Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are back, and if you like me, a first
thing in the morning, you go to Complete Colorado dot
com every day to see what's happening at the Independence
Institute and get a good news roundup. You have noticed
it has gotten a little glow up. And joining me
now is the editor of Complete Colorado dot Com, Mike Krause. Mike,
welcome back to the show. I was expecting you to
be in a tuxedo or something for this interview, because
(00:22):
you know, you guys have dulled up the joint so
well over there.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, I should have lammed up just a little bit.
And by the way, I appreciate that we are always
curious who that person is who goes to the site
every morning.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, now you know it's me. I. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We need to find this person for some kind of
ale award.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, I would like a prestigious award. Just make it
shape like a leg lamp. Okay, there we go, so
Complete Colorado. How long have you guys been around? Let's
start there?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Complete is oh man.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let me think when we first started it was the
second or third iteration of trying to kind of come
up with our own news operation. But the original aggregator,
the Drudge style aggregator that so many people were so
familiar with. It's at least fifteen years that we've been
doing that, and we cockied it off of Drudge. Back
then Drudge was a thing, like a real thing, yep,
(01:13):
and not so much anymore. And then we added the
page two maybe about nine years ago for our own
content so we could aggregate, and it's just kind of
a ball that way.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We ended up with two sites.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And I have to tell you a lot of people
that I talked to, even if the ones, even the
ones that use complete Colorado dot Com to do the
news aggregation, because every day and people always ask me
when I use the word aggregator. It is just a
gathering up of the news that seems interesting, all in
one place with links to the original stories. That's what
it aggregated.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
We through a variety of different news sources, right, human
curated is the important part there, and then the other
important part is that you're trying to get stories from
all over the state that individually it would take you
all morning to go find if you went trying to
hunt down that many news sources. So we can try
and get something from the eastern plane, hopefully something from
(02:03):
the western slope, southern Colorado, obviously, the Denver metro area,
the capital, et cetera. So we can cover as much
of the state as possible. And then the other trick
to this is that this all needs to be paywall three.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, yes, that people.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Don't have to pay for anything or sign up, and
that is an ever shrinking yeah, a pool of stories
available to us, so you really have to go hunting
down stuff that. Every once in a while something slips
by and you know you might have to sign up
for it.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
But that's not the intent. The intent is free aggregated.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
News from all over the state that will get will
tell you what you need to know.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For the day in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I have tried for years to avoid paywalled stuff on
my blog, but to your point, it is getting harder
and harder and harder. And to be clear, everybody's trying
to make money to survive, so I'm not mad at them,
but voise it inconvenient.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Right, But if I accidentally so, if I would have asked.
I used to still link to the Denver Post once
in a while because it would open for me on
my browser, so I would link to it and then
I get an email from somebody saying, why are you
trying to get me to subscribe to the compost?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, everything is paywalled at the Denver Post.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now it'd be so mad at me because they went
to a paywall Denver Post story and I'd be like,
I get it, I understand. So we really try hard
to find you know, to do an update twice a day,
once on the weekends, and make it make sure it's
all freely available to might slip by because my browser
might open something that someone else's browser. I don't know
(03:34):
how the paywalls work necessarily, but because we're free, but
once in a while so the spy. But the intent
is for you to be able to go click through
and read everything or watch or listen to like we
linked to Mandy Connell show.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know when when you and you're great.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
One of the things about your show is you're great
about putting up individual clips of specific interviews with people
about specific topics.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Which is what we love. We love linking to things
like that, and people like listening to it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Well. One of the things that was wrong with the
old model where you had complete Colorado was the aggregator
and then you had page two. Even people who use
the aggregator often didn't know the page two existed. And
page two is where all of your eggheads at the
Independence Institute get to write incredibly nerdy, often very funny,
sarcastic articles when Caldara and Amy Oliver Cook write. But
(04:24):
that's where there's a lot of really good policy stuff happening.
So now it's all on one page, so that makes
things a lot nicer.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, we also have investigative reporting.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And the problem is, and the thing we always face
is that people come to Complete but we had to
go send our page two content out to them right.
It was like a push and a pull. And what
we were waiting for is we were waiting for for years.
