Shows
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 31: The Mooninite MassacreChris and I have a freewheeling conversation, starting with John Fresolo’s District 3 Race Theory, zooming out to the War on Terror and the great Mooninite Massacre of 2007, back in time to the sinking of the Frigate Hussar and the possibly still at-large Midgley’s Mortar, then back down to reality: the Crompton Pool fiasco and Alex Guardiola’s weird obsession with teacher sick days.Fresolo’s comments in The RamblerMooninite Bomb ScareCandy Mero Carlson’s 2022 cable access freakout and the video evidenceAlex Guardiola’s war on sick days...2025-07-141h 23
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 30: Mr. Midgley’s MortarTo celebrate the fourth, Chris and I go full porch mode, eschewing the news of the day to focus instead on Worcester’s messy, turbulent, amazing relationship with the Fourth of July, a Purge-like affinity built into our DNA going back to the industrial revolution. We read from an entire chapter about the city’s July 4 celebrations a century ago in Roy Rosenzweig’s Eight Hours For What We Will, the best book ever written about this city. Because it’s pretty hard to find, having been out of print for decades, here’s a scan of the chapter in questio...2025-07-051h 16
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 29: A fireside khatBack from our top secret trip deep within the heart of the Axis of Resistance, Chris and I discuss the local implications of Zohran Mamandi’s victory in NYC, building off the piece I wrote the other day: “A politics of no translation.” Of particular concern is how bad the Massachusetts Democratic establishment has been on housing, and the opportunity that presents. Then we pay Cape Cod Ray a visit, reading his cranky thoughts on protestors—and a stunning admission about WPD thuggery—into the record. Cuomo’s ridiculous $25 million plus real estate PAC. RealPage rent fixing...2025-06-301h 30
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 28: A/C/G?Aliens, cryptids, ghosts... Gurus... On the eve of this newsletter’s big birthday, and after a tumultuous couple months for the city, Chris and I decide to take it easy. A light and silly episode recorded on my front porch. Following a program of events Chris put together, we divulge our crackpot woo woo ideas about life then catch up on some news: The Telegram’s weird hit piece on Etel Haxhiaj’s campaign fund that just makes her look even more badass, the Satya Mitra story right in front of them that they missed, and Kate Toomey’s hilariou...2025-06-161h 23
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 27: Rare CandyWhat’s up everyone. Bill here, back from my much needed vacation—feeling rested and ready to rumble. Needed that week-long tune-out from the safe distance of Republican Cape Cod (also goes by the Outer Banks). But what a week to miss! In this episode, I go in cold, having refrained from reading a single Worcester story from the time I was gone. Chris catches me up on the tumult in real time. It’s fun… or as fun as the subject matter allows. We recorded this episode last night (in a very echoey conference room) af...2025-06-101h 11
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 26: Digging in (ft. Ashley Spring)In which we spend a pleasant afternoon over on the back patio of community organizer and would-have-been school committee candidate Ashley Spring. A lot to talk about: we discussed their volunteer work with LUCE that brought them down to the scene at Eureka Street and what happened before the body cam footage seen round the world. We pointedly do not discuss the arrest or the “Dangerous Weapon” as there is an active court proceeding but for the record: lol lmao rofl etc. Also: the Election Commission disqualifying them for the November election and oh yeah GoFundMe canceling thei...2025-05-311h 32
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 25: We just need to come togetherWhat to say after a State of the City address like the one we watched Wednesday night… welp. In today’s episode Chris and I digest a crazy couple weeks of news and what it all says about our ungovernable and irredeemable little city. The GoPro video of Moe Bergman’s campaign event State of the city addressThomas Duffy on WBUR and a Worcester Sucks rundown of his greatest hits (literally).MassLive: “ICE agents injured Worcester mother during raid, won’t give her meds, attorney says”Also: I (Bill) am sti...2025-05-231h 31
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 24: We have something they fundamentally lackTo the clip of new subscribers here in the past few days welcome to Outdoor Cats, the audio companion to Worcester Sucks! It’s me (Bill) and Chris Robarge, a longtime community organizer and advocate in these parts, with experience at the ACLU, Mass Bail Fund and elsewhere. We talk s**t and try to pull the humor out of what can be very very very humorless material. Humor-averse, even. This week more than most. (If podcasts aren’t your thing you can adjust which sections—Outdoor Cats, Bad Advice, WPS In Brief, etc—come to your inbox in your set...2025-05-131h 53
