corps in Green Bay is all these things you talked about.

They're great for the community.

They were funded fully or in large part by America Corps.

Large part so it's a three-to-one match meaning for every dollar we put in the federal government puts $3 in so there was skin in the game here But because of its large Contribution from the federal government if you take 75% of the funding away the program is done

as done So they give you 24 hours say you guys are finished your toast go ahead

and what's even crazier is that our program has Attracted people from all over so yes from the

Channos and the Fonda lax but also from the colorados in california's the texas and tennessee's we had people from all over the country in green bay Seeing the green bay way of taking care of each other taking care of and making our community more resilient addressing flood mitigation And they were told that they would not get paid because all funding had stopped no dollars could be dispensed any further and so the mayor Myself and a bunch of the members got together

cried a little bit because this was devastating and said, what can we do?

And one of the things we said is that in Green Bay.

we take care of each other.

The regards of national politics and the pettiness of politics that can be in Green Bay, good things defy political logic here because we just take care of each other and we're community oriented.

So we, an alder decided to offer an amendment that said we can put 115,000, that's it, that we have available and that members would be able to serve out their term which would end in August.

Every other program in the state has closed or ended or is fully cut.

So that we started organizing that way.

We started making phone calls.

We brought members in.

We did a press conference.

The mayor was incredible.

Audra Joey Presley on the Green Bay Common Council led the effort.

We had tons of testimony, not a single opposition to this bill in our common council.

People who support Donald Trump to people who support Bernie Sanders Unanimously supported this program and we're now the only program in Wisconsin that isn't being shut down Immediately Green Bay's conservation Corps will be able to have its members serve until August and I couldn't be any more proud of our comic council our mayor and our community who stepped up when the federal government

abandoned us.

And I think that says something about Wisconsin.

It says something about Green Bay that we step up even when they won't.

But that cruelty is something that we need to point out.

Well, I just think it's remarkable.

And I appreciate you coming on and telling this story because, you know, the quote unquote, sexy news stories are generally about bad things happening or about terrible things happening.

And again, something did, in my opinion, terrible happened, all this funding cut, but we don't hear

the spirit of Wisconsin stories about what's happening in places like Green Bay and quite frankly all over the state that don't get told.

But here you have the Common Council in Green Bay.

And I think to your point, Representative, that whether you're someone who is a quote unquote environmentalist liberal who wants to just go out and walk in nature and get nothing wrong with that, or if you're someone who might be perceived as more of a conservative who goes out in the hunts or whatever,

You need really great conservation efforts to achieve both of those things and the fact that you guys brought together people from all different political spectrums to get behind this, I think is remarkable.

So the program is saved or essentially kept through August.

Do we have any idea of what happens next?

So the group now that we're kind of

you know relishing in our small victory in this kind of dark time we are now working we have a republican congressman republican tony weed congressman tony weed we are going to be i'm going to be sending a letter uh we're going to be working with our conservation corps members and other supporters to see if our congressman can be a leader on saving this program federally we believe that this program gives more than it receives in federal dollars and state dollars

And we think this has always enjoyed bipartisan support.

You know this better than a lot of other folks.

Environmentalism in Wisconsin, until very recently, it was never partisan.

Senator Gaylord is the person that created Earth Day.

We did an Earth Day draft edition with our conservation corps right before the NFL 2025 draft.

This is something that enjoys good air, flood mitigation, training, trail maintenance, invasive species removal, benefits everybody.

And so we really want to do the work to see if our congressman will step up.

I will say give a lot of things to governor, the governor, Tony Evers, who is suing the federal administration.

What's really unique about this moment is that these were funds that were already allocated in a typical budget process.

You could say, we don't want to fund this anymore.

Congress would say, okay, you have to convince them of the votes and you could zero this out for the next budget item.

Never before in American history or any in recent memory Could you stop funding a program that have already gotten bipartisan budget approval by Congress?

That has never existed before and so the governor is suing to ensure that

This has potentially done illegally.

So my hope is both the carrot and the stick.

We're proud to be supporting the governor's lawsuit, but we're also going to be lobbying and asking our Republican congressmen to support this program that makes such a fundamental difference

here in Green Bay.

Talk to you with Representative Amad Ravara Wagner of the Green Bay Area.

Representative, you brought up such a great point, an important one, that these cuts that, again, as a reminder, DOGE is not a real agency.

It was made up by Trump and Musk.

They've really usurped Congress.

And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, that should worry you.

That the budget that your representative, your Congress, passed, your Senator, got null and voided by essentially two guys.

And I think that's a great point to make.

If you want to have these arguments that you don't want AmeriCorps, then it should be debated in the floor of Congress and voted on.

But what they did to Green Bay and other places is just ridiculous.

Do we have you for the next segment or are you done here at 10 till?

Up to you.

Up to you, Todd.

Well, if you don't mind, let's come back.

