The Recombobulation Area

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Nine of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is Nicole Otto. Nicole is a mental health counselor who works with children. In this episode, LuAnn and Nicole talked about some of the difficult realities young people face when it comes to challenges with mental health. 

There’s a great quote that they reference that’s actually come up more than once in this podcast series. It’s from Desmond Tutu and the quote is this:

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

* Episode Eight with change makers in southwestern Milwaukee County

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

One of the most important pieces of legislation impacting Milwaukee and Wisconsin is currently working its way through the Capitol in Madison. That is the bill on shared revenue and the relationship between state government and local government in Wisconsin. The bill introduced by Assembly Republicans is big and messy and complicated and approaches change to the state’s broken shared revenue system very differently than what Gov. Tony Evers proposed as part of his budget earlier this year. 

At The Recombobulation Area, we’ve been working on learning more about this bill and what it would mean, and Marquette professor Phil Rocco has now written three installments of a series breaking down the bill and how things would change for local communities across Wisconsin. He joins us today on the podcast.

But if you missed those, read them here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Eight of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Tom Spehert and Chris Baumgart. 

In this episode, LuAnn talks with Tom and Chris about organizing and making change in southwestern Milwaukee County. They also talked about the work LuAnn and Chris are doing to address accessibility concerns at the Hales Corners Library. 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

* Episode Seven with The PerSisters

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Last night on 620 WTMJ, I guest hosted WTMJ Nights!

We started the show talking about the Bucks firing head coach Mike Budenholzer — news that happened less than an hour before the show started!

Then, Tricia Peterson and Renae Henning of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) joined to talk about the Child Care Counts program and why it’s so important that funding to extend the life of this program is in the state budget. So far, it has made it (even as more than 540 other items were cut), but its future remains uncertain.

Then, we talked about the Stadium Freeway. Next week in Milwaukee, the first public involvement meeting for reimagining State Highway 175 will be held at the Washington Park Senior Center on Thursday, May 11, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Learn more about that meeting and WisDOT’s plans here. You can even go right to an interactive map to share comments on the project online.

And here’s what we wrote about this reimagining project when it was announced:

And here’s our (award-winning!) opinion column from 2021 on why we should tear down the Stadium Freeway.

As part of that conversation, we were joined in studio by County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who represents the district.

Burgelis was also at yesterday’s public hearing in Madison on the shared revenue bill, where he testified in committee, so we discussed that news, too.

The full show is also available at 620 WTMJ here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Seven of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by The PerSisters. The Persisters is a group of women that got involved in political action following the 2016 election and the Women’s March. They started the PerSisters with a few women in Wauwatosa and the group has now grown to a community of hundreds. Now, they meet every Friday and celebrate every new member’s first time making a call to their U.S. Senator. 

The leaders of the group, Lisa Williams and Cheryl Juech — who are actually real life sisters themselves — joined LuAnn for a terrific discussion on how to take action in your community.

“The thing about hopelessness is, it’s easy to do nothing. Hope means there’s work to do,” said Cheryl Juech, adding, “When the sun rises, so does the hope.”

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

* Episode Six with the “Grandma Brigade”

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Six of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by the “Grandma brigade.” That would be JoAnn Stasiewicz and Jean Parulski.

Jean and Joann were the first people that LuAnn called when she decided to run for State Assembly last year, and they have been getting together to talk about politics and taking action for years. In this podcast, they talked about their paths to getting involved in politics, last year’s campaign, getting involved in school board races in Wauwatosa in the Spring Election, flipping Hales Corners for Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz, and much more. 

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

* Episode Five with Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The race for Wisconsin Supreme Court happened a couple weeks ago now, but since it was such a big deal for the future of politics in this state, there’s a whole lot for us to still be talking about.

As we said over and over again in the months prior to this election, you cannot overstate the importance of this race. The ramifications for the victory for liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz, flipping the ideological balance of power on the state’s highest court, are going to be profound. 

So, as we continue to recombobulate over these massively important election results, we were joined by Dan Kaufman, who is the author of the book “The Fall of Wisconsin”, an outstanding and poignant account of the era of conservative conquest in the state, that was published in 2018. He has also written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Review of Books. His most recent work was in the New Yorker, where he wrote a brilliant in-depth feature story on the race in the weeks before the election, and then wrote another piece last week after Janet Protasiewicz’s resounding victory in the election.

On those results, Kaufman said he “felt like it was the culmination of a lot of anger over the past twelve years of essentially living under minority rule, with a radical overturning of the state’s past.”

Dan and I talked about what those elections results meant for Wisconsin, and he also shared some stories from his reporting, we talked about how Robin Vos deserves blame from his party in their losses in these statewide elections, about how Republican coalitions in Wisconsin have changed post-Trump, and whether or not this is the moment where Wisconsin finally stops falling.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Five of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Dr. Katheryn Hope Wilkinson.

Dr. Wilkinson is a resident of the district where LuAnn ran for Assembly, and they met while LuAnn was campaigning and knocking on doors. Wilkinson is a doctor and a surgeon who has treated victims of gun violence, and that has inspired her to get involved in efforts to pass gun safety legislation.

In this podcast, they talk about the work they are continuing to do not only to advance gun violence prevention bills, but combat the fatalistic attitudes on gun reform. It’s an important conversation.

If you missed the earlier episodes of this series, you can listen to them here:

* Episode One with Dan Shafer

* Episode Two with Evan Goyke

* Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield

* Episode Four with Sarah Godlewski

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

For Episode Four of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Sarah Godlewski. You might know Sarah from her time serving as the State Treasurer, her run for U.S. Senate, or her work helping elect women in the Wisconsin state legislature. One of those women that Godlewski supported was indeed LuAnn Bird. So, these two had a lot to talk about on this episode.

Godlewski also discussed the Rally For Your Rights tour that has been happening all over the state. The final two events from that tour are this weekend in Milwaukee on Saturday, April 1 and in Madison on Sunday, April 2. She will be speaking at both events. 

Godlewski also contributed a guest column here at The Recombobulation Area about what she’s seen on this tour. You can read that piece here.

If you missed the first three episodes in the series, you can listen to them here (Episode One with Dan Shafer, Episode Two with Evan Goyke, Episode Three with Christopher Porterfield).

This podcast series is presented by The Recombobulation Area and produced by Dan Shafer. The lead sponsor for this podcast is Civic Media, the fastest-growing hometown radio network in Wisconsin. Visit civicmedia.us to find your local station and tune in to your community. Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed. Supporting sponsors include Marianne Lubar and Marlene Ott.

Music and logo design for the podcast is by Christopher Porterfield.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area to get the "Bird on a Wire" podcast series sent right to your inbox.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time TEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

We are just days away from the Spring Election in Wisconsin. And while the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court will be on the ballot statewide, there are a whole lot of other races happening in communities all over the state.

One of those is the special election in the 8th Senate District. This district includes parts of Ozaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Milwaukee counties. 

This is a very important race because it will determine whether or not Republicans will gain a two-thirds supermajority in the State Senate. Longtime Republican state senator Alberta Darling retired late last year, creating an open seat. And while this district has been in GOP control for a long time, this is a part of the region here in southeastern Wisconsin that has seen its political leanings shift significantly in recent years. 

The Democratic candidate running to flip this district is Jodi Habush Sinykin, and she joined the podcast to talk about her background, why she’s running for State Senate, the top issues in the race, and more.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 17 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

#BucksInSix