We wanted to do this, but we were really waiting
for a moment to come where we felt like, between
Complete Colorado and the indepenitens Tooth's digital media podcasts, TV show,
(04:54):
et cetera, we were generating enough content to justify one
site that would change often enough that people w keep
coming back to it, and.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
We felt like we were there.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And plus the frankly, our old site, the Dredge style aggregator,
was steadily falling.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Apart and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Back en, you're just putting.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Faster area, man.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I mean it was just you know, every once in
a while, like one time, it just disappeared, Okay, I
had to go.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I had to go have the company that hosts it
rebuild it from the day before. Oh god when they
you know, And so yeah, it was a real having
an old you know, having a.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Website from twenty years ago could be problematic frankly, well today.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Having a website from five years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, it was time and we were really happy to
do it. I'm really happy with the site. Yeah, and
we've got a lot of good feedback. We've gotten people
who were like, hey, you know, I really liked the
old look, and I'm like, it's you know, unfortunately it's
it's gone. But you know, we wanted to give people
something that's a little cleaner, a little more modern looking,
and frankly, we hope easier to navigate and to find
(06:00):
everything all in one place, because you were right, we
wanted to have we wanted to have our content front
and center. So that's the you know, we want that
to be the main gist to the site, and then
the aggregation, which is what we're really known for is
still there, it's just underneath.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I like the fact that now you have Independence Institutes
videos on the front as well. So the Independence Institute
has a bunch of different shows. I mean, you've got
the Devil's Advocate with John, You've got Power Gab where
they just talk about energy and environment. Those are super
super interesting. And I know when I say they have
(06:35):
a show where they just talk about energy and the environment,
You're like, wow, next time when I can't sleep, I'll
turn it on. But I promise you super super interesting
stuff happens on that show. So it's really nice that
you can go to Complete Colorado and see if those
shows have new episodes and you can just pop right
in there. Who does the F You? Podcast? Right here?
(06:57):
Who does?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
The F you is Freedom and Affiliated podcast of course,
of course, So and really what that is that is
simply a stream of the audio version of all of
our other stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So Devil's Advocate, Power Gab, you know, Complete Colorado stories
are read, uh, and then it's just an audio stream
of our other content. And then so that's Freedom and Affiliated.
And we're always looking for more content to stream as
audio because people like to listen to it. In their
car when they can't watch You can't watch forty minutes
of Caldera on Devil's Advocate. You can listen to forty minutes,
(07:32):
you know, while you're commuting to work or whatever you're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And then we have what right now? We have one
more audio podcast. It's Constitutional.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's our constitutional scholar Rob Natlson talking about the Constitution,
which is again, like the Energy podcast, super nerdy but
super interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Where is that? Because I love Rob Natlson, and I
think when you go and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Just click on the podcast tab, it's, oh, there wasn't enough.
You know, it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Podcast Mike, there's a tab now for podcasts.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
There's a tab for podcasts because what's going to happen
is as we add more video and audio content, more podcasts,
there's not gonna be room for all of them. Uh So,
but the two main ones right now, or the three
main things are uh F you Power Gab and Devil's
Freedom Unlimited.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Of course, is what the F you stand?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Affiliated?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Freeom on affiliated? Sorry, so let me ask this question.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What kind of because which is because the majority of
Colorado voters are now unaffiliated.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, and so we're we're right there with them.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
What is what do local news outlets like? I love
it when you link to my stuff, but what do
local news outlets do they ever give you thoughts or
opinions on being linked to on Complete Colorado or do
you guys just exist in your own space.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's people who send me stuff and as saying, hey,
have you seen this to consider.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Linking to if it's if if it meets the criteria.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
We have people who send us things that they have generated,
and then other people don't they I think they kind
of kind of they like getting links to because they
get traffic from it and they get an audience to
see their stuff. But at the same time they they
kind of try and pretend like we don't really exist
in some ways because we're not part of the well,
we have credentials through the Colorado Broadcasters, but we're not
(09:22):
technically from their perspective, we're not part of the credential
media club. So they might they might like the traffic
and the visibility, but they kind of look askance at
the idea of Complete Colorado simply because it's tied to
the Independence Institute, which has a point of view.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Frankly, I got to tell you John Caldera's column. You
