Finding Joy During Tough Times with Kira Sabin (Hour 1)

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.

Todd Alba, along with Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everybody, to the world headquarters of Civic Media downtown Madison on State Street on what has turned out to be another gorgeous fall day, autumn day.

It is, I know it's technically not.

not like September 21st or 22nd.

I'm calling it.

I'm declaring it falls on us because at least here in Madison, there are places where the leaves are already turning kind of golden yellow in some places.

Look out the window here in State Street.

Are those box out?

I'm not a good enough person here.

I see the cameras down.

You talk

first.

Yeah, I'll show the people on the stream what the camera looks like.

So the Sam Davis and Street cam is currently pointed downward.

Oh, that's a lot better.

But you could only see the crosswalk for a second there.

And that was my fault.

I set it up the same day we since recam today.

But now you can actually see some of the trees, Todd was talking about.

I

partner fell off my perch there.

I had to go.

Yes, look at that beautiful Sam Davidson Street came there.

I can see just a little bit of a little bit of yellows in the in the leaves.

So autumn is upon us.

It's that time of year.

Brewers, by the way, the boys of summer are turning into the boys of fall.

They are back underway tonight against the Los Angeles Angels.

Game time at 6.35 for the first pitch.

You can hear the pregame show starting at 6.05.

on select stations of civic media.

And as Letterman says, I hope one of yours has been selected.

And if you live in Richland Center, it has.

W-R-C-E, W-I-S-S, and Oshkosh.

Also our new station up there, and hey, we're not new station anymore, but new Brewer affiliate this year up in Hayward, W-B-Z-H, the buzz of the North.

The Brewer is back underway this afternoon.

Big show today.

Hope you stick around in hour number two.

We're gonna have Pete Schwabba, our old friend, host of Night Light here every evening from six until eight great reporter, great entertainment guy, actor, writer, he does it all.

Pete's gonna be here to talk about the passing of the Hollywood legend in case you didn't hear today yet.

This morning it was announced through his agent that Robert Redford, the great Robert Redford has passed away 89 years old, did not quite understand or know that he was.

quite that old, the 89 years old.

Gonna talk about connections to Wisconsin and the great life and times of Robert Redford in our number two.

Also, what's worse for you today called subscriptions or purchases.

We'll get into that a little bit as well.

And maybe some time to hear from Jim Nance on, we were gonna do this last week, but news of the week kind of bumped it appropriately, so unfortunately.

But now maybe it's more pertinent than ever and

And that has to do with is it really necessary for all of us to take a hot take?

So all of that and much, much more coming up later on on this show.

But here's what I want to begin today, folks.

It happens to be National Suicide Prevention Month.

Great story last week in the Milwaukee Journal.

Great reporting, I should say by Natalie Ilbert.

Headlines, suicide rates in Wisconsin have risen 15% in the last decade.

Why do they keep going up?

We'll repeat this throughout the hour, but if you or someone that you know needs to talk, and it might not specifically about suicide, self-harm, you'd be just very, very depressed, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline Healthline is 988.

You can simply text or call 988, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, somebody is standing by.

So according this article the Gerald Centnell Suicide rates in Wisconsin rose by 15% over the last decade continuing an alarming rise throughout this century And by the way, if you're listening anything, I don't want to talk about this too depressing just as my grandparents used to say hold your horses gonna give you some facts gonna bring our friend Kira Saban here in a minute and Have a little fun, but some seriousness and give your waves to them

We all need this right now, everybody, including me.

The world is on fire, or we feel like it, as Kira says.

And she's going to tell us how to kind of dampen that fire a tad.

Back to the story.

A new report from Prevent Suicide, Wisconsin, published September 4th, captured the mental health fallout of the COVID pandemic, ongoing political division and financial distress.

Further...

It noted the impact of shrinking social networks, empty or shuttered community centers, and wayward trust in institutions, all of which can contribute to despair.

By the end of 2023, U.S.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy saw social disconnectedness as a burgeoning public health crisis with psychological consequences and the loneliness epidemic became a household phrase.

The factors leading to suicide are complex.

It may be tempting to say mental health issues are the main contributing factors for these preventable deaths, but the September 4th report emphasized likely issues such as poverty, violence, historical and childhood traumas, environmental hazards, and even natural disasters have played roles in the suicide rates that plague Wisconsin.

This is interesting and important.

Firearms continue to be the most common and fatal method of suicide deaths.

Women are far likelier than men to end up in hospitals and emergency departments for self-harm injuries.

And catch this, all of our folks in rural Wisconsin.

Rural areas have disproportionately higher rates of suicide than urban regions of the state.

Between 2014 and 2023, indigenous people in Wisconsin died by suicide at disproportionate rates than that of other racial groups.

By the way, it replaced whites in Wisconsin as having the highest rates.

Lesbian gay and bisexual youth, too, are contemplating suicide at rates far higher than the average youth population.

Under the What Can Be Done category, and this is important, this is where I want to go with Kira.

Working on faith with, pardon me, working with face-based and cultural organizations is a part of a major plan of action at Prevent Suicide Wisconsin.

It's about mending those frayed pathways to real-life connections, whether it's in the workplace, schools, community spaces, or houses of worship.

Again, that's from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from last week, September 9th.

I want to talk to all of this about this with our guest today, First Hour, which she's been on the program before, a positivity psychology midlife coach.

She's also a podcaster.

You can find her at thrivewithkira.com or on the social, simply at thrivewithkira, K-I-R-A or thrivewithkira.com.

Joining us via stream art, Kira Saban.

Kira, how in the world are you, my friend?

I've been better, you.

Kind of the same.

But see, this is why, when Kira and I get in and in full disclosure, people watch this show know this.

We've basically been lifelong friends or families and whatnot, grew up in the same town.

I can laugh and smile and find reasons for joy when I talk with you, even about difficult topics.

And I think at the end of the day, isn't that what a lot of this segment is about?

Absolutely.

I think that we want to think that we are in unprecedented times and unfortunately we're not.

And that's kind of what I came here to talk about today is seeing the balance, seeing the joy even in the tough, you know, and remembering to connect, reach out and create community because that's the only way I think we're out of this mess.

I totally agree.

And again, listeners of this program probably know this, but for those that might be new to the show, Kira and I've known each other our whole lives.

We're always on the same political side of the fence, back when I was Republican.

Yes, yes.

I was like, let's clarify which one of us.

Right, right, right, right.

But Kira's been enormously helpful in my life, and there have been points in my life.

It's kind of like,

I think there's a song about this, but it's like a rock and a stream, right?

I guess it's from a Wicked, right?

Where, you know, the courses are changed.

You can't undo that.