And there's a lot of the great things happening.

I want to talk about more than just this, but we got about two and a half minutes, two minutes left before all the Zomber says one minute.

We got we got new clocks, representative.

I'm sorry.

I'm getting used to the new clocks.

So give it give us the one minute thing here.

Is there do you think there's any hope beyond?

the lawsuit, do you think that maybe we're going through a state budget right now, $4 billion surplus?

Do you think there's a chance that the state legislature could step in to help at least part of this?

I've had some fantastic conversations with the lieutenant governor and the governor's office, my colleagues, who are deeply interested in making sure that we have these thoughtful, powerful programs in the governor's budget before it was just gutted yesterday by the JFC.

There was a matching Edward for AmeriCorps members because we see the value in keeping these kind of folks in our communities and folks in AmeriCorps can serve from 18 to 80.

And we've seen all of that there.

And so I'm excited to see the potential.

I have hope

I've seen what we can do in Green Bay and I believe that we can pick what we're doing in Green Bay and make that happen in Madison.

We're going to come back to talk more with Representative Amon Rivera-Wagner on conservation and what it's like being a freshman in the state legislature as the all balls show in civic

media.

Stay with us at hour number two, although what's worse for you today?

The question seems awfully personal towards Todd today.

Losing hair or gaining weight?

I don't like this one, Zomers.

I feel like they wrote it especially for me, but we'll find out.

Hour number two with Keegan Kelly from Crack.com is here for a segment called On the Edge of Culture and Comedy.

coming up at the bottom of the next hour.

Right now we are pleased and honored to have Representative Ahmad Rivera-Wagner joining us from the Green Bay area.

He represents that area here in Wisconsin State Legislature, a new freshman legislator talking about these cuts that the made-up agency does, Musk and Trump, and specifically

And I'm glad Representative Ghanu brought this up.

These were cuts to already voted on approved and signed into law monies for AmeriCorps, which helps the conservation of the greater Green Bay, Brown County area.

But now the Green Bay Common Council has stepped up and saved this in part, at least through August.

This is a great example of a.

the direct effect Wisconsinites are feeling because of what's happening in DC, but also on the upside, the spirit and the community that is Wisconsin, specifically Green Bay, coming together in a bipartisan fashion to help conservation.

Dave in New Berlin checking in on the text line saying, quote, I've been to the wildlife sanctuary in Green Bay.

It's, quote, badass, unquote.

So there you go, a fan from New Berlin representative.

Yeah, and so one of the things in Green Bay is that we take care of each other and that means both our neighbors and leaving the environment better for the next generation.

I want to just talk about the cruelty for one extra second because I want to make sure people understand.

While the Green Bay Common Council has saved this program for the service year, one of the really amazing parts of AmeriCorps is you get something called a service award at the end.

It's the Eli Siegel Award named after a survivor of the Holocaust.

This award is up to $10,000 and you can use that for school, paying off your loans, learning a second language, et cetera and so on.

These members, even though they've done their service and the Green Bay Council has allowed them to finish their year of service, will not be getting an award for the first time ever in American history.

So despite them doing their service,

despite the bridge over troubled waters that the Green Bay Common Council gave to these members, they will not receive their Ed Award.

That was a part of their service.

And so even with the kindness that was created, the kind of collaboration and community that Green Bay has, the cruelty doesn't really end just.

with cutting of the program.

They also cut the benefits for these folks.

And I think that is really important to do.

We're going to try to do some smart things here locally to see if we can mirror that.

We're working with the governor's office and other places to see if there's a way for them matching at award to still go to these members who's already served.

But, you know, budgets are the embodiment of our values.

But that also means that so are cuts.

And so the fact that despite us putting in a binding document, legal document that we actually cared about this program wanted to fund it, these doge cuts also tell a story about the cruelty that we're willing to accept in 2025.

But what's nice is in Green Bay, we said we're not going to accept that cruelty and we're going to step up.

and keep these folks in our community.

I love the fact also that you're not just automatically running off Congressman Weed.

You're saying, hey, let's work together, extending the olive branch list.

I hope that Congressman Weed, as a new Republican in Congress, might look back at his, what are the advantages of growing old in my middle age, is that I was around for a few things.

And you might remind.

Congress were to weed, then it was back in the 1980s that my former boss, Dale Sholes, the Republican, worked with Spencer Black, who was a very liberal Democrat from Madison.

And they came together to write the legislation ultimately signed into law by Republican Governor Tommy Thompson to create the Lower Wisconsin Riverway, which is now celebrating its 35th anniversary.

One of the golden, the crown jewels of Wisconsin conservation was done in a bipartisan manner for the betterment of Wisconsin.

Absolutely.

And I think that this is, you know, I wish we could do a little bit more Green Bay in Madison and a little bit more Wisconsin in DC because a lot of these issues.

for us have already been solved.

