Door County Pulse Podcast

Hans Christian, classically trained as a cellist in his native Germany, emigrated to 1980s Hollywood to study bass guitar and pursue a career as a rock musician. More than three decades later, the performer, recording engineer, producer and multi-instrumentalist has lived a fascinating story (complete with famous people like Billy Idol, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ram Dass, to name just three) – including his serendipitous meeting in San Francisco with Northern Sky’s Doc Heide and Fred Alley, planting the seed about a place called Door County that Christian today calls home. Christian talks with Debra Fitzgerald about his career, his current work at his Studio 330 in Sturgeon Bay – and about being nominated for a Grammy in 2023 for his original music, Ocean Dreaming Ocean, in the category of New Age/Ambient/Chant.

When the Door County Trails group was formed, it turned to urban planner Sophie Parr to create inventory and vision maps for Door County's bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Parr joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the process she used to create the maps and how the future could look for non-motorized transportation in the county. They also talk about her love of maps and what inspired her passion for urban planning.

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.