And I think this weekend, now I think I know, Kira provided me with one of those rocks and a stream type of moment when you posted on your Instagram page, Kira, really great post.

And that's the whole thrust of today with you.

You start out by saying, right now, the world is on fire.

Something we can forget is this.

Every single day, wonderful and horrible things happen.

But in our world, in our lives, both truths exist, always.

And that's where it begins.

And this was a real watershed moment, not just for me, but for this program.

And it made me rethink or reevaluate where we were going at this show.

And I said yesterday, openly on this show, look.

I don't have the bandwidth, we don't have the staff at this show to handle every single thing that comes out of the news, firehose, and fact check that, because it used to be right, oh, the Department of Labor Statistics says this, it must be true.

And I don't wanna make this overtly political, but with the people in charge now in DC, that is no longer the case.

So we essentially have to fact check everything we bring on this program, and it can be overwhelming, and we forget, I forget,

There's also great things happening in each of our neighborhoods,

Kira.

You know, I think it's very interesting and, you know, I think Todd, you and I over the years have talked about this before.

But it gets really easy to focus only on what we see or what's only feeling like it's personally affecting us.

But we forget that there are beautiful

and absolutely awful things that happen in this world every day, whether it's personally to somebody, whether it's societally or culturally, we might have had a good four years or whatever, and we think, oh, wow, my life's going okay.

You know, the person who I voted for is at the office, like life's okay.

The thing is, that's not true.

And that's not bad or good, it just is.

But I think that there is a really, really smart

realization when we realize this is the way it's always been.

There is always going to be push and pull.

There is always going to be progress and then people pulling back on it.

This is the way it's always been.

And when we forget that, when we go, this is the worst, this is awful, we forget.

to look around on a day-to-day basis for joy, for connection, for community, all the things that absolutely existed one year ago, all the things that existed 10 years ago, all the things that existed 100 years ago.

We are just in cycles, we are in seasons, and we will make it through this cycle and we will make it through this season.

It's such an important reminder because

I heard a lot of people last week, even still this week, saying things after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, such as, there will never be another outdoor political event ever again.

This is going to stop.

Well, really.

You think that's what people say?

I mean, did we say when JFK got shot in a parade in Dallas, we'll never have another parade in the world again?

When Martin Luther King got shot, you know, outside, we'll never have another outdoor political thing.

You know, when we had, when we had 100,000 protesters at the state capitol during act 10, people were saying, the public will never, ever be able to get into the, so you're so right that in the moment we focus on the now and the dread.

And we, we almost like, I'm not self-fulfilling, but we just kind of like,

forward it and say, well, I could never get, I think I'll never get better.

And that's freaking depressing.

And it's, yeah, cause if we don't have hope, we haven't, we don't have much, right?

Like hope is what keeps us going.

Hope is what keeps us motivated.

Hope is what has us reaching out, connecting, not, and then fear has us shut down, avoiding.

And if we're talking about, although I would not say that suicide is a topic I talk about regularly, if we're talking about suicide, it's people who feel alone.

It's

people who feel like they don't have other people.

We're gonna come back

to talk more.

So if we want to start changing this.

Come back to what, talk more with Kira Saban in just a minute.

Don't, don't worry, we're not Pollyanna here.

Believe me, Kira just not looking the world through rose-colored glasses.

We're gonna get real, but we're all gonna give us some ways why we can understand how we feel and how we get better.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the all those show in

Pacific

Media.

and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to that almost show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

That's what happens when a dyslexic guy tries to read something and do something else at the same time.

Do you want to do over on that one?

Yeah, can we just start the whole show?

No, I'm just kidding.

We're fine.

Well, while I was reading actually, Keira and I during the break, and you could tune in, Facebook, StreamYard, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, whatever you want to call it, and watch the video of the show.

And we leave the curtains open.

You know, if the neighbors want to look in, that's fine.

And they can see what we're doing during the break.

And I was telling Kira for her, uh, you know, sadly, we don't write her a check when she comes on.

But I said, okay, I got to talk, take you and your wonderful husband, Danny out dinner.

And so she suggested the Harvey house here.

Very Tony place in Madison.

I said, well, okay.

Have you really?

Tony place.

Tony.

I mean, it's kind of upscale.

I mean, it's.

It is.

It

is.

I've never heard

the expression.

Really?

You've never heard that before?

All right.

Our friend and colleague, Jeff Perry, ongoing contributor of Facebook says, how about Arby's?

We have the meat.

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Thanks Jeff.

Thanks for looking out for me.

Kira Saban, positive psychology midlife coach and podcaster extraordinaire with us.

You can find her at all of her work at Thrive with Kira on the socials or her website is thrive with Kira K-I-R-A dot com.

Let's get this in quickly because I don't want to run out of time.

You have a workshop going on.

These are tremendous.

They're retreats are predominantly focused on women.

I think you got a couple of spaces left.

If people listen and say, I want to spend more time with Kira because she can help me.

I can tell you she can.

How do they find out?

Uh, yeah.

Thrive with Kira has all the information.

Uh, I run a great midlife program at six months long.

We really dig in together.

It starts off with a, a five day retreat here in Madison.

And then we do six months of building self-worth.

boundaries, emotional regulation, all the kind of things that they've discovered, but we never learned as kids in our Gen X lives.

So it just helps us be able to deal with life better because

as

we know, it can be tough.

If you're a woman in midlife, it can be hormonally very

tough.

So we obviously don't understand that, but as a guy, but I live vicariously through you and my sister.

So there you go.

Uh, Kira, by the way, we're, it is, it is national, uh, mental health awareness a month.

Also talking about death by suicide, Wisconsin, but this, that's not the focus of this segment.

Really.

It hit me this Kira post or Kira's post over the weekend on Instagram, just recognizing that the world can feel on fire right now.

And it's not just.

the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which is horrible and terrible, but everything that surrounds that, other crises that seem to be going on a daily basis.

Kira, you've talked to us before that physiologically.

Our brains are literally not wired to handle a crisis every day like this.

And you give us some tips on recognizing some things, and then we're going to move into how we can address that, how we can feel better.

So let's start off with this.

You play it out there.

Some moments just land heavy on us.

So I would love to read a little bit of this,

because

I did this post.

It's because I saw chaos online, right?

And although I'm not always a big fan of social media, I am there because it's my business.

I'm talking

to

women and different people.

But it just made me see people were fighting, people were yelling at each other.

And I just held up this little mirror to say, you know, whether this

Impacts you personally or not like this is what always is so some moments land having on us others pass us by and most we don't even know happen at all right around the world There's so many things happening that we don't know about Because we only catch a fraction of what this world holds right like we might have the best day ever and our neighbor might have lost a pet and is crying right like we don't really know

And at any given moment, someone feels like they never stop crying.

