ICYMI: Recombobulating on the radio (Week of April 20-27)
Listen to appearances on "Matenaer On Air," "The Maggie Daun Show" and more.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time NINETEEN-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.
Happy Friday, folks. What a week it’s been. Before we get to our weekly roundup, a few things to note for all of you wonderful recombobulators out there.
First, our Community Happy Hour is just days away! We hope you can join us at Third Space Brewing on Thursday, May 1, to share in the community we’ve built here at The Recombobulation Area.
If you missed it last year, it was a terrific event, and we’re so thrilled to be doing it again with the good people at Third Space Brewing. We’re also going to be joined by our friends at Civic Media, who will be giving away some free Brewers tickets at the event.
And if you’re a paid subscriber to The Recombobulation Area … **ahem** …
… your first drink is on us!
We can’t wait to see you there! Find all of the details here and RSVP to our Facebook event page (this helps us plan for things!) here.
I also wanted to share with you that The Recombobulation Area is an official Community Partner for two films screening at the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival. The event kicked off on Thursday night on Milwaukee’s East Side and runs through May 8.
The first film we’re partnering on is “Separated,” directed by Errol Morris and based on the book by NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff on the Trump administration’s family separation policy. The film screens on Wednesday, April 30, Sunday, May 4, and Thursday, May 8. Find details and showtimes here.
The second film is “Death and Taxes,” by director Justin Schein. It’s a documentary that serves as a case study in America’s history of tax benefits for the wealthy. This film screens on Thursday, May 1, and Sunday, May 4. Find details and showtimes here.
Be sure to check out both of those terrific films!
ALSO: In case you missed it, Civic Media launched its new weekday lineup this week, and you can find several of our shows in new times. That means some of my weekly segments will be happening in new times, and you might even be hearing me on a few other shows more frequently.
We’re really excited about the lineup, and you check out all of the details here.
On to the roundup…
My friends at “Matenaer On Air” are now broadcasting at a new time — 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. — and that means the weekly segment I join every Friday is moving a bit earlier, to 10 a.m.
This week, the news of the FBI’s arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was breaking during the show, so we discussed this as it was unfolding.
We also talked about last night’s NFL Draft in Green Bay, and lightened things up with this week’s “Audio Sorbet” segment (it was about grilled cheese).
Listen on Civic Media here or on your favorite podcast app (embedded below) or watch on Civic Media’s YouTube channel.
On Tuesday, I joined the “Maggie Daun Show” for our weekly “State Slate” segment on what’s happening in state politics in Wisconsin.
This week, I talked about the vote that had just happened before I joined the show, on postpartum Medicaid expansion. The bill passed 32-1 in the State Senate, with overwhelming Republican support, but Speaker Robin Vos has repeatedly blocked this legislation from coming up for a vote in the Assembly.
I also talked about this on the latest edition of “The Recombobulation Minute,” which you can listen to right here.
On Monday, I joined one of the final full-length episodes of “The Earl Ingram Show” to talk about what Earl is going to be up to in his next chapter at Civic Media. He’ll be working on our new morning show “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow” and pursuing independent projects focusing on his local community in Milwaukee, starting with a podcast series on lead in drinking water.
And if you missed it, I guest hosted the Civic Media Radio Hours program from 4-6 p.m. on Monday and you can listen to or watch that full show here:
LISTEN / WATCH: Joe Zepecki on running for WisDems chair, "CYCLE" documentary world premiere, why the Abrego Garcia case matters, more
Dan Shafer guest hosted on Civic Media from 4-6 p.m., with guest co-host Angela Lang. Listen to podcasts and watch videos and livestreams from the show here.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.