Podcast
Outdoor Cats Podcast
Hosted by Bill Shaner & Chris Robarge · EN
Weekly broadcasts from a city that punishes you for caring. Join Bill and Chris for leftist perspectives from Worcester, MA, an urban knife’s edge of gentrification and vulture capital. We discuss local current events, analyzing the ways in which these stories ripple outward from the city we call home. We’ll even talk some about what you can do to fight back!
www.worcestersucks.email
www.worcestersucks.email
27episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode 63: Implied, perhaps, even
1w ago01:34:20Tap to summarizeThere and back again, exploring the psychology of the Kate Toomeys of the city, of which there are hundreds if not thousands and their grip on power is sure as the day is long. Then from there to the heart of all this city’s darkness. Folks we’re just taking it all in! Don’t forget to grab your tickets for Friday Friday Friday first Outdoor Cats Live show! It’s going to be a very good and hopefully soul restoring series of conversations. And we want to hear from you as well! Call into our new tip line—508-205-9520—with any thoughts or observations you have on how Eureka Street went down and what it says about the city. Or send us a voice memo at outdoorcats@sudomail.comSee you there! So excited.Some relevant links for the discussion…Kate Toomey’s equity argument When a Correction Becomes An AccusationMy story on sex ed from 2019 with the Mary Mullaney quote Former School Committee member Mary Mullaney, one of the key figures involved, is among those with both political influence and a moral opposition to comprehensive sex education. In an email to Binienda last September, Mullaney diagnosed what she saw as the real problem with what she called “urban kids.”“Five years from now the situation will be the same or worse because what is lacking here is strong families, good moral upbringing, fathers in homes, faith in a higher power. We put bandaids on huge problems and feel good that we are ‘trying,’” Mullaney wrote to Binienda. “You know better than anyone in Worcester — because you are the REAL thing when it comes to urban kids — that these children are spiritually and psychologically impoverished, neglected, abused. They need love, guidance, support, alternatives to the crap they see around them. Condoms will not save their souls. I am not sure if they will even help their bodies as they are too young to use them well, but I know for sure that condoms will not heal their soul or solve the loneliness in their hearts.”Mummies in MAAs always please consider throwing us a couple bucks so we can put in the massive amount of time and energy recording and producing a podcast and editing a newsletter’s worth of contributors and coming up with a weekly column that’s good and worth reading and booking and promoting a live show and etc etc etc. None of that happens if this newsletter can’t fund the one full time position it currently does!! Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreThis podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.Help us spread the word, especially if you’re one of the readers / listeners from outside the city! Be our little evangelists in your hopefully better community. Also if that’s you say hey. Love hearing from “out of towners” and why they read or listen. Outro: Oh for no particular reason, definitely not because it’s related in a million ways to the “we’re governed by stupidest, racist, most colonialist, and most self-assured people you went to high school with, who peaked in said high school” vibe of this episode, here’s “Liar’s Tale” by KNEECAP, whose new album dropped on May Day. “Do they not understand who we are/ You were popular way back when/ people did whatever they want/ nobody stood in their way/ Ats colonial cringe/ now we’re lookin back paid/ We want everything back/ The six counties/ And the artifacts/ we’ll be takin all that/ Look mate, the paddies are back/ And your kingdom’s finished/ And that’s a fact”Intro by Bill Shaner 5.3.26 Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 62: The Rule Of Thirds
2w ago01:31:11Tap to summarizeWe have a major announcement: First Outdoor Cats live show coming Friday May 8 at Hunchback Gallery and since space is limited the event is ticketed and you can get tickets here!!Look at this awesome flyer the lovely Katie Nowicki whipped up for us!As the title suggests we’ll be looking back on a year of fallout after the ICE raid on Eureka Street that opened a new chapter in local politics—one where the bad guys started being a little more honest, let’s say. But we’ll save all that for the event! There’s a stacked bill coming together as we speak. Do not sleep on getting tickets as I imagine this will fill out pretty fast. Ticket link one more time.In today’s show we cover a wide range of topics in no particular order: Big day for the correspondents. ICE has been back. Joe Petty’s flim-flam on rent control. Look out for the whippit squirrel at Big YAs always please consider supporting this outlet so we can keep doing all the cool stuff we do! It is not, unfortunately, free to make. It takes a lot of time and in the present circumstances time is money. Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store...and give us a shout out to a friend who might like it that helps a lot!Add this podcast to your preferred player if you like... Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.Intro by Bill Shaner 4.26.26Outro: “Early Morning” by Takumi Yoneyama off “Relaxation Music For Your Computer Life” (1997) Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 61: Say Hello To My Little Friend