And at the same time, someone else is discovering that they could laugh again.

This is, it's always going to be hard and we just have to notice the good.

Because every single day holds so much beauty.

Art is being created, songs are being sung, friendships are beginning, love is unfolding, silliness and happy accidents happen.

Animals making a smile, trees being planted, stories being told, sunsets being watched, ideas being shared, strangers helping strangers.

And I'm sharing all of that because, so I have a background in positive psychology.

And the greatest thing about positive psychology is not Pollyanna, everything's fine.

It's making sure you notice the good because our brains naturally go to the bad.

There's something called negativity bias.

It is a cognitive bias.

And because of the way our brains have evolved from early, early on, we are constantly scanning for bad.

It's just what our brains do to protect us to keep us safe.

But that means that we can get really stuck.

in the bad, where all we're seeing is bad, all we're focusing on is bad.

We surround ourselves with these heavy things all the time.

And as you mentioned, which is one of my favorite things, we almost become self-fulfilling prophecies.

If all we see is badness and hate in the world, then all you will see is badness and hate in the world, and you will probably be impacted by the badness and the hate.

But every day there is good too.

Agree or disagree, the people that write the algorithms.

for social media out there, let alone the bots as they call them from China and Russia that are literally programmed, they know what you just said.

And these algorithms tap in on our sense of dread and just obsessing, agree or disagree.

And that's all it makes the problem worse.

Absolutely.

And as people, we have to get better than it.

We have to be a little bit smarter than some algorithm.

If social media doesn't feel good, get off social media.

I will say I am not on Facebook anymore.

I felt like crap every time I was on there.

So I was like, you know what?

I'm going to find a way to connect with the people I want to connect to there in different ways.

We have to be thoughtful to where we put our time, where we put our energy, who we're giving it to.

And it gets really, really easy with our news cycle, with everything else, to get swept up in it.

But they're

not spending their time talking about all the good things, too.

We've only just begun our conversation with the positive psychology midlife coach, Kira Saban.

We're going to look at history, why we feel this way, and give you tips, Kira will, on how we move past this, how we move on, how we move forward positivity, and feel better about ourselves.

Don't go anywhere.

Farm News is next.

It's the All Bulls Show in the Pacific Media.

that I heard of once in a

lullaby.

Welcome back to the Tallinn Ball Show on a Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

35 minutes now, past the hour of two o'clock, Zommer's dialing up little Judy Garland, the original, somewhere over the rainbow from Wizard of Oz.

Makes my sister very happy, that's for sure.

But I think that's appropriate because I think a lot of us

Out there, we just, we get stuck in what we think is dread and you just, you can't even handle reality.

You think somewhere, someday things have to get better and here to help explain all that and walk us through it because things right now, as she has said, it can feel like the world is on fire.

And yes.

Part of that is the context of the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week, but also just the constant firehose as they say of information It just comes out so quickly and so fast that we cannot handle it all and it becomes overwhelming and we started off this hour by this great article the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Natalie airbert illbert pardon me that Wisconsin

Death by suicide rates have risen by 15, 15%, 15% in the last decade.

And this is not a specifically suicide prevention episode, but it's relatable.

And part of that is just how we take care of our mental health in this mental health awareness month, and here to walk us through it, continue to walk us through it.

Kira Saban, positive psychology, midlife coach.

She also has a podcast called RomCom Rescue.

Check that out.

That's a lot of fun.

You can find her and all of her work at Thrive with spelled out Thrive with Kira, K-I-R-A dot com.

I encourage you to go there.

Terry Barr watching on YouTube says, Kira is a mental health rock star, 100%.

Thanks.

I appreciate that, Terry.

I totally agree.

Kira joining us via StreamYard.

Kira, we left off.

Before Pam Yankee and you said look remember this even in the hardest seasons There's always plenty of good whether we Personally see it or not And if you look back at history Kira whether we might not feel like it or not things have been worse

Things have been way worse as

it turns

out.

I don't know

I don't know about you, Todd, but I actually was never really a history person.

My mom was a teacher.

She loves going to museums and touring all of the houses and architecture.

But I was never into history.

But something happened in 2020, just a sidestep here.

clearly COVID.

And all of a sudden, I had a lot more time on my hands because my husband Danny was home.

And so we just got really sucked into the American experience on PBS, which are these like mini documentaries that just talk about what happened in America and how.

And we started watching a lot of them.

And it was a wake up call to me because it was that moment to go, Oh, this thing that I think is only happening right now, that's happened before.

Yeah.

many times, right?

The very things that sometimes we're fighting for right now has happened before many times.

And, you know, the fact that we have indoor plumbing and live past 40 is a gift that 100 years ago our, you know, great grandparents didn't even have.

So, I mean, there is a point where we have to see where our focus is.

We have so many conveniences and beautiful things on our day, but

It is amazing how what we focus on is what we'll get.

And yeah.

So I was just telling you guys in that whatever, um, and this is pretty nerdy because I listened to a podcast about years ago, but that they talk about the worst year in history that they, that they can

find

in the world.

And it's, it's year five 36.

And there was

a volcano.

Oh, AD.

Yes.

Sorry.

There was a huge volcano.

Uh,

eruption possibly from Iceland, right?

So it created a full like volcanic winter and they didn't have a sun for 18 months.

18 months.

There

was no

sun.

around the world for 18 months, there was an extreme cold because there was no, because there was no, uh, sun.

So coldest decade in 2300 years, they had total famine and hardship because of course it can't grow anything when there's no sun.

There's a huge spread of disease, uh, and basically societal collapse, collapse behind, besides it.

So this looks.

Pretty good.

Compared to year 536.

I mean, that's obviously an extreme example.

But if we do look back in history, we see the patterns and we see the repetitions and we see the push and pull.

And I think that even in a time where we are being pulled back, we will always progress forward.

Yeah, we will

always have new things and great things and a hope and in you know There's always been cycles of struggle of fear of hate of greed of prejudice of injustice That's always happened as probably always going to be happening.

I wish I could say that that wasn't But there's always been cycles of resilience creativity progress and love.

Yeah, these things are always happening I

Think that's

what

makes life beautiful.

I think that again we might say well

Yeah, I know that, but we need the reminders of people like you to say, just pump the brakes here, buddy, because we're not necessarily going off of a cliff, although there are bad things in the world.

But I love the earlier point that when we're celebrating a birthday or an anniversary, whatever it might be, this is the best day of my life.

Somebody in another part of the state, another part of the country, in the world is literally having the worst day of their life.

And they think the world is going to hell.

