City Cast Madison

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. Ticke...

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 i...

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 Reye...

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-ch...

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...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 u...

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. ...

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, wher...

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 Ca...

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...

“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...

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 de...

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 da...

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.  The...

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 w...

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, Pros...

This week, we’re honoring love in its many forms. We’ll offer you things to do, places to go, and advice on how to care for friends, lovers… and yourself. Looking for a gift for your special someone this Valentine’s Day? Flowers are beautiful, but you know what lasts longer? Plants!  With our cold, dry midwest winters, we can use all the fresh oxygen and life we can get this time of year. But wher...

This week, we’re honoring love in its many forms. We’ll offer you things to do, places to go, and advice on how to care for friends, lovers… and yourself. Today, we’re talking about how to survive the unthinkable - when a loved one betrays and hurts you so badly, you can’t imagine how you’ll move on. And yet, you have to. Darcy Luoma had a rewarding career, a successful business, a loving family a...

It’s happening. The onslaught of pink and red in store displays... the candy hearts and chocolate sales... the pressure. Valentine’s Day is coming. Whether you love it or want to run screaming, we’ve got you. This week, we’re honoring love in its many forms. We’ll offer you things to do, places to go, and advice on how to care for friends, lovers… and yourself. Today, we’re talking about how takin...

It’s Friday and we’re talking about the stories that we’ve been thinking about all week. The whole City Cast Madison team’s here to talk about the city’s need for new housing and the fights over where it should go. Is the Filene House historic and worth saving?  And Madison has big plans to remake the Lake Monona waterfront.  Plus, what’s happening with the new Police Civilian Oversight Board? And...

Back in early 1970s Madison, there was no farm-to-table movement. There was no farmers market downtown. The Capitol Square was a ghost town at night. There were no standards for organic, much less anything else. None of that dissuaded Odessa Piper. The pioneering chef cut her teeth at Ovens of Brittany, creating the famous gooey, caramelly Morning Bun pastries (waay before the cronut was a twinkle...

While most of us are sleeping, plow drivers across the city are at work. Like choreographed dancers, they all set about their routes, often working up to 16-hour days in some of the worst conditions, all to clear the way for us. So life can go on as usual.  Meet Margaret Kraege, the first female snow plow driver for the City of Madison. Also on the show: 🚜 Name these plows! You have until Friday,...