Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Cripes cast. This is the podcast where we talked to people for and or from the Midwest and we are brought to you by Jolly Good soda.

So this week, I'm joined by Danny again. Now Dan and I deep cut. We met back in shoot. When was it? When did the Packers lose to the

Giant Singland and cheese school? He's when was that October? Kelly Maraca executive producer of the Cripes cast coming in hot with the facts. So Kelly and I met Dan. He's a friend.

Friend of the families. The Campbell's are a friend of the families. Okay. So one of the Scott and Tom. Okay. A friend of a friend of a friend and then.

So anyway, Dan is a friend of Scott's and we were out having a couple beers and then eventually, you know, I figured out he wrote these incredible books on the Great Lakes. He's got one out now, one that's coming out, but the one that I read was the death and life of the Great Lakes, which is all about the invasive species in the Great Lakes and this and that. And you know, I'm a nerd for this stuff. I love it.

Oh, you know, I will say I do regret a little bit in this interview, not going into Dan's story. And honestly, I want to have Dan back on one is he's got another book coming out on phosphorus and all.

Yeah, I think it's out officially now. Oh, it is out officially now.

So yeah, we should go get that book so you can read it and talk about it. Well, I have been reading it. Yeah, yeah, it's great. But I started with this one because I wanted to talk about this. But anyway, from an environmental perspective, I just kind of really nerd it out a little bit on this one with him.

So, but, but, you know, I know there are a bunch of environmental junkies in the audience. You'll love it too. But I do, I would like to get Dan back on to really just talk about his story and how he became a writer because he's just Milwaukee, Milwaukee based writer and I'm sure he's got a really cool story. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he was talking to you about doing this from the car because he was writing during the pandemic. Yes.

And so, yeah, it just was like watching you guys on zoom. You were just I could tell you're geeking out. I just love this stuff. And if you're not familiar with, you know, the Great Lakes and the story behind the Great Lakes, it's.

You ever see those YouTube videos with someone water skiing on the river on the Mississippi River and all these carpet jumping up. There's actually they show you can watch on TV where people go out with like bats and stuff and nets and they try and catch them.

Super invasive. We're not meant to be here. And now they kind of have destroyed in a lot of ways, the recreation created another recreation, which is, you know,

now I know what you do on the weekends. I know watch car killing go car killing.

Well, the thing is, is they're super invasive. They're they're problematic to the ecosystem. So it is the most appropriate thing to kill those fish. I think to say it. But it's not just

that it's also, you know, the L wives and the zebra mussels and all these things that have affected the Great Lakes through the process of opening up the St. Lawrence

Seaway for world trade, you know, and so you get ocean water, that brackish water mixed with the, you're looking at it. Stop. Don't let your eyes glaze over already calling.

I'm super excited. By anyway, I love this conversation. We have Dan is a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, which is huge two time finalist for the Pulitzer prize.

He's going to win soon. I guarantee you that he is a winner of the Los Angeles Times book prize, which is another huge award. So so excited to have Dan on.

And yeah, again, he mentioned that he was in the car. He was in the car over at the harbor in Milwaukee, which is sort of where he first had this inspiration for this and where, as he said, during the, you know, pandemic, he was writing.

Yeah, because I think he said he needed the Wi-Fi and his everybody was home because his kids, so he would just like go camp out near a coffee shop and get the Wi-Fi to reach. And then such a charlie move.

That is that's why as soon as he did that, I was like, oh shoot soon. We're going to have like podcasts of you just in your car. I know.

I know. I know. I've done I've done stuff like that. I'm also on a call today. I'm pretty sure you were in your car. Yeah, I was. Yeah, it's not a good. Yeah, thanks.

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