It can't get any worse than this.

And that all coexist together.

And you point out here that every generation has also created beauty, joy, community right in the middle of all those storms.

Absolutely.

And we're not meant to take it all on.

And where we are not helping ourselves is our 24-hour news stations, social media, where we see people who we love and have been friends with for maybe years, like saying things that we don't agree with.

This is different than we've ever had.

And I do want to remind everybody, we have the option to turn it off.

We have the option to look away.

I am on my favorite social media is Instagram, and I can promise you it is all animals, particularly kittens, and happy videos.

That's it.

That's the only thing that I allow on my feed.

And so it gives me a warm, fussy feeling instead of, oh my god.

Am I, you know, do I want to wake up tomorrow?

We're talking with Kira Saban, a positive psychology midlife coach.

You can find her at thrivewithkira.com.

Go ahead, Kira.

And just for folks, we're kind of turning the corner now into another great part of this.

We do have control over some of this stuff that we take.

Well, you don't want to control a lot of it, but we're getting into what we can do to make ourselves feel better health-wise.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I'd love to talk for a second about the happiness set point.

I wasn't even gonna bring this up, but I think it's really appropriate here.

So about 20 years ago, they started doing work about what makes us happy, right?

That's what positive psychology is.

It's basically like, what's the science of making us happy?

And only 10% of our happiness comes from external things.

Money, our career, our relationships, politics, our world.

only 10% of our happiness comes from that.

The rest of it comes from where we put our time, where we put our focus, who we spend our time with, right?

And if we're doing things that light us up and feel good.

Right.

I used to be very personal for a second.

I won't want to go deep into what we've mentioned before, but there was a period in my life where I was very depressed, very down and things were not good.

And Kira took time to talk with me and she's like,

Why you give me all these reasons that you're making up to put yourself in this position?

Why are you doing this to yourself?

Why are you putting yourself in a position where you're hanging out with someone who is making you feel like crap?

And that was a that was a difficult moment, but a light bulb moment and it changed a lot of where I was at that point in my life.

I think that virtually everybody listening on a Tuesday afternoon is probably an adult.

And we can feel very tied to family.

We can feel very tied to our commitments.

But we do have the power at the end of the day to say, if something doesn't feel good, we can speak up about it.

We can walk away from it.

We can talk about it with someone.

It doesn't have to stay this way.

And the biggest things that I can't, let me tell you, I have to keep my eye on.

You know, not a ton of politics or I won't even want to get out of bed, right?

Like it's not like I don't feel it too.

But it is amazing how when I spread, spend my time with people I love, putting my time and energy in things that I love that I value that I think are important, not much has really changed.

Yeah.

Right.

And the thing is, is that I think it's, I think that when we are concerned and worried about rights being take away, volunteer.

Find the organizations that you care about.

If you are worried about LGBTQIA plus rights, go volunteer with that organization.

See if there's something that you can do to help.

Put some money, put some time in, right?

People might be losing their funding.

That's okay.

We can help fund, right?

People cannot take away our joy.

They cannot take away our hope.

In the minute they do, then they have really won.

Clip that we're using that right there because you nailed it.

You nailed it Kira as you do It's easy to feel terrible when you say oh look at the one oh look at that But when you get off your butt I'm looking at myself and go out and volunteer if you're doing something it might be small in the large scope of things But when you do something you know you're moving the cause forward and that's great for our mental health

Absolutely and and

So those organizations or those groups that you're worried about, find time and help them.

And there's so many ways to do that, right?

If you don't have the time, you might have the finances.

If you don't have the finances, you might have the time or the energy or can donate things like there are a thousand things that we can do.

And what happened is we got a little lazy about it.

And we just kind of hope that everybody else is going to take care of the stuff.

Yeah.

And right now we have a wake-up call to say, we're going to have to get back in there.

We're going to have to get back in and help those in need.

We're going to have to get back in and make the world a better place if we have people who are not wanting to do that for us.

We have

that ability all day.

Talking to Kira Saban, Positive Psychology, Midlife Coach.

You can find your work at thrivewithkira.com.

Back into this great Insta post over the weekend, Kira.

You talk about and what we can take on.

What we could control is how we respond to the part of life that touches us.

And I think this is so important.

Get about two minutes, by the way, before our next break.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

And I think that I think it's just so important for us to realize that what's actually happening to us, what we can control, that's where our power is, right?

Right now, you and I, Todd, probably are not are not making a huge impact on national or global politics.

Right?

But

I can certainly volunteer and make some of these day better.

I can sit down and have a conversation with a stranger that might light up their day and make, you know, we have no idea what's going on, but I can promise us scrolling or fighting on social media isn't going to save the world.

It's not even going to change minds because we really can't change people out of their values.

We

can't change it out of their fears.

And that's what's going on here.

So what we can do is put our time and our energy into what we believe in, what we think.

We put our money there too, right?

Find the organizations, find the companies that go along with what you value, put money in them.

That's, that's how we make a change.

Well, I read a couple of these going on the way out to the break.

We'll have to buy Danny and Kira an extra drink at Harvey house because I'm going to ask her to come back after this.

But she asks these important questions.

Do we give into fear or do we cultivate hope?

Do we spread hate or practice compassion?

Stay divided or reach for connection shut down or stay present Close our hearts or open them wider react with anger or respond with curiosity and questions Disconnect or reach out build walls or build bridges That's healthy stuff you guys a cure is going to come back or discuss it on the other side don't go anywhere Kira's Ape and Todd all ball and you across Wisconsin on the Pacific Media Network

She may have

been a small town girl, I was a small town boy, but for 17 years plus.

She's been helping people build more joy, love, connection, self-worth, and purpose in their lives.

She is our guest today, Kira Saban, positive psychology, midlife coach, podcaster extraordinaire.

You can find all of her work at thrivewithkira, K-I-R-A, thrivewithkira.com, mental health awareness month here, and talking about the world seems like it's on fire right now, if you watch the news.

But there's so many things...

that we can do to change our psyche, Kira.

And you write in this great post on Insta this week, I want to pick up there with the time we have left.

You write every single day we have a choice.

What are you choosing?

Great question.

We cannot.

Yes.

What are we choosing?

Because we do.

We choose who we spend time with.

We choose where we put our energy and our thoughts even.

right in our minds.

We get to decide, we can't control all of these huge things, but we can control our life, the people around us, and we can make an impact that can ripple out and truly change the world.

I don't come on here every day like you do Todd and amazingly

you know, inspire people through conversations around politics and what's going on in the world.

I do it by working with people one-on-one or in small ways in hopes that as they heal, it'll ripple out.

But I even just think our own self-work and our own work that we're doing, you know, with our family or around us, those are what make huge impacts.

