By Richie Burke Contributor Published May 16, 2019 at 9:01 AM

One of the local podcasts I’m a fan of is Bridge the City, a community-based podcast that helps bridge together people, resources and ideas to help inspire Milwaukee to take action.

The show was started by Kyle Hagge and Ben Rangel, who met four years ago in Milwaukee while doing service through Americorps for local non-profit College Possible. That experience was eye opening. They got to help students during the day, but also realized all the obstacles the students had to overcome outside of the classroom on a daily basis that they couldn’t control.

These obstacles included eviction, transportation issues, having to work to provide for their families and more. This spurred them to investigate the systems in Milwaukee that affect how we all live and figure out action steps that people can take to make a positive difference in the city.

This led them to start Bridge the City in late 2017. Kyle and Ben pride themselves on having a podcast that not only interviews community leaders but also provides action steps on how listeners can make a difference in their community on a local level. To date they have featured interviews with Mayor Barrett, Alex Lasry, Evan Goyke, Deanna Singh, Mike Lovell, Governor Tony Evers and more.

The podcast has gained popularity, and they have now teamed up with NEWaukee for an open mic series that we preview on the GoGedders podcast. The next event is a political open mic this Thursday at Gathering Place Brewing Company that will discuss innovation in K12 Education in Milwaukee and feature speakers Megan Holman, Meralis Hood, Reverand H. K. Matthews, Theodore Neitzke, Bria Smith and Melissa Zombor. For full details check out the event page on Newaukee’s website.

To recommend topics for the GoGedders podcast email Richie at richie@ggmm.io

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