The Recombobulation Area

The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

We had a great night at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery for “Recombobulation LIVE!”

Dan Shafer, founder of The Recombobulation Area, was joined by award-winning contributors Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), and Philip Rocco, political science professor at Marquette University to discuss the Republican National Convention as it is about to descend upon Milwaukee and answer questions from the audience live during the show. 

We were also joined by Stephanie Roades, organizer from The Great Milwaukee Block Party, a wonderful grassroots effort for counter-programming and protest and celebration of this wonderful city while the RNC is in town.

Learn more about this effort on their Facebook page here and Instagram here and Linktree here and be sure to check out some of the events happening all over Milwaukee at places you probably love.

The full podcast is available for paid subscribers only. You can also get a free trial to listen, but now would be a great time to upgrade to paid to support our work hosting events like this, and covering the RNC in Milwaukee next week.

There was some news shared in the podcast, too. So, be sure to listen.

This podcast was recorded, engineered and produced by Sahan Jayasuriya, for The Recombobulation Area.

This live podcast event was sponsored by gener8tor. 

Revisit more of our coverage of the RNC in Milwaukee here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

If you missed it earlier this week, I had the opportunity to sit down for a 35-minute one-on-one interview with Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

You can watch the video here.

Or, you can watch it on YouTube.

You can also read the column I wrote about the experience here.

Interviews like this are made possible because of the support of subscribers like you. Upgrade to paid today and help fund more recombobulation!

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 18 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.

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time THIRTEEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

On Tuesday evening, I filled in as the guest host of WTMJ At Night (formerly WTMJ Nights) on 620 WTMJ. You can listen to the show here as a commercial-free podcast.

I was joined by several terrific guests.

Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County, joined to discuss the County's new reckless driving dashboard (which you can see here).

Jeramey Jannene, president of Urban Milwaukee, joined to discuss upcoming local elections in Milwaukee, and President Biden’s visit to the city (and the announcement set to happen when he arrives).

Rob Henken, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, joined to talk about their new report on Milwaukee Public Schools and the upcoming referendum (see that report here).

Thanks for listening!

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’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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!

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The Marquette University Law School Poll is the gold standard of measuring public opinion in Wisconsin, so here at The Recombobulation Area, we take a close look at each new poll. See all of our previous breakdowns here.

NEW THIS YEAR: After each new poll in 2024, we’re going to be sitting down with Charles Franklin, executive director of the (top ranked!) Marquette University Law School Poll, to discuss the results.

For this podcast, Franklin and I sat down to discuss the results from the new poll (available in full here!), the presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in this incredibly important battleground state, state-level polling on the governor, legislature and state Supreme Court, and much more.

Be sure to also check out our in-depth breakdown of the new poll here.

Thank you for reading The Recombobulation Area. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

A couple months ago, Omar Shaikh and I got in a bit of a disagreement on Twitter.

Actually, let’s back up a bit first.

In early December of last year, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature to keep the Milwaukee Brewers in the city until 2050. The bill, committing more than $500 million in public funds to the stadium, passed with a bipartisan vote in November, and among the pieces of the deal that emerged through negotiations was the creation of a task force to study the possibility of developing around American Family Field — something we’ve called the “Beer District.”

This “Beer District” concept is something we advocated for here at The Recombobulation Area in a 2022 guest column by urban planner Robin Palm, as well as in our Milwaukee Press Club award-winning column from 2021, “Tear Down the Stadium Freeway in Milwaukee.”

This idea gained a considerable amount of attention since this column was published, and is something that leaders like Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley have expressed support for. The mayor, in particular, advocated for a “Beer District”-type of development to be part of future plans during negotiations over the bill to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.

While it was encouraging to see a task force and study on a “pathway to development” make the final bill, what was not included in the legislation was any firm commitment to take any concrete action at the study’s conclusion.

In the days following the bill signing, A.J. Bayatpour of CBS 58 reported on the possibility of future development around the ballpark. As part of that report, he interviewed Omar Shaikh, in his role as the chairman of the Home Crew Coalition, a group formed to advocate support for the bill to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding for upgrades and maintenance at the Brewers stadium, keeping the team in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future.

In that report, Shaikh said he opposed the development of a “Beer District,” saying it was unrealistic.

That’s the part I disagreed with, and I took to Twitter to voice that disagreement. We had a little back-and-forth over this, and eventually agreed to sit down for an interview on the topic.

So, this week, we got together at 3rd Street Market Hall for a one-on-one interview to talk about the “Beer District” concept.

