AI Is Already Hurting Us. What Can We Do? (Hour 2)

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, an outstanding producer.

Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, June 5, 2025.

It's a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Zommers here at the World Headquarters, downtown Madison.

Pretty nice day.

Sun is out, still a little smoky from that Canadian smoke.

and a pretty toasty one.

It's getting there.

Although the highest thing today in the 70s.

So that's not that's not too bad.

Not not I know it's hotter than you want.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know I know most people know you're not weird You're just you you like it cooler temperatures, but I do know it's uh, it's some like

it hot.

I am not some

It's a beautiful day in downtown Madison.

Hopefully it hopefully it is where you're at as well Looking forward today on the big show and our number two Emily Mills in from the

Recombobulation and they're gonna tell us about a story that they wrote on AI AI and now and I've talked about this a hundred times my fear is I will be taken out by an AI robotic dog But here now here now this is a more serious story on AI and

it's the fact of the environment.

Yeah, it turns out

Wow, our fears about AI taking over the world are not unfounded.

There are other dangers that they present that are already hurting us.

Yes, absolutely right.

So Emily will be along in hour number two to talk about that.

Of course, all that story and many, many more at the Fantastic Recombobulation Area.

Our own Dan Schaefer, the founder of that.

So looking forward to Emily being in hour number two and talking a little bit about the environment.

Also in hour two, what's worse,

today's category fads or dumb traditions fads or dumb tradition we'll explain in hour two there is a difference there is and and some of the some of the dumb traditions i don't know might be slightly controversial we'll see they might not be as dumb as you think or they could be dumber we'll tune in hour two for that

Also going to be taking your calls today on the broadcast and diving into a little news for you as well.

Some breaking news this morning from the United States Supreme Court and also Donald Trump putting another travel ban in place.

We'll talk about that in a few

minutes as well.

Yes.

We did also.

So the Todd Alba show, for those of you who are not able to listen during the day, replays every night at midnight.

And last night, we got a response to our what's worse question, which yesterday was what's worse, oversleeping or being awake in the middle of the night.

Linda Middleton texted in at 1.25 a.m.

I am awake.

It's 1.25 and I'm listening to Todd.

That's worse.

It turns out for Linda, that was what was worse.

Well, we appreciate you.

No matter what day it is, no matter what time of day it is, always nice to have people tune in and text in as well.

It's nine minutes past the hour of two o'clock time once again for Civic Media's Summertime Scotty Summer Text-to-Win Contest trivia thing.

Here we go.

The

correct name is the 2025 Scotty summer text to win contest.

There we go.

Once again, if I don't have it, nor has there ever been.

If I don't have it in front of me, I don't remember.

And I've said this before, I was a long time viewer.

of Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, and then it became Live with Regis and Kelly Lee.

No, just Kelly Ripa.

And they would do their kind of host banter, and then they always had a trivia contest.

And I still remember Regis introducing that, and it gets in my brain.

But you're right, there is no trivia, which makes it easier for you, the listening audience of Civic Media.

Here's what's going on for today, tomorrow, and all of next week, throughout the day.

on Civic Media, several opportunities.

Various hosts, myself included, will give you a magic hourly word.

Here's what you do.

You're going to download the Civic Media app in order to win, if you don't have it.

Go to your app, Apple or Android device type in Civic Media.

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So download the app, open it up.

First 12, pardon me, first 11 stations.

are the ones that we're on.

Choose the one closest to you or anyone you'd like in particular.

Open it up at the lower right hand corner.

It says text, T-E-X-T, text.

I'm about to give you a word and you text it in.

Up for grabs this hour.

You're not playing against other shows or other people, just the people who text in in the next hour.

Up for grabs this hour.

A crisp $100 bill is what we're about to give away.

Other shows, other days, it might be a pair of Milwaukee Brewer tickets in the beautiful club level seats.

And everybody who texts in is eligible for two fabulous grand prizes, Wisconsin vacations to either the Baraboo-Dells area or the Door County getaway area.

And each one comes with a gas card to get you here.

Now that we've had several questions, where are these vacations at?

Here's what you have to do.

If you want to find out, go to civicmedia.us.

Yes, we're those people.

It's just a little fun, right?

We want you to check out because it's the Civic Media website constantly being updated, upgraded.

It's learned all kinds of great information there.

So go to civicmedia.us.

You can find out specifically where these wonderful vacations are at and...

You're gonna like see some news from our brand new great news director, Shaly Pittman, who's been on this show all of our fine reporters around Wisconsin and check it out.

So anyway, details of the prize and the giveaway are there.

Here we go now.

The word this hour is burn.

Burn.

B-U-R-N.

Burn.

It is probably too dry to burn.

today.

Make sure you put on some sunscreen so you do not burn.

Yes, B-U-R-N.

Burn is the word this hour.

Text it right now to the Civic Media app.

Somebody at the end of this hour is going to win a $100 dollar bill.

I'm not sure if we send the bill or I'm not sure how that works, but you win $100.

If you are the selected, then remember the computer randomly selects the winner.

of this hour and every other hour and also of the grand prize contest at the end of next week.

So why is that important?

Because if it was up to Zombers and I, we just, you know, if you got a letter wrong, we'd still say, ah, we know what they meant.

But because it's a computer, you must spell it exactly correctly to be eligible.

So text carefully, text the word burn, B U R N burn right now to the civic media app.

And somebody at the end of this hour is going to win $100.

And then you're eligible for those two grand prize getaways to either the Baraboudels area or the Door County getaway area.

So good luck and dial carefully.

And remember, we give away or we have chances for you to win throughout the day.

Pat Crite low show.

Updoor.

There you go.

I'm saying the old name.

Morty was a Pat Crite low six to nine.

Also minnowed the mayor in the Green Bay Oshkosh Market and John and Gordy here in Madison.

Then we have Jane McNair, a great show with Jane McNair.

What's Tom

Hartman actually?

Because it's at 11.

Oh my gosh.

See, this is the issue.

Because for so many of these contests, Jane and I, we had a friendly little wager.

And whether it was a steak dinner or whatever, it was a lot of fun.

And we'd go back and forth.

We'd tease each other.

It was all good natured.

And neither of us really cared who won, but it was fun for the audience.

Now, Jane Betus last time, fair, not just because she kicked our butt.

And so they've retired for now, the Jane McNair text to win Jersey because she won so decisively.

Our wins were always by the skin of our teeth.

But Jane was big enough where she blew us out of the water.

So now they've pitted us against Tom Hartman, the nationally syndicated radio host, number nine show in America, ladies and gentlemen, and they want our dog and pony show to take this guy on.

I hear if we win.

Tom Hartman comes to town and takes us out to dinner.

I don't think he does that at all He has no he ain't coming here at

all, but but It'd just be fun in order to in order to see how well we could do against a nationally syndicated show So he's gonna give you a word during his show and then us and then we got Maggie Dawn after us and then we got Pete Schwabba who by the way I was on Schwabba's show last night and that was a lot of fun Pete Schwabba nightlight every evening from six until eight Conrad I

Conrad put together their producer a great trivia contest between Pete and I on Wisconsin cities.