guys don't have it yet. You'll have it like in
a couple of days, because I know they publish it elsewhere. First,
his column on the racism of the Cebuff's football team
made me laugh out loud. I mean, it is. It
is if you've ever wanted to see sarcasm actually dripping
(09:59):
off of your our computer screen. I have linked to
this column. It's currently in the Denver Gazette. They'll have
it on complete in a couple of days. It's just
typical John Caldera. And that's my next question is about
what is John Caldera and the Independence Institute's vision for
what complete is going to do and what you're hoping
to achieve here?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So so complete.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So this goes back to many many years ago, right,
we were at the Independent Student. And I've had many
many roles at Independensen Stuit over the years, and I
was always an editor, but among other things. But you know,
we were talking about going out and like you know,
begging a newspaper for a little tiny slice of their
editorial space, or please do a story on our new
(10:44):
issue paper, or please publish our op ed and one
day we said, hey, why don't we just become our
own media, and Complete Colorado was the was what was
born out of that. And so the vision for Complete
is to be a one stop shop right people to
go to and find all of your Colorado specific, state
and local political news and views in one place. So
(11:06):
it'll be journalism, it'll be investigative reporting, it'll be op
eds and commentary, it'll be video podcasts, audio podcasts, and
you'll be able to find something for everybody there. And
we're really reaching out to you know, the majority of
Colorado voters now are unaffiliated yep. And they might lean
(11:27):
one way or another, and they might still vote one
way or the other, but they're not tied to a party,
and neither are we. So we want to be a
part of that future, that unaffiliated future in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Well, I think it's I think it's a really smart move.
I do like your coverage of the twenty twenty five
legislative session. It has its own tab, so it's one
easy way to sort of just keep up on what
they're working on in the legislative session. Because I am
one of the areas where I don't feel like most
news media in Denver does a good job is covering
(12:01):
the legislative session because it is dense, there's a lot
going on in there. They don't have the manpower to
send multiple people to the Capitol to sit in multiple committees.
So the fact that you guys are sort of bringing
light and let's be real, most of the things you're
bringing light to are things that definitely are things that
people who are in the center or center right are
(12:21):
going to find incredibly interesting or something they want to
pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So who all you find interesting or something they're very
angry about?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. You've also got some new writers.
Corey Gaines seems to be writing quite a bit. He
has had a substack for a while now. Sherry Pife,
of course, does a great job for you. Aary Armstrong
makes me yell at my computer on a regular basis.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So you job, yes, exactly, that is.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ari Armstrong's job is to make you go and to
shake their fists a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, but everybody gets their opportunity to also agree with
something he says. You know what I mean, he's one
of those guys.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Oh yeah, I mean, there's usually something in every column
I agree with and something that makes to go very seriously,
what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
What's your traffic like on Complete Colorado dot Com?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Well, we I think so.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Over the years, what has happened is the traffic to
our page two content was steadily growing. Well, the traffic
to the aggregator was stagnant. That was not growing, right,
And an interesting thing happened. Then we got tagged. We
got tagged as for some interesting odd reason, we got
tagged by the folks who run Rhino Watch as being
(13:29):
a part of the an Shoots.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Rhino media empire.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Oh wow, that would be cool for you.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, we're not well, I mean, I thought it
was cool except that, except that, you know, we're not
owned by and by the an Shoots Corp. But we
got tagged by it. I could watch our traffic drop
off a little bit as people stopped watching Complete. But
I would say, you know, I think if I remember
right from last year about I think we had about
(13:57):
six hundred thousand people to our page two content and
about eight hundred thousand to the aggregator.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That's not too shabby and at least.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
You know, no, here's what I like to say. Mandy week.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We actually punch above our weight because we're not We're
just a little media operation of a of.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
A you know, of a think tank.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And if you if you know John well, you know,
we run on a shoe string for the most part.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And that's you know, that's reflected in his wardrobe and
his car.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Lifestyle choices.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So we punch a little bit above our weight.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But here's the thing is that we put out consistent,
good content and people like that.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And by the way, it's always free and it's always available.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's why I love it. Free and available, two things
that I love. Mike Krafts, thanks for your time today.
Great job on the redo of Complete Colorado dot Com.
And guess what I'll be there tomorrow morning. First thing
I'll be looking for you. Thanks, all right, thanks Mike. Okay, guys,
now I have my my, my dearest, my darling husband.