We like passenger rail.

We want our waterways to be clean.

We don't want our neighborhoods flooded.

We want to make sure that parks are a part of our everyday experience.

These aren't contested issues.

They enjoy 90% or 80% here in Wisconsin, particularly here in Green Bay.

And I really wish people could

focus on these issues versus the nastiness of national politics that tells us that we have to pick a side.

When the truth is, the only side we should be looking at is the Green Bay or the Wisconsin side, not whether it's right or left.

And so I'm really excited that we are showing by example, even in these dark times, that there is a different way to do

politics is a different way to focus on outcomes.

And I'm excited to help help work on that.

I hope that all of branch works, you know, you never know what's going to happen.

But I also know that the other day that's my congressman and I serve the people of Green Bay and they wanted me to fight for this program.

And so I'm going to make sure I do that.

Love the attitude.

I've left you all of 90 seconds representative.

What's it like being a new state assembly person and anything in particular besides what we've already talked about that you're looking at legislatively in Madison?

One of the greatest honors of my lifetime is being able to represent this community.

Green Bay is a very special place.

It's actually more racially diverse than Madison.

It's a small town, but it has a big fight.

It's a third largest city.

It has so many historic and amazing things that happen here that it is just an honor of a lifetime to be able to be on the side of people in Green Bay.

I'm deeply focused on housing.

I was raised by a single mom who had me at 16.

She was homeless for the early part of my life.

called Habitat for Humanity, where people of all different backgrounds, where you don't ask who they vote for, actually worked with me to build the house that my mom still lives in.

And so I believe that that's the kind of politics we should have.

And so I'm deeply focused on making sure that we address this housing crisis.

People who want to move to Green Bay can't.

Whether you're a JBS meat packer or a Seabed Street executive at Schneider, you are competing for housing in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And I want to ease that pain by making it easier to build more housing for more people to really make a positive impact.

So those are the things I'm deeply focused on.

Well, Representative Amon Rivera-Wagner, so honored to have you on the show.

You're part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Keep doing the great work up there.

Thank you so much for being on.

Thank you.

Have a great day, Representative Amon Rivera-Wagner from Green Bay.

Stay tuned.

What's worse, hour two is next.

It's The Tonneau Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albaugh, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.

It is Thursday, May 8th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along.

Six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two of the big program.

Don't forget if you're listening on WMDX here in Madison or want to take a drive into town later on this afternoon into tonight, the first of Madison's Night Market.

Think of it as kind of a farmers market Maxwell days combined on these Thursday evenings.

There's like five or six throughout the day.

The fur or the season, the first one is tonight on State Street.

You can join me and several, several of our civic media folks on the street, on State Street, right across by the Overture Center in our booth.

So stop on by and say hi.

Very, very excited about that.

Coming up a little bit later, we'll talk what's worse.

hair or weight, we'll explain, and also at 330kegankellyfromcrack.com on the edge of culture and comedy.

Right now, though, we're leaning to the culture side of it.

Breaking news, a little bit earlier today, the cardinal electors of the Catholic Church elected, get this.

an American today to serve as- Not just an American.

A Chicagoan to be the new pope, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost.

Age 69 was elected and accepted his fate as the next Bishop of Rome, leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.

Prevost, the first pope ever from the United States, chose Leo XIV as-

the name to be called as the Papal Name.

Here to discuss it a little bit with us to give us some context, our friend and ongoing contributor, two-time chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, a great guy of US Navy veteran, but for today's purposes, Matt Flynn, a practicing Catholic and longtime observer of the Catholic Church, joins us via phone.

Matt, thanks for making time for us today.

Good to be with you, Ted, as always.

And these are exciting times and a lot of news today.

A lot of big

news.

You're always fond of saying that history is made every moment of every day in the front lines of history.

I mean, I'm not sure there's a bigger front line than the Vatican today at Rome.

It was on every news channel and every broadcast channel when this happened.

And a lot of people, Matt Flynn, thought that perhaps they would finally go back to an Italian.

Pope.

As a lot of Italians there wanted to be a more traditional person, I'm not sure that many people, Matt, you've been involved in the Catholic Church.

Did anybody really see an American being named Pope?

He was a long shot.

People have shied away from Americans as Pope simply because America has so much influence otherwise.

But there's a couple of things to keep in mind about Pope Leo.

And that is, first of all,

He has a very, very deep pedigree.

He was the head of the Augustinian Order.

And the Augustinian Order was founded in the 13th century.

It's based on the rule of St.

Augustine in the 4th century.

And the last Augustinian Pope was in the 15th century.

But one thing that you will appreciate is there has been another very famous Augustinian clergyman named Martin Luther.

Wow.

Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk before he left to start the Reformation.

There's a lot of history here, and this guy is very, very talented, and he's very well liked.

And I think the only thing saying in his way was, did they make an American pope?