“You know what, I'll say this,” said Shaikh. “I probably shouldn't have said I'm in opposition to (a “Beer District”). I don't think that's fair that I said that. I actually might be for it…I just don't see how you can make financial sense of it. I think it's on an island by itself over there. Listen, in a perfect world, you do the “Beer District,” build Menomonee Valley, and you tie (it to) downtown — believe me, I believe in growth of neighborhoods that would tie us together — I just don't see it happening. I just don't.”

Shaikh and I also discussed his work with the Home Crew Coalition, this week’s news about 3rd Street Market Hall having a presence in American Family Field, the RNC in Milwaukee, being “more bullish on Milwaukee” than ever, and much more.

You can hear our full conversation here as a podcast. We also have a full transcript of this interview, and paid subscribers to The Recombobulation Area can read that here. 

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Last night, I was back in the host chair at the 620 WTMJ studios at 3rd Street Market Hall to host WTMJ Nights!

You can listen to the full show here as a commercial free podcast.

Guests for the show included:

* Claire Koenig of VISIT Milwaukee, talking about the upcoming Milwaukee Museum Days (Jan. 18-28!), where you can get free or discounted admission to so many of Milwaukee’s wonderful museums

* Charles Franklin of the Marquette University Law School Poll, talking about the results from the Iowa caucus and if Donald Trump is on track to win the Republican nomination

* Justin Garcia of the Bucks Radio Network, talking about our beloved Milwaukee Bucks at the midway point of the regular season

I also took some time to discuss Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ comments on new maps submissions, where he accuses Democrats of a “political gerrymander,” which is quite the instance of the pot calling the kettle black, especially as legislative Republicans’ maps submissions are the only clear outlier of the bunch (per John D. Johnson’s nonpartisan analysis).

You can also listen to the full episode of WTMJ Nights here or on your favorite podcast app. The Apple Podcasts and Spotify links are embedded here.

Also, ICYMI: I was on WTMJ N.O.W. with Steve Scaffidi yesterday for our weekly segment, and you can listen to that here, or in the podcast link embedded below.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

This was a monumental year for Milwaukee, and many of the big achievements we saw this year can be traced back to the leadership of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.

The Recombobulation Area had the opportunity to sit down with these two dynamic leaders for an extended interview on the year that was, and so much more.

You can listen to the full audio podcast here, or you can watch the full video interview here.

Find our full coverage of this interview with Johnson and Crowley here at The Recombobulation Area.

Audio recorded and mixed by Podcamp Media.

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winningweekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

This was a monumental year for Milwaukee, and many of the big achievements we saw this year can be traced back to the leadership of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.

The Recombobulation Area had the opportunity to sit down with these two dynamic leaders for an extended interview on the year that was, and so much more.

You can watch the interview right here on Substack, or head over here for our full coverage of this interview, where you can watch on YouTube, listen as a podcast, and read several stories featuring quotes from this interview.

Video edited and produced by Katie Shafer. Filmed and recorded by Podcamp Media.

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

In case you missed it, Dan Shafer guest hosted WTMJ Nights on 620 WTMJ on Friday evening.

We had a terrific group of guests who joined the show. They were:

* Evan Goyke, state representative from Milwaukee who is now running for the office of Milwaukee City Attorney, on his campaign and on his 10+ years in the State Assembly

* Dora Drake, state representative from Milwaukee and the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, on the UW System funding deal negotiated with Republican leadership, and the controversy over the university’s DEI programs within those negotiations.

* Jeramey Jannene, president and founder of Urban Milwaukee, on upcoming local elections in Milwaukee.

You can also stream the show on Apple Podcasts…

… and on Spotify.

Thanks for listening!

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’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a ten-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

In case you missed it, we hosted WTMJ Nights last night on Newsradio 620 WTMJ!

It was a three-hour show, and we were joined by regular Recombobulation Area contributors Angela Lang (in studio!) and Phil Rocco to discuss their latest columns, and then we were joined by Justin Garcia of the Bucks Radio Network to talk about our beloved Milwaukee Bucks with just one week to go before the start of the regular season.

The full show from last is available commercial-free here, so have a listen!

You can also stream the show at Newsradio 620 WTMJ here.

And listen on Apple Podcasts here.

And on Spotify here.

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

PLUS: More recombobulation on the radio!

Tuesday with Steve Scaffidi on WTMJ N.O.W.

Tuesday with Patti Vasquez on WCPT 820 / Heartland Signal

Tuesday on As Goes Wisconsin

Wednesday on Town Call Wisconsin

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. 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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe