Battleground Wisconsin is Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s weekly podcast that features the latest political news from the front lines in the embattled state of Wisconsin. The show features: · Robert Kraig, Executive Director, Citizen Action of Wisconsin · Matt Brusky, Deputy Director, Citizen Action of Wisconsin . Claire Zautke, Health Care for All Director
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Brian Wooldridge Podcasts
Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future
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Julia Simner on tasty words and hearing colours
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Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of tastes, with different words evoking different flavours, maybe a delici…
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We lead-off with Milwaukee Area Labor Council President Pam Fendt to discuss a successful organizing campaign by union workers at the City of Milwaukee to win a Common Council vote to override the Mayor’s budget vetoes, including his effort to scale backe to pay increases for city employees who live in Milwaukee. We connect this worker-led union ef…
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Caroline Smith on meteorites and potential ancient life on Mars
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Caroline Smith is passionate about space rocks, whether they’re samples collected from the surface of asteroids and the Moon and hopefully Mars one day soon, or meteorites, those alien rock fragments that have survived their fiery descents through our atmosphere to land here on Earth. She is Head of Collections and Principal Curator of Meteorites a…
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We discuss the pathbreaking Utility Rate Cap bill which is currently circulating for co-sponsors in the state legislature. We praise the current co-sponsors and encourage our listeners to reach out to their state legislators today. We expose the continuing perversion of democracy and human decency that finds Speaker Robin Vos unilitarially blocking…
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AP De Silva on building molecular fluorescence sensors for healthcare
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From humble beginnings in his native Sri Lanka, to a more than 40 year academic career at Queen’s University Belfast, Prof. AP (Amilra Prasanna) De Silva’s research into molecular photosensors has led to a pioneering career in that’s evolved from chemistry to medical diagnostics on one hand, to information processing on the other. Prof. De Silva ch…
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This week America met the “Benedict 8” – who pursued a craven, cynical, and ultimately unstrategic betrayal of the American public. We dive into how the “Benedict 8” and the leadership that enabled them exposes what’s wrong with Democratic leadership and how it fails to deliver on its goals. Does this low point provide a moment to break with failed…
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There are problems and tasks so hard and complicated that it would take today’s most powerful supercomputers millions of years to crack them. But in the next decade, we may well have quantum computers which could solve such problems in seconds. Professor Sir Peter Knight is a British pioneer in the realms of quantum optics and quantum information s…
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With Matt under the weather, Robert goes solo with the help of podcast producer Mollee Albinger asking the questions. We dig into the aftermath of the Democratic sweep in the off year elections this week. What does it mean for the ending of the government shutdown and the fight to save liberal democracy? Meanwhile, still unwilling to negotiate with…
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Eleanor Schofield on conserving Tudor warship the Mary Rose
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In July 1545, King Henry VIII watched from Southsea Castle on England's south coast as his fleet sailed out to face the French - only to witness his prized warship, the Mary Rose, sink before his eyes. Raised from the Solent in 1982, the ship is now the centrepiece of the Mary Rose Museum, along with thousands more artefacts that were recovered fro…
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We take a deep dive into the on-going data center debate in Wisconsin for the entire show.We welcome IUPAT District Council No. 7, Director of Governmental Affairs Office, Andy Buck to tell us why their union supports the current data centers that will be built union and how IUPAT members get work and sustain work.Next, State Senator Chris Larson j…
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George Church on reimagining woolly mammoths and virus-proofing humans
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"My ideas are often labelled as impossible, or useless, or both. Usually when people say that I'm on the right track." George Church is a geneticist, molecular engineer, and one of the pioneers of modern genomics. He's also someone who makes a habit of finding solutions to the seemingly impossible. Over the course of his career so far, George devel…
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As Trump takes a bulldozer to the White House and liberal democracy, we take a deep dive into the devastating potential impact of the tech oligarchs here in Wisconsin. Foxconn 2.0: the Data Center Invasion, shows that as in the movies the sequel is even worse than the original. Robert tells us about economist Jerrod Bernstein’s forecast that there …
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Gareth Collett on a career in bomb disposal
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Movies might have us believe that bomb disposal comes down to cutting the right wire. In fact, explosive devices are complex and varied - and learning how to dispose of them safely involves intense training, as well as the ability to stay calm under pressure. This was the world of Dr Gareth Collett, a retired British Army Brigadier General and engi…
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We are back after a week off! We welcome State Representative Vinnie Miresse to the show to discuss new legislation to protect the ‘rights of nature’ and reinstitute a state anti-mining law.We take stock in the state of American democracy and why Saturday’s No Kings Rally 2.0 will communicate by the number of people who turnout widespread oppositio…
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Sonia Gandhi on building model brains to tackle Parkinson’s disease
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Many people will be familiar with Parkinson’s disease: the progressive brain disorder that causes symptoms including tremors and slower movement, leading on to serious cognitive problems. You might not know that it’s the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world. Today it affects around 11.8 million people and that’s forecast to double by…