And so they entitled it, where am I in Wisconsin?

Well, I thought this would be fun.

And so I found this site on East Washington Avenue in Madison, where this is a real story.

In 1977, Elvis Presley came to town as he was going from the airport to the Sheraton.

at 1 a.m., his one of two limos stopped a red stoplight.

He looks out, he sees two older kids, guys, beating up on a younger, smaller kid.

So he gets out of his limo and does his karate chop thing and starts taking shots at these kids.

They immediately recognize him and stop, get up and say, we won't pick on an Elvis.

It's like, I'll take you guys.

No, no, no.

and they recognized him and they shook his hand and Elvis allegedly said, are we done here?

Yes, yes, Mr. Presley won't do anything.

And he got his limo and took off.

And so now there's a marker, a marble marker, like a small cemetery marker at this spot at the intersection of Highway 51 and East Washington Avenue.

So we did our little remote broadcast with Pete from there last night and it was a lot of fun.

And by the way, I barely beat Pete in the contest by one vote.

Or by one answer I I wanted the answer was Jamesville because I did not know that I guess something clicked What if Jamesville's nicknames is the city of parks the city of parks because the only reason I got it Was because our our friend the late great Tim Cullen state senator who used to come on this program made a big deal about this because he and former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan both from Jamesville and they worked together

Do you get funding to expand parks in in Jamesville?

But Pete beat me on the question of what is the city of bridges in Wisconsin?

Have a guess summers superior We went all around the state Pete night neither one of us got it even after and also the first quick trip in Wisconsin the same city Conrad stumped us both.

Oh Claire, Wisconsin.

Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten that

And my sister's gonna kill me because I got go up there to see her and her family I've been I've been old player a lot, but I did not know was nicknamed the city bridges so many thanks to Pete Schwabba and Conrad for having me on always a great program I think tonight is their popcorn pick of the week so they treated it from six until eight for that

if you want to hear the rest of the questions contest you can check out nightlight anywhere you get podcasts or at civic media dot us or on YouTube

You can just look up the stream and watch the video.

Very good.

Thank you very much.

All right, our text award win right now is Burn.

B-U-R-N, Burn.

Make sure you text it in.

To the Civic Media app, you're eligible to win a $100 gift or a bill, I guess.

$100 in cold hard cash up for grab this hour.

And then you're eligible to win, as we said, the grand prize of a getaway to the Bell, Dell's Baraboo area and also Door County.

Check out exactly where.

They're beautiful.

You're not going to want to miss this opportunity.

You can go to civicmedia.us and we'll reveal where you could be off to after next Friday.

We're going to be off to look at news headlines happening in the Supreme Court and the Trumpster.

It's the town of all shows across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back to the Taliban show of the Civic Media Radio Network, 22 past the hour of two o'clock on the Civic Media Radio Network Exams on the board dialing up a little burn, burn baby burn, that's the word, nicely done.

That is the word to make you eligible for a $100 cold hard cash bill, but it will come in the form of a check.

We're informed by the wonderful Talton Megan right outside of, she was listening and she does a great job.

So literally the check will be in the mail.

But this one will be good.

It'll clear, I promise you.

I promise, no problem.

$100 in the offing.

To you, all you have to do is download the Civic Media app and text the word burn, B-U-R-N, right now, burn to the Civic Media app.

You're eligible, only lasts until three o'clock and everyone is eligible for one of two wonderful grand prizes at the end of next week.

Vacations to the Delz Baraboo or Dore County, check out civicmedia.us to find out the exact details.

All right, before we get to the Supreme Court,

And the Trumpster, bigger, breaking news.

Many thanks to Tony Zimmerman on YouTube, handles all of our digital reels, does a great job for all of us.

Breaking news, he says.

Former packer quarterback, former jet quarterback is on his way to Pittsburgh to sign with the Steelers.

So there you go.

It cements to Pittsburgh's first round exit from the playoffs this year, according to Zimmerman.

I'm not sure if that's official news.

That part might not be official, but yes.

Uh-huh.

Uh, this also being verified by the NFL Network's, uh, Tom Pillasaro or Pillasaro, just posting it on his Twitter account as well, Aaron Rodgers, now a Pittsburgh stealer.

So there you go.

He is at least he didn't end up with the Vikings, right?

That would have completed the farve trifecta Brett farve went from Green Bay to New York and then Minnesota So Rogers route a little different Green Bay to the Jets To Pittsburgh Aaron Rogers now a Pittsburgh stealer gonna be interesting

Gonna be very very interesting indeed to see if he can do better there.

I mean clearly Pittsburgh's a better team in terms of support around Rogers But we'll see if Rogers is the real deal.

So that is the the drama in sports world today I'm sure our sports reporter Mike Clemens as well as Jimmy Cusco will be following that and bringing us updates at the bottom and top of the hour.

All right some breaking news

This morning a couple hours ago, so I mean maybe not breaking anymore, but new news today this morning out of the US Supreme Court This from an Arizona perspective because of course many many this implication will have effects on Arizona says after the US Supreme Court blocked Mexico's 10 billion dollar lawsuit against top firearms manufacturers Some Arizona lawmakers are reacting to the decision and by the way, this was a unanimous ruling

this morning on this one.

So there's no ambiguity about, well, this is Trump's Supreme Court doing this.

No, this was a nine nothing decision unanimous.

It says the unanimous unanimous ruling tossed out the case under U.S.

law that largely shields gun makers from liability when their firearms are used in crime.

Big name manufacturers like Smith and Wesson

had appealed to the justices after a lower court let the suit go forward under an exception for situations in which the companies are accused of violating the law.

One of the Arizona Senate Republicans released a statement commenting on the decision, quote, as a victory for a second amendment rights and our nation's sovereignty.

Arizona's legislature had joined 26 other states to urge the Supreme Court to end Mexico's lawsuit.

So we'll see the the Giffords Law Center, of course, Gabby Giffords, who herself is a victim of gun crime and the former member of Congress herself on the Democratic side, the wife of Mark Kelly, United States Senator from Arizona, the Giffords Law Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes gun violence prevention and for gun safety laws, said the decision still allows for gun companies to be held accountable if they break the law.

Quote today's decision will end Mexico's lawsuit against the gun industry, but it does not affect our ability to resolve to hold those who break in a break the law accountable said David Pustino legal director and deputy counsel for the Giffords Law Center He went on to say quote the justices did not give the gun industry the broad immunity that it sought instead

They reaffirmed that the victims of gun industry misconduct can hold lawbreakers accountable in court.

All survivors, the United States and Mexico and elsewhere deserve their day in court and we will continue to support them in their fight for justice, unquote, unquote.

Again, that from the Giffords Law Center.

In a daily briefing, the Mexican president pointed to another suit the country filed in 2022 against five gun shops and distributors in Arizona.

There are two trials, she said.

We're going to wait and see what the result is, and we'll let you know.

The 2022 lawsuit named diamond back shooting sports, amongst others.

It claims the Arizona gun stores ignored several red flags, allowing straw sales, as well as bulk and repeat gun purchases of weapons that ended up in Mexico.

Look, I'm not an attorney to play one on the radio or anywhere else, but who is, is Jim Santel.

