ICYMI: "Making Your Vote Count" and recombobulating on the radio
Featuring Civic Media's voter special and appearances on "The Maggie Daun Show," "Matenaer On Air" and more. Plus: Rob Cowles breaks the news on "Rational Revolution" that he's voting for Harris.
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. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Have you voted yet? You should. Early voting is underway in Wisconsin, and you never know what might happen on Election Day. Make a plan to vote and check out your options to early vote, aka “Vote Absentee In Person.”
As we usually do at the end of the week, this is our roundup of appearances on radio, podcasts and more.
First, I want to mention a story I helped work on this week that came from the Civic Media show, “Rational Revolution.” This is a weekly show that airs on Saturdays and Sundays across the network, and is hosted by Mark Becker, who was the former chair of the Brown County GOP, and is now part of Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz.
Becker hosted a special guest for this week’s show, and with it, made state and national headlines. The guest was State Sen. Rob Cowles, who is currently the longest-serving member of the Wisconsin State Senate, and he joined the show to talk about why he is voting for Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential election.
I worked with Becker to write the story, and you can read it in full here.
Cowles has served in the Wisconsin State Legislature for 42 years, and during this conversation, he said “I really think this is one of the most important things I’ve done.” That’s pretty powerful.
I’d encourage you to take the time to listen to what Cowles had to say. He talks for about 35 minutes about his decision, what led him there, the threats he knows he’ll face, and why he’s ready for them. The story itself is a big deal, but Cowles’ comments in this conversation are really worth listening to.
Here is the full podcast at Civic Media, and embedded streams are below.
On Tuesday, Maggie Daun and I co-hosted a special broadcast on Civic Media called “Make Your Vote Count 2024.”
The show featured an interview Civic Media host Todd Allbaugh talking with Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones and the author of “Give Us The Ballot” and his latest, “Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It.”
Also included in the special broadcast was a panel discussion with Scott McCallum, the former governor who is now the Republican Lead at the Wisconsin Alliance for Civic Trust, Marge Bostelmann, a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and Nick Ramos, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Issues discussed included drop boxes, late night vote reporting, undocumented immigrant and noncitizen voting.
The broadcast also included the hosts of the Civic Media radio show and podcast “BustED Pencils,” Dr. Tim Slekar and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci, whose show focuses on education, and they educated the listeners about what they needed to know to vote in this election.
Watch the full show here on Civic Media’s YouTube channel, listen on Civic Media, or stream the podcasts embedded below.
On Wednesday, I joined Maggie Daun on “The Maggie Daun Show” to talk about state legislative races. It’s right at the beginning of the show, and you can listen to that here.
Also on Wednesday, I joined Patti Vasquez on WCPT 820 in Chicago and Heartland Signal for “Driving It Home” (50:20)
On Friday, as I always do, I joined Jane Matenaer and Greg Bach on “Matenaer On Air.” Listen to that one here, at the beginning of Hour 2.
ALSO: In case you missed it, I will be joining Charlie Berens for a live podcast at the Vivarium in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Oct. 29. Proceeds benefit the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and tickets are still available. Check them out here from the Pabst Theater Group’s website.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. 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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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.