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Mark O'Shea on close encounters with venomous snakes
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By BBC Radio 4
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We start with discussion of the new fighting spirit of Congressional Democrats, and the central role the health care cost crisis is playing in the impasse. Are Democrats finally learning how to resist an increasingly authoritarian president? We review the latest MU Law Poll and whether we agree with what veteran political journalist Craig Gilbert c…
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We start with the on-going invasion of many Wisconsin communities by energy and water sucking data centers. While profiting Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Big Utilities these projects threaten to accelerate runaway climate change and spike already unaffordable utility prices. While state and local economic development boosters, including the Ever…
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On this week's show Robert Kraig is joined by special guest co-host State Senator Chris Larson. Robert & Chris discuss the shameful effort of the Trump Regime to use the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to unleash the full force of the federal government to crack down on progressive groups, celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel, and millions o…
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We discuss the murder of Charlie Kirk this week and how despite the shooter still being at large (as of our tapping of the show), many in the MAGA movement rush to make political hay, including Wisconsin’s Derrick Van Orden, with some even calling for retribution against progressives and the news media when the killers motives are still unknown. Th…
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“The State of Working Wisconsin” Battleground Wisconsin PodcastWe welcome Laura Dresser from the High Road Strategy Center, a think-and-do tank, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Laura is the lead author of the 2025 State of Working Wisconsin report which presents the Wisconsin workers’ perspective on the economy including, what’s going…
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On our special Labor Day show we welcome Peter Rickman, President of MASH (Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Union), to discuss making work pay a living wage in every corner of Wisconsin with a $20/hour minimum wage. We also discuss the central role of organized labor in creating a fair and just economy, highlighting significant labor …
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Climate Change in Wisconsin: A whole new ballgame! Ascension drowns quality care.
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Will the 1000 year flood in Southeast Wisconsin finally convince policymakers that the climate crisis is already impacting Wisconsin? The appropriate response would be to quickly enact the Climate Accountability Act, which requires Wisconsin for the first time to adopt an accountable climate action plan that cuts greenhouse gas emissions in half by…
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Why Wisconsin Needs the Hospital Accountability Act
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Following Tony Evers photo op at a besieged free clinic in Eau Claire, we discuss the serious structural problems with our current healthcare delivery system. While hospital monopolies siphon off billions in profits, we pay some of the highest costs in the nation, and yet hospitals across the state are either closing or cutting vital services such …
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In the aftermath of Tony Evers’ announcement that he will not seek re-election, we discuss the wide-open primary for the Democratic nomination. Who are the likely candidates and what should they run on? Is this an opportunity for progressives and everyone who craves a Democratic Party willing to fight? Robert tells us about an early attempt by Sena…
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The 2026 Election is on! Following the recording of the show, Governor Tony Evers announced he will not run for a third term, setting up an epic battle for governance in Wisconsin in 2026.We preview the huge opportunities for progressives in the State Senate in 2026.We discuss whether “The Steal of 2028” has begun with the Trump DOJ demanding Wisco…
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We discuss quadriplegic Carl Schulze’s epic 92 mile ride to the Capitol in Madison in his wheelchair to protest Medicaid cuts and support increases to caregiver wages. His individual act of protest helps keep the pressure on elected officials who are failing to meet the moment. We continue our analysis of the recently completed State Budget, analyz…
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Kevin Fong on medical planning for Mars and Earth-based emergencies
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There can't be many people in the world who've saved lives in hospital emergency rooms and also helped care for the wellbeing of astronauts in space – but Kevin Fong’s career has followed a singular path: from astrophysics and trauma medicine, to working with NASA, to becoming an Air Ambulance doctor. Kevin is a consultant anaesthetist and professo…
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We discuss the tragic, climate change fueled Texas floods and the perils of gutting the government. Wisconsin congressman Derrick Van Orden who is still hiding from his constituents claimed credit for Wisconsin’s extra Medicaid dollars after voting to cut the healthcare program, prompting Congressman Mark Pocan to compare him to an arsonist who giv…
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Dame Pratibha Gai on training atoms to do what we want
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Chemical reactions are the backbone of modern society: the energy we use, the medicines we take, our housing materials, even the foods we eat, are created by reacting different substances together. If we zoom in, it’s the atoms within these substances that rearrange themselves to give rise to new substances with the properties we need. However, che…
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We record the morning after the state budget deal was signed by Governor Evers in the wee hours of the night. We do a full budget postmortem with State Representative Francesca Hong and Heather DuBois Bourenane, Executive Director of Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN). How bad was the state budget for education, health care, child care, and …
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