But he worked and lived in Peru for many years.

He was a bishop in Peru, even though he's an American.

He went to Villanova University majoring in mathematics.

Wow.

So he's an interesting guy.

Seriously, a very interesting guy.

And that's what, watching some of the coverage this morning, Matt Flynn, this fact that he had spent so much time in Peru, he's seen, I think by some at least, as has a missionary soul, a person who serves others,

And explain a little bit about this inside baseball, the Catholic Church, because there are some more conservative arms.

You know, I'm Protestant, but as I understand it, there are some more conservative factions that we're hoping for a more conservative Pope this time to kind of walk back some of these things that Pope Francis has said, such as I'm paraphrasing that he was willing at least to bless.

Same-sex unions certainly not marry them but to offer them a blessing and I mean he was the Pope Francis was that said when talking about gay rights Hey, who am I to judge and I think

there were some

some some conservatives that were hoping to walk that back But it seems to me Matt Flynn that that Pope Leo the 14th is going to continue in Francis's tradition

Yeah, absolutely.

In fact Francis if you can look at it in retrospect with signaling.

This is the guy you want it

He plucked him out of obscurity.

He had been the head of the Augustinian order.

He was a bishop and then a cardinal in Peru.

But he also was appointed by Francis to head the office that selects bishops.

So if you're going to be a bishop in Germany, Nigeria, Japan, anywhere, this guy is the head of the guys who approve it.

And that is a very influential position.

And it got him known by an awful lot of people who were in that room who were electors.

And the final thing is, Francis felt, and everybody did, that this guy was head and shoulders of everybody else in terms of how he managed.

He managed through persuasion, but firmly, he was respected, and they figured that he could keep an organization together, and I think they were right.

The other fascinating part, just as the first American pope ever, or first pope of American heritage, born in Chicago, Matt Flynn, and already people are saying that Chicago, it was quicker for Chicago to get a pope than a decent quarterback for the Bears.

Well, you know, they did pass on my homes, you know.

That's not my fault.

But there's all kinds of jokes going around now that the Pope was already declaring in Sicily that all pizzas have to be deep dished and this sort of thing.

But I mean joking aside, I mean it is kind of interesting that we're so close to Chicago and here's a guy who was born in Chicago, ends up being Pope.

Well not only that, he went to minor seminary, the equivalent of high school in Chicago.

And then he went to a major seminary and then he went on to Villanova.

And he's very much a, you know, you're talking Pennsylvania, Illinois, you know, he's very much a Midwester.

And yeah, he does not have a connection in Wisconsin, but you can't get much more of a connection than that.

His father and mother, his father was of, you know, like I'm a virus descent, somebody else at German said it was of

French and Italian descent, and his mother's maiden name was Martinez, but it wasn't Latin American.

It was from Spain, Spanish.

Interesting.

So yeah, yeah.

So he has a, I mean, he had, he's a descendant of European immigrants.

He speaks Italian.

He speaks Spanish.

He speaks French and Portuguese.

Incredible.

Obviously that's in English.

Yeah.

And, but he spent much of his time, Peru, a lot of the South Americans like him.

They think he's a South American Pope again.

They're

two for two in South American popes right now.

This

guy got

around.

Well, it's fascinating, even as a non-Catholic, because the pope is such an international figure and is seen as certainly a figurehead for the Christian faith in many ways.

It's just fascinating to watch.

And of course, have you seen the movie Conclave yet?

Have yeah, that's a great movie by the way.

I recommend

I

have not seen it yet But I heard it see it you've got to see

but it's

enjoyed like a rebirth You know since Francis died it was great for box office sales as it turns out man

Right, but this guy got got got nominated and confirmed very quickly because there were two there were two votes on Wednesday all black smoke and on Thursday

Morning black smoke that's for but then third and the fifth ballot the guy got elected I

mean

in the past they've gone longer than that So Pete there was a consensus that he was a strong leader

and a good man, a good man, and he will keep things together.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think, again, it's a serious thing, but there's also a little fun with it.

And I saw somebody tweeted out today that the early exit polling that Pope Leo did very well with men between the ages of 45 and 75.

So I thought that was pretty good.

Well, that would be, that would be

everybody there.

Right,

exactly.

25 to 80, there were a few of

them.

Matt Flynn, always a pleasure.

Thank you for taking the time on this significant day, not just in the Catholic Church, but internationally and certainly here in the Midwest.

Anytime.

Good luck.

Thank you so much.

Matt Flynn, everybody joining us via phone.

They're talking about Pope Leo the 14th, our brand new hour, but I'm not Catholic, but for Catholics, the new Pope and

Comes to us from Chicago.

How about that, Summers?

You know, I know I'm not the first to say this, but he's still a fib.

Now you're going to make all the Catholics

mad.

I just had to say it.

It's just a joke.

No, I

think he's joking.

