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 clerks and more than 1,800 municipal clerks working in tandem. We trace a ballot from printing to delivery to the ballot box and get a clear look at the checks, audits and security measures that back up the count.

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 rendering of an apartment complex next door to where that hotel was proposed has unleashed a public backlash that threatens to sidetrack the city once again. 

Debra Fitzgerald joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about the controversy and what’s going on in the city, as well as a process recently put in place in another community to avoid exactly this type of outcome.

For more on better public processes, listen to: Creating Better Public Meetings with John Kamp and James Rojas

Door County Jazz Festival organizer Staci Griesbach joined Myles Dannhausen Jr. on the Door County Pulse Podcast to talk about the festival, what inspired her to launch it and her work on last year’s movie filmed here, A Wisconsin Christmas Pie. They discuss what connected her to Door County, why she feels jazz is a natural fit, and her hopes for the future of the festival that runs Aug. 3 - 8.

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 operations.

Want more about Hill Street? Check out our previous conversation with Watts from 2023 here>>

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, how to validate sources, and the challenges of uncovering factual history from legends on the peninsula. 

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. This fall, having graduated from high school, she leaves for the University of Vermont. Before that, Remy and Larry talk with Pulse Editor Debra Fitzgerald about the difference between taking a photo and telling the truth about a place.

This weekend nearly 2,000 athletes will converge at the Door County Triathlon, Southern Door will host its big summer party and it all happens as businesses are grappling with delays and denials for summer international workers. Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald discuss all this and the latest on a new CAFO in the county.

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 this year, League priorities, its community journalism partnership with the Peninsula Pulse through the Observer Corps and League Lens, and how the organization keeps its programming nonpartisan while staying true to its advocacy roots.

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 features live music and an LED light show projected onto the quarry’s 70-foot rock wall.

The Door County League Baseball Season is in full swing, so Herb Gould joins Myles Dannhausen Jr. to talk about why Kolberg has climbed to the top of the league, the stories he keeps finding in the league and why it fascinates him so much. Gould, a former Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter, writes a weekly column about the league for the Peninsula Pulse and is working on a book about the history of baseball in Door County.