And I'm pretty sure, pretty confident that Jim Santel, former US Attorney, will discuss this as well as the next one we're gonna talk about here in a couple of minutes on his great program on Saturday morning called Amicus, a law review with Jim Santel.

You can tune in every Saturday morning from nine until 11 with Jim Santel and Amicus.

So as always on these things, there's a couple of different takes, right?

I trust the Giffords Law Center.

I think that they do a great job in calling it pretty balls of strikes.

And from their perspective, a little bit disappointed, but it sounds like there's going to be some, the Supreme Court did not give the gun manufacturers everything that it wanted necessarily.

We're going to take a break on news, weather, sports update, agriculture with our friend Pam Yankee, the Fabulous Farm Babe and Midwest Farm Report, back with more Supreme Court decisions in a moment.

Don't go anywhere.

It's a Thursday edition.

And it's the All Bull Show.

And it's the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the towel ball show across the civic media.

Writing network across the great state of Wisconsin 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock.

Erin Zammers on the board, towel ball behind the mic.

Glad to have you along.

Gonna continue on looking through some of these Supreme Court decisions that were handed down this morning.

So especially this one on Supreme Court, making it easier to claim reverse discrimination.

and employment in a case from Ohio.

But first what I want to check in on the other breaking news of the hour.

Happening just moments ago coming across the the wires news of former Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers who followed farms footsteps on to New York Where will he go next live on the phone our great sports reporter?

Nobody knows the NFL better particularly the Packers are very old Mike Clemens Mike.

Thanks for joining us.

Hi Todd

It's always great to have you along.

Tell us what you know.

Tell us anything details you can have.

Is this, is this seem to be a real deal where Aaron Rodgers goes next?

Well, uh, ESPN's reporting this afternoon that Aaron is going to report to the mandatory minicamp next week with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So our long national nightmare is finally over.

We know he's not going to be a Viking.

Is that what you're talking about?

I want to tell you, I was standing out there at Packers OTA practices the other day.

And after I saw Jordan Love, wing one, about 55, 60 yards in the air and hit Jaden Reed in stride and then hit a really nice rocket in the backhand corner.

for like a two-point conversion to Romeo Dobbs.

And Dobbs, you know, like celebrating like he got past all the secondary and got open and scored on that.

And they're like, yeah, nod their heads and all the offenses running off the sidelines and celebrating, you know, while the defense has walked off the field.

I mean, love looked really sharp.

Then in the next wave, they brought in Malik Willis with the ones.

the backup quarterback and he moved the ball down in a two-minute drill.

They get some nice mid-range passes left and right and I looked over to one of the guys from the Packers and I said, did the Pittsburgh Steelers currently have anybody at quarterback better than Malik Willis?

I mean, you know, it's like, isn't it like Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, the kid from Ohio State, I think he went in the sixth round and I think that they picked up that guy from

two or three year guy from the dolphins Thompson Skyler Thompson, but you know my point is what is Mike Tomlin thinking right?

Hey, you know, obviously he's you know, he must have assurances privately with Aaron, but you know Aaron has just decided to drag this all out and I'll I It I will take you know his word about there's someone new in his life Maybe you know a girlfriend and there's some family and some people that are battling cancer and he wants to

You know, to be a better person that way, to be available for family and all that.

Okay, that's all fine.

But he pulled this crap with the Jets, right?

A year ago at this time, you know, Robert Salah, good head coach, close friend of Matt LaFleur, has to explain to the New York Press, where's your quarterback for mandatory minicamp here, coming back from, you know, the Torne ACL, or the Achilles, rather, the Achilles.

Uh, well, he's not here right now.

And yes, he's going to be fine.

And people are like, well, it's just a mini camp.

You know, Aaron Rogers doesn't need this.

No, it's not whether Aaron Rogers needs the reps.

It's the receivers and the rest of the team around them.

And how did that turn out last year with the jets?

Well, let's see.

They fired Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator.

They fired the head coach.

They fired the general manager.

They fired the interim coach.

They blew the place out and the new regime came in and said, Aaron, we don't even want you in the building anymore.

Yeah.

It was it was incredible.

It's tell us so what the Packers I know that the flora hired him like as a consultant or something.

He's still with him who?

The former head coach of New York.

No,

he thought he went back.

No, he's working for Kyle.

He went back to the 49ers.

He's a defensive coordinator, highly paid defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers.

So he's back with the 49ers.

Interesting.

Reports are that we're seeing there's a one year deal with Pittsburgh and not seeing any money or anything involved.

But I agree with you, Mike.

I just obviously my Clemens are my I'm on serious sinus allergy meds, Mike.

I apologize.

Obviously, Mike Tomlin has any share.

I only wish Tomlin's a successful coach, a smart football guy has been at Pittsburgh forever.

But I got to wonder, like for Wisconsin, a defensive guy, you know, a TJ Watt, who I mean, you know, there's some real talent on Pittsburgh.

And you got to wonder, like, oh, my gosh, do I want this drama coming into our locker room?

Well, and.

And Aaron Rodgers has always admired Mike Tomlin and the way he's run that franchise.

You know, Mike has been there.

He was actually just a little bit younger than McCarthy, but those two guys got hired in Pittsburgh and in Green Bay at about the same time.

And look how long Mike Tomlin has lasted through there.

But that franchise still has not figured out how to replace

Ben Roethlisberger and they held on to Ben Roethlisberger probably a year or two years too long.

Meanwhile, I'm standing out there watching Goody and LaFleur looking at love and Malik Willis and like quarterback.

Yeah, we got that taken care of in Green Bay.

Right.

We got that.

And we're not waiting for some 41 year old, you know, to say, well, I don't need the OTAs.

Well, the people around you need you.

And this came down to his last year in Green Bay.

where, you know, he met me in one year.

He was, he was like he and good good kids were getting along.

And then what turned out to be his last year, it's like, you know, I, I don't need to be there for the OTAs.

And so when we got about two weeks into training camp, I said, you know, all he did was complain about the receivers are too young to make a mistake here and they need to get their act together.

And at the point I said, look, I remember when Brett came into training camp,

it take him about two, two and a half weeks to get it going, right?

And he nodded and smiled.

I said, you, day one, you look game ready.

And he smiled.

And this is all true.

This is all accurate.

Aaron Rodgers will report and he will be in terrific shape and he will dazzle the Steelers camp.

He'll do his magic tricks.

But I said, if you're having problems with these younger receivers, wouldn't

it

make more sense if you were here during some of those OTAs and mini camps to bring them along?

And some of the beat reports like, oh, you know, it's been nice working with you.

He's going to drop you.

He respected me.

And he said, and that's what he gave this famous answer where he said, listen, what those guys do in the OTAs and minicamps, that's the 100 level.

And then when I get here, that's the 200 level courses, you know, comparing it to like a college syllabus of some kind.

And it's like, okay, you might think that, but the reality is,

They need as many reps with you as they can get.

Right.

And even though he's going to be surrounded by some veterans like DK Metcalf, who they picked up, you know, from the Seahawks, the rest of the team need those.

The coaches need to be

around

them.

