Door County Pulse Podcasts

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.

Door Shakespeare’s producing artistic director, Amy Ensign, and its music director, Scott McKenna Campbell, join Debra Fitzgerald to talk about this season’s performances, and the nuts and bolts of producing shows that make Shakespeare and other classics accessible and enjoyable to watch beneath the stars at at Björklunden.

Herb Gould has covered big-time college and professional sports for the Chicago Sun-Times for four decades, but this summer he has fallen in love with Door County League Baseball as he sought out the stories of the league for the Peninsula Pulse. Myles Dannhausen Jr. talks to him about the league, its quirks, and the people who make it go.

Terry Moran, ABC News National Political Correspondant, joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the 2024 Presidential Election. Moran, a 1982 graduate of Lawrence University, just completed teaching a weeklong seminar in at Björklunden, where he expected to be talking about Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He discusses the new matchup, underrated aspects of the campaign, and his faith in the American voter.

A self-described introvert who spends the majority of her time quietly creating art, Rebecca Carlton burst onto the scene earlier this year with her social sculpture, Are We Listening? Each of the 700 porcelain homing pigeons she suspended on wire in three different designs represented 10 of the world’s 7,000 languages. She then brought some 25 different groups of people together over a couple of months to have conversations. Rebecca talks with Debra Fitzgerald about her art and her community-creating experience.

Writer, singer and storyteller Katie Dahl joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about finding characters in old Door County books, the origins of Peninsula State Park, and working unwritten stories into her play, The Fisherman's Daughters. The play is on stage now at Northern Sky Theater.

Debra Fitzgerald and Myles Dannhausen Jr. talk about memorializing the people who’ve made Door County – Door County, the rumors floating about Rowleys Bay Resort at the top of the peninsula, a hard-working couple’s path to home ownership, and the Peninsula Pulse’s Aug. 2 candidate coverage in preparation for the Aug. 13 primary election.

There’s a new name on the property that was once the Florian II, but inside it’s the same family line and space, just with an updated twist. Shane Kwaterski joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the plans he and his wife have to keep the space thriving in the family for another generation. They discuss Shane’s journey back to the family business, the evolution of his hometown and the story behind the new name.

Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek is one of those emblems of Door County. Opened in 1967 on Peninsula Players Road in a beautifully restored 1918 fruit barn, the gallery is now nurtured and grown by a third generation of family owners who have also created a sculpture garden that meanders through the woods. Owner J.R. Jarosh talks with Debra Fitzgerald about some of the 150+ artists the gallery represents, the latest exhibit that runs through Aug. 25, and the gallery’s past, present and future.