(14:57):
Hang on, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta wait.
I gotta turn your volume up here, I got to
turn this up. Okay here, oh stop wait, hang on,
you're you're louder than me. Okay, you can't be louder
than that. Stop at your pull that back just away,
just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
There you go?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, are you good? All right? Because now it's time
for the most exciting and now it's time for the
most exciting segment on the radio of its guide of
the day. All right, Zach, what is our dad joke
of the day, please, sir.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Dad joke of the day, I got a good one
for you guys today. I got one second here, Dad
joke of the day.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
What's blue and not very heavy?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Blue and not very heavy the sky?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
That's pretty close light blue? Oh god, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Whoo doo hiss, boo boo. What's our word of today, please, Zach?
Speaker 6 (16:03):
I thought that one was especially terrible. Sarcothagus is the
word of the day.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh that's where they put mummies inside.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of Yeah, pretty much. Sorry.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
Coofagus refers to a coffin, and specifically a stone coffin.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
A stone coffin. There you go, all right, Today's trivia question.
I know the answer to this, and I just checked
to make sure. To Blea see is the capital of
what country? To bleasy tb I L I s I
you want to take a shot at that, Zach?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
I feel like I should know it. I have definitely
heard toble before why not the nothing lose.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Lebanon, No, not even remotely. Who's beck to stand closer?
How about Georgia, the country, not the state, the country
of Georgia to Bleasey, all right, what's our deputy category?
And Zach promised to pick us an easy one, babe,
easy for both of us. I think this one's pretty easy, okay.
Previewed the questions here? Uh and history, it's it's you know,
(17:01):
I think it's some basic you're asking the wrong people.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Well, I think you guys will be able to get
this one. Maybe I chose Portlo.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Okay, let's see in the nineteen nineties, this Chicago Bulls
gone many.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Who is Michael Jordan?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (17:19):
All right?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
In June two thousand and two, this Wakers coach became
the all time leader in playoff victories by winning his
one hundred and fifty sixth game.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And say, I've never known a Lakers Mandy. Who is
pat Riley?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Oh close? Phil Jackson?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh yeah, we're tied to zero. We're doing great, all right.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
In two thousand and one, the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to
this US city.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Mandy, Where's Memphis?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Back on the board.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
We'll backhead.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
In nineteen ninety five, this Houston Rocket Center scored a
then record one hundred and thirty one points in a
four game NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
She already won.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Mandy to Kemo Matumbo, Oh no one? Oh yeah, back
to zero?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
All right?
Speaker 6 (18:07):
It all comes down to this. The star is one.
Sorry for some guys, I chose about category. The NBA's
Coach of the Year trophy is named for this longtime
Celtics coach.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
I have no idea. Red hour back. So I think
that's a yes. Well, so really get zero to zero.
I'm sorry, you got to find another category, all right?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Let me get you a er. How about just desserts?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That might be can't be any worse than that, So yes,
just dessert sounds good.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
In this Bible book that children of Israel were departed from.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Man, it's a snare, that's right. How about this kitty lit?
Kitty lit, Okay.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Kitty lit, Okay, there we go eighteen eighty five. Book
is subtitled Tom Sawyer's Comrade Mandy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What is Huckleberry Finn?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Finally I lost that one. Well yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah,
you're not gonna You're not gonna get us on one
of those sports categories, Zach. It's pretty much never gonna
be a winner for this one. No. No, I stopped
watching the NBA when Shack loss and left the Orlando
(19:22):
Magic and I was still I'm still mad about that.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So since that guy in the Celtics and.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I like some well, no, we went to a U
we went to a Nuggets game. When we got here.
It just wasn't awesome there. Okay, tomorrow on the Big Show,
we have a few things planned. Thomas Friar Futurist is
coming up tomorrow, and I'm sure that we're gonna have
more news about Trump's tariffs, whether or not they're going
to end effect or not, and everything else. But right now,
(19:47):
we're gonna hand the station over to the kids at
Kawa Sports. As a matter of fact, they're probably gonna
be able to get those NBA questions. I bet if
you asked Ryan Edwards he would be like, yeah, I
know all those questions. I'm sure I'm positive ask him
after this. Okay, Zach, we'll see tomorrow. Keep it on
k Awai
We are back, and if you like me, a first
thing in the morning, you go to Complete Colorado dot
com every day to see what's happening at the Independence
Institute and get a good news roundup. You have noticed
it has gotten a little glow up. And joining me
now is the editor of Complete Colorado dot Com, Mike Krause. Mike,
welcome back to the show. I was expecting you to
be in a tuxedo or something for this interview, because
(00:22):
you know, you guys have dulled up the joint so
well over there.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, I should have lammed up just a little bit.