Right.

Well, it's going to be interesting, uh, uh, Mike, because they play, well, I'm not sure how to schedule in front of you, but they play each other, right?

Pittsburgh and the Packers sometimes.

Oh.

Great point,

so it's on.

It's on.

It's the final countdown.

Love versus Rogers on the field for everything.

I can already taste my cheese steak now.

Very quickly give us a one minute on how the Packers or the Greenway Packers are looking as they prepare here for the 2025 season.

We had good conversations with Lucas Van Nass, who said, hey, listen, man, I played most of last year with a broken thumb.

It's kind of tough to shed offensive tackles with a broken thumb.

Kenny Clark, I had reported earlier that I found out that he'd gone to Panama for stem cell surgery.

It

was his second year in a row.

He played most of last year with a broken toe.

They've got a new defensive line coach, and DeMarcus Covington, eight years with the Patriots, a lot of that under Belichick.

that they're excited about it, 36 years old, that can help them with their schemes and get in their past rush going.

Jordan Love looks fine to me.

They're waiting for Elton Jenkins to agree to a new deal, because he's like, OK, you're going to move me to center and you'll replace me with a guy and pay him $77 million.

Yeah, we're going to restructure mine, OK?

little more money coming here to your all-pro veterans so that that that's working on and uh... the one running back i want to see because he was injured last year is this march on loin true out of u-s-c he spent most of last year and i are well he starts out the o-t-a off their working with christian watson you know in the rehab group like when we're going to see this guy well he got out there a little bit fairly he showed up with a hamstring injury below floor pretty much made it known we think he's a speedster but we

gotta get this guy in the field

Interesting.

Well, it's going to be fun and nobody covers it better than you, Mike Clemens.

We appreciate you very much, my friend.

Thanks for doing this on very short notice of breaking news about Rogers.

And I look forward to having you on more often here throughout the summer as we gear up for Packer season.

The Brewers, Brewers, make it a little bit of noise here as well.

Yeah, looking good.

Yeah.

And then training camp starts for Green Bay on July 23rd.

Family night is August 2nd, Saturday night.

And then I'll be back with my reports at the top of the hour during your show all next week during the Packers mandatory minicamp in which Jordan Love has already been there at all the OTAs.

No drama in Green Bay.

And it

turns out.

Thank you, Mike.

We appreciate you, my friend.

Take care.

My pleasure.

Mike Clemens, everybody, our great sports reporter.

Nobody knows it better than him, and great to get it on the ground from Mike Clemens.

Yeah, I mean, we'll see.

We'll see the circus that is the Aaron Rodgers show, but gonna be very interesting, I think, for Packers fans as we get closer to that Packers Steelers matchup.

Love versus Jordan, or love versus Rodgers.

Tony Zimmerman says, winner gets to go, gets to own the Chicago Bears.

I don't know, I'd be throwing that game.

Right?

I don't want that responsibility.

I'm learning about the Bears this year because the Pope is, the new Pope is a Bears fan.

All right.

45 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock.

Coming up next hour, by the way, Emily Mills from the Reconbobulation area is going to be here in studio talking about a great new article that they wrote regarding AI and the environment.

Interesting take on that looking forward to to Emily being here and also what's worse for you addition in hour number two as well right now Why don't take a look at this other Supreme Court?

Decision this morning being handed down is that time of year?

Well the Supreme Court does a lot of their decision-making and we find out sometimes multiple cases a day like today this other case want to talk about is also a Unanimous decision so this is we haven't seen many of these lately

where we have an unanimous decision on the gun case involving Mexican gangs.

And then now another unanimous decision earlier today to bring lawsuits, making it easier, rather, to bring lawsuits over so-called reverse discrimination, citing with an Ohio woman that claims she did not get a job and then was demoted because she is straight.

The justices decision affects lawsuits in 20 states in the District of Columbia, where until now,

courts had set a higher bar when members of a majority group, including those who are white and heterosexual, sue for discrimination under the law.

Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee, wrote for the court that federal civil rights laws draws no distinction between members of major and majority and minority groups.

She wrote, quote, by establishing the same protections for every

quote-unquote individual, without regard to an individual's membership in a minority or majority group, Congress left no room for the courts to impose special requirements on majority group plaintiffs alone, Jackson wrote.

The court ruled in an appeal from Marlene Ames.

Now, Ames has worked for the Ohio Department of Youth Services for more than 20 years.

Those who joined Jackson's opinion, I should say, though he joined Jackson's opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a separate opinion that some of the country's, quote, largest and most prestigious employers have overtly discriminated against those who they deem members of a so-called majority groups, unquote.

Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, cited a brief filed by the America First Legal, a conservative group.

founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller, to assert that, quote, American employers have long been obsessed with DEI initiatives and affirmative action plans, unquote.

So a unanimous decision, but seemingly for different reasons.

Again, Jim Santel will go through all this on Saturday from 9 until 11.

And with his law review, stay tuned.

We'll continue on after this is the All Balls Shield Cross Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and have a little fun while we do it.

It's the All Ball Show, along with Zomers on the Civic Media Ready Network where it is now eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock.

And hour number two can be joined here at the desk in the studio by Emily Mills.

They are with the Reconpopulation area and going to be talking about a story that Emily wrote in regards to AI and how it is affecting and could affect the environment.

Very interesting stuff.

Gonna be talking to Emily in hour two.

Also another edition of What's Worse coming up as well.

Aaron Rodgers on his way to Pittsburgh to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ongoing Aaron Rodgers saga.

Many thanks to Mike Clemens for being here to break that news.

Jeff Perry, our friend and ongoing contributor on Facebook says upon hearing that he's going to the Steelers.

And apparently confused Donald Trump just slapped a 50% tariff on Aaron Rodgers.

I did not know that.

Well, in all seriousness, talk about global warming.

There may be no hotter place this afternoon than our nation's capital.

This is real.

Things are getting hot between Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Of course Musk announced last week.

He was leaving the doggy or the doge.

However you want to pronounce it.

His work here was done basically.

Yes, I've created chaos and now I'm leaving.

But he's also spoken out about Trump's, he calls it the big beautiful bill, you know, whatever.

It's a reconciliation bill.

And even Elon Musk is calling Trump out in Republicans now and saying, you guys are nuts.

This is going to increase the deficit.

Don't pass this.

So now it's getting nasty this morning and this afternoon actually now.

Tesla, this is five minutes old from CNN.

Tesla shares plummeted 1515.

15% this afternoon as Elon Musk's battle with President Donald Trump intensifies.

Trump threatened in a social media post to target Musk's business empire.

Trump wrote this on his true social quote, the easiest way to save money in our budget, billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies and contracts, unquote.

Wow now now when when they were together when they were a couple of bromance The Trump defended all that so no, no, it's it's fine Now the what are they saying the stem is off the rose something like that The Tesla share off a sell-off has wiped off more than get this 150 billion with a B off the market value of Tesla

which started the day worth nearly 1.1 trillion.

That's a lot of gravy.

It also is erased a chunk of the net worth of Musk, who is the world's richest person.

And now it's gotten even nastier about five minutes ago or so.