That's

how we change

the

world.

100%, you write in your post, positive psychology reminds us.

We can't stop horrible things from happening, but we can shape our response and create purpose, connection, love, and resilience in the process.

And when we choose differently, we don't just change our lives, we ripple it forward for our children, our communities, and our future.

And that's what's exciting, Kira.

is that when you do something for someone else, you have a good effect on somebody else.

It generally makes us feel better about ourselves, does it not?

Absolutely.

I like to have little percentages, and I don't have it at the top of my head, but there is science behind when we do just a random act of kindness.

Not only are we making somebody else's day better, it also comes back to us.

So both people win, not just one.

And the more and more that we do that,

The more and more like we make a positive impact.

I think that what's happening right now is we see a lot of fear We see a lot of unknowns and a lot of people just scared and that's its own

I mean, that's why it's called terrorism.

Like, that's its own thing.

It's to make people scared, because then they'll do what you want them to do.

Well, I'm not going to be scared.

I'm going to go after joy.

I'm going to go after community.

I'm going to go after connection.

I'm going to do the things in this amazing state that we call home that we have been doing for years.

And our grandparents and our great grandparents and everything else, helping farmers take care of each other, right?

You and I both grew up in a small, small town.

My grandmother had a farm that I would help with on the weekends.

You know, this is the way it's always been.

And we've just lost our way a little bit.

And we stopped seeing the way that we connect and started seeing what divides us.

And it isn't part of that because of our intake predominantly on the internet, but also television and radio news and newspapers.

What gets clicked, what people at advertisers want to advertise around too often is the negative.

That's what sells, as they say.

And, and, you know, I, I, I firmly believe because I've traveled the state that people, there is also an appetite for, again, not polyamish the world is what rose colored glasses, but just talk about there are good things happening in each of our communities across the state.

I mean, we.

I have fried cheese curds, people.

This is our gift to the world.

Any place, any life cannot be horrible when there is fried cheese curds.

I'm sorry for those who are not, maybe not, are very sensitive.

But you know, we are so lucky to live in such a great time.

As a woman, I see that I have rights that my mom didn't have, that my grandmother didn't have.

And although those rights are being threatened right now, I still have them, and I'm going to use them for good.

And I guess I just want to like, I wanted to come on, you know, Todd and just say that as people are listening and it gets really easy to get just down in the muck during these times, what can you do for good?

What do you have control over?

What, what, where are you putting your time?

Right?

Because if it's, you know, if it's online and you go to bed feeling awful every day or waking up at 3am with your mind spinning about what, what terrible thing are you going to reach tomorrow, step back.

I promise the world's gonna keep on going whether you're reading it five times a day or more, right?

It's gonna keep on moving.

Kira writes, because every day all around this world, wonderful and horrible things will always happen.

They have always existed and they will probably always exist.

What we can change is us.

Every day we have a choice, choose kindness, choose connection, choose love, choose joy.

Kira, I can't think of a better advice than that.

I just think that that's where our happiness is.

I think that that's what they have now scientifically proven, makes us feel good.

And if the world is not gonna give us that, then we have to look for ways to find it, to find that joy in our day, to find that community and connection.

And I think that's how we heal the world.

And I think that's how we even politically change things in the future.

I can't clean it up for radio, but Kira reminds us on her post, stop the ridiculousness.

Let's live like we freaking mean it.

That's so good.

Let's live.

Let's let's grasp it all right, Kira.

Absolutely.

I mean, you know, I luckily grew up through the time of 30 second society, you know.

Tawanda, Nwanda, I think, or,

you

know, Carpe Diem.

This is all we

get.

Carpe Diem sees the day.

Where are you putting your time?

We need to put your time back, buddy.

Kira Saban, you can find all her work at thrivewithkira.com.

Look her up.

She's a fantastic person, great professional.

It can help you out.

Thanks, Kira.

We appreciate your time.

Thanks, Tide.

Stay tuned.

Hour number two is straight ahead.

What's worse?

And also, don't stop believing because Pete Schwabba's in it.

Hour two is...

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.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Alba along with Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

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

Welcome to hour number two of the big program on this Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

It is a great day.

to be Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along for our two.

Let's take a look at another look, Zommerz, for those watching on the stream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twix, whatever, X. Another beautiful day in downtown Madison, as we look at the old Sam Davidson street cam.

Leaves just a tinge of yellow at the top of some of those trees there.

Sun is out.

Get out and touch grass, as the kids say.

Very good.

Many thanks to Kira Saban, Positive Psychology, Midlife Coach for being our guest last hour.

You can find all of our work and get a thrive with Kira.

Thrivewithkira.com.

Some really great reminders, Zomers, that we do have power to control our reaction to life events, to world events, and it's normal to get down, but a little bit of that.

maybe a little more than a little, is up to us to how we react and go forward with it.

And

also, one thing that I think that I really appreciate about Kira is that those are things we need to hear.

And I could see that kind of message still feeling discouraging, coming from somebody else, but from her, it feels empowering, as opposed to being like, oh, here's another thing you have to do in order to feel OK.

It's like, no, you get to do this.

you can be in control of this

because she said before like it is okay to not be okay right and we all get there we all go through those times but i think the what she put out there today and and check out this everything we went through today was on her instagram post kira saban so thrive with kira dot com or kira saban s a b i n check it out really great stuff at the bottom of this hour

We are going to be joined by our colleague, the host of Nightlight with Pete Schwabba, the one, the only Pete Schwabba nator is going to be here and looking for a great discussion.

Sad news this morning.

Great actor, director.

Robert Redford passed away this morning at the age of 81.

I thought it was 89.

89.

Sorry.

Yes.

89.

89 years old.

So I'm going to be talking about the life and times of Robert Redford a little bit later on in this hour.

Eddie, what's worse?

is straight ahead as that as well.

Uh, I want to go here and I had this queued up last week and that we didn't do it for obvious reasons, the news of the day.

And I think it's great to follow up what Kira talked with us about last hour that we have choices.

And this might come from an unlikely place, but I want hope you continue to listen.

This is from awful announcing.

It's a great website, by the way.

Deals with broadcasting and not just radio but all broadcasting But it's also like things that appear on television and they need a great interview and domers Maybe you can help me if it's on the on the clip where exactly this is from and who's interviewing Jim Nance is a podcast

Yeah, it's Jimmy Trayna.

Thank you and it is Si media or si media.

I'm not familiar like sports illustrated.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Got it.

It's Jimmy who again?

Jimmy Trayna, T-R-A-I-N-A, interviewing Jim Nance.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Well, make sure we get the attribution in there.