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 23: Council Clowns and Factory TownsHey everyone: Chris here posting the episode today, Bill is off to see AC/DC. One time I went to a Catholic funeral mass where “Dirty Deeds” was played in church, LOUD, so I think I’ve already had my best possible AC/DC experience.We talk about another dumb week at city council, where it seems Charles Luster is doubling down on his campaign to run on humans experiencing substance-use issues being a vector for litter. Moe Bergman for one is more than happy to follow him down that line of inquiry. Shocking, I know!Next up is...2025-05-041h 23
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 22: Whitey should stick to the moonSilicon Valley billionaires are so hermetically sealed off from community—so afraid of it, and yet so so so alone without it, so bitter to see others have it—they’re trying to “disrupt” the very concept. Via “Charter cities,” “freedom cities,” “network states,” and the “abundance agenda” libertarian dorks on both sides of the proverbial aisle have found their Next Big Thing: a remade municipality, free from the evils of government oversight, tax obligations, or and anything else they don’t personally like. Woke, for instance, or ummm people who don’t have homes. Instead of local democracy, wh...2025-04-281h 28
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 21: Evidence Dot ComThis podcast is available on all the major podcast players: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket CastsTough to coat this one with any sugar folks: Today we open with the news that our one competent city executive, Superintendent Rachel Monárrez, will be “going, going, back back to Cali” like Biggie Smalls come June. Read her statement here. You will be missed, Dr. Monárrez!We then spend the rest of the episode digesting and discussing Tuesday’s meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Safety, and how it illustrated the true power dynamics of the c...2025-04-181h 31
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 20: Student visa revocations at WPI, ClarkWe spend most of the show discussing the four foreign student visa revocations at WPI, (and late breaking, as we were recording, 12 revocations at Clark), and take a look at why and how it’s happening to hundreds around the country.From a statement sent Wednesday night from WPI President Grace Wang:WPI confirmed today that federal authorities have revoked the visas of four of our international students.Similar actions in recent days have affected hundreds of international students across the country, including at multiple colleges and universities in Massachusetts. WPI learned of th...2025-04-111h 17
Outdoor Cats PodcastO.C. Dispatch: Hands Off RallyReal quick audio recap of the rally this afternoon. The idea with these O.C. Dispatches: audio news reports in the public radio tradition, but here on this newsletter! Full weekly Worcester Sucks post tomorrow. Text below is more or less the same as the audio version. Cheers!“I have faith and I have hope. I have faith and I have hope. I have faith and I have hope.”Thousands chanted it in the rain, back at Etel Haxhiaj, who put the mantra in the cool air from the podium behind city hall. It took a li...2025-04-0608 min
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 19: Roy Rage (ft. Sue Mailman)Links to subscribe to the show on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts. Good and bad reviews also appreciated!We brought on school committee member Sue Mailman to discuss the new lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Worcester is a supporting character in the state-wide suit, led by Somerville and Easthampton. WPS, like districts across the state and country, stand to lose millions in funding as the Trump administration continues to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Statement from the school administration.And we also touch on the police report Kathi Roy filed against...2025-04-041h 23
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 18: Dog-Bite Ratios (ft. Tom Marino and John Keough)We brought on John Keough and Tom Marino from This Week In Worcester to rehash the council’s very deflating meeting Tuesday on the Department of Justice’s pattern and practice investigation into the Worcester Police Department. Short answer: don’t expect to hear too much more about this, and if ever a civilian review board proposal makes its way to the council floor, expect a split vote. The meeting was, however, the first time we’ve had the police chief on record answering questions about this report, and that provided some interesting glimpses into the internal machinations of the poli...2025-03-281h 44
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 17: Challenge Union. Change Our World. (ft. Maile Marguleas and Hadas Brownstein)“Challenge Convention. Change Our World.” That’s the slogan of Clark University, the hedge f—sorry, college currently refusing to even recognize its new undergraduate student-workers union. As the strike sails over the one-week mark, we sit down with two of its captains, Maile Marguleas and Hadas Brownstein.Help support the striking workers: The SYC Mutual Aid Fund For Strikers and other resources. The union’s Twitter and Instagram.We also recap our time on the strike line earlier this week, from a bench in University Park. New mobile pod rig worked well and it was nice!2025-03-221h 08
Outdoor Cats PodcastO.C. Dispatch: Clark student worker strikeTrying something new! What you’re looking at / listening to here is a trial run of O.C. Dispatches: audio news reports in the public radio tradition, but here on this newsletter!Chris and I went down to the strike line at Clark University yesterday (we’ll be putting up a full episode soon). I brought a portable audio interface and a mic with me—a poor man’s approximation of the rig NPR reporters use—then I got back and spent the whole day assembling this news spot. I had a lot of fun doing it. It’s inter...2025-03-2007 min