Oh, a little bit.

Well, almost a half an hour now.

Elon Musk tweets this out on Twitter X quote.

This is from Musk, quote, time to drop the really big bomb.

Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.

That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Why?

Have a nice day, DJ T exclamation point.

And by the way, he put the at real Donald Trump thing on there.

So make sure that he tagged Trump so he would see this.

Again, while they were together, Trump and Musk, oh no, everything's fine.

There was no mention of Donald Trump.

Of course, if you're not familiar, Jeffrey Epstein, who went to jail for sex trafficking, lots of it on his remote island in a plane, all kinds of pictures with Donald Trump and on Jeffrey Epstein together.

Epstein went to jail and mysteriously, quote unquote, died by suicide.

It happened that the cameras that were the security cameras weren't working that day Oh, and it happened that the the people that were supposed to put the guards supposed to check on him We're preoccupied Rather suspicious and now Elon Musk remember here's a guy who has a lot of information during doge.

He Got a lot of people's information

Including I would assume Donald Trump and he was on the inside in the inner circle So Elon Musk is saying that Epstein or that Trump is in the Epstein files Trump is threatening to cancel billions of dollars in Elon Musk's governmental contracts Stay tuned next hour This is a real-life drama here it's it's a

It's get your, but what's that mean with the popcorn?

You just sit there and eat popcorn this afternoon.

It could get very, very interesting.

But again, what fascinates me is the fact that these things, the Musk contracts, the Epstein files and the connection to Trump, while they were together, Trump and Musk, oh no, they defended each other.

Everything was fine.

Now, now that they've broken up, it is.

This is like one of those celebrity divorce things.

Although it's real a lot more consequential a lot more consequential unfortunately.

Yeah And where does Vladimir Putin fall in this menage a twat?

Oh, he's he's definitely the mistress There's a reason Trump named his new security initiative defense initiative the Golden Dome

Hmm, wait he they tested they tried that with a golden shower was floated, but I didn't take it It's very interesting.

All right, come on back in hour number two Get very interesting as well Emily Mills is gonna be here from the recapobulation area talking about great story that they wrote when it comes to AI You know, I'm not a big fan and how it relates to the environment stay with us.

It's the title of all show for the

Thursday, June 5th edition on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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 Albault, producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Rodgers on the board.

You like that?

Not particularly.

Oh, sorry.

We had big breaking Aaron Rodgers news number hour number one.

He's going to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I do share a birthday with him, though, unfortunately.

I forgot that you do.

Yeah.

No, it's Aaron Zauber is on the board on this Thursday, June 5th, 2025.

It is six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Welcome to hour number two.

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

A little cloudy, still that advisory for breathing, I guess, air quality advisory they call it, in effect for parts of Wisconsin today due to those wildfires up in Canada.

Hopefully the wind, the rain will kind of push that out of most of the state by tomorrow, looking like a pretty nice weekend all across the state as far as weather wise, across the state of Wisconsin.

Coming up a little bit later this hour, our daily what's worse category, today's category, fads.

or dumb traditions, fads or dumb traditions.

We'll invite you to call in during our, during this hour on that.

Also take a look at some more Wisconsin news headlines and take your phone calls as well.

I was reminded Zombers by a loyal listener, Mr. Wheat.

I did not give the, the text to winward in the last half hour because we always break in news.

So my apology, we'll do better tomorrow.

This show is going to get absolutely much better right now because, speaking of wildfires and the environment, is there a connection between that and artificial intelligence?

here to in studio and we are very pleased to have them here with us today.

Emily Mills of the Fantastic Recombobulation Area Civic Media's political editor and founder of the Recombobulation Area.

Dan Schaefer, of course, is responsible for putting all that together.

You can find Emily's work and others at www.therecombobulationarea.news.

They have to use the W-W-W.

So that's very, very important.

Emily, thank you very much for being here.

We appreciate you.

Thanks so much for having me on.

It's good to be here.

It is an absolute pleasure.

We always love it when people take the time to stop by here.

Tell folks a little bit about yourself.

You're an independent writer and journalist right now.

That is correct.

And I have been for, oh gosh, many, many years.

But I have a newsletter called Gris from the Mills, which is on the Ghost platform, a little different than Substack, that I've been writing for some time.

And Dan was kind enough to give me a spot as a regular columnist on the recom-

population area.

We've known each other professionally for quite some years, but I used to have an opinion column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and I was their token leftist.

among other things.

I got some pretty fabulous feedback on that.

I'm

the token centrist here.

Yeah, we've all got

our token

roles to play.

And I used to be the editor of Our Lives, which is the still soul remaining LGBTQ media outlet in Wisconsin.

Fantastic.

But yeah, I've been here there and everywhere.

Yeah, it's great to have you here.

We always love to have a journalist because I'm a big fan of coming up in independent radio out in Southwest Wisconsin.

I'm a huge fan.

of journalists who are not part of the corporate America.

I've voiced frustration on this program before, because I think there are intimidation factors going on in the current administration, but that's not why you're here.

The point is, as an independent journalist, you can suss these things out, and with platforms like the Reconpopulation Area, and hopefully civic media helping out as well, we can get this information out.

Absolutely.

I think having independent, robust independent and nonprofit media in particular is a really essential part of a healthy democracy, frankly.

Yeah, I could not agree more.

So the headline on this story, how AI is harming Wisconsin's path to renewable energy.

Tell us first of all, how you came to write this story.

Is this a passion of yours or what made you say, hey, there's something here to report?

Oh, good question.

Yeah, I do really care about the environment because as other smarter people have said, hey, that's where I live.

So anything that impacts it is important to me.

And the intersection with

You know, all these companies, utilities have these very important renewable energy goals, net zero goals, things like that, as we're facing down this very serious climate crisis.

We're already seeing impacts of it.

We're breathing in smoke from out-of-control wildfires right now.

All of it is very connected.

And they're walking back these goals now because there's this huge push to build these gigantic data centers.

And the data centers are largely being driven by the enormous amount of energy consumption that is the result of this huge boom and push for, and I'm going to use scare quotes, AI.

which is essentially a nebulous term for a bunch of marketing propaganda and not a single coherent

technology.

People regular listeners of the show know that I'm petrified.

I'm going to end my life by being attacked by AI robotic dog.

They scare the crap out of me.

But more seriously, I guess for goofballs like me or who might not be...

up to speed on technology there is a really serious side to AI because it learns from itself and it gathers data and all of that can either either kind of be used for good or not so good as my my understanding.

Well, here's where it gets complicated.

So, again, learning from much smarter people than I am, I'm going to shout out a book that just came out called The AI Con by Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender.

It's a really great, very approachable, very, it's funny, and it's smart, and it's not overly academic.

Look at all of the hype around AI, and very clearly defines what it is, what it is not, and so much of what we're hearing is not

true about what it can do.

There's this really concerted push and propaganda marketing to make people think that it's smarter and more human-like than it is.

Anything that has quote-unquote language, we are prone to thinking of, well, that's got to be some human quality to it, or it's going to take over, it's going to be Terminator 2, or it's going to be Hal 9000, or anything like that.