And we're going to pick it up, and Jimmy Trayna is going to set this up.

And he's talking to Jim Nance, who celebrates his 40th year in broadcasting.

We're the great play-of-the-play announcers of all time, in my opinion, at CBS.

And talking with Jim Nance about what's changed in this industry, and it gets into, do we really all need a hot...

take.

And I think it's just a good reminder from a sports point of view that when things happen in our lives in the world, we don't always need to rush to our cell phones, our smart devices and do a hot take.

Here is Jimmy Trena talking with the sports broadcasting legend, Jim Nance.

Three, I want to get your take on something I read recently and then I'm going to end with a ridiculous question.

I want to get you to take on this because I saw this.

This comes from John Oran's newsletter.

Um, he spoke to Torrico.

Torrico had an interesting comment about basically kids, I don't know if kids is the right word, but younger people today don't really aspire.

to be play-by-play people.

They're looking more at the hot take stuff.

Let me, I'll read you what Tarikos quote is here.

Again, this is in John O'Rant's newsletter on puck.

I do notice when I go back to school now, you find more of the students who are interested in being hosts and opinion makers, and less who are interested in being play-by-play announcers.

The celebrity factor becomes the magnet, and the idea of coming through the ranks is not there as often as it once was, at least in some of the students I see.

What has been your experience with that?

You think Mike's onto something there?

I think he's got an accurate read on it, Jimmy.

I really do think that it speaks to the power of social media, hot takes, creating conversation, and they think that's the business and they think that's what they want to get into.

I'm sure that Mike also gets a tremendous amount of mail.

and inquiries from kids that are in high school or in college, I'm fielded all the time.

And it's one of the honors of my life because I used to be one of those kids that was writing letters in my time.

But most of them, when I try to distill what it is they want to do, I say most of them, not all of them, but I would say it's over 50%.

They want to be famous.

They want to be on TV.

They want people to hear them.

And I'm I'm gonna go against the grain here.

I'm I'm sure Mike's wired the exact same way that was never the hook It was the story and the ability to be a storyteller that was the draw It had nothing to do with trying to get your face out there your name out there or say something profound

It's just different.

It speaks to the way we work today.

Everybody's got a hot take on everything.

And it's okay not to have a hot take on everything.

People feel like they're incomplete if they're not able to converse and have something really sharp and edgy to say.

It doesn't have to be that way.

But I do think business is losing out on...

having a reservoir of play by play guys because everybody is drawn to the idea of being on camera.

Right.

Jim Nance on SI Sports Sports Illustrated and talking to Jimmy Trina there on that podcast.

And he just nailed it, in my opinion.

If you're watching on the stream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, X, Twix, right behind me is my name, literally in lights, or at least a screen that's lit up.

The Todd Allball Show.

This is why I'm bad at self-promotion I don't care that much about promoting myself.

I Love having this show every day It's a huge honor and responsibility Because what Jim Nams just said and insiders Correct me on the air if I'm wrong.

Have I not told you that the best shows are when I say the least in my opinion?

I mean, yeah, that's that

There have been a few things you've said that make the best shows and that is one of them when you have people who know what they're talking about and you let them get on a roll and Share a story and tell a story.

That's one of

them.

Yeah, I and and that's why I loved having people like Kira Sabanon That's why I love that Pete Schwab is gonna be on I like being the the traffic cop so to speak

that you give them the wave and the green light, come on, let's, okay, and then a yield, we're getting close to the break and gotta stop here.

I love the storytelling part, like Jim Nance said.

I mean, sure, of course, I mean, it's fun to come on and give your opinion, but that's not what drives me.

And you either.

It's the opportunity to help tell other people's stories.

And with that, my opinion, is a huge responsibility, right?

To get it right.

And I realize it's from a sports angle and gym dance being longtime play-by-play guy.

But I think it's applicable to everything else.

That so many, particularly, I'll say it, young people, they want to be famous.

And they're, unfortunately, in my opinion, have been people who have made a lot of money, think of the Kardashians.

They're famous for being famous.

I'm not sure they have any other real talent.

And so it's like being an NFL player, right?

It's less than 1% will end up there making a living.

But everybody, not everybody, but a lot of young athletes, you know, I want to be the NFL.

Brady, you and I talked about that last weekend, going to the Brewers game together when he talks to kids in schools.

And he tries his best to say,

I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to play in the National Football League.

But here's what else that you don't know about me that I'm equally or more proud of to be a husband, to be a dad, to be a friend, to work in my community.

And it's a great reminder what Nancy just said there to me.

And I hope the rest of you find it helpful that we don't all need to rush out and have a hot take on everything.

Getting the most clicks the most likes having your voice out there Sometimes your better served is by great math teacher Andy Speese likes to say pause and reflect pause and reflect 17 now past the hour of three o'clock time once again for what's worse.

Let's go

Time to look again for what's worse.

Nothing to win, no prize money involved, but it is your chance to have your voice heard.

Across all 10 news talk sports stations of the Civic Media Radio Network.

All right.

This is good because I've said this earlier this year.

I broke down and bought a subscription to FanDuel because I wanted to watch the last two and a half months and I'm not sorry.

I did, by the way.

Listen to some of the games on the Milwaukee Brewers radio network on some of our fine affiliates, but I also like to watch it so timely timely indeed the category today what's worse subscriptions or purchase subscription or purchase 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 the example

Maybe maybe my fan dual one wasn't a great example,

but that's only a subscription

only a subscription But the example is for those that still use Microsoft You can purchase Microsoft 365 a software program has like a word in it and excel and whatever Or you can subscribe Or you can be an idiot like Todd and do both

I purchased a long time ago, and then it's like when I got my new computer a couple years ago, it's like, oh, let's run out, but you can do a subscription, and so I'm like, fine.

Oh, well, I thought you meant you did both simultaneously,

like you bought it, and then also subscribed.

But I feel like I didn't have to subscribe it, because I purchased, I don't know, I can't figure any of those things out.

Well, eventually, they only come with so many updates when you buy it.

Thank you for defending me.

No,

that

makes perfect sense.

What's worse, subscription or purchase?

eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two pj watching on youtube says subscriptions are worse because in the long run it's more expensive thank you pj appreciate that that can be very true right it's like financing something but you might not be able to afford the big thing all all up front so if you want it now it's cheaper to subscribe but you're gonna pay more money over the long term

Subscription or purchase?

What's worse?

855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, or text us on the Civic Media app, or hit us up on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.

We'll come back as well as questions and more on the other side of the all-ball show on the Civic Media.

Ready

Network.

I wanna see

you peeka.

You peeka.

You peeka.

You peeka.

I wanna see you peeka.

You peeka.