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 16: Time for an overhaul (ft. Keith Linhares)Éirinn go Brách, everyone! Hope Parade Day has treated you nicely.Today’s guest is Keith Linhares, who joined us to talk about his bid for the District 1 city council seat!His first run for office, he’ll be taking on former District 1 councilor Tony Economou, an avatar of the sort of entrenched townie politics that keeps the city stuck in the ‘80s. Keith wants to change that! A bunch of great moments on this episode, but I especially appreciate Keith’s take on the core difference in leadership style between progressives and what we might c...2025-03-171h 33
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 15: The Enshittification of Local Journalism (ft. Joanne McNeil)***First thing’s first: Justice for Mahmoud Khalil Fund and contact page for Congressman Jim McGovern. Good coverage of Khalil’s completely illegal kidnapping and detention in The Nation. Please share any news about local demonstrations in the comments or at billshaner@substack.com and we’ll update here as they come in.****We talk about Khalil’s horrible situation briefly, then get to the show we had planned: an interview with author Joanne McNeil! I think we can all agree that the internet is worse than it ever has been—a statement true of both the W...2025-03-121h 40
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 14: Cayden 4 Council! (ft. Cayden Davis)Today we have on a very special guest: Cayden Davis, a new and exciting candidate for at-large city council. Cayden’s a Main South resident, a public health professional, trans and proud of it! You may have seen him at the mic at City Council recently, letting rip some absolute public comment heaters. Davis came to city politics via the queer coalition that organized in opposition to the transphobia in city hall, and his campaign is a way of extending that enthusiasm and solidarity on to the November election. Hell yeah. Follow Cayden’s campaign: On Instagram, on T...2025-03-061h 45
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 13: Recall All ScientologistsAfter months of irregular and asymmetrical city council meetings Joe & Co finally got that which they desired on Tuesday: a quote unquote normal meeting. We go over the dominant themes of this business-as-usual six hour affair, including tax debt labor camps for senior citizens and a grand collusion of the city council and the Church of Scientology, according to a live streamer who wants recall elections for Worcester police officers (hell yeah). Oh and we talk about a ton of cool events coming up. TIP LINE: (508) 556-1017 Woo Havurah Purim Spectacular! 3/15 7PM Hotel Vernon Wo...2025-02-271h 18
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 12: Political Pie Throwing and Dead Kennedys (ft. Michael Stewart Foley)What do '78 San Fran and '25 Worcester have in common? Quite a bit, turns out. We bring on historian Michael Stewart Foley to talk about his book Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, a history of the Dead Kennedys record by the same name and the context in which that work of art / protest document was birthed: San Francisco, 1978. After the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone, newly sworn in Mayor Dianne Feinstein ushered in a wretched era of city governance built on an axis of neoliberal evils: the real estate industry, the police, and the nascent culture...2025-02-211h 15
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 11: Clips In The ChamberClip show! We pull out some choice moments from the public comment section of the city council meeting Tuesday. From the hours and hours of impassioned testimony that preceded the council’s very weak move: voting 9-2 to support a symbolic statement of solidarity with the trans community, and also voting 7-4 against an investigation into transphobic comments made by a sitting city councilor. Couldn’t have done a better job of showing the public you don’t mean it.Like every meeting, the council is mostly useless and it is the people who show up to speak...2025-02-141h 25
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 10: Sorry Miss Jackson (ft. Carla LeBlanc)Earlier this week a bit of tremendous news broke: Carolyn Jackson is gone bye bye cya later. For years Jackson has been the primary antagonist in the ongoing St. Vincent saga: nurses trying to make it less brutal for workers and dangerous for patients, the owners doing the opposite. The past year has seen a rash of complaints and grievances about unsafe conditions at the hospital. Jackson, on behalf of the Dallas-based conglomerate Tenet, has lashed out, firing whistleblowers and engaging in other union busting activities. But then on Monday an email hit internal systems that effective Feb. 14, Jackson...2025-02-061h 18
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 9: Denying Humanity (ft. Josh Croke)After Round Two of the pressure campaign from the queer community to make Candy Mero-Carlson pay for her bigotry, we talk with Josh Croke (@joshua.croke), an organizer of the demonstrations and founder of Love Your Labels and many other things. We talk about the council meeting Tuesday and the council’s two affirmative votes on public petitions from the queer community. What they mean and what they don’t! Then we take the conversation wider, to the nightmare times.That’s the first hour. After that, Chris and I talk about the Human Rights Commission, civilian review...2025-01-311h 34