I do think he's a very good selection as the Pope.

Again, I thought that Pope Francis did an excellent job of truly aligning with the spirit of...

Christianity and Catholicism in my opinion.

And I think that Pope Leo XIV is set to continue that.

He seems like, and I was watching some of the CBS coverage this morning, one of the Catholic leaders in Italy said, he said, I'm getting over my personal shock because this guy came to my home and had dinner with my wife and I like two months ago.

So I can't imagine knowing, but what he was saying, essentially, I'm paraphrasing.

in his words as someone who knew him said, he's a real guy and a real person.

And I think that's good for all accounts.

I also really liked Dan Schaefer, our own Dan Schaefer had a tweet earlier today saying, you ever think that the new Pope went to games at...

Amfam field because Wrigley was too expensive

All right 17 past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.

Let's go Time

once again

for what's worse no prize money to give away nothing involved in terms of cash But it is your opportunity to have your voice heard across the state of Wisconsin on all 11

News, sports, talkstations of civic media.

All right, timely, timely indeed.

I don't make any bones about it.

I don't wear a hairpiece.

I am a balding middle-aged man.

And yes, I put on a few pounds.

So here we go, the category.

What's worse, losing hair or gaining weight?

What's worse, losing hair or gaining weight, 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, you can also text us on the Civic Media app, download the app to your Apple or Android device, simply go to your app store, type in Civic CIVIC, it'll come up, takes less than a minute, it's free, is what Gale King at CBS calls a deal.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, let's go to the,

Thode line Olly in the Northwoods Olly losing hair or gaining weight.

What's worse?

Gaining weight from somebody who wears size.

Oh my god.

It's walking my way

versus somebody who can easily wear a wig, gaining weight is much harder to hide.

All right, I like that.

Good answer, Yali.

I think I'm going to be with you on this one.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

What's worse, losing hair or gaining weight.

Cam listening in Appleton says on the text line,

Pardon me.

Gaining weight is worse.

Walter White made being bald cool.

Well, there, there's that.

There's that.

Absolutely.

All right.

Got more phone calls after this.

Don't go anywhere.

What's worse?

Losing hair or gaining weight?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 is the title of the whole show on the Civic Media, Brady Network.

Little George

Jones for you on a Thursday, May 8th, 2025.

23 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Thanks,

Thomas.

I appreciate that.

Well, they're signs of aging.

Right.

I'm not trying to make any

statements about anyone.

A young man in you playing that for a middle-aged man, me.

But no, you're absolutely right.

There are certain signs if we just can't get by.

I don't dye my hair.

I don't wear a hair piece.

I don't do a comb over.

I've accepted that I am a balding middle-aged man.

It's OK.

Unfortunately, I've also put on a few pounds, about 10 or so pounds over the winter from last year.

I need to work on that.

So, timely indeed, or what's worse for today, the category is losing hair or gaining weight.

What's worse, losing hair or gaining weight?

Give us a call, 855-752-484-285.

5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or text us on the civic media app Let's go out to the driftless to the RC WRCE and richland center whistler whistler losing hair or gaining weight.

What's worse?

Well,

actually this morning I was brushing my hair and I see it's getting thinner in the front on top It was thin to begin with you know, but a lot of it and

I can see an old scar from when I was a kid.

Well, that happens

to which which is worse.

I'd say losing hair, losing hair.

All right, losing hair.

All right.

Very good, Whistler.

Well, you know, you're going to be fine.

You're going to be fine.

Yeah, I know.

I gained 10 pounds on the last month and a half.

You and me both.

Thanks, Whistler.

Appreciate it.

Have a great day out there.

855-752-4842.

Let's go up to Appleton.

Beautiful Appleton, Wisconsin.

Ted, listening in Appleton.

Ted, losing hair or gaining weight?

What's worse?

Gaining weight.

Any particular reason?

It really hampers your lifestyle.

Yeah.

I know for a fact that I got up to 350.

And now I'm down to 240.

Hey, congrats on that.

Excellent.

And I tell you what, this winter I was cold.

Right?

Last night at the La Crosse game, I was freezing my you-know-what off.

And I'm losing hair, but at least I don't have to buy shampoo.

Right?

and worry about combing it.

gaining weight, that's worse than anything, especially on your joints.

My knees feel so much better now.

Are you right?

Good on you Ted.

Congrats.

Well done.

Well done.

Thanks

for calling.

Have a great day up there, beautiful Appleton.

What's worse, losing hair or gaining weight?

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

4842.

Len, listening on WMDX here in Madison, says gaining weight is worse than losing hair.

Gaining weight means more to take care of.

Losing hair means less to take care of.

I like that one.

Julie, up on WXCO in beautiful Wausau, Wisconsin.

Julie says losing hair isn't pleasant, but gaining weight in most cases is bad.

for your health.

We're in agreement, certainly on that one.