And by the way, I appreciate that we are always
curious who that person is who goes to the site
every morning.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, now you know it's me. I. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We need to find this person for some kind of
ale award.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, I would like a prestigious award. Just make it
shape like a leg lamp. Okay, there we go, so
Complete Colorado. How long have you guys been around? Let's
start there?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Complete is oh man.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let me think when we first started it was the
second or third iteration of trying to kind of come
up with our own news operation. But the original aggregator,
the Drudge style aggregator that so many people were so
familiar with. It's at least fifteen years that we've been
doing that, and we cockied it off of Drudge. Back
then Drudge was a thing, like a real thing, yep,
(01:13):
and not so much anymore. And then we added the
page two maybe about nine years ago for our own
content so we could aggregate, and it's just kind of
a ball that way.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We ended up with two sites.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And I have to tell you a lot of people
that I talked to, even if the ones, even the
ones that use complete Colorado dot Com to do the
news aggregation, because every day and people always ask me
when I use the word aggregator. It is just a
gathering up of the news that seems interesting, all in
one place with links to the original stories. That's what
it aggregated.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
We through a variety of different news sources, right, human
curated is the important part there, and then the other
important part is that you're trying to get stories from
all over the state that individually it would take you
all morning to go find if you went trying to
hunt down that many news sources. So we can try
and get something from the eastern plane, hopefully something from
(02:03):
the western slope, southern Colorado, obviously, the Denver metro area,
the capital, et cetera. So we can cover as much
of the state as possible. And then the other trick
to this is that this all needs to be paywall three.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, yes, that people.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Don't have to pay for anything or sign up, and
that is an ever shrinking yeah, a pool of stories
available to us, so you really have to go hunting
down stuff that. Every once in a while something slips
by and you know you might have to sign up
for it.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
But that's not the intent. The intent is free aggregated.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
News from all over the state that will get will
tell you what you need to know.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For the day in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I have tried for years to avoid paywalled stuff on
my blog, but to your point, it is getting harder
and harder and harder. And to be clear, everybody's trying
to make money to survive, so I'm not mad at them,
but voise it inconvenient.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Right, But if I accidentally so, if I would have asked.
I used to still link to the Denver Post once
in a while because it would open for me on
my browser, so I would link to it and then
I get an email from somebody saying, why are you
trying to get me to subscribe to the compost?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, everything is paywalled at the Denver Post.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now it'd be so mad at me because they went
to a paywall Denver Post story and I'd be like,
I get it, I understand. So we really try hard
to find you know, to do an update twice a day,
once on the weekends, and make it make sure it's
all freely available to might slip by because my browser
might open something that someone else's browser. I don't know
(03:34):
how the paywalls work necessarily, but because we're free, but
once in a while so the spy. But the intent
is for you to be able to go click through
and read everything or watch or listen to like we
linked to Mandy Connell show.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
You know when when you and you're great.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
One of the things about your show is you're great
about putting up individual clips of specific interviews with people
about specific topics.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Which is what we love. We love linking to things
like that, and people like listening to it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Well. One of the things that was wrong with the
old model where you had complete Colorado was the aggregator
and then you had page two. Even people who use
the aggregator often didn't know the page two existed. And
page two is where all of your eggheads at the
Independence Institute get to write incredibly nerdy, often very funny,
sarcastic articles when Caldara and Amy Oliver Cook write. But
(04:24):
that's where there's a lot of really good policy stuff happening.
So now it's all on one page, so that makes
things a lot nicer.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, we also have investigative reporting.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And the problem is, and the thing we always face
is that people come to Complete but we had to
go send our page two content out to them right.
It was like a push and a pull. And what
we were waiting for is we were waiting for for years.
