Wisconsin Life

Years ago, my dear friend and former WPR colleague Breann Schossow started getting REALLY excited about pizza farms. Since she grew up on a dairy farm, the concept combined two of her many loves: pizza and agriculture.

Tragically, Bre passed away in October 2020 from a rare form of cancer. Some of us never got to go to a pizza farm with her, but we’re so happy she created a “Wisconsin Life” story about them. We wanted to share this story to honor her work and share her joy.

Steamboats are embedded in the history of the La Crosse area. However, a passion for those vessels floating down the Mississippi River continues to bring that history to life. Producer Breann Schossow tells us more.

Fermentation Fest has been celebrating all things live culture for more than a decade. The festival’s Farm/Art DTour sends people on a 50-mile journey, teaching them about microbes and showcasing artwork and roadside poetry — all while socially distant. WPR’s Steve Gotcher takes us on a sonic adventure while driving through the festival.

The United States is a nation of immigrants and the pressure to assimilate can be great. Some people are compelled to speak English and leave other languages behind. Contributor Eric Dregni takes a look back at his own family’s relationship with language: a mix of Norwegian and Swedish, or “Svorsk,” and English.

Sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith, a riot broke out in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood in August 2016. The violence and pain of those three days are the backdrop for Derrick Harriell’s Edgar Award-winning short story, “There’s a Riot Goin’ On.”

Contributor Andy Turner recently talked to Harriell, a Sherman Park native. He’s also a celebrated poet and assistant professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi.

Author Crystal Chan has lived in Chicago for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought her back to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to reconnect with her family. She shares a story of the renewed confidence she learned during a hometown driving lessons, taught by her mother.

Having a baby is an emotional roller coaster. Now, imagine having your child during a pandemic. You’re isolated, yet filled with love and excitement. Hospital visits are nerve-wracking. And once baby arrives, a lot of your friends and family can’t meet them.

Destiny Skubis is expecting her first child any day now. She wrote about her experience as an expecting mother during the time of COVID-19.

WHYsconsin recently received a listener question wondering, “What is the third most commonly spoken language in Wisconsin after English and Spanish.” The answer: Hmong. WPR’s Mary Kate McCoy looks into why.

In a city with never-ending bar options, Del’s Bar in La Crosse sticks out. It’s been open since 1933 in a historic brick building downtown. Step inside on any given day and you’ll find regulars who have been coming in for 40 years, college students and tourists chatting with each other around the oval shaped bar.

This weekend would have been the 60th annual La Crosse Oktoberfest celebration. While the pandemic has moved that milestone to 2021, we thought we’d revisit the bar, which is a popular stop during the weekend’s usual Oktoberfest festivities. At Del’s, bartenders can walk up to 15 miles behind the bar in a single Oktoberfest shift while serving up thousands of bloody marys.

(This story originally aired May 17, 2019)

We recently received a WHYsconsin question from a listener named Patti. She asked, “Why are people into wearing cheeseheads?”

Many Wisconsinites have personal reasons for plopping giant triangles of yellow foam on their heads or wearing wedge earrings to every Wisconsin sporting event — from football to baseball. But let’s go back to the beginning, to one of the first times a person cut up a piece of foam, declared it cheese and wore it on their head.