The Madisonian Podcast

Kaleem Caire is the founder and CEO of a public charter school and a private preschool called One City Schools. They are growing and expanding to a new 12 million dollar building, and hope to teach k-12 with 1000+ students by 2024. They have achieved so much in a short amount of time and Kaleem Caire is the driving force behind that change. He is a leader who never backs down despite being rejected and turned away. Listen to hear how a fight while in the Navy opened his eyes to leadership and sent him on his path. 

Jake Schlachter is an organizer, an agitator, and a advocate. He fights for fairness and the rights of member owners within cooperative organizations like credit unions. He roots out corruption, educates member owners on their rights and shortfalls of their rights, and assists in making the cooperative sector more fair for all. 

Dave Cieslewicz was the mayor of our city for 8 years from 2003-2011. Listen to hear how he campaigned, won the race, and led Madison even through times of financial crisis. 

Mr. Koch, my English teacher, has done so much in his life so far. From serving two tours as an infantryman in Iraq after 9/11 to becoming an English teacher, he has not missed out on his share of life's bumps and successes. Listen to hear how he has brought his experience serving overseas back to the classroom and how he dealt with the vulnerability of life and death situations. 

Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl are individually amazing people. They found meditation and have become obsessed with the practice, and more specifically, it's effects on the brain. Today, I interviewed Dr. Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl for an hour of information and stories. Listen to hear how Dr. Cortland Dahl spent 8 years in Tibetan refugee settlements and how Dr. Davidson has changed the world of neuroscience. 

Roseann is the incredibly dedicated artistic director of one of the biggest Theatre institutions here in Madison called the Children's Theater of Madison. The work that she does combines artistry, intelligence, leadership, and so much more to produce the amazing result that are CTM's shows. 

Michele Mackey grew up in a constantly moving military family where they idealized the idea of going into the air force. A traumatic brain injury changed their career course and has led them to leading big local non profits in times of transition. 

Dr. Baron Kelly is a professor of acting at the UW. He has worked and taught in several different countries. Now he has graced Madison with his expertise in directing, teaching, and performing. Listen to hear how he went from NYC auditioning for commercials and the Metropolitan Opera to performing in TV, Movies, and on Broadway. 

David Maraniss is an incredible award winning journalist and author. He has written 12 incredible non fiction and biography works. He is an associate editor for The Washington Post and has dedicated his life to his work. Listen to hear about how he got into journalism, what the challenges and successes have been, and what he's working on now. 

Alex and Noel Miranda have created a feature length film called "Trace the Line" in the midst of a COVID pandemic. Their production company, Bravebird seeks to eliminate typecasting of people of color while empowering the diversity in our community. 

Chris Borland made a decision one year into his contract with the San Francisco 49ers: To leave his promising career behind to prevent long term brain injuries. Since, he has dedicated a lot of his time to bringing awareness to and working to prevent long term brain injuries and mental health issues. Listen to hear how he came to make that decision and his journey before and after.

Matt D'Amour has done so much good for the world. In creating the B Corp natural foods nut butter brand Yumbutter he has managed to intertwine doing good in the world and feeding the hungry. Listen to hear how he built up a nationwide sold brand and exited in 2018 to move on to other ventures. 

KéNisha Ruff is a creator in so many ways. From her fashion, to her interior design, to her makeup, she is such a creative person. Listen to hear how she has crafted an incredible cosmetics line Marie Hunter Beauty recognized in incredible publications and sold nationwide. 

Michael Jones is the Dean of Students at West High School. He is now the president-elect of MTI, the teachers union here in Madison. His story in overcoming the struggles of anxiety and depression to become the educator he is today is one that deserves to be told. 

Gloria Reyes is the president of the MMSD school board, CEO of Briarpatch youth services, and former law enforcement, among many other things. Her work for the city of Madison in all her fields is admirable and amazing. She shares her story of perseverance as she works her way out of poverty and into a successful career. 

Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings is an incredible educator, researcher, and professor Emeritus. Her work in researching racial disparities in the educational world is phenomenal. During the pandemic she has stayed optimistic about the educational world. Listen to hear how she has built a name for herself in the tightly packed education world. 

Happy late Valentines Day. I love and appreciate my listeners! Representative Francesca Hong of the 76th assembly district is an awe-inspiring activist, non profit founder, and restaurateur. Her work in founding two non profits and the beautiful Ramen restaurant Morris Ramen is all amazing! Listen to hear how she overcame mental illness by finding the culinary world. 

Mr. Roderick "Rudy" Bankston is an incredible restorative justice practitioner, educator, and survivor of the school to prison pipeline. After being wrongly convicted of homicide at 18 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He used poetry, education, and writing as a coping mechanism leading him to publish a novel and two poetry books. Listen to hear how he overcame the injustice of the system to find success in education and restorative justice. 

