Real-life stories of people proud to have connections to Wisconsin are now available for streaming on podcast platforms and YouTube, thanks to the work of a Monroe native. 

Local man Cory Kundert is currently putting out an episode of his new show, Wisco Legacy, every week.  

Getting all of the pieces into place to make that happen takes time. From reaching out to potential guests to schedule interviews; to holding Zoom meetings with them and editing the clips; to writing accompanying articles and then uploading everything online outside of normal business hours, it’s an involved process for Kundert.

Kundert contemplated creating a podcast for roughly a year and a half pre-kickoff. At first, he thought about making it sports-centric, but he eventually decided to broaden the focus.

The idea behind the show is to talk to interesting, inspiring, successful people with ties to Wisconsin and find out how the state has helped shape them into who they are. 

Agriculture, real estate, sports and music are just a few of the topics that guests with the relevant backgrounds have discussed on the show since its official launch in September. 

“It’s been really fun to dive into this,” Kundert said. 

Since he currently works from the basement of his home for his Human Resources day job, “the circle of people I talk to right now is pretty small,” Kundert said, so he welcomes the conversations with people who love Wisconsin through the podcast. 

Kundert shared his own background and his experience losing roughly 100 pounds during the first full episode of the show, which he kicked off after WISC-TV News 3 Now ran a feature story on him.

The news channel highlighted his weight loss success and shot footage of him exercising for a feature segment. Kundert wore a T-shirt displaying the ‘Wisco Legacy’ name to get the word out, he said. 

The timing seemed right to get the show going then. He researched how to run a podcast and created his website and logo. 

The episodes are already getting more attention than he thought they would, he said, averaging around 200 listens each so far. Kundert guessed he might get more around one-tenth of that number to tune in. 

He also writes articles regarding the talks and posts them with submitted photos on his site. Those are getting just over 200 clicks per article, on average, he said.

There has been one article that has gotten even more attention with “close to 900 views,” Kundert said. It was on Monroe native Mike Graham’s weight loss journey. 

Graham lost around 190 pounds — half of his former body weight — in a roughly two-year timeframe. 

“That (story) just blew up,” Kundert said.

“I wasn’t expecting it to reach as far as it did,” Graham said. 

He has never been a big fan of public speaking, so “it was a tremendously scary experience.” Even so, he said he “would do it again in a heartbeat” and was glad to have the platform to tell people his story in a way that he likely would not have otherwise been able to.

Graham reached out to Kundert after seeing him on News 3 Now to congratulate him on his weight loss. When Kundert learned that Graham had gone through a similar journey, he invited him onto the show.

By agreeing to go on, Graham, 25, stepped outside of his comfort zone in the hopes of helping others who are seeking to live healthier lifestyles through sharing what worked for him.

He explained that he started by making small, sustainable changes to his diet. He tracked his calories, managed his food intake, and eventually incorporated an exercise regime to lose weight and to safely get off of the blood pressure medication he had been taking. 

It was both exciting and nerve-racking when the story started to get so much attention, Graham said. 

Though the piece on Graham has garnered the most buzz online so far, one of Kundert’s personal favorite episodes featured his brother, who owns Kundert Construction in Monroe and is living his dream through running the company, Kundert said. Kundert has helped his brother with ventures such as building houses, so he was glad to get the chance to enlist his help with the podcast project, in turn.

A dozen episodes in, Kundert still has a spreadsheet of more than 100 people who he hopes to eventually connect with on the show, he said.

The last question Kundert asks his guests is, ‘When all is said and done, what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?’

Regardless of what’s next for Wisco Legacy, Kundert, who has two daughters — one an infant and the other a toddler — said that he hopes his own ‘Wisco Legacy’ will center around being a great dad who is always there for his kids.

While Kundert hasn’t monetized the podcast at this point, he hopes that may someday be possible and aspires to eventually make his way into the audio documentary space.

For now, anyone who has ideas for stories can reach out to him at cory@wiscolegacy.com. Videos and articles are available at https://www.wiscolegacy.com/ 

The audio versions can be found on podcast platforms, and the videos are also uploaded onto YouTube.