We wanted to do this, but we were really waiting
for a moment to come where we felt like, between
Complete Colorado and the indepenitens Tooth's digital media podcasts, TV show,
(04:54):
et cetera, we were generating enough content to justify one
site that would change often enough that people w keep
coming back to it, and.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
We felt like we were there.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And plus the frankly, our old site, the Dredge style aggregator,
was steadily falling.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Apart and.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Back en, you're just putting.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Faster area, man.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I mean it was just you know, every once in
a while, like one time, it just disappeared, Okay, I
had to go.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I had to go have the company that hosts it
rebuild it from the day before. Oh god when they
you know, And so yeah, it was a real having
an old you know, having a.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Website from twenty years ago could be problematic frankly, well today.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Having a website from five years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, it was time and we were really happy to
do it. I'm really happy with the site. Yeah, and
we've got a lot of good feedback. We've gotten people
who were like, hey, you know, I really liked the
old look, and I'm like, it's you know, unfortunately it's
it's gone. But you know, we wanted to give people
something that's a little cleaner, a little more modern looking,
and frankly, we hope easier to navigate and to find
(06:00):
everything all in one place, because you were right, we
wanted to have we wanted to have our content front
and center. So that's the you know, we want that
to be the main gist to the site, and then
the aggregation, which is what we're really known for is
still there, it's just underneath.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I like the fact that now you have Independence Institutes
videos on the front as well. So the Independence Institute
has a bunch of different shows. I mean, you've got
the Devil's Advocate with John, You've got Power Gab where
they just talk about energy and environment. Those are super
super interesting. And I know when I say they have
(06:35):
a show where they just talk about energy and the environment,
You're like, wow, next time when I can't sleep, I'll
turn it on. But I promise you super super interesting
stuff happens on that show. So it's really nice that
you can go to Complete Colorado and see if those
shows have new episodes and you can just pop right
in there. Who does the F You? Podcast? Right here?
(06:57):
Who does?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
The F you is Freedom and Affiliated podcast of course,
of course, So and really what that is that is
simply a stream of the audio version of all of
our other stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So Devil's Advocate, Power Gab, you know, Complete Colorado stories
are read, uh, and then it's just an audio stream
of our other content. And then so that's Freedom and Affiliated.
And we're always looking for more content to stream as
audio because people like to listen to it. In their
car when they can't watch You can't watch forty minutes
of Caldera on Devil's Advocate. You can listen to forty minutes,
(07:32):
you know, while you're commuting to work or whatever you're doing.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And then we have what right now? We have one
more audio podcast. It's Constitutional.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's our constitutional scholar Rob Natlson talking about the Constitution,
which is again, like the Energy podcast, super nerdy but
super interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Where is that? Because I love Rob Natlson, and I
think when you go and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Just click on the podcast tab, it's, oh, there wasn't enough.
You know, it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Podcast Mike, there's a tab now for podcasts.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
There's a tab for podcasts because what's going to happen
is as we add more video and audio content, more podcasts,
there's not gonna be room for all of them. Uh So,
but the two main ones right now, or the three
main things are uh F you Power Gab and Devil's
Freedom Unlimited.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Of course, is what the F you stand?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Affiliated?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Freeom on affiliated? Sorry, so let me ask this question.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What kind of because which is because the majority of
Colorado voters are now unaffiliated.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, and so we're we're right there with them.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
What is what do local news outlets like? I love
it when you link to my stuff, but what do
local news outlets do they ever give you thoughts or
opinions on being linked to on Complete Colorado or do
you guys just exist in your own space.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's people who send me stuff and as saying, hey,
have you seen this to consider.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Linking to if it's if if it meets the criteria.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
We have people who send us things that they have generated,
and then other people don't they I think they kind
of kind of they like getting links to because they
get traffic from it and they get an audience to
see their stuff. But at the same time they they
kind of try and pretend like we don't really exist
in some ways because we're not part of the well,
we have credentials through the Colorado Broadcasters, but we're not
(09:22):
technically from their perspective, we're not part of the credential
media club. So they might they might like the traffic
and the visibility, but they kind of look askance at
the idea of Complete Colorado simply because it's tied to
the Independence Institute, which has a point of view.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Frankly, I got to tell you John Caldera's column. You
guys don't have it yet. You'll have it like in
