The Recombobulation Area

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 Three of the “Bird on a Wire” podcast series, Lu Ann Bird is joined by Christopher Porterfield. Porterfield is the lead singer and songwriter from the acclaimed band Field Report (yes, he also provided the theme music for this podcast series).

He got involved in LuAnn’s State Assembly campaign last year in a variety of ways, perhaps most notably by helping create the “Bird Songs” concert series. Porterfield has continued his journey into political action and is now a candidate running for Whitnall School Board. 

Chris and LuAnn had a lot of wonderful stories to share on the podcast. We hope you enjoy.

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

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-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

"Bird on a Wire" is a podcast series featuring conversations about hope, civility and action. LuAnn Bird has had a career in civic action and making change, from serving on school boards to working with the League of Women Voters to running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and this podcast series aims to continue many of the conversations that began during her remarkable and unconventional 2022 campaign.

If you missed our newsletter introducing this podcast series, check it out here.

If you missed Episode One with Dan Shafer, listen to the full episode for free here.

Episode Two features State Rep. Evan Goyke of Milwaukee. Enjoy!

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.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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 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.

"Bird on a Wire" is a podcast series featuring conversations about hope, civility and action. LuAnn Bird has had a career in civic action and making change, from serving on school boards to working with the League of Women Voters to running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and this podcast series aims to continue many of the conversations that began during her remarkable and unconventional 2022 campaign.

If you missed our newsletter introducing this podcast series, check it out here.

The first episode of this series is with LuAnn Bird and Dan Shafer. They discuss Bird’s path to a career in public service, the tragic accident that altered the course of her family’s life, and take a look ahead at what’s to come in this 10-episode podcast series.

Listen to the podcast in the media player above, or watch it as a video podcast on YouTube here.

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. Video was edited by Steve Grisetti.

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 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.

The Spring Election in Wisconsin is now less than one month away. And on the ballot statewide in that April 4 election is the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Janet Protasiewicz and Daniel Kelly are competing to be elected to a 10-year term. That election will determine the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court, with conservative justice Patience Roggensack retiring, leaving an open seat.

It’s been about two weeks now since the primary and we’re looking ahead to the general election. So to help us recombobulate, we’re joined by Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School Poll, to talk about primary results, statewide trends, key regions, turnout and much more.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-funded publication. Support our work and become a paid subscriber (just $5 to start!).

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 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.

Reporter Mario Koran of Wisconsin Watch has exhaustively detailed the fallout of a controversial Title IX investigation at Kiel Middle School. His reporting revealed that the narrative being pushed to conservative media was not the full story, uncovering a misinformation campaign that sparked a firestorm that led to bomb threats, death threats, closures and chaos in a small Wisconsin town.

He joined The Recombobulation Area to talk about his reporting, how he uncovered the false narrative generated by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a WILL attorney taking a “victory lap” over causing an anti-trans panic, and the latest chapter the saga unfolding in Kiel, one of community that has just had it with the right-wing culture war in their schools. 

Listen to the full podcast here, and read our commentary on the cautionary tale in Kiel over at Heartland Signal.

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To support our work and access bonus content like this podcast, become a paid subscriber.

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.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

The Recombobulation Area is a six-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 the last couple weeks, I have had the opportunity to be the guest host for “Connect MKE,” the local news program at CW18 and My24 Milwaukee.

If you missed the episodes live, you can check out the interviews here at The Recombobulation Area in podcast form. You can also watch the full episode linked below on YouTube.

This week’s episode featured a segment on races happening in the Wisconsin State Legislature, under new Republican-drawn maps. I talked to John D. Johnson of Marquette University to discuss that issue. For the next segment, I talked to Kristina Hoffman of the Milwaukee County Transit System about raising ridership and the many new things happening this year in public transit in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. His work was recently featured in The New York Times. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for 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 Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

The Recombobulation Area is a six-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.

This week, I had the opportunity to be the guest host for Connect MKE, the local news program at CW18 and My24 Milwaukee.

The episodes aired on Sept. 10 and 11, but if you missed them, you can check out the interviews here at The Recombobulation Area in podcast form. You can also watch the full episode linked below on YouTube.

This week’s episode featured a segment on the universal free school meals program that was implemented during the pandemic but is now ending for this school year. I talked to Erin Gretzinger, a reporter at Wisconsin Watch, who wrote an in-depth story on this topic.

And then for the next segment, I talked to former alderman and current budget director at the city of Milwaukee Nik Kovac. The first budget proposal from Mayor Cavalier Johnson will be presented to the Common Council on Sept. 20 and Kovac talked about the challenges the city is facing and took a look at what’s being proposed for the 2023 budget.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. His work was recently featured in The New York Times. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for 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 Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

The Recombobulation Area is a six-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.

Thanks to everyone who joined The Recombobulation Area at Boone & Crockett for our event: “A Conversation with Cavalier Johnson”! It was a terrific event and we appreciate all of your support.

For those of you who subscribe and were unable to attend, you can listen to the full conversation here, in podcast form.

Topics discussed include: the city of Milwaukee’s relationship with the state of Wisconsin, rising violent crime in the city, and the future of the Stadium Freeway and infrastructure in Milwaukee. Plus: The mayor answered several questions from those of you who joined us at the event.

We’re planning to host more events in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned, and we hope to see you soon!

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To help fund our work, consider becoming paid subscriber.

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 Daily Beast, 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 Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The city of Milwaukee just held its first open mayoral primary since 2004. The results are in, and the two candidates receiving the most votes are Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson with about 42% of the vote and former alderman Bob Donovan with about 22% of the vote. They will go head-to-head for the April 5 general election.

Joining us to recombobulate after the election and talk about all of this is Jeramey Jannene from Urban Milwaukee. We talked about everything from Cavalier Johnson’s dominant primary performance to the overall turnout numbers to Bob Donovan’s likely vote total in the general election, and more.

We also referenced the following election results map by John D. Johnson, research fellow at the Marquette Law School Lubar Center, a number of times during the podcast, so take a closer look at that here.

See the full results from the primary via the Milwaukee County Clerk — who, as always, ran a safe, secure and efficient election, and should be thanked for their important work.

Lastly, be sure to vote on April 5. The future of your city depends on it.

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 Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won ten Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, entrepreneur Michael Sampson, and community activist Ieshuh Griffin.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

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 Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.