Roger and Steven's point.

Now, come on, Roger.

He's been a little tough on himself.

Roger and Steven's point says, quote, I am fat.

I am balding, but I wear a buzz cut and stubble is sexy.

Well, that's I mean, partly why.

Well, I grew a beard for someone that I was seeing at the time.

because he liked it.

But some people say, well, I'm losing it on top.

I mean, I grow a pretty good beard, don't you think, Zomers?

I do.

I do think so.

I just can't grow hair on the top of my head.

Dave in New Berlin, Dave says, losing hair is worse.

The mullet doesn't mullet.

without hair.

That's very true, right?

I think we're all caught up there.

Zombers, what's worse, losing hair or gaining weight?

I think I got to say gaining weight.

I know it's a more reversible process for most people than losing hair is, but it's also really hard and it makes me feel a lot worse about myself.

And yeah, it's very difficult to get the weight back off.

I would concur with you.

This is this is not particularly hard for me.

I think I was a little bit younger.

Uh, it was, it was tough on the hair.

It was like, oh geez, really?

Um, but I've got, I've just learned to accept the hair.

It's it, I'm not going to go through.

I mean, some people really, some, some guys in particular, they do the whole a hair plug thing and all that.

And I don't know.

I guess if you have the extra money in it, you want to do it, but it seems like eventually it's just going to fall out anyway.

So

I've, I've,

I've, I've literally figuratively kind of let the hair go and like, it is what it is.

I'm not going to, God, not going to try to get around that, but you're right.

The.

I've said before on the show, you know, 12 years ago or so, I was the best shape my life down, down about 150 is like 155 or so.

And, uh, but I also have the resources to have a personal trainer for days a week.

So that makes a difference, but there's no excuse.

Uh, you know, and now I've put on most of that.

I'm 20 pounds heavier than I was.

12 years ago or so.

So I want to get at least head off this summer.

If I if I can get back down to around 164 ish, I'd be happy with that.

So we'll see.

But I agree on gaining gaining weight is worse.

I think for reasons that other people have said, you feel worse.

And also it's just bad in your joints and bad in your health.

Right.

Yeah.

So I can look in the mirror and say, all right, fine, I don't have hair, but but I can go out and go up a set of stairs and not be out of breath.

Yeah, for me.

In high school, I weighed probably about 50 pounds less than I do right now.

That wasn't healthy.

I was extremely skinny.

I need to be somewhere in between then and now.

Yeah, everybody has their own weight that they're comfortable at.

And I think we should find ways to be mentally healthy regardless of our body weight.

But I think it's also hard to deny that we get wrapped up in our own self images, whether it's hair or weight or...

or anything else, so.

Anyway, regardless of weight or hair, we're always glad you're here and having a good time.

That's another edition of What's Worst, another one tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Coming up after the news, weather and sports break, Keegan Kelly of Crack.com on the edge of culture and comedy.

Stay tuned as the all-ball show.

Little George Jones, the way out.

song now.

I did not know that was coming.

Welcome back to the Todd Hallball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

35 minutes now, past the hour of three o'clock on this Thursday, May 8th, 2025.

You know him, you love him, but he's been on the show before from Cracked.com.

And now, apparently, he has his own intro and segment called On the Edge of Culture and Comedy with Keegan Kelly joining us from New York.

Keegan Kelly, how are you?

I'm good.

I just hope I'm worthy of that walkout music.

That was unexpected, but delightful.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

I had no idea the zombies.

That's how good he is.

He just gets the band together and does this sporadically.

So that was fantastic.

Keegan's been a while.

I'm not sure why that is our fault.

But for those watching on the stream, you're in a new environment, explained, apparently, you've moved.

I did, yeah.

I've moved from Los Angeles to New York.

I have not forgotten the Midwest.

I'm an Illinois native born and raised.

Happier now more than ever to be a Chicago Catholic.

But I'm in Brooklyn right now where Cracked is located, our headquarters.

Um, newly moved in.

Uh, very happy to be here enjoying the New York Springtime.

You've, you've moved coast.

You've gone, you've gone east coast now.

And again, I've told, I've told this to Rapine on Fridays.

I've wanted to go because he's out in Brooklyn.

I'm like, we should do a show in Brooklyn.

And now you're in Brooklyn.

It only makes me want to do an all Brooklyn show at some point in the future.

That'd be a lot of fun.

I'd love that.

Get a good red brick background for it.

It's completely aesthetic, yeah.

Very good.

I look forward to nervous anticipation.

All right, Keegan, for those listening and watching, you can find all of Keegan's work at cracked.com.

That's cracked, C-R-A-C-K-E-D.

dot com.

Keegan, you've been pretty busy here.

Lots going on in politics and the news.

You wrote one column in particular that caught our eye called Don't Forget That Bill Maher is a germ theory denier.

Explain

if he means a

very kind.