Well, yes, if I wanted to watch him I had to I was forced to subscribe to peacock the streaming service of NBC By the way, a nice note.

Thank you very much Ardith who is watching on Facebook Ardith.

I was talking earlier about You know

We come along, we try to tell stories of our guests.

It's not about me, it's about our guests.

Ardeth says, watch it on Facebook, says, I think you bend over backwards to compliment and give promotion to all of your guests.

It's one of the reasons I listen and watch your programs.

Please don't change.

Well, thank you, Ardeth.

That's very kind.

I had good teachers, good parents, good grandparents, tried to impart upon me to be respectful to others and lift others up.

So I don't always meet that.

But if I do, it's because of them.

So thanks, Ardeth.

What's worse?

Question this day.

Subscription or purchase?

Subscription or purchase?

What's worse?

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

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

Let's go quickly to Kurt in Madison on WMDX.

Kurt subscription or purchase?

What's worse?

Well, I'm going to have to say subscription and I'll qualify it like this.

I'm sure everybody's experienced what I'm going to talk about and that is you find something you want to try and use, sign up for it, and by default, you're subscribed.

You

have to go out of your way

to hunt them down, jump through hurdles and canyons and caves to kill it.

Yes, I still am getting things in my email from the Atlanta Falcons.

What Brady Ewing was drafted by the Falcons.

I don't care about the Falcons anymore, but I still get this crap.

You're 100% right, Kurt.

Thank you very much.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2, Zomers.

Have you tried to unsubscribe?

I think, yes, before I just, I don't know, I'm not hitting the right buttons.

I'll have to pick your brain.

I just wanted to ask because I know I've...

Been like, wow, this is so annoying.

I get this every day.

And then I went in and unsubscribed.

And I was like, wow, I should have done this years ago.

Subscription or purchase, what's worse?

Let's go to the phone lines.

Jimmy in Madison on MDX.

Jimmy, subscription or purchase, what's worse?

I think it depends, but Kurt did hit it on the nail.

But OK, so I come from the days where back in the day, I was a web designer.

I kept all of my stuff on hard drives.

All right.

If I lost those hard drives, I lost a lot of my product if I didn't have it backed up.

But what happens with a lot of people is they have this huge collection of personal music.

They have it on a hard drive and then it gets killed.

So what I'm saying is, for instance, I'm an iTunes subscriber.

I think it's cool to let them store my music and I'll pay them to store my music and keep it safe.

That's the way I have to look at it to justify.

But

you don't

own it.

I don't own it, but I can download it anytime.

And I'm in the

same boat.

I'm not criticizing, by the way, because I'm in the same exact position.

I'm in the same position.

They make it extremely difficult sometimes to do that.

Yes.

And when you go to unsubscribe, I hate it when they say,

Okay, what is your password?

Oh,

I've

got to

go

I've got

to go dig deeper.

So

you're speaking my

language

You're speaking my I wish I had more time up against the clock.

Thanks, Jimmy We appreciate the listenership of the call 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Dolores listing in Madison on WM DX Dolores subscription or purchase what's worse

I say subscriptions because you forget when you have it and you keep paying and paying and overpaying especially those gem subscriptions you know you pay you go the first month to month and then you keep paying anyways but I wanted to tell you also about a spectrum they have a lot of um you can have access to pclack for free through the spectrum app the spectrum services that you have

Yes, you have a spectrum, you have access to Disney, a better amount, holo, holo, nine yards.

We don't have time right now.

If you're a new listener to the show, I am at war with Spectrum.

It's going on two years.

And if you can help me end my war, I would love it.

I don't have time, but through no fault of my own, in my opinion, I can't get on it.

It's a dreadful cycle, but thank you for the call.

A callback.

If you work for them, let me know, because I'd love some help.

Andy, I want a date on.

You understand?

I want to end my war with Spectrum.

What's worse?

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse?

Subscription or purchase.

Micah, Brandon.

listener in Madison on MTX says, neither when it comes to adult websites.

I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.

Len in Madison says, I believe subscriptions are worse.

Subscriptions usually will have quote unquote strings attached, many of which you may not even be aware

of.

Yeah, along that note on YouTube.

Cam and Appleton says, for higher purchases of electronics, they're writing into the user agreements that they can shut off your device because you don't truly own it anymore.

Yeah, I know Tesla and some other electronic cars were doing like, if you want your seat heaters, you can pay a monthly subscription.

Otherwise, we just won't let you use it, even though it's in your car.

Brett in Brown Deer at AUK says, I like a purchase better because I'm done paying efforts of purchase and subscriptions are worse when they become a hassle to cancel them.

Megan some prairie subscriptions are awful not everything needs to be a dang subscription They're easy to lose track of if people end up losing money more more money than if they just buy the thing outright Matt and Middleton says I think the subscription are worse It's like insurance as they will always get more money out of the deal than the worth of the product like PJ said

How about that?

Also, our friend Jerry Perry, Jeff Perry, some subscriptions are worse.

I hate them.

I avoid subscriptions if at all possible.

Often, if subscription is the only option available, I will forego the transaction all together.

Zombers, what's worse?

Jeff's not alone on that one.

I mean, yeah, I think we don't have time to get into it.

There are reasons where subscriptions can work, but nowadays everything is a subscription.

It's getting ridiculous and it costs so much money for stuff that's generally a worse product.

I think subscriptions are worse.

This is a good time to remind you subscribe to the Civic Media

newsletter.

That's

free.

We would love to have you do that.

Stick around.

We're going to talk about the life and times of Robert Redford with our friend Pete Schwabba of Nightlight on the other side.

Farmed News is next.

This is the all-ball show of the Civic Media, Brandon

Hiller.

Welcome back to the Tell All About Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

35 now past the hour of three o'clock on Tuesdays, September 16th, the iconic song, the theme song there from the great movie The Sting, one of those movies that made Robert Redford an icon.

His family, his agent announced that Robert Redford passed away this morning.

at the age of 89, the Academy Award winning actor and director, one of the biggest movie stars to ever grace the screen in whose startingly, startingly magnetic charisma in films such as Butch Cassidy, The Sundance Kid, The Way We Were, and The Sting made him the icon that he was.

Barbara Streisand, who starred alongside Redford, the 1973 romantic drama, The Way We Were, said the Hollywood legend who was quote,

one of the finest actors ever, unquote, in a tribute today on social media.

Here to talk about the life, the times of Robert Redford, what he meant to the world of entertainment, to movies, the one, the only, the guy that means a lot to us, to me personally, here, our entertainment guy.

You can hear him every evening on Night Light from six until eight with Pete Schwabba joining us via StreamYard, the one, the only Pete Schwabba, Pete, how are you?