What they point out, and I really appreciate it, is they call them

Doomers and boosters.

So people who think, you know, AI is so, it's going to get so complex and so smart that it's going to destroy us.

Or people who think that, you know, that's not going to happen.

It's going to save us.

It's going to do all these things.

And the doomers and the boosters are essentially the same side of one, the same coin, two sides of the same coin, excuse me, where it's like they're both still claiming incorrect things about what AI can and can't do.

It's a lot of it is just marketing flim flam.

Like it is a spicy autocorrect.

It is stochastic parrots is one of the things they call it.

It's not it's not actually performing a lot of what we wanted to do.

And it's really essential that we ask, like, what are the inputs?

What are the outputs?

What is the purpose of this thing?

Is it saving us time in the end?

Is it actually doing what we wanted to do?

Is it just offshoring jobs to people who are being paid a lot less to work behind the scene and these ghost jobs to actually run what it's doing?

And also the fact that

back to the point of this column and the reason I wrote it is, it takes up a ton of energy to run these data centers that power these tools like chat GPT and co-pilot and all these other things.

So Microsoft, for instance, wants to build this huge data center, is planning to build this huge data center in Wisconsin.

And in order to power that data center, we energies was like, shoot, we need more power, we need bigger plants.

So as they're getting ready to shutter some of these coal power plants, they want to build these natural gas plants, which

Yes, technically pollute a little bit less than coal plants do, but they aren't in line with the renewable energy goals that we've set that are so crucial to save ourselves from the actual threat.

of climate change.

Yeah, exactly.

We're talking with Emily Mills, who is an independent journalist and writing for the Recombobulation Area, this very intriguing story on how AI is harming Wisconsin's path to renewable energy.

So specifically in your reporting, what did you find?

Is it that the power used to create these data centers or is it...

something independent where AI is going to suss out weather forecasting or something like that.

I wish.

It's just a data aggregator and it requires existing information from human beings to do its job.

And oftentimes it's stealing that information without abiding by copyright or intellectual property laws.

But you still need human beings to actually gather and interpret this data and to use it in a way that's effective and important.

You know, if you can't just rely on AI to do it all, it makes so many mistakes.

It makes things up.

And we're seeing the impacts now.

I know the National Weather Service, you know, faced a bunch of cuts under doge.

And there was a forecaster in Florida the other day who said, look, I'm not going to be able to tell you much about the hurricane season because these massive cuts to the jobs and the funding for these essential roles, AI can't replace that.

I mean, they're trying to sell it that it can.

And so, of course, you know, these

corporate leaders who want to save a ton of money and lay off a bunch of people and just like have some computers doing are like, great, let's do that.

Um, but in the end, it doesn't actually work.

We hold up proof that it doesn't work and a lot of people pay the price for that in the end So we need we need good forecasting among many other things

yours I've had a lot of people know I have a much resume as I call it about eight nine years ago.

I was a between jobs I drove uber for about a year.

I think everybody should do that I think it's very very interesting But I picked up a guy the far west side of Madison and a beautiful beautiful palatial home a hideaway like he was coming downtown and We just got talking and he was very talkative.

It was it was fine the long and the short of it is

He made all this money because he worked eight years ago in AI, technology, and computer, and forecasting, and he was getting paid from major insurance companies because what they wanted to know is where, with climate change, which they acknowledged, where are the storms gonna go so that we don't sign people up for insurance?

Yeah, I mean, if you live in the Gulf Coast and parts of Florida, it's already getting almost impossible to get.

flood insurance, hurricane insurance, things like that, places that have been really struck by wildfires out west.

It's like impossible to get fire insurance because, yeah, it's too expensive for them and their business model to ensure you.

It really is.

So back to your story here.

You bring up some of the PSC, let's define that public service commission and their role in this.

So yeah, the Public Service Commission, Wisconsin entity that had to recently voted to approve these two power new power plants that we energies one wants to put in.

And it's their job to sort of review these applications and see if they're in line with whatever state policy is and also to take public input.

And for both of the power plants, one in Kenosha County, one in Milwaukee County, there was 94 and 95% opposition to those plants registered with the PSC.

And that's between

You know, residents in the community, it's organizations that have banded together to kind of create a coalition to oppose it.

It's also some businesses.

It's a wide variety of people who registered opposition.

Despite that overwhelming opposition, the PSC still approved those two plants to go in.

Now, help me out here, because I used to work in the Capitol, but I've lost track.

still dominate or controlled by Walker appointees, or is time elapsed enough where there is an equal number, or is it Evers employees, do you know?

Or are not

that employees appointees?

I'm gonna have to say I don't know.

I'm not actually sure.

I'd have to get up to date on that myself, but that is always a

consideration.

I'm always intrigued by this, and I think a lot of people for the outside think, oh, it always comes down to Republican versus Democrats.

Right.

I don't think that's the case here.

I don't think it is.

I think this issue in particular is complex, and I want to give a little bit of grace to people who are dealing with something that is really tricky.

We do need power.

I don't know what the political leanings or makeup of the current PSE is.

I'd have to look into that.

I haven't seen a lot of...

explanation for the decision yet.

I'm just sort of reacting to this initial like, hey, why'd we do this?

But I think it's an interesting question.

And I also think the broader question of this is a really complex issue.

It's not a Democrats versus Republican thing.

It is like we do need energy to power our homes and our businesses.

But the thing is, in my many lives that I live, I get to see that the solutions exist.

We do have the technology to do renewables and to really scale them up and to do it in a thoughtful way that takes into consideration viable farmland.

conservation and everything else, but still have enough to power what we need.

What I'm seeing is that we don't need gigantic data centers to power AI that is doing us net harm, in my opinion.

I'm fascinated by your reporting on this, the fact there was so much local opposition, and yet the Public Service Commission, which is supposed to serve the

was people of Wisconsin still passes it unanimously.

I saw this stuff.

I was in the Capitol yet when Scott Walker was governor and my former party was big on local control all the time, local control.

I don't recall a bigger ignoring of local control than under the Walker administration when it came to things like high capacity wells or rewriting mining legislation in northern Wisconsin, fracking.

And now here we seem to be seeing this again when it comes to energy in Wisconsin.

So, all right, we'll come on back, talk a little bit more with Emily Mills, independent journalist.

A great story here for the recombination area on AI and the Wisconsin environment.

Stay tuned.

you

We're talking about showing these.

You're ready to work 23 minutes down past the hour of three o'clock lot to have you along Zombers very dramatic of the bumper music.

Well, I know we said that AI is not like Terminator 2 or how 9,000 but I couldn't resist.

I caught the reference.

I like

that.

I like it.

He's always listening.

You know, he's always on top of

it.

Yeah, that

was nice.

Appreciate that Zombers.

Along here beside me at the World Headquarters at the desk is Emily Mills and is with Reconbibulation Area.

They are a independent journalist here.

and you're running now, you've written for other places, like you say, Journal Sentinel, other places along the way, but now here, feel a bit more freedom working for the recombobulation area versus other places you've worked or not?

No, actually, I have been really fortunate in my career to have very rarely run into issues of kind of censorship being reigned.