4w ago01:36:16Tap to summarizeCatching up on our little police city-state hiding in plain sight: the annual salary reveal, Fresolo does townie direct action, Dive Bar to Cop Bar via a Brady Lister turned entrepreneur from Framingham who definitely didn’t get caught doing a Scarface. We’d never baselessly allege something like that…Outdoor Cats comes to you because of the readers and listeners who support this outlet! Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreNote from Chris: Wow holy goddamn our latency was really bad. You’re going to hear Bill and I step on each other extensively, and it’s not because we’re interrupter jerks, it’s actually because we were having a several second delay in hearing each other. We blame the government. Porch session is nearly here and we’ll be recording in-person together more soon.Note from Bill: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Some links…Curtis Sliwa was here and we missed it. Curtis Sliwa quotes from final mayoral debateFresolo Townie Direct Action FootageWages reportList of 500 highest-paid Worcester employees includes zero teachers. Why?Eyes on public safety at Union Station: Police outline presence, statsCop bar to open at Dive BarLiteral outdoor cat gives no f***s about borders—Outro: Brooklyn Funk Essentials “Bust The Bust Stop”—Intro by Bill Shaner 4.17.26—This podcast is now available on all the major podcast players: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts (idk what that is) and you can add it to any other sort of player with this RSS link. Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 60: If it is to be said
Apr 801:25:17Tap to summarizeWe spend most of the show going over the massive reductions in staffing and services at Community Health Link, asking why the agencies comprising our social safety net are allowed to act like weird little hedge funds. You can follow along here as we read through the email sent to CHL staffers by its president Gordon Benson.Worcester Sucks is the only outlet to report on this pretty sure so we can call this podcast episode “breaking news” officially, which is cool I guess. The other topic we were planning to cover, but nixed, was the recent “day in court” for the state police officers charged in connection with the boxing ring death of Enrique Delgado Garcia. It ended up working out that Welcome To Hell World ran a piece of mine on the matter today: “The Presumption of Innocence.” So while we don’t cover it here, I do over there. You should go read it I think it’s good. Here’s a quick taste (more follow up on it in my next written post.)Among the recruits, there was one especially experienced fighter. Enrique Delgado Garcia was not an especially experienced fighter. Ahead of “boxing day,” each of the recruits were matched roughly on size and ability. A large and physically fit guy was paired with the experienced fighter. On Thursday, Sept. 12, the day of the match, this large and physically fit guy wimped out.Instead of saying, “OK, no one is equipped to fight this guy, sorry bud you are too scary” the training staff instead asked for volunteers. Enrique Delgado Garcia was apparently the only recruit to step forward. So he entered the ring with concussion-like symptoms to face a fighter so scary the second scariest guy had said no thanks.Once in the ring Delgado Garcia was under the supervision of a referee who was not trained nor certified to be a referee, but was rather a micro celebrity in the SPAM community: one Charlie Murray, president of the State Police boxing team.Also tomorrow I’ll be on Beacon Hill all day advocating alongside local journalists from around the state for a proposed local journalism legislative package put together by Free Press, a great advocacy organization for the sort of local news we do here (not the nazi site The Free Press). We’re pushing for something like the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium that Free Press started down there recently. It’s pretty neat. So come say hi if you’re going to be “on the hill” tomorrow. And as always you can start or continue to support real deal alternative local journalism in your community right here and right now with a paid subscription or tip!Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreAlso tell someone about this show! Our only advertising is word of mouth.This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.Some links from the discussion today…Iran Lego AI PropagandaE sports at the Aud hype articlePoop ship updateLive feed of the Artemis II mission“We’re goin’ back to the f****n’ moon, that’s why”Gregg clip French documentary on moon landing - Operation Lune Intro: Riff on “Pink Moon” by Bill Shaner 4.7.26Outro: “Contact” by Daft Punk Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 59: Burnin' Down The House (ft. John Keough)
