Our guest this week is Arvind Gopalratnam, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at the Milwaukee Bucks and Executive Director of the Milwaukee Bucks Foundation. In his role, Gopalratnam will oversees the day-to-day operations of the Bucks Corporate Social Responsibility Department while furthering the philanthropic efforts statewide of the Milwaukee Bucks Foundation. 

But first off, in the intro: the Imagine team is almost fully vaccine “marinated,” so they’re starting to get back out into the world. David went to a performance at the Milwaukee Rep, Mac went to his daughter’s vocal recital, and Lindsay’s rehearsing with Bel Canto. Plus, Mac has a pitch for Planet Fitness. 

At 12:53, Arvind joins the pod. Mac can’t help but open with some Bulls/Bucks rivalry. Then: learning piano and becoming a diehard Phish fan (he’s been to over 50 shows) (15:40); Arvind's career start as an NBC Page, including work with NBC Sports and doing seating at SNL (25:20); how his view of Milwaukee’s arts and culture has been informed by his role on the board of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (32:30); how the Bucks embrace supporting Milwaukee’s arts community (36:00); how the Bucks lived into the responsibility of the moment last summer in support of Black Lives Matter and how it will impact their community engagement work moving forward (38:20); it’s Arvind's turn as Czar of Arts and Culture and he wants to bring back the holiday folk fair (50:30).  

Plugs 

Milwaukee Bucks 

Twitter: @Bucks 

Twitter and Instagram: @BucksCommunity 

Bucks Foundation Week (5/3 - 5/7) 

Ephemera 

What tackle football in a sauna *might* look like  

Ella Fitzgerald First Lady of Song 

Milwaukee Rep AAPI Month  

Ralph Vaughan Williams “Dona Nobis Pacem” 

Trey Anastasio loves Milwaukee 

Becoming an NBC Page is harder than getting into Harvard