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The Best City Cast Madison Episodes for Holiday Listening

Posted on December 19, 2023   |   Updated on September 30, 2025
Hayley Sperling

Hayley Sperling

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City Cast Madison is the only podcast exclusively about the city we know and love. (Getty Images)

Whether you have hours of travel ahead of you or just want to impress dinner guests with captivating stories and facts, there’s a City Cast Madison podcast episode that’s perfect for you.

Host Bianca Martin rounded up some of her favorite episodes that will introduce you to remarkable people, hidden gems, and how-tos that will pique the interest of any curious Madisonian.

There’s a giant among us and it lives at the Overture Center for the Arts. It’s a 30-ton pipe organ and City Cast Madison caught up with the man who knows it best, Greg Zelek, the principal organist for the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

The Wisco Birder aka Dexter Patterson breaks down where and when to see avians take flight around the state.

In this episode Bianca turns the mic to none other than her sister Monica, who is a singer, songwriter, and former lead singer of the local indie band PHOX.

The photo of President Obama in the White House situation room, the iconic moment when a five-year-old reached up to touch Obama’s hair after asking if it was like his own — these photos are by White House photographer Pete Souza, who now lives in Madison.

Clyde Stubblefield was best known as James Brown’s drummer and came up with iconic backbeats that changed the course of music. But he wasn’t credited or compensated for his musical innovation and faced mounting medical debts later in life. Bianca Martin speaks with filmmaker Trevor Banks about why Stubblefield should get his due.

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