Mar 3101:34:40Tap to summarizeThe esteemed Mr. John Keough joins us to discuss a forthcoming documentary he’s producing alongside director Tommy Dyer called “Burnin’ Down The House.” Set for a May 21 premier, then a full theatrical release shortly thereafter, the feature length documentary examines the sorry state of firehouses in three Massachusetts towns, asking “what the f**k?” (paraphrasing). While listeners of this show are more likely to know Keough as the scrappy This Week In Worcester reporter breaking stories left and right—the substance of our last talk on here, Episode 18: Dog-Bite Ratios (ft. Tom Marino and John Keough—he’s also the president of the Hollywoot Film Group, where he “does movies” and other related things I half understand. Follow the film’s Instagram for updates as release day approaches. Chris has more to say on the substance of the talk down below, but first I come to you hat and hand asking for a small amount of your hard earned money so that Chris and I and everyone else at Worcester Sucks can keep doing all the local journalism we do. Paid subscriptions are best, second best are tips, third best is merch orders. Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreAnd if you like what you hear help us spread the word! Send it to a friend, post about it, go up to the person pumping gas on the other side of the gas pump and grab the phone out of their center console and type it into the address bar of their web browser—whatever you have to do, you do it. And yes that is financial advice.Chris here: A thing we talk around a lot in this is the dynamic of firefighters and the communities they serve vs. police and the communities they serve. I wanted to say two things: First, firefighters put their turnout gear just as fast for a fire in the poorest neighborhood as they do the wealthiest one. In fact, they maybe do it faster for the poorest one. People say fire doesn’t discriminate, but that’s not entirely true. Fire discriminates in insidious ways- It discriminates in your landlord not noticing or caring that your boiler or wiring are pretty janky, because your landlord doesn’t have to live there. It discriminates in how dense your housing situation is, and how fire suppressed it is to the standards of that density. It discriminates in who lives in housing units that aren’t even legally habitable units, as we saw on Gage Street. It discriminates in how adaptive to escaping a fire your housing is if you’re disabled and/or have mobility issues. It discriminates in how fucked you are if you survive a fire and have to deal with the financial ruin that a fire inevitably causes. Etc. The theme of this one for me is I could go on but I won’t. Second, I have this weird lived experience where I have been on the scene of hundreds of fires, first as a firefighter, next as a Disaster Services volunteer for the Red Cross, and finally as just what is known as a “buff”, or a person who loves watching and documenting a fire department at work. If you know what you’re doing, you can get very, very close to the scene of most working fires. Don’t put yourself in a dangerous position and don’t impede the firefighting operations, and you can get close enough to feel the heat and have your eyes burn with the smoke. UDizzy1969, who comes up in the episode, has nearly all-access videos from almost every fire of consequence in Worcester for years. One of our unsung heroes tbh. Back when I was learning about how to navigate a fire scene as a “non-combatant”, I remarked to a photographer who was a retired firefighter about how close they let us get. He said “Firefighters do a job to be proud of, and they are very proud of what they do”. I never forgot that. Who wouldn’t be happy about being documented doing the “public safety” job they do when it’s rescuing people and putting out fires and pulling people out of wrecked cars and all of that. I’ll leave it to you to compare and contrast that to another division of alleged “public safety”, and how transparent they are about letting random people document their work. Last Call FoundationIAFF (the main firefighter’s union) calls for a federal investigation into fire apparatus price-fixingMA, NY Firefighters File Lawsuit Over PFAS In Firefighting PPEIf you want to get pumped up by watching another amazing firefighting documentary, here’s “Burn” (2012) in it’s entirety. “Burnin’ Down The House” documentary on Instagram, and FacebookIntro by Bill Shaner 3.30.26Outro: “Burnin’ Down The House”, cover by Bonnie Raittv Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 58: Raccoon's Law