a couple of days, because I know they publish it elsewhere. First,
his column on the racism of the Cebuff's football team
made me laugh out loud. I mean, it is. It
is if you've ever wanted to see sarcasm actually dripping
(09:59):
off of your our computer screen. I have linked to
this column. It's currently in the Denver Gazette. They'll have
it on complete in a couple of days. It's just
typical John Caldera. And that's my next question is about
what is John Caldera and the Independence Institute's vision for
what complete is going to do and what you're hoping
to achieve here?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So so complete.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So this goes back to many many years ago, right,
we were at the Independent Student. And I've had many
many roles at Independensen Stuit over the years, and I
was always an editor, but among other things. But you know,
we were talking about going out and like you know,
begging a newspaper for a little tiny slice of their
editorial space, or please do a story on our new
(10:44):
issue paper, or please publish our op ed and one
day we said, hey, why don't we just become our
own media, and Complete Colorado was the was what was
born out of that. And so the vision for Complete
is to be a one stop shop right people to
go to and find all of your Colorado specific, state
and local political news and views in one place. So
(11:06):
it'll be journalism, it'll be investigative reporting, it'll be op
eds and commentary, it'll be video podcasts, audio podcasts, and
you'll be able to find something for everybody there. And
we're really reaching out to you know, the majority of
Colorado voters now are unaffiliated yep. And they might lean
(11:27):
one way or another, and they might still vote one
way or the other, but they're not tied to a party,
and neither are we. So we want to be a
part of that future, that unaffiliated future in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Well, I think it's I think it's a really smart move.
I do like your coverage of the twenty twenty five
legislative session. It has its own tab, so it's one
easy way to sort of just keep up on what
they're working on in the legislative session. Because I am
one of the areas where I don't feel like most
news media in Denver does a good job is covering
(12:01):
the legislative session because it is dense, there's a lot
going on in there. They don't have the manpower to
send multiple people to the Capitol to sit in multiple committees.
So the fact that you guys are sort of bringing
light and let's be real, most of the things you're
bringing light to are things that definitely are things that
people who are in the center or center right are
(12:21):
going to find incredibly interesting or something they want to
pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So who all you find interesting or something they're very
angry about?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. You've also got some new writers.
Corey Gaines seems to be writing quite a bit. He
has had a substack for a while now. Sherry Pife,
of course, does a great job for you. Aary Armstrong
makes me yell at my computer on a regular basis.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So you job, yes, exactly, that is.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ari Armstrong's job is to make you go and to
shake their fists a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, but everybody gets their opportunity to also agree with
something he says. You know what I mean, he's one
of those guys.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Oh yeah, I mean, there's usually something in every column
I agree with and something that makes to go very seriously,
what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
What's your traffic like on Complete Colorado dot Com?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Well, we I think so.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Over the years, what has happened is the traffic to
our page two content was steadily growing. Well, the traffic
to the aggregator was stagnant. That was not growing, right,
And an interesting thing happened. Then we got tagged. We
got tagged as for some interesting odd reason, we got
tagged by the folks who run Rhino Watch as being
(13:29):
a part of the an Shoots.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Rhino media empire.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Oh wow, that would be cool for you.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, we're not well, I mean, I thought it
was cool except that, except that, you know, we're not
owned by and by the an Shoots Corp. But we
got tagged by it. I could watch our traffic drop
off a little bit as people stopped watching Complete. But
I would say, you know, I think if I remember
right from last year about I think we had about
(13:57):
six hundred thousand people to our page two content and
about eight hundred thousand to the aggregator.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
That's not too shabby and at least.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
You know, no, here's what I like to say. Mandy week.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
We actually punch above our weight because we're not We're
just a little media operation of a of.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
A you know, of a think tank.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And if you if you know John well, you know,
we run on a shoe string for the most part.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And that's you know, that's reflected in his wardrobe and
his car.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Lifestyle choices.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So we punch a little bit above our weight.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But here's the thing is that we put out consistent,
good content and people like that.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And by the way, it's always free and it's always available.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's why I love it. Free and available, two things
that I love. Mike Krafts, thanks for your time today.
Great job on the redo of Complete Colorado dot Com.
And guess what I'll be there tomorrow morning. First thing
I'll be looking for you. Thanks, all right, thanks Mike. Okay, guys,
now I have my my, my dearest, my darling husband.
(14:57):
Hang on, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta wait.
