We wanted to share the first episode of an exciting new project from The Corner Table podcast that is co-hosted by Cap Times food editor Lindsay Christians and Cap times contributor Chris Lay.

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When quarantine kicked in last spring, we refocused The Corner Table to examine and document effects the pandemic was having across so many facets of food service, cocktails, grocery stores, and local farmers markets.

Now as we emerge, we’re getting ready to close the book on that dismal chapter. 

We decided to take a deep dive into what it means to reopen a restaurant that’s been closed for over a year, and to illustrate that process we decided to focus on one of our shared favorite places in town: Sardine.

For this first episode, we interviewed Sardine's co-owners John Gadau and Phillip Hurley about what it was like to shut down for over a year, their discussions with employees and the factors they weighed during the summer and fall. How were they feeling? What was the financial impact? Where are they now?

In future episodes we’ll sit in on staff meetings and check in with kitchen staff and servers to find out what their COVID year was like. We’ll take you to Sardine on opening day, and we’ll be looking forward to what dining could look like as we emerge, slowly and as safely as we can, from this dining drought.

We are extremely excited about this, so make sure you’re subscribed for all the future installments that will be coming out over the next several weeks.

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We're back! With epidemiologist and Madsplainers regular Malia Jones! If you listen to this podcast regularly, you’ve probably heard Malia talk about the pandemic before. Now, halfway through the school year, Madison's public schools again face the big decision: remain virtual or return some students for in-person learning in late January. As the mom of two school-age kids, Malia has, like so many of you, been living through the special hell that is virtual school, and we thought she'd be just the right person to talk us through what it means to be making this decision just as the first vaccines are rolling out in Wisconsin. 

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Listeners, we've got some news. We'll start with the bad: This is the last episode of the Madsplainers, at least for the time being, as Abby and Natalie shift gears to focus full-time on reporting. We've loved making this show, and we hope you've loved it too, and we hope to keep Madsplainin' the answers to your questions through our reporting. Now the good news: We got a favorite and frequent guest, Cap Times K-12 education reporter Scott Girard, to come back for one more interview. This week, he explains how and why Madison's public schools are overhauling the way they teach children to read, and why that's giving hope to some of the folks most concerned about the district's longstanding racial disparities. 

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When protests broke out across the country this summer in response to the police killing of George Floyd, some argued that the way the police responded to the protests only made things worse. This week on the podcast, reporter Clara Neupert explains what we know about how policing can change protests, and how Madison — at least at one point — offered what seemed like a better way. Clara is a reporting fellow with Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit investigative news outlet that lets outlets like the Cap Times publish its work for free. 

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The COVID pandemic has taken an especially fierce toll on Madison’s Latinos, who have disproportionate infection and hospitalization rates and fewer safety nets. But for every way this virus and its fallout have unevenly hit them, they've punched back, working together to protect themselves and keep their businesses afloat. This week on the podcast, reporter and Madsplainers co-host Natalie Yahr explains why Latinos have faced heightened risk, and how they're fighting back. 

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Across the country, local officials faced an extraordinary challenge this year: How to allow Americans to cast ballots in the November election without exacerbating the ongoing pandemic or overwhelming the postal system. That meant changing everything from how ballots were collected to how polling places worked. But in Madison, the record voter turnout and quick counting process suggest success. On this episode, Abby and Natalie talk with Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl and Jennifer Haar, a member of the city’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiatives' Core Team, which conducted an equity analysis of the April election, about what worked in November, what’s still left to fix, and what changes may stick post-pandemic.

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It's no secret that Madison doesn't have enough housing for its low-income residents, and as the city grows and rents rise, the need is only growing — to say nothing of the challenges posed by a pandemic that's put many out of work. This week on the podcast, Cap Times metro reporter Nicholas Garton explains why so many of Madison's affordable housing developments have left low-income renters behind — and what the city and local nonprofits are trying next.

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Before the coronavirus pandemic, most Americans probably didn't spend a lot of time thinking about how to avoid getting a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening disease. But as an environmental services technician at University Hospital, tasked with cleaning and sanitizing everything from patient rooms to nurses' stations, Dwayne Collins has spent years doing exactly that. This week on the podcast, Cap Times investigative reporter Katelyn Ferral joins Dwayne as he makes his rounds in one of the hospital's COVID wards, learning about he keeps himself and his family safe, and why the job is about way more than cleaning.

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When the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Wisconsin in spring, many restaurant owners, like many of us, thought maybe things would go back to normal in a couple months. Boy, were we all wrong. As winter sets in and the pandemic continues to rage in Wisconsin, Madison area restaurants that have fought to survive this long are up against a whole new set of challenges, since eating outdoors in January is sure to be an acquired taste. This week on the podcast, we talk with food editor Lindsay Christians, who's been following Madison area restaurants through their many adaptations, to find out what local eateries are trying next — and what it'll take for them to make it through the winter. 

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In the lead-up to Election Day, all eyes are on Wisconsin, a key battleground state, and Cap Times reporters have been digging into the various factors that might affect the outcome to help Dane County residents know what to expect. This week on the podcast, city and county government reporter Abigail Becker explains how Madison signed up a record number of poll workers, investigative reporter Katelyn Ferral breaks down the candidates' ad strategies and politics reporter Briana Reilly discusses what she'll be watching for on election night. 

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