Mar 2101:38:51Tap to summarizeWhat is Raccoon’s Law? Well brother you’ll just have to listen. Forgot to mention ‘on air’ that I’m doing the Roast of Worcester tomorrow (Saturday, March 21) at the White Room. All proceeds go to LUCE! Come hang. Send me some jokes I’m fresh out. Billshaner91 at Substack Dot Com. Chris recaps St. Patty’s Day in Worcester, which he does the right way unlike most of us, who tend to drink more like craven Englishmen than the esteemed and steady All-Day Irish. Three groups have filed an ADA lawsuit in federal court against the Worcester Police Department for dispatching trained professionals to physical medical emergencies and condescending and often violent dicks with guns to medical emergencies of the mental variety. We read a few choice spots from the complaint. Afroman Wins Civil Trial Over Use of Police Raid Footage in His Music VideosThree great ways to support this outlet right here: Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store And as always please help us spread the word!Intro music by Bill Shaner 3.19.26Outro: “Lemon Pound Cake” by Afroman Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 57: The Dainty Gong
Mar 1101:41:47Tap to summarizeYou can thank the city council and their pointlessly long meetings (five hours last night…. why??) for the delay of this episode, recorded on Monday, while Chris and I were in high spirits brought on by the sudden change for the better in the weather. In this episode we eschew the typical miseries of local politics to focus on two community events we attended over the weekend: the second annual Purim Spectacular stage production at the Raven on Sunday night, and a panel discussion on satire, activism and journalism at the library on Saturday afternoon. Heavy on the “& I Love It” light on the “Sucks.” A refreshing change of pace I think. The episode also features a longer and perhaps overly indulgent intro theme because it’s our show and we’re both stoked on it. Skip if you hate art. And either way let us know what you think! About that or anything else. We love what the suits call “audience engagement.” So much we’re looking for some recovering theater kids (I was in pit band I can say it) to help us with some potential live production ideas! Billshaner at Substack dot com.Also: I’m running a crazy 50 percent off deal on merch for paid subscribers. It runs until Saturday and you can find the code for that here. Then, merch store here. We have a bunch of Outdoor Cat shirts left!!Subscribing is cheap and easy! And so is dropping some change in the tip jar!Subscribe / Tips Some notes and links…Matt Shearer’s Jamaica Plain road salt video The time Chris met Rick Steves his hero Worcester Havurah Knox Harrington The U-Boat game Chris mentionsA little taste of the Klezmer band at Purim — update: the band is composed of Rebecca Mac on violin and Jack Soref on guitar.If you enjoy this podcast spread the love! ∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.∿Intro by Bill Shaner 3.9.26∿Outro: “I Believe” by Caroline Polachek (run it full if you can, if you can’t start here for about 90 seconds worth) Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 56: Misbehavin'
Mar 401:16:54Tap to summarizeThis one is a redo of sorts, after some technical difficulties as Chris explains at the top. You can’t always be perfect, though we do try and might I add very often succeed. On the docket for this one: Collusion between Thomas Duffy allegedly by others and Northwest District ADA Steven Gagne in the “apology” statement drafted as a plea deal condition in the Spring & Haxhiaj trials. Then: Former city councilor Sarai Rivera and her husband in hot water for lavish trips paid out, according to a state filing, from an investment operation under the vague umbrella of their church. Fully Gemstones coded if you ask me. Talk about misbehavin’. This Week In Worcester: ADA: Worcester Police Union Leader Influenced Plea Offer in Haxhiaj CaseTelegram: State Filing Alleges Worcester Pastor Used Investor Money For Lavish TripsAlso as promised here’s the link for the event on Saturday afternoon…“Journalism, Activism, Satire ... What’s the Difference?” Date: 2 p.m. Saturday, March 7 Moderator: Edgar B. Herwick III (host, “The Curiosity Desk,” co-host, “The Culture Show,” GBH) Panel Members: Matt Shearer (Journalist, WBZ News) Brad Petrishan (reporter, Telegram & Gazette) Giselle Rivera-Flores (podcaster, journalist, publicist) Bill Shaner (editor, Worcester Sucks [and I Love It])…and the PURIM SPECTACULAR on Sunday night: Sloppy and E-Wasted: An Anti-AI Purim Production!Three great ways to support us! Please and thank you. Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreOutro: Jamiroquai “Deeper Underground” Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 55: Split The Baby