I gotta turn your volume up here, I got to
turn this up. Okay here, oh stop wait, hang on,
you're you're louder than me. Okay, you can't be louder
than that. Stop at your pull that back just away,
just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
There you go?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay, are you good? All right? Because now it's time
for the most exciting and now it's time for the
most exciting segment on the radio of its guide of
the day. All right, Zach, what is our dad joke
of the day, please, sir.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Dad joke of the day, I got a good one
for you guys today. I got one second here, Dad
joke of the day.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
What's blue and not very heavy?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Blue and not very heavy the sky?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
That's pretty close light blue? Oh god, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Whoo doo hiss, boo boo. What's our word of today, please, Zach?
Speaker 6 (16:03):
I thought that one was especially terrible. Sarcothagus is the
word of the day.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh that's where they put mummies inside.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Of Yeah, pretty much. Sorry.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
Coofagus refers to a coffin, and specifically a stone coffin.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
A stone coffin. There you go, all right, Today's trivia question.
I know the answer to this, and I just checked
to make sure. To Blea see is the capital of
what country? To bleasy tb I L I s I
you want to take a shot at that, Zach?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
I feel like I should know it. I have definitely
heard toble before why not the nothing lose.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Lebanon, No, not even remotely. Who's beck to stand closer?
How about Georgia, the country, not the state, the country
of Georgia to Bleasey, all right, what's our deputy category?
And Zach promised to pick us an easy one, babe,
easy for both of us. I think this one's pretty easy, okay.
Previewed the questions here? Uh and history, it's it's you know,
(17:01):
I think it's some basic you're asking the wrong people.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Well, I think you guys will be able to get
this one. Maybe I chose Portlo.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Okay, let's see in the nineteen nineties, this Chicago Bulls
gone many.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Who is Michael Jordan?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (17:19):
All right?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
In June two thousand and two, this Wakers coach became
the all time leader in playoff victories by winning his
one hundred and fifty sixth game.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And say, I've never known a Lakers Mandy. Who is
pat Riley?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Oh close? Phil Jackson?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Oh yeah, we're tied to zero. We're doing great, all right.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
In two thousand and one, the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to
this US city.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Mandy, Where's Memphis?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Back on the board.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
We'll backhead.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
In nineteen ninety five, this Houston Rocket Center scored a
then record one hundred and thirty one points in a
four game NBA Finals.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
She already won.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Mandy to Kemo Matumbo, Oh no one? Oh yeah, back
to zero?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
All right?
Speaker 6 (18:07):
It all comes down to this. The star is one.
Sorry for some guys, I chose about category. The NBA's
Coach of the Year trophy is named for this longtime
Celtics coach.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
I have no idea. Red hour back. So I think
that's a yes. Well, so really get zero to zero.
I'm sorry, you got to find another category, all right?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Let me get you a er. How about just desserts?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That might be can't be any worse than that, So yes,
just dessert sounds good.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
In this Bible book that children of Israel were departed from.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Man, it's a snare, that's right. How about this kitty lit?
Kitty lit, Okay.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Kitty lit, Okay, there we go eighteen eighty five. Book
is subtitled Tom Sawyer's Comrade Mandy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
What is Huckleberry Finn?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
That is correct?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Finally I lost that one. Well yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah,
you're not gonna You're not gonna get us on one
of those sports categories, Zach. It's pretty much never gonna
be a winner for this one. No. No, I stopped
watching the NBA when Shack loss and left the Orlando
(19:22):
Magic and I was still I'm still mad about that.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So since that guy in the Celtics and.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I like some well, no, we went to a U
we went to a Nuggets game. When we got here.
It just wasn't awesome there. Okay, tomorrow on the Big Show,
we have a few things planned. Thomas Friar Futurist is
coming up tomorrow, and I'm sure that we're gonna have
more news about Trump's tariffs, whether or not they're going
to end effect or not, and everything else. But right now,
(19:47):
we're gonna hand the station over to the kids at
Kawa Sports. As a matter of fact, they're probably gonna
be able to get those NBA questions. I bet if
you asked Ryan Edwards he would be like, yeah, I
know all those questions. I'm sure I'm positive ask him
after this. Okay, Zach, we'll see tomorrow. Keep it on
k Awai
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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