And even when I was at the Journal Sentinel, the editor there was like,

write about whatever you want to write about.

I don't

think it was ever rained in.

I mean, I

do try to be thoughtful at least.

I'm not just popping off about random things, but no, it is really nice to have the platform regardless though, because I can't help myself.

I have opinions about things, but I also really like to do a lot of research to make sure I'm not talking out of my rear.

So I really appreciate the

platform.

I ask it because again, in our discussions on this show and other shows at Civic Media, I think oftentimes there's this...

perception out there that oh my gosh you know everybody all everybody is being told what to do by editors or publishers or whatever i do think that in wisconsin at least you tell me if you think i'm wrong you're you're much more of a journalist than i am but i i think in wisconsin there's less of that when it comes to places like our state newspapers um

that sort of thing.

My role?

Well, I think it's probably more nuanced.

So if I have never actually been just a regular beat reporter, news reporter, and I think there are a lot of more, you know, there's that constant debate about, do you present both sides of everything?

Well, what if one of the sides is actually...

just

a lie

or harmful.

But yeah, I think I have never actually held a job as a journalist that was that kind.

And I know people who have a lot of wonderful reporters who've worked in those fields and currently work in those fields for public radio or for some of the newspapers.

And there is a lot more that you have to be considering as you do it.

And there is a little bit more, I wouldn't say censorship, but a lot.

pickier editing and what will get picked up and what won't.

That's also just because they're woefully underfunded and understaffed these days.

You've got one person trying to do a million things at any given newspaper now.

So that's most, you know, never know what the editor is going to want you to do or not.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but I

like what we have journalists here just to ask because I think it just, it's good for our audience to hear from people who actually worked in the field

to interact.

Absolutely.

It is an important conversation.

It really is.

Emily, I wrote this fantastic piece that we, Recompobulation Area, entitled How AI Is Hard.

Wisconsin's path to renewable energies have a question here for you Emily if I get back to it here says Laurie listening all the way up a beautiful Hayward Wisconsin.

Oh I love

Hayward.

Yeah absolutely a WBZH buzz of the north says Todd can you ask Emily if they have heard anything about the state in the south that has a lot of issues with huge green

in their state.

is what it was supposed to say because of AI centers built there from Worry and Hayward.

Well, this ties in because we were talking over the break whether it's quote unquote mining Bitcoin where they put up these great big huge, what do you call it, energy generators?

I don't

know.

It's the big servers, yeah, the data mining centers which also

require.

A

lot of

energy.

Compare that to what's happening potentially with what the PSC just passed here in Wisconsin.

Yeah, and sort of to the point too that there's other states that are dealing with the same issue.

So when I was researching this, the numbers right now, it's a little tricky because these large corporations that are building data centers to support AI tools and things like that aren't being very transparent about.

how much energy is actually going into it.

They're not giving any reports they used to, but they've conveniently stopped doing that in recent years.

But a lot of the best estimates and just looking at what's happening and adding that up is data centers and the energy that's going toward powering these quote unquote AI tools is about to outpace how much energy consumption it takes to do Bitcoin mining, which is quite a lot.

So we're talking orders of magnitude.

enough power for multiple small countries basically to power themselves that are going into these data centers for these technologies.

And I think what's important, and correct me if I'm wrong, for Wisconsinites, and maybe this is why people were so opposed to it, the PSC, these are not like quiet little things.

They have this annoying buzz in some of these things that can really just drive

humans and wildlife, whatever, crazy.

Yeah, there's the noise factor and there's also just the air pollution factor.

These are a lot of these are the, you know, they call them natural gas, but we're talking about like methane and things like that.

And there are controls in place to kind of knock down how much pollution is going out, but they're not without pollution.

And there's a lot of precedent for these plants being, you know, problematic, especially for their neighbors breeding in the air.

And I think an interesting case is where, you know, I'm not, this is we energies will probably have to follow.

the law in Wisconsin, at least when they build these places, so better than not.

But I think that the larger issue is that a good example is in Tennessee, Elon Musk's XAI built a giant data center in a historically black neighborhood outside of Memphis, I want to say, and didn't apply for any clean air permits, didn't apply for any permits for their generators.

And because the local utilities are not able to provide enough power to run this place, but Elon really wanted to get up and running to meet some arbitrary deadline to roll out whatever his

AI chatbot thing

is,

they installed a whole bunch of these methane generators just like running 24 seven and they're just dumping.

pollution into the air around this place in a neighborhood that has already historically high visits to the emergency center for asthma.

You know, they're saying like, I can't breathe.

I can't go outside and breathe because it's just gas.

It's just the smell of gas everywhere.

So this is the kind of thing that's happening in service of this technology.

And what we know, based on our health care system in America, chances are that people in that neighborhood that might be people of color, probably less likely to have great health care coverage.

Yep.

Or, you know, great access to medical care generally or the incomes for it.

It's, it's a, yeah, I think the median income.

in that particular neighborhood was about.

25,000 a year, so not great.

Less than a minute.

It's been great.

What can people do to fight back in Wisconsin-Wisconsin on this?

Well, I'd like to say you could write into the Public Service Commission.

But as it turns out.

I mean, obviously, I think it is important to keep calling your representatives and asking questions and telling them what you're concerned about and telling what you're opposed to.

Calling makes a difference.

Yes.

Do the research.

Make calls.

Talk to your friends.

You can find the story at www.therecombobulationarea.news.

Emily Mills, thanks so much.

Come back soon.

Thank you so much.

Our pleasure.

Stay tuned what's worse is next on the Civic Media, Ready Network.

Welcome back to the title of our show on the Civic Media & Media Network where it is now 35 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Many thanks to Emily Mills for being here.

Fantastic story that they have written at the Reconbibulation area.

You can find it at www.thereconbibulationarea.news how AI is harming Wisconsin's path to renewable energy.

Fantastic.

I appreciate Emily being here.

Zombers, that was quite the intro there, quite the song.

What is that?

Yeah, that's the Harlem Shake, which...

Was a thing in like 2012.

I just it was pre tick tock But it was essentially a tick tock dance trend you would have that song And then when it said and do the Harlem shake then you just do crazy random garbage that technically could be counted as dancing and put it in a video and go viral

now would you say it was a

Fad Absolutely, it was a little flash in the pan fat

time once again for what's worse.

Let's go

All across Wisconsin, no better place to advertise your business.

Then, uh, that's what we say back in the RC.

We don't say business.

We say you're a business.

There are people listening from Richland Center right now that say, no, we don't say that.

Richland

Center,

it's not a bunch of hits.

No, it's not.

I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that.

I'm just

clarifying that that's not

what you're saying.

Now you're getting me into more trouble.

Sorry.

No, that's not what Todd has

ever implied by that.

All right.

Uh, the category today on what's worse.

Timely, timely indeed.

Anzamer has alluded to you earlier.

The category fads or dumb traditions.

Fads or dumb traditions.

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

Fads or dumb traditions.

You can also text us on the Civic Media app.

How about that?

Now this is it or so that song you played.

I never heard of them.

You said it was 2012.

Something like that.

All right.

I'd never heard of them.

But but see some of the fans are quick.