Feb 1801:37:04Tap to summarizeWell, the jury split the baby. Atodaso. In case you missed our coverage of the Haxhiaj trial and its profound implications for this city’s already-rotten-enough political culture, read the latest here.And you can watch pretty much the entire trial via a series of videos I put up on YouTube—Haxhiaj trial playlist—a painstaking and frustrating endeavor, but worth it, as the cops have rarely told on themselves so hard. In today’s show we go over some choice clips from prosecutor Steven Gagne’s arguments and Shauna McGuirk’s ummmmm inconsistent testimony. Her whole testimony is worth a watch. Here’s Etel outside the courthouse afterwards as well, in case you missed that. Thomas Duffy statement (We’re not dignifying it with a link, you get no clicks from us ya dickhole dingus)“Last November city residents sent a strong message in our local election and today Etel Haxhiaj was convicted by a jury of her peers for assault and battery on a Worcester police officer.We can never allow or tolerate violence of any kind to be directed at any member of law enforcement.. In recent days we have seen multiple officers shot in Spencer and Fall River, we continue to pray for their recovery. We ask that God always protect members of law enforcement as they perform this dangerous job. I want to thank the overwhelming majority of citizens of this city who show support for our officers as they perform a difficult and dangerous job daily.”Please consider supporting our work, we need you to keep doing it. Reader support is this outlet’s only source of revenue. It gives us the time and freedom to, for instance, put two days worth of pool camera footage from a significantly important political trial onto YouTube with corrected audio so you can actually hear it, repurposing footage that the cable stations used for quick and cheap sound bites then threw into the dustbin of history because they all think they work for the cops. Anyway… three great ways to support us! Subscribe / Tips / Merch StoreRIP “Royster” and the eight other fishery workers MA lost in January. Fishing is an actually dangerous job. Part One in a maybe ongoing series of “Jobs That Are Statistically More Dangerous Than Being A Cop”. It’s been a very deadly start to the year for them, and they actually do a job that makes our lives better. The TP USA Halftime Show was way worse than I could’ve even imagined. I apologize for maligning Florida-Georgia line last week. It’s so much darker and dumber. Here’s the song Lee Brice performed called “Country Nowadays”Lyrics:“I just want to catch my fish, drive my truck, drink my beer / And not wake up to all this stuff I don’t want to hear / Like the same kind of gun I hunt with / Just killed another man / Only thing mine ever shot was / Deer from my deer stand.I just want to cut my grass, feed my dogs, wear my boots / Not turn the TV on, sit and watch the evening news / Be told if I tell my own daughter that little boys ain’t little girls / I’d be up the creek in hot water in this cancel-your ass-world.Chorus:It ain’t easy being country / In this country nowadays / The direction the finger’s pointing / When everything goes up in flames / Saying I’m some right-wing devil / Because I was down South Jesus raised / It ain’t easy being country / In this country nowadays.Intro by Bill Shaner 2.16.26Outro: Pigs Theory” by Jayy Grams Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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Episode 54: Hello Darkness
Feb 1101:30:54Tap to summarizeAshley and Etel’s day in court. Read up here for background and live updates here. It’s likely the trial wraps today. We discuss how, in the ongoing act of the Greek play, daddy’s little boy will not be compelled to testify! In the play. We don’t want to be sued. This is a comedy podcast.Chris’ had a no good very bad couple of weeks in Tenant-Land, renting a “luxury apartment” from Investment Property To Make Money, LLCCongrats to Bad Bunny for winning Super Bowl 60!The Bad Bunny Super Bowl performanceMini-documentary about when Prince played Super Bowl XLI: “Can you make it rain harder”The short film Bad Bunny released with his album captures an amazing moment of having the opposite reaction to this, and why that’s the way to live that makes your life worth living. P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, a rad new book that came out last week.Three ways to support this outlet and the first one is best: Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store.Sound off in the comments or chat if you also look forward to this every week!∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.∿Intro by Bill Shaner 2.10.26∿Outro: CAFé CON RON (Video has Spanish and English subtitles) Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe
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