I'd love to.

Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.

A lot of listeners may know him.

He was kind of rose to fame being the sarcastic liberal late-night guy making fun of George W. Bush in the 2000s.

He attracted a little bit of controversy a couple weeks back when he revealed that he accepted an invitation to a dinner at the White House and spoke glowingly about President Trump and his hosting abilities and his

inquisitive nature, his intellectual curiosity, and a lot of people found that to be a bit of a betrayal seeing as for so long he was kind of the, I guess you could say pretentious liberal voice of political snark on HBO, but I personally don't think that this is as much of a betrayal as a lot of people think because for about 20 years now

Bill Maher has been pushing an anti-science theory that is in line with the thinking of our Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that is terrain theory.

He

believes.

Don't do terrain theory.

I've never heard of terrain.

Not to interrupt, this is a very interesting take because a lot of people were on the left, especially not happy at all that Bill Barr went out there and some saw him as capitulating and in defense, he went on his current show and said, look, I'm just reporting what happened to me for two and a half hours or one night.

Take it or leave it, but he was pretty nice to me and we got along fine.

I mean, that's a broad view of it, but that's basically it.

But here now you're talking about, I've never heard this before.

Explain what this is with Bill

Maher.

So this goes back to a bitter feud between 19th century French microbiologists.

Cliff notes is there were two scientists had two different ideas of how diseases spread and what role germs play in disease.

One of them won.

He became the father of microbiology and his name is Louis Pasteur.

You may know him in Wisconsin, father of pasteurization.

Absolutely.

And he was a proponent of what became germ theory.

He helped develop a framework that led to massive improvements in public health.

massive improvements in drinking water, a steep decline in the spread of infectious diseases, but Bill Maher thinks he knows better than Louis Pasteur because he says that germs and bacteria do not cause disease.

Germs and bacteria are attracted to diseased conditions in a person's body.

So it is actually more important for someone to

eat fruits and vegetables and go jogging and get eight hours of sleep and drink plenty of water than to avoid bacteria and the bubonic plague and smallpox and measles and all these kinds of infectious diseases.

And you can kind of see where the thinking starts to align with the Trump administration when it comes to public health.

I just find this fascinating because, I mean, all those things you rattled off that Marr has said, I mean, sure, drink, water, eat healthy, get exercise.

I don't think anybody's going to argue with that.

But to have a guy like Bill Marr, who's a who's a comedian, an entertainer, start, start trying to give out, you know, health advice and in, in, in, in which, in, in congruence with Louis Pasteur, you know, might know something about science.

And that just seems wacky to me.

It is, and he's been doing this thing for years where he will bring on an actual scientist.

I believe back in 2005, he brought in a very renowned cardiologist and scientist named Bernadine Healy and kind of shouted her down and said, you know, it's not invading germs that cause illness.

It's people eating pop tarts and not taking care of their bodies.

And it's just kind of, it's really the framework for a lot of the kind of anti-vax thinking is that you just need to get the red dye out of your food.

You don't need a vaccination because the immune system has nothing to do with your health and fighting disease.

That's kind of the horrible logic there.

I mean, here's the direct quote that you have in your story at Crack.com that says, Mars, quote, pop tarts cause disease, not measles, unquote.

I mean, yeah, sure.

I mean, you know, if Todd has too many toaster strudels, I'm going to gain weight, I suppose, and it's extreme that could cause heart disease.

But to compare pop tarts to measles, there's just no comparison here.

And so this is fascinating to me that your...

Main point that this guy isn't so far removed from guys like RFK jr.

Is as you might think

That is the point here and it kind of comes back to Mars underlying philosophy that's More reactionary than he's kind of portrayed himself to be for decades now And that it's really it comes down to an issue of personal responsibility for him no matter what what he's talking about where

you know, if you're suffering, if you're diseased, if you're ill, it's because you made bad choices.

It's because you ate junk food.

It's not because something external happened to you and it's certainly not anyone else's responsibility to help you out.

So it really made a lot more sense to me that Mars, he's friends with good friends with Kid Rock, he's good friends with Roseanne Barr, he's good friends with all these

very staunch right-wing entertainers who are close friends of Donald Trump because he really does think like these people.

He thinks like RFK Jr.

on these topics.

We're talking with Keegan Kelly of Crack.com.

Keegan, I mean, you're a guy who follows entertainment a lot in addition to writing about it.

I mean, do you think that you think part of this is just like Bill Maher?

It's almost like he and Trump kind of need each other a little bit.

Like they're both making each other relevant to a certain degree and driving ratings.

I do think that there is a certain degree of, you know, if Bill Maher didn't have these conservative figureheads to make snarky comments about no one would watch his show.

I do think that he definitely, there is a symbiotic relationship on his side.

I personally don't think Trump needs Bill Maher to stay relevant.

I think he's gonna keep himself in the headlines no matter what.