Just blink and they're gone.

You're too young to remember this.

But when I was I was I was already like in middle school or high school.

But my sister.

Cabbage patch kids crazy.

Every at mostly girls, but some young guys wanted a cabbage patch doll and people parents would go into department stores around Christmas time and they were getting into fist to cuffs fights over dolls Cabbage patch dolls.

So that's that's an example of a fad To dumb to doubt now this one might be more controversial on our screen the graphic they've created

is of a very colonial looking Christopher Columbus, and it says Columbus Day along the side.

I mean, I would

say Columbus Day

in

retrospect is a pretty dumb tradition.

In retrospect, probably not best to celebrate the guy who slaughtered, you know, hundreds of thousands of natives.

I'm not laughing, but you know, I'm laughing because- That's

being ridiculous.

Because here's a guy who

He may or may not have quote unquote discovered America, probably one of a few people that were the first to land in America, just got, he was a great marketer as it turned out Christopher Columbus.

And then for a long time there, and I think there are still some Columbus Day parades, but looking through the lens of 2025, not our best moment creating Columbus Day.

What other, you know, we can talk about other dumb traditions.

We have

one text.

Matt Middleton says, dumb traditions are worse as they lack the fun factor and last longer.

What's with the fruitcake at Christmas Crap?

Now, some people are huge fruitcake

people.

Don't think I've ever had one,

but I've

seen it in a lot of Christmas movies.

It depends on the quality, I believe.

I've had some that are more kind of nice, fruity and some they're like a doorstop.

Yeah,

that's always the joke in those Christmas movies, is that they are always just bricks.

Right.

Cam in Appleton says, dumb traditions are easily worse.

Ask Dr. John Kellogg.

Yeah, you may not know this.

I

do not know why you said

that.

Do you know why corn flakes exist?

Tell me.

Because Dr. John Kellogg thought that young men need to lead lives that are the least stimulating as possible in order to stay pure.

And so corn flakes were literally invented to be boring to keep young boys

who's

watching themselves.

I'm not joking.

Yours.

That's what John

Kellogg did.

Yeah.

I'm not joking.

Well, what was the marketing campaign?

Eat Kellogg so you don't go blind?

I mean, that's incredible.

There are some

weird people.

That is incredible.

Get well done, Cam.

Digging deep on that.

Now, now that.

That is a dumb tradition right there.

What's worse, fads or dumb traditions?

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, Stephanie and Cottage Grove, listening on WMDX, says fads are worse.

Fads are pre-bad traditions.

That's a great take, right?

because if a bad fad lasts long enough, then it becomes a bad tradition.

Sean, listening out in the beautiful Rich Children's Center on the RC, says, fads are worse.

Embarrassed to say, I French rolled my pant legs on my jeans in the late 1980s.

We've all been there, Sean.

I mean, that's, that's, I think some people still do that.

It's kind of coming back.

Everything comes back.

DJ.

Up in beautiful Warsaw, listening on WXCO says fads that turn into dumb traditions are worse.

DJ in the saw, not the saw, but the saw.

AJ in Madison listening on WMDX says fads, fads are definitely worse.

Don't be a sheep, okay?

He says it worse eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two

Cam shared

some

other

information from dr. John.

We're not we're not say on air to say

he did more than just invent

we will not discuss eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two We love your take on this and phone calls as well.

What's worse fans?

or dumb traditions.

Trying to think of another another fad grow.

Well, I mean, like when I was babies, when I was, I guess, beanie babies, but that that turned into, I think, a bad tradition.

Matt in Michelin Center, one of our great UPS drivers, saying, come on, Sean, you should still roll them.

I still wear a still wearing members only jacket.

Well said, Matt.

Right.

I mean, let's not let's not be embarrassed by things we grew up with.

Embrace them.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I was when I grew up in the, you know, the 80s feathered hair.

I've told this story before, but the short version is I have very straight hair.

My hair is the only thing straight about me as it turns out.

No, I have very straight hair.

I wish I still had most of my straight hair.

Unfortunately, I'm losing most of it, but I really wanted to feather my hair.

And so I convinced my mom.

to give me a perm at home.

And she, God lovers, she did a fantastic job, but the stuff was too strong.

And I looked like little orphan Annie.

And so we dialed up my barber, my hair care professional, Tom McCarthy at Tom's barber shop.

And he got me in like, I don't know, 6.37 in the morning to try to cut some of it out before I went to school.

So feathered hair was a, was a fad.

How about parachute pants?

Parachute pants those of us of a certain age some of them had like this zippers in the side It wasn't I don't know it was either to make it more puffy or not 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 How about fads or dumb traditions fads or dumb traditions cam listening to Appleton cam?

What do you want to say?

Sorry for being a maniac.

Um, thank you for taking my call

off course

I was just thinking like and it finally like clicked I was like oh no you know what as much as I hate like traditional stuff at least I can nitpick with which ones suck like tricking your kid with like the snipe hunt oh yeah snipe

yeah snipe

hunting fads always seem like they go from worse to worse to worse my high school's uh senior seniors that graduated before me

burn the carpets of the floor for their senior prank.

They lit them on fire.

That's terrible.

After that, it was baby powder bombs in the hallways.

Then people tried to put all-axidives and all the condiments during lunch.

Oh, my

gosh.

That's way over the line.

That's way over the line.

So those are good examples of, you know, snipe, punting, fine.

Doing things are destructive.

Not so much.

Appreciate it, Cam.

Thank you very much.

Have a great day.

Thanks for the call.

855-752-4842.

What's worse go to Mike listening on to be RCE and beautiful spring green Mike fads or dumb traditions.

What's worse?

Well, I think it's a fad but lately this is the last few years now It's in language when people use a word with STR like street.

They say street

And if they say, stop, it's stop.

But if it's STR, they're strong.

And that starts to drive me crazy.

Now, see, this is

interesting.

Because I didn't notice that one.

But go ahead.

I'm hearing NPR news announcers talking that way.

And the other one now is, lately, two cheese.

You have a button, or you go to Manhattan.

And I'm hearing professional news people talking like that, and it's driving me up the wall.

I do voiceovers myself, and I pride myself on diction and being very clear when I talk, you know?

And then I hear these people going, now close the button, and this will be in written instructions, and I just want to choke

them.

Now this one is interesting, because I know people that say that, button, like that instead of just button.

Yeah, well,

button, but not button.

Right,

right, right, right.

It's part of it.

Go ahead.

Well, important versus important, important.

You know, some of that

is like a colloquialism that's like a regional in Wisconsin or different parts of the country.

I think it's different parts of the country, but it's spreading people didn't used to say strong or street, but now they all do It's younger people

spreading like an STI at a frat party.

It's people are starting to not use their good diction for gonna say

Yeah, you know, it's just one of those things that I once I hear it I can't unhear it and it you know, it just gets to me so

So I don't know if that fit the mode today.

No,

absolutely.

And as a voiceover professional, very, very insightful.

Because some of those things you mentioned, like I say, I have not noticed others I have.

Well, I listen and I hear people.

I hear you guys saying funny things.

I heard.

I'm sure you do.

Nobody else.