Door County Pulse Podcasts

Despite historic investments in early childhood education in Door County, we continue to lag far behind the number of spaces needed for families in our community. Elliot Haspel spoke at the recent Door County Child Care Summit sponsored by the United Way, reminding local leaders that the struggle is not unique to Door County. The author of "Crawling Behind: the Child Care Crisis and How to Solve It" joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about why policy-makers have struggled to understand the problem and coalesce around solutions.

Marissa Jablonski, executive director of the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, talks with Debra Fitzgerald about how her organization is creating a jobs pipeline to strengthen the state’s workforce so that it’s stronger and better prepared to meet the state’s 10 Grand Water Challenges.

Choosing Election Letters and the World Comes to Door County by Door County Pulse Podcast

Musician Cathy Grier joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the upcoming tribute to singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe coming to the Door Community Auditorium on Saturday. Tharpe was credited as an influence by Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Elvis and many others. Grier discusses the show and Tharpe’s legacy, followed by a bit of perspective from one of the show’s performers, Lachrisa Grandberry, about the value of sharing Tharpe’s story on the Door County stage.

With two weeks to go till the 2024 election, we talk to the candidates for U.S. Senate, incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican Challenger Eric Hovde. We discuss some of the top issues in the campaign and ask why each candidate was inspired to run for office.

Do you think you know Fall Fest? Matt Stone joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about Sister Bay’s big celebration this weekend. They run down all the key times and events, but also take you behind the scenes to talk about what it takes to create the party and how it helps businesses, nonprofits and workers all year long.

Wisconsin’s flagship environmental program, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, has invested some $1.3 billion in land acquisitions, trails, outdoor recreation infrastructure and shoreline protection since 1990 across the state – 466 of those projects in Door County alone. But the program is threatened and could go away. One of the state’s primary organizations trying to assure that doesn’t happen is Gathering Waters, Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts. Charlie Carlin, Gathering Waters director of strategic initiatives, walks Debra Fitzgerald through what happened, why the program is threatened and what people can do to help save it.

Kris Sadur, chair of the Democratic Party of Door County, and Stephanie Soucek, chair of the Republican Party of Door County, meet for the first time when they sit down with Debra Fitzgerald to talk about political unity and party unity and how they’re addressing division within their own party’s ranks. They also talk about their parties’ respective moods, what they do to set the tone for political speech, what’s firing them up and political ads.

UW-Oshkosh women's volleyball coach and Gibraltar High School graduate Jon Ellmann did not take a straight line to his position as the women's volleyball coach at UW-Oshkosh. He joins Myles Dannhausen to discuss his journey from the courts at Nicolet, to design, to business, jewelry and finally back to education and the volleyball court. They talk about coaching youth sports, finding your path, tossing pizza dough and much more.

For 30 years Rachel Manek has been a part of people’s mornings in Northeast Wisconsin as the host of Good Day, Wisconsin on Fox 11. But her first jobs were working in Door County at Hotel du Nord and Al Johnson’s. She joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about her love of Door County, what it’s like to be a part of the morning of tens of thousands of strangers every day, and telling the stories of her hometown community.

Last week Bret Bicoy wrote in his column about his fear that this election cycle is tearing at the fabric of our community. He reads his column, then joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald for a spirited discussion about his column and whether we are as divided as it often seems that we are.

In the wake of a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Sept. 15, Joel Kitchens and Renee Paplham, the Republic and Democratic candidates respectively for Wisconsin’s Assembly District 1, talk with Debra Fitzgerald about political unity – what it means, if it’s important, whether it’s achievable in a two-party political system and what’s at stake if we don’t tone down and calm our political rhetoric.

So much progress has been made by Door County municipalities in a few short years in their quest to bring reliable, affordable, high-speed fiber broadband service to each home and business within their communities. The County of Door’s broadband coordinator, Jessica Hatch, runs down with Debra Fitzgerald where each municipality is today, and how soon your home or business will have access to 21st-century internet services.

When Larry Mohr retired in 2022, he did what most people do - knocking items off a long-delayed to-do list. But then he got bored, and when he came across a TED Talk on a more intentional approach to retirement he got inspired. That led him to taking photos for the Peninsula Pulse and Door County Living this summer. He joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about that and more.

David Maraniss, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post journalist and biographer of presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. on the podcast this week. Maraniss, who also wrote the definitive biography of Vince Lombardi that was turned into a broadway play, discusses that book and the journey from page to stage in advance of his upcoming appearance at the Door Kinetic Arts Festival Sept. 23. Maraniss also talks about his honeymoon in Door County, his love of the Packers, his biographies of Roberto Clemente and Jim Thorpe, and his take on the 2024 Presidential Campaign.

Executive Director Sam Koyen and event organizer Tom Krueger join Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about this Saturday’s Trails and Ales event at Crossroads at Big Creek. All eight Door Peninsula breweries will be serving samples along the trail at the Sturgeon Bay nature preserve in a fundraiser for the center’s programs. Koyen also discusses how Crossroads continues to grow and engage more people in active and passive programming.

Meg Kissinger's memoir "While You Were Out" is a portrait of a family's struggles with mental illness. She joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. (17:05 mark) to talk about the book and how we fail to address mental illness across the country in advance of a special panel discussion at the Kress Pavilion on Sept. 12. But first, an excerpt from a conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren during last week's visit to Door County in which she discusses our housing shortage as a national issue.

Peninsula Pulse reporter Eleanor Corbin joined the staff, Aug. 1, with a freshly minted Political Science degree from Grinnell College in Iowa. She served as editor-in-chief of her college paper and was a student journalist for three years. She drove cross-country to Door County from her California home to begin her journalism career on the peninsula. Here, she talks with Debra Fitzgerald about what inspires and challenges her as a reporter, why she wanted to make journalism her career, and why she selected Door County to start.

The Jauregui family came to Door County knowing almost nobody. Now almost everyone in Northern Door County has crossed paths with a business owned by this family of entrepreneurs who have launched restaurants, roofing companies, and a horse ranch. Writer Ben Jones profiled the family in the summer edition of Door County Living magazine and he joined Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the family he got to know.

Peninsula Music Festival (PMF) conductor and music director, Rune Bergmann, is in from his native Norway to lead the world-class musicians who arrive in Door County from around the country and planet for nine performances in August as part of PMF’s symphony series. Bergmann joins Debra Fitzgerald, and PMF Executive Director Lisa Harper, to talk about the magic that’s collaboratively created by the conductor, orchestra and audience during a PMF performance.