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 8: An Empathy 101 Tutorial (ft. Etel Haxhiaj)We bring on District 5 City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj to recap and process the city council’s debate last night over whether to apologize to Thu Nguyen for a rash of bigotry, starting with Candy Mero-Carlson and culminating in a literal Fox News segment. Luckily, the vote was 8-2 to do so, but it doesn’t erase the great shame brought onto Worcester, nor does it show that our old guard councilors really understand the extent of it. Some links to things discussed within:Greg Opperman’s story for Worcester Sucks on Etel’s journey to America...2025-01-231h 13
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 7: Candy's A Big-"It"Posting a podcast at 2 a.m.—that’s the kind of week it’s been. The episode ends up being more or less a mutual talk therapy session on how to process the profoundly dehumanizing, deceptive and malicious attack that Candy Mero-Carlson and Joe Petty have launched against Thu Nguyen this week. We pick apart their statements, dismantle their thin arguments about attendance, and talk about what to do with who they showed themselves to be. Then a visit from Dr. Fingers. (This podcast is now available on all the major podcast players: Spotify, Apple Podcas...2025-01-171h 31
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 6: Coward! (Ft. Allie Cislo)We bring on Allie Cislo of Worcester Havurah and the multi-faith coalition behind the Gaza ceasefire resolution that the council voted against on Tuesday night. Yes you heard that right they voted 6-5 against the ceasing of firing. A decision explained in full in my post from yesterday, “A million tiny acts of cowardice.”Worcester Havurah’s Instagram and websiteThe Multi-Faith Coalition’s statement: Mayor Petty breaks a tie to grant City Council authority to refuse to vote on Ceasefire ResolutionGood BDS resources: Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers...2025-01-101h 27
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 5: A Tale Of Two Blippis (ft. Shaun Connolly)We simply had to bring on Mr. Bad Advice himself Shaun Connolly to go over the mayor and the city manager’s top 10 songs of 2024, recently released to the Worcester Cultural Coalition (?) Instagram page. Joe Petty’s in particular is something else. Since the city said they’d do it then apparently didn’t, Chris put together playlists for each of them:—Joe Petty’s picks—Eric Batista’s picksOh and here’s Joe Petty (official) singing We Are The Champions (full song)As always, we appreciate your support and ask fo...2025-01-0354 min
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 4: Winners & Losers2024 was a big weird year for Worcester. A long strange trip, you could say. Chris and I go over the big story lines to figure out who won and who lost—and what that means for 2025, which is sure to be longer and stranger. Then we talk music for a bit! Speaking of: Outro music is “Nation” by Home Front. And the Clairo video shot at White Eagle featuring Beyond WrestlingManning Fireworks by MJ LendermanSome other useful links: D2 candidate Rob Bilotta’s campaign site (he needs cash and voluntee...2024-12-291h 14
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 3: Is there even a leash? (DOJ Files Part 2)In which we discuss: the police department’s intimidation tactics at city council this week (as illustrated in my most recent piece), the Department of Justice’s meeting at the YWCA Wednesday, the Longest Night Vigil on Thursday. It all culminates in the question: are we prepared to be as disciplined and organized as the police department showed themselves to be? Or are we going to let the same old inter-left squabbling sabotage this rare opportunity?This podcast can now be found on* Spotify* Apple Podcasts* YouTube* Overcast...2024-12-211h 38
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 2: The DOJ Files (Part 1)In this episode, we talk about what everyone’s talking about: the recent DOJ investigation report detailing sexual abuse, violence and racist patterns of policing at the WPD. We talk about it in a way you might not have heard someone talk about it yet… and we talk about why that is.Then, with that established, we focus on a statement made by Project Priceless, a self-advocacy group of unhoused women, that stands above the rest. We talk about why it matters so much, and why we need to follow their lead. Here’s Project Priceless’ statement, on a new...2024-12-131h 27
Outdoor Cats PodcastEpisode 1: Mutual Aid and Community ResilienceWelcome to Outdoor Cats! The latest addition to the Worcester Sucks local media empire, the idea here is simple: weekly broadcasts from a city that punishes you for caring.Today, we talk about mutual aid and community resilience. Are you tired of going to a rally and voting and not feeling like it got you anywhere? There are better ways to make change in your community, and plenty local examples of people doing it right now! We also talk about the real estate speculators and vulture capitalists ruining our city (and many others!). Relatedly, we cover why...2024-12-081h 12