I'm well.

Is that all I get for the opening though?

Do you want more?

We can gin it up a little bit.

I'm well, buddy.

How are you?

Great to be here.

Well, now that you're here, it's great.

I appreciate you doing this on short notice.

Obviously, we don't know when these things are going to happen.

And I appreciate you being available because, you know, I could sit here and read news stories on it and give my personal reflections.

But what I love about this is for those that

I can't imagine who, but might not know your background a little bit.

Share with people a little bit.

You're not just a radio host for us, but you've been an entertainment and film industry a long time.

Tell people the lens you're looking at this through.

You know, it's interesting, Todd.

Like I've been a writer and I lived in LA for years and sold some movies.

And so I see what goes into the process.

And it makes me when a guy like Robert Redford dies.

at 89.

I mean, that's a great run, but it is really the end of an era.

And every time one of these Hollywood kind of tightens passes away, I kind of, I think, who's next?

Who's going to fill those shoes?

Ryan Reynolds?

No.

You know, maybe Leo DiCaprio.

He was just such an old school guy.

His private life was pretty private, a lot like Paul Newman.

He just made great

films and that's not by accident because what I just said like going through the process and you see how, you know, I had one script that got mucked up.

Everyone had good intentions, but they did too much.

There were like too many cooks in the kitchen and to do what Redford did and make all those great films like Paul Newman or even a Tom Cruise, that just shows how smart they are and how savvy they are about the material and what they're choosing.

He was a legend, you know.

One of the things I learned today and reading

the great CBS, the Sunday morning folks, they just do really great.

I think it covering entertainment and they have a couple of great pieces out today.

I was reading one of them.

You probably already knew this.

I didn't until I read it this morning.

But, you know, one of the one maybe is most popular in terms of just general people, but maybe not.

Butch Cassidy, the Sundance kid that that the studio.

did not want to have anything to do with him because he was young and fairly unknown and in fact it was Paul Newman who was what 11 years his senior who had to go to bat for him and then Redford repaid that later on

Yeah, that's a great story.

I heard that years ago and I think it's I mean, it's a testament to his talent But you know, I think the studio tends to always give pushback when someone is unproven

And especially if they're willing to spend the money to get someone with a name next to Paul Newman.

But yeah, I think at that point, he had only done maybe the way we were.

And that was kind of a romantic drama.

So I could see the studio side.

But I love when I hear stories about how someone sticks up for someone and says, this guy's got to be a guy.

And that more or less kind of launched him onto the scene and started his long career.

And then later,

fast forward number of years, it was Redford.

that went to bat the studio and said, no, I want Paul Newman in the sting because because it was almost like, well, maybe he's too old, you know, now whatever.

And it was Redford that got Paul Newman in the sting later on.

So I

did not know that that's fascinating.

And you know what's interesting?

I always the sting is one of my favorite movies to play the music, the Scott Chaplin music.

I grew up listening to my grandma and my dad play the entertainer on the piano.

It's always been some of my favorite music.

And when I saw that movie,

for the first time, I just I felt so in love with all elements of moviemaking, you know, the sets, the acting, the music, the writing.

And my one issue with that movie, and it was totally nitpicky, was this handsome blonde guy from the streets of Chicago.

I'm like, because Paul Newman, you kind of buy and Henry Gondorf and all these great characters.

But like, I don't know, this he looked like he was born in Santa Monica.

He is a California kid.

So that to me I had to kind of suspend my disbelief at 15, but I did because he's such a good actor and very quickly you forget and you just lose yourself in his performance, you know.

I know you said Zahmer has a couple of clips here, obviously kind of hard over radio.

We're going to still play him.

First one is from the way we were.

You want to set this up?

Yeah, this is Barbara Streisand running out.

She's got all these groceries and It's been years since I've seen the film but this is an iconic scene where she's telling him why they have to hang out together and he's in uniform I think just released from the service and She it kind of speaks for itself, but it's just their quirky flirtatious ways that are so great on the big screen Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand in the way we were

I wasn't sure when you'd be home.

How are you?

I don't know when I'll be back.

Could you leave a key or...

No, you can't, you can't, you can't.

I've got steaks and baked potatoes and sour cream and chives and salad and fresh baked pie.

I would have made a pot roast.

I make a terrific pot roast, but I didn't know whether you ever had pot roast or whether you like pot roast.

I mean, anyway, there wasn't time because it should be made the day before, so I got steaks with all my ration stamps.

And you must be hungry because, I mean, with all the hotel hunting, you couldn't have had time to eat or anything.

I mean, you can't go yet.

You've got to stay for supper.

That's all there is to it.

We're kind of pie

Barbara Streisand Robert Redford Satan from the way we were Redford passed away at the age of 89 Redford and and Streisand For my money peach wabba is there a more dynamic couple on the screen?

No, they were great.

I mean I you know, I didn't really appreciate that movie or barefoot in the park or like until I got older I just that wasn't my type of movie, but then I just

kind of fell in love with the pairing.

I mean, Barbara Streisand is great.

And Robert Redford is so natural on camera that, yeah, they were great too.

No question.

Other clip that you sent, the film that maybe made Robert Redford was Butch Castee, The Sundance Kid with Paul Newman, one of those earlier films there is the scene set it up for

us, Pete Schwabber.

This is the two of them pinned in there on the side of a mountain.

And they think the jig is up, basically, and they're trying to figure out

if they're gonna fight or flight and they don't have many options they're about a hundred feet up on a cliff and uh it's just Robert Redford and Paul Newman at their

best.

No, it'll be okay.

If the water's deep enough, we don't get squished to death.

They'll never follow us.

How do you know?

Would you make a jump like that and you didn't have to?

I have to, and I'm not gonna.

Well, we got to.

Otherwise, we're dead.

They're just gonna have to go back down the same way they come.

Come on.

Just one clear shot.

That's all I want.

Come on.

We got to.

Get away from me.

Why?

I want to fight them.

They'll kill us.

Maybe.

You want to die?

Do you?

All right.

I'll jump first.

Nope.

Then you jump first.

No, I said.

What's the matter with you?

I can't swim.

Why are you crazy?

The fall will probably kill you.

Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford, who passed away at the age of 89, discuss it with Pete Schwab, a host of Nightlight.

Yeah, he was that's a great scene and so Paul Newman like to me He's one of my maybe all-time favorite silver screen idols so to speak but a great scene and a great movie I rewatched that about four years ago.

Maybe and it's kind of funny Todd There's a scene in the middle of the movie and I can't remember the name of the actress But they play raindrops keep falling on my head and Paul Newman is just riding around on a horse.

It's like the only song

But it works, you know, it's