Egg prices have risen sharply in the past few months, after outbreaks of bird flu at major chicken farms have reduced the country’s supply of laying hens. But fear not! You can raise chickens in your own backyard safely and cheaply, with a little know-how. This week, the Madison City Council voted to allow residents to keep up to eight chickens , doubling the previous legal limit. We talk to backyard chicken keeper (and podcast producer) Molly Stentz about how to do it. 🥚 Join us every Thursday...
Mar 23, 2023•22 min
If you’ve hopped on a bus in Madison in the past twenty years, you’ve heard his voice. Next stop… Pinckney at Mifflin. Next stop… It’s his voice that announces every stop on every Madison Metro bus. He’s always there, guiding us around the city. But you’ve never heard his name… until now. Meet Ward Paxton, the voice of Madison Metro. 🚌 Also on this episode: ⚖️ Watch the Wisconsin Supreme Court debate 🤓 Tonight is Nerd Nite ! Wanna talk to us about an episode? Leave us a voicemail at 608-318-33...
Mar 22, 2023•16 min
With big bank failures dominating the headlines, we wondered: how did Madison tech start-ups weather the storm? Did the small and somewhat insulated nature of our tech community shield it from bigger problems? Or could a bank run happen here? And is more government investment for local tech an answer to reducing dependence on Silicon Valley? For answers, we turned to Scott Resnick , COO of Hardin Design and Development , and a board member of Starting Block Madison , a startup and technology hub...
Mar 21, 2023•26 min
Powering your home with solar is not only good for the planet, it might actually save you money. Heather Allen, an advisor for RENEW Wisconsin , walks us through her experience putting solar panels on her Madison home. It’s easier than you might think, especially with incentives offered by the City of Madison, Wisconsin, and the federal government . Just watch out for squirrels. 🌞 Is your Madison home a good fit for solar? The MadiSUN program is here to help. 🛠️ RENEW’s Tips on How to Find a S...
Mar 20, 2023•21 min
Dylan Brogan, Bianca Martin, and Molly Stentz roundup the news with a Madison mystery involving missing millions and the political fight over banning conversion therapy. Plus, we wonder about local fallout from the recent bank failures . Learn more about the news: 🏳️🌈 Conversion Therapy Bans in Wisconsin. Madison is one of 14 cities across the state to have banned the practice. 💰 Wisconsin Investment Fund. The state’s fund for start-ups 🏦 How the Silicon Valley Bank failure affected local t...
Mar 17, 2023•20 min
It’s never been easier to eat a meat-free diet in Madison. 🥦 There are now two dedicated vegan restaurants, Jardin and Sookie’s Veggie Burgers , and a third in the works, with the JustVeggiez food cart planning to open a soul food storefront on State Street. 🥬 In addition to vegetarian favorites Green Owl , Monty’s Blue Plate and Himal Chuli , the city’s packed with tasty Thai and Indian restaurants offering a number of veggie options. Add this to juice bars like New Day Eastside Juicery and a...
Mar 16, 2023•21 min
Madison School Superintendent Carlton Jenkins is retiring in July - and the search is on for his replacement. The next leader will need to tackle teacher shortages, pandemic fallout and stubborn racial disparities in student academic achievement. Madison School Board President Ali Muldrow fills us in on what happens next. Wanna talk to us about an episode? Leave us a voicemail at 608-318-3367 or email madison@citycast.fm . We’re also on Twitter and Instagram ! Want more Madison news delivered ri...
Mar 15, 2023•22 min
The bagpipes were back on the Capitol Square last weekend for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. With the official holiday mere days away, how are you celebrating? If you’re Fitchburg alder Gabriella Gerhardt , you’re trying to break the world record for “Largest Collection of Four-Leaf Clovers.” Four-leaf clovers are considered lucky due to their rarity. They’re technically a genetic mutation of a common clover plant . Gerhardt already holds the records for “Most four-leaf clovers collected i...
Mar 14, 2023•23 min
Domestic violence in Wisconsin is at an all-time high. Just a few weeks ago, another event shocked neighbors in Madison. Polic e chased a man into the Kwik Trip on East Wash, where he shot at police before locking himself in the bathroom and taking his life. He was suspected of strangling his girlfriend days earlier. Police are also investigating four sexual assaults in Madison so far this year. Statistically, most intimate assaults are committed against women . And that’s why a local martial ar...
Mar 13, 2023•20 min
It’s your Friday news roundup. City Cast Madison producers Dylan Brogan and Molly Stentz bring you nuggets of news from our fair city. Homophobic graffiti slandering city alder Mike Verveer surfaced near his home in Madison over the weekend. And anti-vaxxers have a new target: the meningitis vaccine. Gov. Tony Evers made it mandatory for seventh graders, but now some voters and lawmakers are pushing back . Plus, Senator Tammy Baldwin signs onto a bill that could ban TikTok . And hey, we have a r...