Jael Currie is the Housing Director of the YWCA where she oversees programs that help locals find housing solutions. She is now running for city council district 16 here in Madison and is bringing her knowledge of social work, housing, and education with her. 

Richelle Martin was the first woman in Wisconsin to found a Venture capital fund when she founded the Winnow Fund. She has raised over 10 million dollars for the fund single handedly and is working to invest that money in early stage startups and ideas. 

Ian Gurfield is an incredible entrepreneur, restaurateur and thinker. His extensive research on the best place to start Ian's landed him in Madison and led to the 8 locations throughout Madison, Milwaukee, Denver, and Seattle. 

Barry Levenson is an amazing Madisonian who started as a massive Red Sox fan growing up in Boston. After a career in law he took a leap of faith to make his mustard collection into the world wide known National Mustard Museum. Listen to hear his journey through a career in law to mustard. \

Matthew Teague is an incredible magician, mentalist, and more. He has performed and sold tricks to the likes of David Blaine, David Copperfield, Carl Reiner, and more. Listen to hear how he grew up in conspiracy filled Roswell, New Mexico and went on to become the best magician in Madison and Milwaukee. 

Jon Hinds went from a tough madison childhood to becoming a trainer of NBA players, baseball players and even celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and Woody Harrelson. He went on to create a nationally franchised gym called the Monkey Bar Gym and has invented internationally recognized fitness products. Listen to hear how he bounced back from an imploded business and overcame many struggles to become as successful as he is. 

Ken Lonnquist is an incredible, energetic songwriter and singer. He performs all around Madison and beyond. Listen to hear how music affected his life and how he found success in this tough musical world. 

Lyman Elliott is an incredible national board certified teacher of history at West High here in Madison. Listen to hear how he found success from poverty and has overcome so much to become as successful as he is. 

Dean Dayalu has lead a life filled with learned experience of religion, philosophy and phycology. He traveled to india and discovered his fate as a Vedic Astrologer and yoga practitioner. Early studies in yoga and depression as well as many other experiences has lead him to be the wise, intelligent, and incredible Madisonian he is. 

This is the second part of my interview with the incredible Eric Rupert. He has had so much expertise with things in and out of the kitchen cooking for Epic, Nutkrack, Sub Zero and more. 

Reverend Dr. Alex Gee is an incredible voice of the Madison community! We have a huge racial issue that we refuse to accept here in Madison. Listen to our conversation about his story and race in America and Madison.

Itaru Nagano is the Chef/Owner of Fairchild Restaurant. They only had two weeks open before the global pandemic hit. Listen to hear how he has been running and keeping his restaurant afloat during these times. 

Michael Velliquette makes incredible works of art. His art wow's viewers around the world. I would greatly encourage you to check out his art using the two links below. Stay tuned for this weeks
Mid-Week Bonus Episode on Thursday with chef restauranteur Itaru Nagano. 

Maka Chikowero has accomplished so much at such a young age including speaking in front of the united nations and founding a nonprofit to help girls in Zimbabwe.

Odessa Piper is an incredible nationwide known Madisonian who is best known for founding L'etoile here in Madison. She owned and ran the establishment for almost 30 years! Listen to her story on how she hitchhiked to Madison with a goal set in her mind!

Peter and Lou Berryman have been lead by music for most of their lives. From the day they met to where they are now a lot has happened. Listen to hear how their morals of peace, love, and happiness stuck with them throughout their musical careers! Click on the link to hear their music!

Lionel Martin is a Manual therapist, massage therapist, former military, nutritionist, and many more. It seems he has done everything under the sun! Listen to hear how he went from serving in the army guarding nuclear weapons and underground bunkers in Germany to using a form of muscle testing to determine what is wrong with patients in an almost psychic way.

Bill Baldon is the head of Restorative Justice at YWCA. He is on a mission to root out the school to prison pipeline by bringing in an unconventional method called Restorative Justice. Learn more about restorative justice by clicking play!

Amani Latimer Burris has lived life to its full extent and has been in and out of the education, floral, and press field. She is now running for State Senate district 26. 

Nada Elmikashfi is an amazing progressive, working-class, passionate politician running for state senate. The primary is August 11th. 

Carlos Alvarado is the wonderful co-owner of The Alvarado Real Estate Group. He has amazing stories to tell from when he was born in Mexico to where he is now.  

Shabnam Lotfi is a skilled immigration attorney who has had many challenges and accomplishments throughout her life. Listen to hear how she has won 98 percent of her cases and even sued Trump.

Andy Francis had a crazy journey with lots of challenges in his life. Listen to see how he overcame them.