The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show

Becky Nichols, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly District 53 (Menasha and Neenah), joins Dr. Kristin Lyerly two months after the EF-3 Fox Valley tornado tore the roof off her home. She talks about the storm, her 12 years on the Menasha city council, the attack ads, school funding and property taxes, and how to help before the November 3 election.

Volunteer, donate, or learn more about Becky:

CHAPTERS

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

Mitchell Berman is an ER nurse, a hunter, a girl dad, and the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District. He's taking on Rep. Bryan Steil on November 3. I sat down with him for a conversation that got personal real quick.

Mitchell has worked in the ER for almost two decades, eleven of those years at the VA. He's also a hunter, a fisherman, a small-town Wisconsinite, and a hard-fought girl dad. We talk about growing up in a working-class family, becoming the first in his family to graduate college, and why he left a job he loved to run for Congress.

He also shares a very personal story about his family's IVF journey. After a recent embryo transfer didn't result in a viable pregnancy, his doctor asked whether they wanted the prescription to manage the miscarriage sent to a pharmacy in Illinois, since some Wisconsin pharmacists refuse to fill it. No family should have to make that call in the middle of a loss, but many do. I'm grateful he was willing to talk about it.

The race is getting attention, too. Mitchell was just added to the Red to Blue list, his internal polling has him two points ahead of Steil once voters hear positive bios of both candidates, and he says lifetime Republicans are telling him they'll vote for him. In other words, he can flip this seat, which means that Congress would gain a health care professional at a time when health care is in crisis and about to get much worse.

Learn more and help him get the word out at bermanforcongress.com.

Chapters:

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

Allie Phillips was denied a medically necessary abortion in Tennessee after learning her daughter wouldn't survive — so she flew to New York to get the care her state wouldn't allow. She told her story on TikTok, went viral, became a plaintiff in a multi-state lawsuit against abortion bans, appeared in the HBO Max documentary Perilous Passage: Birth in America, and is now running for Tennessee's State House District 75. And there might be a new movie about her on the way, too.

In this conversation, Allie and Dr. Kristin Lyerly — who appear together in Perilous Passage: Birth in America — talk about her abortion ban story, what she learned from her 2024 campaign loss, why she's running again in 2026, and what's actually at stake for reproductive rights and so much more in Tennessee this November.

In this episode:

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

A Wisconsin coal plant that was supposed to be retired got $19 million in federal taxpayer dollars to keep running — and its dangerous emissions nearly doubled in 2025.

In this episode, I'm joined by Brittany Keyes, Clean Air Policy Manager for Healthy Climate Wisconsin, to break down what's really happening at the Columbia Energy Center in Pardeeville, Wisconsin — and why it matters for every family in this state.

The Columbia Energy Center was scheduled to close. Instead, the Trump administration used the Defense Production Act to funnel $19 million to keep it burning. DNR data shows the plant's emissions skyrocketed in 2025 — and EPA modeling links it to 2,600 asthma attacks, 1,200 missed school days, and at least four premature deaths every single year in Wisconsin. On top of that, Wisconsin doesn't even have coal. We import it. And ratepayers are being asked to foot the bill.

This is not just an energy story. It is a public health crisis.

Find Brittany Keyes and Healthy Climate Wisconsin:

healthyclimatewi.org

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Substack: drkristinlyerly.substack.com

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

What happened to high-risk pregnancy care after Dobbs?

Dr. David Hackney — a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and author of Impossible Choices — joins me to explain how abortion bans are changing decisions around preeclampsia, fetal anomalies, and pregnancy complications for doctors and patients across the country.

David’s new book, Impossible Choices: A Physician’s Guidance on High-Risk Pregnancy in a World Without Roe, is out now from MIT Press. Drawing on real cases — preeclampsia, ruptured membranes, fetal anomalies, cancer during pregnancy — he lays out exactly what’s changed for patients and physicians navigating high-risk pregnancy in banned and restricted states, and what it’s actually cost doctors to keep speaking out.

We get into the stories, the legal mechanics of “exceptions” that don’t work like you might think they do, and what it’s really like to be a physician-advocate in this moment.

Get Impossible Choices: A Physician’s Guidance on High-Risk Pregnancy in a World Without Roe at bookstore.org, amazon.com, and your local bookseller.

Instagram: @davidnhackney

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

Crowley Unfiltered:

In this episode, we get into:

Data Centers — Tom Tiffany’s ads call David “Data Center David,” but Tiffany voted in Congress for a 10-year ban on states regulating AI companies at all, and has never introduced a single bill regulating data centers himself. We dig into what David’s actual policy is, how it affects rural Wisconsin communities weighing new data center proposals, and whether the attacks hold up.

Healthcare & Reproductive Rights — Tiffany’s healthcare pitch is built around “choice, competition, and transparency.” But transparency doesn’t help you if you’ve already lost your coverage. We talk about Medicaid cuts that will affect hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites, David’s plan to expand BadgerCare and take his “No Wrong Door” care model statewide, and — as someone who was the named plaintiff in Kaul v. Urmanski, the case that restored abortion access in Wisconsin — I ask David directly where he stands.