Mar 10, 2023•22 min
March in Madison brings hints of spring. Migrating birds like sandhill cranes and robins start to return. Despite the freezing temps and occasional snowstorm, we start to feel like the worse of winter is behind us. This is the time to make maple syrup! People have been tapping maple trees for thousands of years, way before Madison was a city. The tradition lives on at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center and their annual Maple Syrup Fest. We sit down with the center’s Education Director Virginia Wigge...
Mar 09, 2023•18 min
Spring is just a few weeks away and in Madison, that always means…. the Wisconsin Film Festival! Each April, one of the largest campus film festivals in the country takes over theaters across Madison. This year, they’re showing more than a hundred films in five theaters from April 13 to 20. The Wisconsin Film Festival guide hits newsstands on Thursday; find it in the March issue of Isthmus. Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 11th, at noon. Operations Director Ben Reiser gives us the sneak peek a...
Mar 08, 2023•22 min
Meet the challenger running for Madison Mayor. Gloria Reyes is running on her experience as a former Madison police officer, school board president, and deputy mayor in the Soglin administration. But also, she’s running on her experience as a local who grew up here and has deep community roots. We spoke with Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway about her bid for re-election on Monday’s show. The election is Tuesday, April 4th. Learn where you vote or how to register . Also in today’s episode: 🌱 Want to ge...
Mar 07, 2023•24 min
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is running for re-election. The first-term mayor touts her accomplishments: getting a faster bus system, building more housing, and improving the city’s environmental footprint by reducing emissions and adding more solar. She won her first term as mayor by a landslide, but this time, she’s the insider running on her record. We’ll speak with challenger Gloria Reyes on tomorrow’s show. The election is Tuesday, April 4th. 🗳️ Learn where you vote or how to register...
Mar 06, 2023•22 min
Bianca Martin, Molly Stentz, and Dylan Brogan round up the week’s news with a look at the GOP’s increasingly expensive probe into the 2020 election, the departure of a big player in Madison’s concert scene and the state selling three huge office buildings downtown. 💸 If you’d like to tell us what YOU would do with $2.5 million dollars of the state’s money… or where the best grocery store self-checkout camera is… leave us a voicemail at 608-318-3367. Email us at madison@citycast.fm . We’re also ...
Mar 03, 2023•21 min
Friday Fish Fries in Madison are their own kinda of religion. When we went in search of the best fish in town, we had to talk to Linda Falkenstein, Associate Editor of Isthmus newspaper. She’s been going to fish fries in Madison her entire life… and now makes a living writing about them, among other things. It might surprise you that a few of her picks aren’t in Madison at all, but right next door in Westport and Fitchburg. But perhaps the most surprising pick of all? Well, we’ll leave that for ...
Mar 02, 2023•18 min
Today, we’re turning the tables on our host, Bianca Martin. We’re putting her on the other side of the mic. She was interviewed by Angela Russell, the host of the Black Oxygen podcast, about how she came to host City Cast Madison. We’re airing an excerpt of their conversation. You can find the full interview on the Black Oxygen podcast. Wanna talk to us about an episode? Leave us a voicemail at 608-318-3367 or email madison@citycast.fm . We’re also on Twitter and Instagram ! Want more Madison ne...
Mar 01, 2023•24 min
This Black History Month, we wondered: how do we find our OWN history? Depending on your family history, it can be hard to track down records. Black and indigenous families were often overlooked in official histories, not counted in early censuses and lack historical property records to draw upon. And DNA tests can throw you real curve balls. You never know what surprises might be in your family tree. So how do you even begin? Luckily, if you live in Madison, you have one of the country’s most e...
Feb 28, 2023•23 min
It isn’t every day your city’s flag gets voted one of the best in the country . But that’s what happened when the North American Vexillological Association got together to rate the designs of a whopping 312 flags. Ted Kaye, the nation’s foremost authority on flag design and author of the NAVA booklet “‘Good’ Flag, ‘Bad’ Flag,” talks with host Bianca Martin about what makes a well-designed flag, why Madison’s flag is so strong (but our state flag … not so much), and how we would go about designin...
Feb 27, 2023•20 min
City Cast’s Dylan Brogan and Bianca Martin get you up to speed on this week’s Wisconsin primary results, the big things happening on Park Street, and the winners of Madison’s snowplow naming contest. Wanna talk to us about an episode? Leave us a voicemail at 608-318-3367 or email madison@citycast.fm . We’re also on Twitter and Instagram ! Want more Madison news delivered right to your inbox? Sign up for the Madison Minutes morning newsletter....