But I do think that there is a very clear business advantage for Maher to kind of stay in the conversation with Trump.

Do you think that, you know, I gotta be careful to stay FCC compliant, but I mean, do you think that Trump gets his...

Blanks and giggles out of turning on the TV because we know Trump watches a lot of TV and and sitting there watching Marr with others look at that look look at look at him Look at him.

He's telling people what a great guy is look at that sap.

I mean, do you think he's doing stuff like that?

Certainly that night.

I think he tuned in I think on a on any given night.

He's more of a Greg Guttfeld guy if I had to guess that's his late-night host of choice

Yeah, you're probably right although he tweets occasionally like it Colbert and Kimmel and other people that I'm not sure if he's watching it or if his quote-unquote people are but he seems to go after TV people quite a bit

He does he likes a a little bit of a late-night cat fight

Right.

That's certainly, yeah, Kimmel, he's been a long time adversary.

And I do think that Trump does, he gets a rush out of kind of these high profile feuds and he always has.

Anything else on Mar before you move

along?

Maybe this is too political, but don't listen to Bill Maher when he tells you not to get the measles vaccine, please Please talk to a doctor.

That's not political at all.

That's just common sense I mean to just to reiterate in all seriousness all science points to vaccines do not cause autism They do not cause bad things.

It can only help people so get your kids get yourself Vaccinated and for the record people with autism can leave very productive meaning

full full lives and I thought that the remarks by the Trump administration on people autism were reprehensible just to put that in there.

My own personal

thoughts.

I

couldn't agree more.

We're talking to Keegan Kelly from crack.com.

All right Keegan a couple minutes here before the first break we have.

Give us our next story please.

Okay so according to a stand-up comedian named Jennifer Friedman

U.S.

Customs is now asking comedians if they make fun of politicians before admitting them into the country.

Jennifer Friedman says U.S.

Customs is asking comedians if they made fun of politicians.

So is this like if you make fun of Trump you can't come in?

Certainly not in Jennifer Friedman's case because she makes fun of Trump plenty and she got in fine.

All right.

But you may be stopped at the border and asked some extra questions if you do.

That's incredible.

So first of all, tell people just because, you know, I live a boring life.

I never heard of Jennifer even before.

Maybe she's very big.

I don't know.

Is she?

She's successful.

She's more of a, she made, she kind of had her come up as a late night writer.

She's written on a ton of very popular late night shows.

She's appeared on late night shows as a guest comedian.

I think it's a name that you would do well to know, but she's I wouldn't say she's a superstar by any means

But but so she had this experience or she'd heard about this

This was her.

She says that she was coming back from Vancouver.

She is an American citizen.

I should clarify very important She is an American.

She was coming back from Canada, which is also probably important here And she says, you know a customs agent flying into a

LAX, where if you've ever flown into Los Angeles International Airport, those lines are very long.

Those agents keep them moving.

There's not a lot of time to ask a ton of questions.

Absolutely not.

Hang on with that thought where I come back and pick that up on the other side.

We are in the middle of On the Edge of Culture and Comedy with Keegan Kelly of Crack.com.

You're listening to the All Ball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

Welcome back to the title of all show on the civic media radio network.

It is now eight before the hour of four o'clock on the top of the hour.

ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to on a beautiful afternoon across the state of Wisconsin, blue skies.

a little bit cooler than yesterday, but get ready for a great Mother's Day weekend.

Brittany Merleau and everybody else will have the update on that.

Our sports department, either Jimmy Cusca or Mike Clemens will be in with a sports update.

Brewers, I think, Zomers.

Brewers are off today.

Brewers are off the air of back in action tomorrow at Tampa Bay Rays.

The Brewers take on the Rays 11.35 AM.

broadcast time tomorrow, early game tomorrow.

So I'll be ready for that.

If you're in the Madison area, stop out and enjoy the Night Market tonight.

We'll be here for the late afternoon into this evening at the Night Market on State Street.

And of course, then coming up from four until six, the Maggie Dawn Show.

And then later on, Pete Schwabba and Night Light.

Right now, we are joined by Keegan Kelly in beautiful Brooklyn, New York with from Crack.com, a new segment called

on the edge of culture and comedy with Keegan Kelly.

CP knows I love alliteration.

All right, Keegan, talking about Jenna Friedman, comedian saying U.S.

Customs making or asking comedians if they made for the politics.

Jenna Friedman, an American citizen traveling from Canada to LAX.

She gets that customs, is packed there, and then what happens?

So, according to Friedman, she says that she flies in to Los Angeles from Vancouver, hands over her passport, and customs agent asks her what she's doing in town.

She says she's coming to LA for a show, and he says, do you make fun of politicians?

Now, Friedman does make fun of politicians.

It's very much part of her act.

She's very opinionated, and she's not apologetic about it.

And thankfully, that was the end of the questioning.