Door County Pulse Podcast

If you think Tucker Carlson, Jerome Powell and Nancy Pelosi don’t have much in common, think again. They’re all Deadheads – the most ardent of Grateful Dead fans, who are everywhere, according to Dr. Eric Mlyn, a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics and lecturer emeritus at the Sanford School of Public Policy. Mlyn talked with Debra Fitzgerald about the first show that...

Eleanor Corbin talks with Cherryl Fonfara and Mark Moede from Bayside Radio Theater, a performance group that specializes in live radio shows and has been together since 2023. Fonfara and Moede share their secrets behind the sound effects that elevate their performances from simple readings to immersive experiences. They highlight what Foley artists do, explain character voice, and share how radio theater offers performance roles w...

The Town of Gibraltar secured a big grant to fulfill a decades-old vision for an off-road path from the Settlement Shops to the north end of the town last month. Myles Dannhausen is joined by Debra Fitzgerald to talk about the trail, as well as a lawsuit to force action on the tug that has been sitting in the water in Baileys Harbor for five years. But first, they look back on what 9/11 felt like in Door County, and what we've lear...

Myles Danhausen Jr. talks with singer-songwriter, playwright, and performer Katie Dahl about her new musical-in-progress, The Northeast Corner, which explores the relationship between journalist Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt. Katie discusses what pulled her to the story, who Hickok was, and the workshopping process.  They also dig into the collaborative nature of theater, the emotional stakes of writing for the stage, an...

The Town of Sevastopol is Door County’s second-largest municipality by population and land area, and second or third by equalized value (depending upon the year). So why doesn’t anyone know where it is? Even people who live there? Could it be because Sevastopol doesn’t have a post office, so all addresses are in Sturgeon Bay? Could it also be because there are four different geographic places also located there (I...

Sister Bay Marinafest is coming up on Labor Day weekend, and for many kids that means a visit to the boat-building tent put together by the Sister Bay Lions Club. John Ludwigsen joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the origins of the popular event and the joy it brings to kids each year. But first, they discuss Cycling Without Age, a unique effort to the elderly or people with disabilities out of their homes and into the outdoo...

The name was the easy part for Nick Hoover, Nick Steingart and Nick Thomas when the three summer workers began playing music together in 2004, but finding gigs wasn't as easy back then. But they made magic when they connected with Fuzzy Sunstrom and convinced the owner of Fred & Fuzzy's to let them play a sunset gig on the water. Their weekly sets became a key part of summer for thousands of visitors and their fellow industry w...

Many states have one official running elections. Wisconsin has nearly 1,900. As Wisconsin heads into another election season, we’re going behind the scenes with Door County Clerk Jill Lau. She’s been in the position for 20 years and has been a municipal town clerk for even longer. She joins Debra Fitzgerald to explain Wisconsin’s unusual, decentralized election system: one bipartisan state commission, 72 county cl...

It’s nearly August in 2026, but we'll forgive you if you’re watching the latest news on the west waterfront in Sturgeon Bay and feel like you’ve watched this movie before. 

Back in 2014 a poorly-done rendering for a proposed hotel on the west waterfront sent the city into a years-long legal fight that ultimately redefined what can be done on the city’s waterfront.  Twelve years later, a similar rend...

Aspen, CO was once a small town full of ski bums. Today it's a symbol of extreme wealth. Scott Watts, the owner of Hill Street in Fish Creek, worries that Door County may be on a similar trajectory. He joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about why he's worried, and whether there's anything to do about it while it's happening? But first, they check in about how Hill Street's unique menu approach is working out four years into its ope...

At some point, anyone who lives in or visits Door County will ask the question of where the name Death’s Door originated. For generations, historians have told various versions of a similar story, but when Brennan Christianson of the Door County Maritime Museum began digging into them, he found those tales didn’t hold water. He joins Myles Dannhausen Jr to dive into the fascinating history and myths of the name, ho...

Most of us have a kind of functional vision. We get around – to the grocery store, the farmers market, the Fourth of July parade – but the familiarity sands it down. Photojournalists have to fight that. They have to notice what a community is actually saying about itself, frame by frame. For three years, Peninsula Pulse photographer Larry Mohr has been teaching Pulse photography intern Remy Carmichael to see that way. T...

2026 is a midterm election year, and for the League of Women Voters of Door County, that means the same nonpartisan voter education work it does every election cycle now carries extra weight. Debra Fitzgerald talks with two of the League’s leaders – Tammie Grossman, who recently stepped into the chair role, and Maryanne O’Dowd, who coordinates the League’s Observer Corps – about what voters can expect ...

Peninsula Pulse reporter Eleanor Corbin joins Debra Fitzgerald to discuss two controversial local stories: wakesurfing on Clark Lake and the new “Rock on the Rock” event at the former Leathem & Smith quarry. Wakesurfing has become a popular recreational sport, but not everyone believes it belongs on a shallow lake like Clark Lake. Meanwhile, neighbors have raised concerns about “Rock on the Rock,” which ...

The controversy over the Potawatomi State Park road reconstruction project has entered a new phase, with the nonprofit group, Potawatomi Advocates for Trees, Conservation and Heritage (PATCH), having filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The group is seeking to halt the project and alleging violations of state law, environmental review requirements and public planning processes. Debra Fitzgerald tal...

In 2021 Kevin Wehrenberg and his family lived in Los Angeles, where he produced television shows like Fear Factor and Wipeout. By 2022 they were buying a nine-hole golf course in Egg Harbor and Wehrenberg was running a pub, dodging lightening strikes on the fairways, and making big plans for the little course. Myles Dannhausen Jr. talks to him about making his big life turn, life on the links, and his previous career balancing budg...