Affordability — David’s “Badger Basics” plan tackles housing costs, a proposed $20 minimum wage, repealing Act 10, and legalizing marijuana as a new revenue source. We break down what’s actually in the plan and whether it can deliver for working families.

Plus — a few personal, unscripted moments from our time together that I’ll be sharing separately as shorts, so keep an eye out for those.

Learn more about David Crowley’s campaign for Wisconsin Governor:

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

The Green Bay Packers are the only fan-owned team in professional sports, and once you understand why, you understand a lot about the people of Wisconsin.

In this episode, I sit down with Outagamie County Executive and author Tom Nelson to talk about his new book, The Green and Gold Standard: A People’s History of the Green Bay Packers, out September 1st from Triumph Books.

Tom didn’t open his book with Curly Lambeau or Vince Lombardi. He opened it with Steve Vander Loop, the janitor at his dad’s school who had season tickets and shared them with a kid who’d go on to write the definitive history of this team. That choice tells you everything about the book Tom set out to write: not a highlight reel, but a story about the people who built, grew, and sustained a community unlike any other.

We talk about the fan-ownership structure the NFL later banned everywhere else in the league, because it worked too well to allow anywhere but Green Bay. We talk about Reggie White, who became the named face of the fight for NFL free agency, and how that fight reshaped the entire economics of the sport. And we talk about the chapter Tom calls “Reckoning,” which opens just four days after a Super Bowl win, right as Act 10 was tearing this state apart politically.

This book covers a lot of years, but at its heart, it’s about how a football team can hold a place together when almost nothing else does.

Tom’s foreword was written by the late Bob Harlan, the former Packers president, just months before he passed. Bob called it the book that finally told the team’s whole story “in one sitting.” I think he was right.

Pre-order The Green and Gold Standard on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637278373?

Of course we always recommend supporting your local bookstore, too.

Tom Nelson is the Outagamie County Executive and author of Wrecked: The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy and One Day Stronger: How One Union Local Saved a Mill and Changed an Industry.

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has taken on the Trump administration in more than 60 lawsuits — and he’s not done.

Now running for a third term in a rematch against Eric Toney, Kaul sits down with Dr. Kristin Lyerly to talk about the fake electors case, the fight to protect abortion access in Wisconsin, and why this election matters more than ever — including the sharp contrast between the two candidates’ records. Toney has built his campaign around “public safety over politics,” but violent crime in his own county has risen under his watch as DA even as statewide violent crime has dropped roughly 20% under Kaul. He’s also been uncompromising in his anti-abortion position, standing in stark contrast to Kaul’s record on reproductive rights.

In this episode:

Josh Kaul’s path to law and public service

Learn more / support the campaign: https://joshkaul.org

Follow AG Josh Kaul: X | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

On March 22, 2020, Annie Sterle checked into the hospital to have her baby boy. Hours later, she experienced an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) — one of the rarest and most catastrophic complications in all of obstetrics. She survived. But surviving was only the beginning.

Annie spent 24 days separated from the son she nearly died giving birth to. What followed was a long, painful road that most people never see: PTSD, attachment struggles, and a recovery that tested her, her husband Tony, and their entire family in ways that went far beyond the physical. The trauma didn’t end when she left the hospital. In many ways, that’s when it started.

As an OB-GYN, I’ve trained for AFE. I’ve drilled for it. I’ve lost sleep over it. I had even heard Annie’s story firsthand from the colleague who saved her life — before Annie and I ever met. Hearing it directly from her was something else entirely.

In this episode, Annie and I talk about what AFE actually is, what happened in that delivery room, and what the long road back really looked like — physically, emotionally, and for her whole family. We talk about PTSD after childbirth, the bond between a mother and a baby interrupted by catastrophe, and what it takes to find your way back to each other. And we talk about what she wants every pregnant person, family member, and healthcare provider to know — because awareness and compassionate care change outcomes.

We also talk about her documentary, 24 Days Without You — a clinical education film now being used in hospitals, nursing schools, and grand rounds across the country — and the AFE Foundation, the leading support and research organization for families and clinicians impacted by AFE.

If you’ve been pregnant, love someone who has, or care for patients who do — this episode is for you.

Resources mentioned:

Annie Sterle & 24 Days Without You:

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly

Wisconsin’s state legislature has zero doctors. Zero.

Dr. Gillian Battino is done watching that be true. A retired radiologist who spent over 20 years caring for patients in Wausau, Marshfield, and Madison — and a mother of six — she’s running as a Democrat for Wisconsin’s 29th State Senate District — a race just targeted by the Wisconsin Senate Democratic Campaign Committee as a top priority for 2026.

I sat down with Gillian for an honest conversation about what she saw in her exam rooms that politicians never will, why Central Wisconsin families are struggling in ways Madison isn’t fixing, and what happens when a doctor finally decides the only way to heal a broken system is to get inside it.

We go deep on:

Learn more & get involved: www.battinoforwisconsin.com

The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show brings you honest, unfiltered conversations at the intersection of medicine, politics, and the fight to build a healthcare system that actually works. New episodes on YouTube, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you never miss one.

Follow Dr. Lyerly:

Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly