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>> Welcome back, everybody.

This is Entrepreneurship in
Society.

It is a course that is offered
through the University of

Wisconsin School of Human
Ecology.

I'm Jeanan Yasiri Moe.
As we begin today, I'd like to

extend thanks to our partners in
helping produce this class, the

College of Engineering for their
technical support, the UW Office

of Corporate Relations for their
support, and the Ewing Marion

Kauffman Foundation which has
provided financial support for

this course over eight
semesters.

Additionally, we'd like to thank
our media partners, Wisconsin

Public Television, and their
University Place crew for taping

today's lecture.
It's my special privilege to be

able to introduce to you a
special guest today, Michael

Feldman, host of the wildly
popular national radio program

"Whad'Ya Know?"
Michael was born and raised in

Milwaukee, graduating from the
UW in 1970.

While teaching at an alternative
high school here in Madison, he

volunteered his services at a
local public radio station,

WORT, back in 1977 and soon
landed his own Friday night

call-in show called "Thanks For
Calling."

That experience eventually led
him to Chicago's WGN radio to

host their afternoon drive slot,
and in 1985 Michael returned to

the Wisconsin Public Radio
network to host "Whad'Ya Know?"

a weekly talk show.
Today, "Whad'Ya Know?"

is produced by Wisconsin Public
Radio and broadcast across the

US to 200 public radio stations
and broadcast on Sirius and XM

satellite radio.
The show is streamed, podcast

archived, and available on
demand through various sources.

I knew that Michael's story was
an interesting one and one that

really does speak to
entrepreneurial thinking:

innovation, risk-taking, as well
as great wealth creation,

especially for those in his
audience.

So it is my pleasure to
introduce and to welcome, as our

last speaker this semester,
Michael Feldman.

[APPLAUSE]
>> Ah, geez.

Well, thank you.
Well, some of that is true.

I don't know about the
innovation, to tell you the

truth.
I do a public radio show so

you've never heard it.
I would say probably your

grandmother might like me.
Your grandfather probably

doesn't.
That's just sort of the way it

splits, public radio.
Some of you might be familiar

with me.
We've been on long enough now

where we actually raised
children in the show from birth

to about age 25 or so.
So you could be one of those

kids that was raised on
"Whad'Ya Know?"

but it doesn't look that way
just from the reaction I'm

getting.
Anyway, I am Michael Feldman.

The show is called "Whad'Ya
Know?" that I do.

I used to be high school
teacher, but it drove me to seek

other forms of vocation.
I don't know if any of you are

in education, but you might find
that same thing happens to you.

So I taught here at Shabazz High
School in Madison, which is the

alternative high school,
so-called because the kids went,

like, every other time.
Actually, my first radio show I

had a show at a greasy spoon
called Dolly's Fine Foods on

Williamson Street.
It was right across from the

Crystal Corner bar, which you
may already know.

If you don't, you probably will.
And I'd do a show there from

6:00 to 9:00 in the morning each
week day, and then I'd go and

teach at Shabazz, and that
worked out pretty good

for a while.
But after while I left that, and

I got a job, actually, on
Wisconsin Public Radio which it

turns out the guy who runs
Wisconsin Public Radio, ran at

the time, heard my show from the
greasy spoon and said this could

work on public radio, and I
pretty much proved that it

couldn't.
But I did several shows there.

Then I got the call to go down
to the big time in Chicago at

WGN, which I found out actually
stands for Who Goes Next in

terms of personnel.
And I lasted there the worst

part of a year, actually, I like
to call it.

They teamed with a co-host, and
I had actually never worked with

anybody before.
For me radio is me.

You have a microphone and due to
certain dysfunctions that I

have, kind of a nervous disorder
that I have, I can free

associate and just keep talking
about nothing.

It worked very well in teaching
high school, as you can imagine.

[LAUGHTER]
So I can do that

endlessly, but working with
someone else, they interrupt you

flow.
And they teamed with this woman

who had been a traffic copter
reporter.

So she had a very loud voice
because she had to be heard

above the props of the
helicopter.

So I would go off on one tangent
and she would just chop it down.

It was horrible.
That's why I never work with

anyone.
I shouldn't really be in a

relationship with anyone.
[LAUGHTER]

I shouldn't really
deal with anyone outside of

myself and just stay in a
bubble, and I'm okay in the

bubble.
Eventually, it got so bad,

actually, we had to do the
engineering for the other

person, we'd switch off the pots
and all that, the levels and

stuff, and she kept potting me
down and her up, and I would pot

her down and me up.
And finally they super glued the

controls on the control board,
WGN, World's Greatest Newspaper

station.
And they super glued them, and

she was so loud on show that I
was doing that I actually

pounded on it with my fist until
they bled trying to move her pot

down so I couldn't hear that in
my ears.

So that's my history in
commercial radio.

Oh, and one weekend at WMAD in
the cornfields there in Sun

Prairie which didn't work out
either because I didn't know you

couldn't play what you wanted
to.

I'd never been on commercial
radio before.

On WORT we played pretty much
whatever we wanted to and some

pretty obscure things and a lot
of strange music.

But on commercial radio you
don't do that.

There's actually a play list, I
was told by the program director

the next morning.
So I had an overnight in the

cornfield there, and it was very
strange to begin with because

would call in and say my sister
just had a newborn baby, could

you play Hells Bells by AC/DC
for her.

Sure, okay, whatever, commercial
radio, do that.

So I played that but it's very
bizarre because, literally,

you're in a cornfield at WMAD,
if it still exists.

Does it?
Probably does.

It's called something else
maybe.

And so you have a window there,
and all you see are corn, stalks

of corn in the dark.
This is the overnight show, and

it's very scary.
And so that lasted two weekends,

and that was the end of
commercial radio for me.

But public radio is a good thing
because you can stay on it as

long as possible because no one
notices you're there.

I have flown under the radar
for, like, 25 years just on this

show alone.
And people don't even realize

that I'm still here so it's
perfect.

You really couldn't ask for
anything better.

I don't know if any of you are
thinking about careers in radio.

Anyone here radio oriented?
TV?

No.
Comm arts?

What's your thing?
>> Comm arts, TV and film.

>> TV and film?
Okay, cool.

I will say that, in terms of
preparation for a career in comm

arts, radio, TV, or what have
you, I never took a course in

it.
And I'm not bragging about that.

It just never occurred to me.
I never really thought I was

going to do that.
I took English because I could

speak it and write it.
So that's cool.

So I had an advantage, I
thought, taking English courses,

and I liked reading.
And then I graduated and I

figured I didn't see any ads for
English majors wanted.

So it was a question of what am
I going to do for a living.

You may run into this shortly.
So I thought I could always

teach.
Those we can, do; those who

can't, teach.
The old saying.

And so I took a year of
education here at the

university, teacher education,
and there was an internship that

open up in Kenosha at Tremper
High School down in Kenosha.

It was opened because the kid
who had gone there to intern

from Madison, these were the
days, had shown up at the

welcome dance at the country
club wearing sandals.

And they sent him home.
They sent him packing because

this is not going to work in
Kenosha.

So I took his opening.
During my job interview they

asked me, would you ever
consider sitting in the yoga

posture on your desk while
teaching a class?

And I said it never occurred to
me.

Which, of course, I did for the
following three or four years.

It was just those days.
The war at home was going on in

Madison, and in Kenosha some
other sort of war was going on,

the war against the factory.
My students in Kenosha,

universally, all they wanted was
not to work in the factory.

It was American Motors at that
time.

And they were great kids and
everything, but they wanted to

get out of Kenosha.
That was their one consideration

not the war or politics or
anything else.

But when I came down there, my
first day when I saw the campus,

there was smoke rising from
Tremper High School.

As I came down highway 50 and I
see that smoke was rising.

And I thought, my god, the war
at home has reached Kenosha.

And it turned out it was senior
bratwurst day.

That was my first indication
that Madison is different from

maybe some other places you'll
run into.

So take that for what it's
worth.

As far as being an entrepreneur,
can you be something that you

can't actually say?
[LAUGHTER]

I've been practicing,
entrepreneur.

I don't think I would be
anything that is French, to

begin with.
That's a French word.

I don't think there's a French
word for me.

Unless it's je ne sais quoi.
So entre-manure I thought of.

That was possibly me.
I'm more of a contra-preneur or

something.
I never have made wealth because

I got the list things, take
risks, think innovatively, and

create wealth.
Now, just looking at wealth, I

have made some money, but I've
never created wealth because

wealth, to me, is bigger than
money or making a decent living.

It's like creating wealth,
something really big.

I'm not sure what it is, to tell
you the truth, but like creating

wealth stream, a stream of
wealth that other people can dip

into.
You know, wealth.

Producing wealth, making wealth
available.

That, I don't do that.
I don't know what that would be.

Taking risks.
I'm not a type A.

Well, it depends what that
stands for, I guess.

I occasionally take risks but
usually not intentionally.

So there's that.
I think, for me at this point in

my life, getting up in the
morning is a risk I take.

[LAUGHTER]
I do it slowly.

Well, you're not there yet.
I won't even tell you want's

going to happen.
You don't want to know, believe

me.
You wake up each morning sort of

surprised that you're still
here.

That's different.
So that's taking a risk, I'd

say, to get out of bed and go
into the world and so forth.

But I'm not a type A.
I can't imagine somebody wants

to sailboard off of Jesus' arms
in Rio there, off Sugarloaf

Mountain, wherever that is.
That would be cool, but I

wouldn't do it.
Or any sort of sport that's

those sports they have now,
those extreme sports.

For me, getting out a chair is
an extreme sport.

Do I take risks?
I take risks because I probably

didn't know what I was getting
into.

So, for example, my career is
not a typical career.

There is nothing you'll see
anywhere that is what I do for a

living.
So I had to invent it.

So there's that.
But it wasn't so much a risk as

it was desperation.
There's a slight difference

between being desperate and
doing anything and taking a

calculated risk.
So I'm not, like an investor

might take a risk and so forth,
I don't do that.

Thinking innovatively.
Once again, that's pretty

subjective.
Once, when I was a kid actually,

I came up with the idea for The
Clapper before it existed.

You know, The Clapper, where
your granny can clap her hands

and the TV goes on or off.
Unfortunately, it also shuts off

her husbands hearing aid and
pacemaker, but that's another...

[LAUGHTER]
That's probably a

good thing for her.
I don't know, it might be a good

thing.
But I never had an innovation

unless it is the fact that I
could make basically being me

into a career.
So that's pretty innovative in a

way because, really, there's not
much of a use, initially you

wouldn't think there's much of a
use for a Michael Feldman.

I can see you agree.
[LAUGHTER]

So if you're doing
something like in radio, now

radio they have things that are
called radio personalities but

usually they're not.
In fact, they told me on the

radio, I won a contest in high
school to be on the radio one

time.
I was shooting my mouth off and

talking and play weird, Louie
Louie and songs like that, and a

guy afterward told me, it was
Bob Berry, who was a very big DJ

in Milwaukee at the time, rock
DJ, the fifth Beatle, actually

the five millionth and fifth
Beatle but that's what he called

himself, he said just play the
records, give the weather and

get out.
He told me not to really

consider that as a career.
But there were radio

personalities, and there's some
leeway in terms of actually

expressing something you feel
about or something you think

about and playing music that you
think should be played that

perhaps isn't being played and
that sort of thing.

But they don't encourage it.
In fact, it almost doesn't exist

anywhere.
There's Rush Limbaugh now and

guys like that and Howard Stern.
They do have that leeway but

they're very few and far
between.

So maybe that's innovation.
Luck.

I would advocate if you're going
to have anything, have luck.

Have good luck.
You may, in fact, now for me the

problem was teaching was cool
but it wasn't going to be my

life work.
I was an artistic type.

Maybe you are as well.
In the sense of I wanted to have

an art in the worst way, and all
my art was about the worst you

could ever see.
Anything I would do artistically

was terrible.
I couldn't paint.

I couldn't draw.
I couldn't sing.

I couldn't play an instrument.
All these things that I really

admired.
Just to draw something that

looked like something would have
been a great thing for me.

And I appreciate all those
things.

And music, I love music but I've
tried, well it never went

anywhere.
I don't have the knack.

I don't have an ear, and I don't
have an eye.

And I have a mouth.
That's about all I have.

And maybe something that you've
run into too is if the need to

express yourself is sort of
important to you, than you are

quite possibly and artistic
type.

You may not be an artist.
That's something that you have

to establish.
But it's sort of a problem

because if you don't immediately
have an art, that's apparent.

You have to come up with
something eventually.

So you try a lot of things, and
I think that's probably the best

thing about college is you could
go off in a lot of areas that

you never even thought of before
and explore them and think,

well, this is cool, maybe I
can't do this or maybe something

that really turns you on in a
whole new way of looking at

things or a way of expressing
yourself.

If expressing yourself is not
important to you, then you don't

have this problem at least.
You may have other problems.

So it's a question of how are
you going to do that.

Photography, I tried photography
for a while.

I tried ceramics.
So I was very desperate.

I had wheels throwing terrible
pots.

All my friends are musicians or
artists, and I was like the odd

man out and I really wanted to
have an art.

So the only argument that I
could come up with is that what

I do on the radio is an art
form.

It may not be high art, but it
certainly is low art.

I'll say that.
So that's just sort of the whole

thing about radio and how that
happened.

I've volunteered at WORT.
That's how I got on the air in

the first place, and I found
that I have three basic skills

that work in terms of doing
radio.

That is I can speak in front of
a group of people and free

associate.
It's really a dysfunction that I

have.
So if you can make your

dysfunctions pay, this could be
very important for you.

I can free associate.
I used to do it in my classes

all the time.
Kids would get me off on

tangents, and I'd just keep
going.

I'd be talking about one thing
and they say what about, and so

I'd go that and I would never
get to what I was going to do

because that's how I think.
And it's a dysfunction based on

nervousness.
So it's a nervous disorder that

I made pay.
So that's cool.

Otherwise I would be
tranquilized and years of

therapy.
I probably should have therapy

with a lot of this stuff because
it could have been therapized,

or whatever they do,
therapeutized, but I wouldn't

have had a career.
I would be on the air, for

example, doing my show from the
greasy spoon, and it was whoever

came in including people off the
streets and stuff, and I could

work with all of them because I
was just free to talk to people

and so forth and get something
from them.

Someone called in one day and
said, you know, you're really

messed up.
You're very neurotic and you

have a lot of problems, and he
said don't ever change.

So if I had therapy I wouldn't
be able to do that because I

would have been at peace with
myself.

But you can't be at peace with
yourself and make a complete ass

of yourself at the same time, so
that's very important that I

didn't do that.
I do want to say something about

old media and new media because
I'm definitely old media, so I

wish you guys a lot of luck with
the new media.

I'm making forays in it.
I do tweet or Twitter or

whatever the verb would be.
I do that.

And now that's part of my
nervous disorder now.

It's a very strange thing.
First of all, I believe that our

history will be divided into
pre-cell and post-cell.

Or BC and AC.
That will be our generation.

Before cell and after cell.
Now, I am before cell.

For me a phone is black.
It has a rotary dial.

There's a cord.
If you want privacy, you drag it

into the bathroom and lock the
door and your brother knocks on

it the whole time trying to get
in it.

But that's a phone.
You didn't take a picture with

it, for example, and there was
no social networking.

We didn't social network in my
day.

We didn't have social media.
We had social diseases.

That occurred.
Social studies.

We definitely had social
security.

You probably had one of those
three things, but that was all

the social we had.
There were social organizations,

rotary and your elks and so
forth, but there was no social.

And, frankly, I feel I'm sort of
relieved in a way because, first

of all, I have a phone.
Where'd I put it there?

And I'm supposed to leave it on
my daughters tell me, one of

whom is there actually.
I wasn't going to mention her

but there she is.
I finally got the phone.

Dad, take your phone with you,
leave it on.

Alright, I don't want to be that
available.

See, now, that's the difference
between your generation and

mine.
Why would you want to be that

available?
It's the same thing with

Facebook now.
Everyone knows what you're doing

every step of the way, and why
do you want that?

It's none of their business
where I am now.

Unless I'm expecting a call, but
I don't expect somebody I don't

even know on Facebook to know
what I have just done which is

probably trivial anyway and none
of their business overall.

So that's why I'm not of this
generation.

It wouldn't work out for me.
But I do use my phone now.

Occasionally I turn it on.
So that's cool.

They're cool devices.
Now, I'm Android simply because

I'm sort of anti-Apple simply
because I don't know why.

[LAUGHTER]
Since that Mac that looked like

a TV set, I thought it was
really ugly looking,

those old Macs, and then they
came out with a laptop that

looked like a toilet cover and
that was it for me for Mac.

I keep thinking about that
toilet cover Mac.

Who invented that?
Now they're doing a lot better

design-wise and so forth.
To me, the whole Apple thing is

such a closed system.
They control all the content

going in, the content coming
out, and so forth.

And to me that goes back to my
University of Wisconsin days.

That's the man.
Apple's the man.

Of course, Google is the man
also.

There's a lot of men now.
[LAUGHTER]

Amazon.
The whole cloud thing now is

very scary to me as a member of
the old media because you've got

your Amazon cloud, you got you
Apple cloud, you got your Google

cloud, and eventually there's
going to be warfare between

these clouds.
[LAUGHTER]

And ships of
destruction will fight one

another in the clouds, in the
various clouds, and it will be

the end of the world as we know
it.

But that's new media, what can
you do?

In my day, you have AT&T, but in
my day it actually was American

Telephone & Telegraph.
So that's it in a nutshell.

Just left the telegraph behind
and we had the telephone, a

wonderful thing.
Now you actually make calls on

your cell?
Probably not, right?

My youngest daughter is shocked
when her phone rings.

It doesn't ring, it plays some
heavy metal anthem.

Phones don't ring anymore.
You don't dial anything because

there's no dials.
But anyway, if it rings, she's

shocked because all she does is
text.

She's a different creature from
me, as is Ellie.

Ellie has gone totally Siri.
Siri is the only person she

talks to now.
[LAUGHTER]

Because that's the
one person who always responds.

I can understand that.
It's a wonderful thing, but Siri

is not real.
She's not real.

I don't think.
Maybe she is real.

Maybe there is someone there
who's behind the scenes being

Siri, but I don't think so.
So I guess all I'm saying is I

don't get all this stuff,
especially Facebook, I think,

more than anything.
Facebook is interesting because

here is a guy, Zuckerberg, who
had no social skills whatsoever.

[LAUGHTER]
And invents this

thing because of that.
That's amazing.

Talk about my lack of access to
what's really happening.

He's totally asocial.
He just didn't have any social

skills.
Terrible social skills.

You saw the movie, right?
I think that's pretty accurate.

Total lack of social skills.
He's now worth how many billions

of dollars?
That's an amazing story for

someone with social problems.
So that's interesting and, once

again, this is all new media
stuff.

Radio is probably the only
surviving thing of the old

media.
Even television now has gone

different, high def and
whatever.

Soon television will be more
interactive.

It will all be one big thing and
so forth.

Radio is still there hammering
away.

I'm on the AM here in Madison,
so how cool is that?

With the basketball games, the
high school basketball games,

and "Whad'Ya Know?"
In my day, the basically the big

innovation in radio was we got
the six transistor radio which

made it possible for the first
time to gouge out a textbook and

conceal a radio in it.
You take a knife, history books

work best I find.
[LAUGHTER]

And you make a little
thing in there and the rest your

little six transistor radio.
This is, consider the height,

state of the art.
And then you run, there was a

single thing that goes in your
ear, it looked like a hearing

aid basically, and run up here
and stick it in there.

And you just sit like this and
listen to the World Series or

whatever.
Just for special events.

You can't do it all the time.
So that was it but that was a

big deal.
Suddenly you're portable and

that, all portable devices now,
that was like the first portable

device.
Suddenly we've got that six

transistor radio.
That's a life changer.

But you couldn't do much with
it.

You couldn't take pictures with
it.

You couldn't find out where your
friends were and where they

weren't and summon them all.
I do like flash mobs.

[LAUGHTER]
Ellie always told me

I use the term wrong, but this
is about the coolest thing

because we used to, in the days
here when the revolution was on,

say the revolution will be
televised.

The idea that everything that
was happening on campus, all the

riots and protests and kids
getting beat up and all that

stuff, was all on television.
So they said the world is

watching, the revolution will be
televised.

It didn't quite work out that
way.

But now I think the revolution
will be on Facebook, if there is

one, it will be called Facebook.
You'll all know where it is and

where to show up and so forth.
But I see a flash mob kind of

thing where everyone gets
together and has a revolution

instead of a dance thing,
actually stage a revolution.

And then they go away and do
something else.

I don't know.
I think that's pretty cool.

There's that sort of social
aspect of it, which I think is

very cool I got to admit, which
didn't exist before.

It's possible if you look at
Egypt and countries overseas

where there's been a total
regime change, all of that was

made possible by this new
technology which didn't exist

before.
So that's pretty amazing and

that's a pretty powerful tool.
So I do have a lot of respect

for that end of things.
However, radio is still AM.

[LAUGHTER]
And scratchy and

doesn't reach very far.
They have tried to do

innovations in radio.
They have an HD radio now.

I don't know if it stands for
high density.

I don't know.
Hound dog.

I have no idea.
It's really not high def or

anything.
And no one has it anyhow.

Now you can get Sirius and so
forth.

That's cool but it's expensive.
So it does offer more options

though.
For us, the main thing we had

were records and the stereo.
The stereo was an amazing

invention.
We went from one speaker to two.

And amplifiers, someone figured
out that you can get, like, 100

watts and up and build speakers
that were really huge.

Somewhere in the '70s, I think,
this occurred.

And so maybe a student such as
yourself or yourselves could get

the biggest damn speakers, and
suddenly you dominate your

space.
That's the cool thing about all

this technology.
A lot of it now is you

dominating your internal space.
But you could really work the

whole block with the right
speakers.

And that was kind of powerful
because the music also is part

of it.
Sort of a revolution going on.

The Beatles somewhat but also
Bob Dylan and all these people,

and they weren't exactly calling
for a revolution but it was a

whole new way of doing music,
and it was very

anti-establishment.
So that was the cool thing about

it.
And it was everywhere.

It was on the radio everywhere,
and it was blasting from your

dorm.
That was sort of the one

unifying social factor that we
had going for us.

If we had anything going for us,
I'm not sure we did.

This Twitter thing is, I've
gotten, it's addictive in that

on my show I have a monologue,
monologue so called because I'm

the one speaking it, so I start
each show with a news monologue.

All the news that isn't I call
it.

And it's basically what's
happening, what I think is

funny, and trying to put a spin
on it and sometimes

successfully.
But I've been doing that on

Twitter.
Something comes up, John

Travolta, okay, let's get
something out on the John

Travolta masseur thing.
Not too hard to do.

So I do it almost, sometimes I
think I'm doing it in my sleep.

I'm actually tweeting, if that
is the verb, in my sleep which

is an odd feeling.
It also is sort of bad in terms

of composition because you're
limited to 140 characters.

And that's a different way.
I always wrote, and I try to

write humorous pieces and stuff,
and they always end up being

about a page and a half maximum.
That's all I could say.

Usually I would take a one-liner
and expand it, and I get about a

page and a half out of it, and
sometimes I get a newspaper

column out of it or something
like that.

So that's cool.
But now with Twitter, you're

limited to 140 characters.
And if you look at it, perhaps

no literature will ever be
written again if this becomes

the norm for writing in 140
characters because that's like,

what, 20 words maybe.
And if you think about it, I

looked it up and the bible is
774,746 words in the bible.

That's both books not including
book of Mormon.

Figuring it's seven letters a
word, words were longer in those

days because they had, like,
speaketh, sayeth.

You always had the eth endings
on everything.

So that comes out to 5,423,222
characters in the bible, which

would require 38,737 tweets.
However, the 10 Commandments are

more doable.
I actually worked out the 10

Commandments.
I can do them in 51 characters.

Here they are.
No god, images, cursing,

killing, sex, steal, covet,
Sundays, honor folks.

10 Commandments.
It doesn't have the same impact.

[LAUGHTER]
If Moses had actually

tweeted, I don't think it would
have the same impact, and I

think today our entire western
culture might be entirely

different because I don't think
people would have thought this

was necessarily the tweet of
God.

[LAUGHTER]
Okay.

I just thought about that so I
thought I'd tell you.

Let's see, I've got a couple
things I want to say here.

Okay.
Feldmaneurship, I actually felt

under a lot of pressure because
Jeanan is so into this and she's

so good at what she does and she
is all these things.

Do you know about her?
She's absolutely amazing, by the

way.
She is in so many things and so

many areas, and she has got the
business acumen but she uses it

for the good of people.
It's almost never been done

before.
She's an amazing individual.

And she is so organized and so
goal-oriented and so

follow-through on everything
that she is the exact opposite

of me because my approach to
life is to stumble over

something, and then as you're
getting up you see if it

actually works for you or not,
and maybe you'll stumble over it

again.
So totally disorganized.

The opposite of Jeanan.
J-Moe as she's now known.

[LAUGHTER]
So I try to think

what would Feldmaneurship be?
I came up with a few things

here, and I'll just give these
to you quickly here because

they're of no use to you.
[LAUGHTER]

Number one, no goals.
[LAUGHTER]

How can you have
goals when you have no idea what

you're doing?
[LAUGHTER]

Goals are usually
somebody else has foist it on

you anyway.
People like to pretend that

whatever they may have achieved
in life is what they intended to

but they're delusional.
They're rationalizing what may

have been some pretty bad
choices along the way.

It's like Toddlers and Tiaras,
right?

Those kids are out there because
of their mothers' needs.

The desperate needs of their
overweight, overbearing mothers

to have been a beauty queen.
So these poor little kids have

to pay for it.
Unless you're a Manning, a good

rule of thumb is to do nothing
that your parents have done.

[LAUGHTER]
Goals are limiting

many interesting, even profound,
avenues and dead ends you may

have taken.
In Feldmaneurship, we get out

there and stumble over things.
Take the wrong direction on the

wrong path, start over, and
stumble again.

Eventually, you stumble over
something worth the fall.

Then it's a question of how I
can keep having the same happy

accident over and over again.
And, really, because you try

things and this doesn't work,
that doesn't work, and to find

something that I could do then,
and then the question of

actually doing it.
So for me I said I can do radio

because I can talk, I can hold a
microphone, and I can answer the

phone.
So the three qualities you need

for doing a radio show.
But then it's really a question

of actually developing the
skills because they don't just

come naturally.
You have to have the talent.

There has to be some talent
there.

And that's a problem I've had in
a lot of areas.

There's stuff I really want to
do but I didn't have that

talent.
Finally you find something, this

is something I can do.
Then you've got to develop the

talent.
So that's the thing.

Number two, no ambition.
Very important not to have

ambition I don't mean to be a
stoner or whatever they're

called now.
Are there still stoners?

What do you call someone who's
like, ya know?

>> A stoner.
>> A stoner?

Cool.
[LAUGHTER]

I'm down with that.
By the way, in school, myself,

in high school in particular, I
was very, not conservative but

just kind of...
[LAUGHTER]

What does this mean?
What's a word for this?

A kid who's like this?
I used to wear dickies.

I used to wear turtleneck
dickies and white shirts, and

you could see the dickie outline
underneath.

[LAUGHTER]
Penny loafers, you

don't know what those are but
they are little shoes that

actually had pennies.
I'd take the pennies out because

I was cool.
[LAUGHTER]

Black stay-press
pants and penny loafers, and I

eventually went to hush puppies.
I really got pretty hip.

And white shirts.
I looked like a junior

accountant.
My dad was an accountant.

Maybe I got it from him.
I don't know.

And I had a sense of humor and
stuff, and I was pretty funny

and stuff, but I was pretty
closed off.

Whatever.
That was me.

But the guys that I admired, we
called them greasers in our day.

We had these greasers because of
all the grease.

They were the coolest guys in
the world because they would

talk back to teachers and stuff,
and I loved it because deep in

my heart I wanted to do that.
I hated high school.

It was all abuse of authority,
especially in those days.

You needed a hall pass.
No protests in our high school.

It never occurred to us to do
that.

So the greasers were my heroes.
They were pretty cool guys.

But anyhow, no ambition, don't
be a stoner but be whatever you

have to be just not to have
ambition.

I don't know if we're all here
for a reason, but we are all

here and we can make up reasons.
So you don't really have to have

an overriding ambition.
Those are usually imposed on you

anyhow.
Rich and famous are the two

absolute worst ambitions you can
have.

I think maybe you could be rich
or famous.

That wouldn't be so bad, but if
you have them both, it's not a

good thing because they sort of
take over your life.

Ambition should be to do
something you love to do because

if you do something you love to
do then you'll never feel like

I've wasted the past 30 years of
my life at the Department of

Motor Vehicles.
Good job, probably gratifying in

some sense of the word, but it's
not what you wanted to do.

You wanted to dance.
So go for the love thing, I

would say.
Forgot the ambition thing unless

your ambition is to make the
most of yourself.

That's a good ambition I think.
And there's no reason that

shouldn't pay good money.
Ideally, you'll do something you

love and get paid for it.
That's the only ambition.

Make mistakes.
Very important to make mistakes,

constantly, repeatedly, same
ones over and over again.

You should have a wife there to
confirm all that.

[LAUGHTER]
That's very helpful.

Or a husband who can tell you
that, in fact, you're making the

same mistake.
Of course that was a big mistake

in the beginning but never mind.
[LAUGHTER]

You think Edison
didn't come up with some stupid

inventions?
I bet he came up with hand

buzzers and nose hair trimmers
and stuff, but he came up with

the light bulb and the
phonograph.

Of course he stole all those
ideas but still.

Without mistakes you never get
anything right.

So make mistakes.
It's normal.

Don't try to make them.
That'd be weird.

But you'll make them.
Roger Clemens even would hang

the occasional fastball in the
letters and shoot the occasional

needle in his butt.
[LAUGHTER]

So everyone makes
mistakes is what I'm saying.

Still a great pitcher.
Hope he gets off.

And I always think Columbus,
remember, was looking for India.

Big mistake.
Only a couple more of these.

Money is only a problem when you
don't have it.

Okay.
It can't be money-oriented.

Definitely I have been broke,
and it's a good thing to be

broke just to know what it's
like not to have money.

And to know that you don't care
for that feeling.

At one point here, a low point
in my life, actually I was

driving cab, I quit my one radio
job for some reason, on the air

by the way, don't ever do that
if you're on the air.

[LAUGHTER]
And so I ended up

driving cab and was a terrible
cab driver.

Definitely not my life work.
I had the lowest revenue per

mile in Union Cab because I
turned off the radio because I

didn't want to be bothered.
[LAUGHTER]

Plus, I grew up on
campus here, grew up, I guess I

grew up, and I didn't know there
were streets called the Grand

Tetons.
Did you know that?

On the west side of Madison?
The Grand Tetons.

They'd say number 24, pick up
Grand Tetons, and I had no idea

we had Grand Tetons in Madison.
On the far east side of Madison

there are streets named after
the developer's daughters.

So Donna.
You've got to know developer's

daughters to know what street
you're on.

It's a very confusing thing if
you've never been off campus.

Broom Street, Bassett, cool.
[LAUGHTER]

By the way, Mifflin
Street block party, Mayor Paul

Soglin was the first guy
arrested at the original Mifflin

Street block party.
Where was he?

I'm sorry.
It really bothers me.

Our motto was the streets belong
to the people.

We were wrong.
[LAUGHTER]

But why were there
horses in the street and the

people were on the sidewalks, it
was the worst possible

situation, scenario.
It's amazing nothing worse

happened than arresting Montee
Ball.

[LAUGHTER]
And who turned in

Montee Ball?
We've got to find him, we've got

to, I'm not saying hurt him or
anything, I'm just saying.

[LAUGHTER]
Mess up his porch a

little bit.
You know what I'm saying?

[LAUGHTER]
That was the weirdest

event of all time, I think.
Do something you love.

I covered that one already.
Finally, this is the last one in

Feldmaneurship, learn how to
dance.

It may seem inappropriate with
the other ones, but I guess

mainly to the guys out there
because most of the females

probably already know how to
dance.

For women it's innate.
For men it's acquired.

It's an acquired skill.
But it's a tremendous advantage

to you.
You guys, you're still in the

sifting and winnowing, the great
Wisconsin Idea of the whole

mating game or whatever, and if
you can dance it gives you, how

many times have you stood up in
front of a band there while the

only girl there that you would
have wanted to dance with gets

asked to dance by some guy who
knows how to dance?

Now, I'm not saying that would
have been the girl for you, but

you know what I mean.
Learn how to dance.

Take some lessons.
Don't tell anyone you're doing

it.
That's humiliating.

[LAUGHTER]
Because I guy does

not learn how to dance unless he
has a sister who teaches him,

and I had three older brothers.
None of them taught me how.

They taught me how to defend
myself from a headlock and how

to breathe with my neck being
pressed against the floor.

[LAUGHTER]
But no dancing.

So I would say it's a tremendous
advantage.

And that's what I would advise
to you.

So that's pretty much me in my
life and times.

It's not much but it's my life.
[LAUGHTER]

So I would be happy,
now you may have questions not

so much about me but about,
let's say, radio or broadcasting

or how do I get into this sort
of thing.

If I can help you, I'd be
surprised, but I'd be glad to

entertain any questions you
might have.

>> The students know that they
put their hands up, and then I

go ahead and hand off the mic.
Do I see any hands?

I see one at the back.
>> So I'm watching her move.

She moves so well.
>> If you guys could make sure

your backpacks aren't in the way
of my running through.

>> Public Television there.
>> Hey there.

I know your daughter Ellie, and
I know she went to West.

I went to Memorial.
Which high school did you go to

in Madison?
>> I didn't go to one.

I taught at one.
>> Oh.

>> I taught at Shabazz.
>> Oh, Shabazz.

>> I'm from Milwaukee.
I went to Milwaukee Washington.

>> Okay.
I was just wondering.

Just curious.
[LAUGHTER]

>> West has been our
school here, though.

Both daughters went to West.
>> Right here and then I'll come

down front.
>> Hi.

My name is Michael.
>> Hi.

>> I was just wondering, if you
could go back and give yourself

one piece of advice while you
were in college, what would that

be?
>> Don't get married.

[LAUGHTER]
Alright, okay, no one

ever gave me advice, and
anything I would say to you, I

expect you not to pay any
attention to because I wouldn't

have either.
So I graduated college, I was

21, I was living with a certain
person, and I thought I'm going

to get married because my
brother Clayton got married when

he was 21 and he was still
married and he's still married

now.
But that was Clayton, and he

didn't marry the person that I
did.

So I would say, for some reason
I thought that I had to get in

line, in step, with
expectations.

Get married, get a job.
So I would say don't do that.

Are you crazy?
[LAUGHTER]

>> Hi.
My name is Justin.

>> Hey, Justin.
>> First of all, thanks for

coming.
It was really enjoyable.

>> Oh, thank you.
>> So you made the distinction

between old and new media.
>> Yeah.

>> Your radio show is on the
internet, how do you make that

connection, I suppose?
How do you reach new people with

old media?
>> I would tie it to a brick and

throw it through a window if
that's all, in terms of delivery

of the material.
The material is very much

traditionally delivered.
It's sort of repackaged through

the internet and so forth.
It's not really internet

friendly in the sense that it's
not interactive, which would be

nice for me to do that more.
I would use whatever is

available in terms of
broadcasting.

We do have podcasts and so
forth, and I have never actually

listened to a podcast.
I don't know what sort of pod

you need.
[LAUGHTER]

I think it's like a
body snatchers thing where the

pod comes and takes over your
body.

Replica of you kind of thing.
But I'm not sure what the

technology is there.
I find the new technology very

interesting for all the reasons
I said earlier, I guess.

It's sort of beyond me.
Especially all the social media

part of it I, personally, don't
get.

For you, I'm sure for all of you
it's like second nature.

You think about the cell phone
thing really didn't hit that

long ago, but you grew up with
that.

So that's really totally
different orientation.

>> Michael, "Whad'Ya Know?"
is very, very popular, and it's

obviously gone through a lot of
transitions over the course of

the last 25 years.
What do you think is the

riskiest thing you've ever done
with the show when you think

back?
>> Risky?

>> Yeah.
>> I think showing up is the

biggest risk.
Honestly, it's not a risk sort

of show.
Do you know what I mean?

No one's life is in danger by
the doing of it.

[LAUGHTER]
We may have had

impact on some people listening
for one reason or another.

I know that people have told me
that their mother in the home,

she listened to the show and she
loved it, and it tied her into

things that were happening back
here in Wisconsin.

That sort of thing.
So that's risk exactly but it's

sort of having an effect of some
sort.

So that does occur.
And, really, what I like is not

so much the risk of it, it's
actually connecting.

So I say all that stuff about
social media, but for me radio

was maybe the original social
media in that you go on the air

and you're talking to people
around the country who maybe

have the same point of view as
you, or similar, and they're

funny, they're interesting, they
tell you something about they

are and where they're at, and I
love that sort of connectedness.

To me, that's really what makes
it interesting.

That's not really a risk thing.
It's sort of a risk to put

yourself in that position.
It can be.

>> You went through a lot of
different positions, jobs,

careers, and, obviously,
"Whad'Ya Know?" is very,

very popular.
Was there ever a point when you

realized you'd made it?
>> No, not yet.

[LAUGHTER]
No.

And I'm already in my decline.
It's sort of slipping away I

feel like.
It's hard to maintain and arch.

That's why it's an arch I guess.
But no.

Making it?
No.

Surprised that I'm still on?
Yes.

So there's that.
I really do think if you stay on

long enough, you become
grandfathered in, especially in

public radio.
Commercial radio, you probably

have a two-year life span before
you get fired or they change

format of your station.
I've worked with commercial

guys.
They're always reformatting

stations.
So you go in and it's jazz one

day, the next day it's Spanish
language, and you may not make

that jump comfortably.
But that's commercial radio.

Public radio just goes on and on
and on and on and on and on.

>> Any final questions for
Michael before we close?

Well, I know you all join me in
thanking Michael Feldman.

[APPLAUSE]
>> Thank you guys.