Feb 24, 2023•23 min
Seven Acre Dairy is many things - a cafe, a restaurant, a hotel, a butter plant. 🧈 But if you talk to founder Nic Mink, it’s also a place for restoration. He renovated a shuttered old butter plant in Paoli, Wisconsin, a small community about twenty minutes from downtown Madison. It’s drawing neighbors near and far to enjoy locally-made butter, soft serve ice cream and a farm-to-table restaurant. It sits along the banks of the Sugar River, nestled among a savanna with oak trees older than the st...
Feb 23, 2023•20 min
You may not know his name, but you likely know his work. Michael Schultz forged a path at a time when there was little representation for Black directors or actors in Hollywood. His 1976 movie Car Wash was considered ahead of its time, with its social and cultural critique of the era. It was the first film by a Black director to compete for the prestigious awards at the Cannes Film Festival , where it won two awards. Its soundtrack won a Grammy. Schultz was also responsible for casting Denzel Wa...
Feb 22, 2023•21 min
Outdoor cats. They evoke strong feelings in the neighborhood. They fight, yowl, kill birds and other wildlife… and make more cats. But what do we do about Madison’s strays? If you call the city, animal control will attempt to trap them. But if these cats can’t find a home, they’ll likely be killed. Many cat-loving Madisonians are not making that call, leaving cats to roam free. 🐈 The Madison Cat Project has an idea: round up these kitties and spay or neuter them. Then release them back outside ...
Feb 21, 2023•18 min
Governor Evers has released his plan for the next state budget and the forecast is rosy: we’re sitting on the biggest surplus in state history. Evers is proposing more money for our K-12 schools, twelve weeks of paid family leave for Wisconsin workers, and a tax cut for the middle-class. But will the legislature go for it? Mitchell Schmidt , state politics reporter for The Wisconsin State Journal, joins Dylan and Bianca to unpack what’s inside the Governor’s plan. Wanna talk to us about an episo...
Feb 17, 2023•17 min
“It’s fermented, cured, delicious, and often misunderstood and mispronounced.” So says Jesse Brookstein, author of A Perfect Pair: The History of Landjaeger in Green County, Wisconsin . They may look like beef jerky, but Jesse’s referring to the pairs of smoked, fermented sausages that hang in many bars around southern Wisconsin. The high-protein snack enjoyed by Swiss and German immigrants of the past century has found fans among many thirsty bar-hoppers in Madison today. Jesse’s here to tell u...
Feb 16, 2023•21 min
There’s an election next week, one said to carry bigger policy stakes than ANY other contest in America this year. And that’s for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court currently has four conservative justices and three liberal justices, so the balance of power is riding on this race. The right to abortion, control of the state’s political maps and how elections are conducted could be decided by this court. There are four candidates in the running - and we’ve invited them all on the sh...
Feb 15, 2023•23 min
It’s Valentine’s Day… a day that can fill you with hope and excitement… or dread. And who among us hasn’t had a terribly bad date? Well, we asked - and you answered. Today, we’re listening to YOUR stories of dates gone terribly awry (and a few that went really, really right!) Hayley Sperling, co-founder of Madison Minutes and Madison dating veteran, joins us on this wild ride through Madison’s dating scene. 🗳️ And hey, vote for us! You can nominate our podcast as “Best Local Podcast” in Madison...
Feb 14, 2023•24 min
There’s an election next week, one said to carry bigger policy stakes than ANY other contest in America this year. And that’s for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court currently has four conservative justices and three liberal justices, so the balance of power is riding on this race. The right to abortion, control of the state’s political maps and how we run elections are at stake. There are four candidates in the running - and we’ve invited them all on the show. Today, we’re speaking...
Feb 13, 2023•21 min
For the first time since taking office, President Biden visited Madison. His big visit included talking shop about the economy, calling out one of our senators about Social Security and taking selfies with the mayor. (And yes, the stop was actually DeForest, but shhhh!) Also this week, Madison Schools Superintendent Carlton Jenkins announced he’s leaving after the end of the school year. Anyone wanna run our schools? And why do we have no money for violence prevention?! The City Cast team is her...
Feb 10, 2023•21 min
Friends, it is NOT too late to make a reservation for Valentine’s Day. There’s a number of swoon-worthy new restaurants that have popped up in Madison recently. Lindsay Christians of the Cap Times is here with pro tips for scoring a table – and she’s dishing on all of her new favorites, whether you’re looking for fine dining, cocktails… or butter. Lindsay recommends: Turn Key , Amara , Jardin , Prost! , Nitro Beverage Lounge , and Seven Acre Dairy (Paoli) . And The Deliciouser storefront for the...
Feb 09, 2023•21 min
