Wisconsin Life

Wisconsin seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about its clichés. Beer? Brats? Cheese? And if we’re making a list, let’s add polka!

A question came in from Josie, an elementary school student in Mineral Point, who asked, "How did the polka become a dance and a tradition?"

There’s a national fellowship program that brings young, African leaders to college campuses across the U.S. UW-Madison is one of the schools that partners with the Mandela Washington Fellowship. The most recent group included Folajogun Akinlami of Nigeria. For more than a decade, she’s worked in media and advocates for people with disabilities. She wanted

The only time Holmen High School junior Gracie Kromke is exposed to the stereotypical bad lunch — rubber-roni, slapping food on plates — is when she hears stories about them. "That’s nothing close to what I experience on a daily basis," she said. The Holmen School District nutrition program staff make sure of that. Through a

Driving home on a snowy night, author Crystal Chan and her mother encountered a hitchhiker in the blowing snow. The question of whether to pick him up or not led her to explore the meaning and limits of compassion. == It was a bad snowstorm, the kind that wipes out your vision, erases the world,

If you've spent any time at the Wisconsin state Capitol building, you know it's majestic, both inside and out. It's the center of state government and the center of Madison, with streets and avenues converging from every direction at the Capitol Square. But how did that particular spot become one of the most important places in the state?

So What are some of your early rock ‘n’ roll  memories?  For Stoughton’s Bill Amundson, there’s one that happened REALLY close to home.  == It was a normal Saturday spring morning at the Amundson household on Nora Street in Stoughton, Wisconsin.  The year was 1960, and I was a seven year old boy watching Huckleberry

Music is a cornerstone of Jewish culture, especially during holidays and festivals. Musician Lil Rev grew up in a musical family in Milwaukee, steeped in his family's Yiddish folk music tradition. He travels Wisconsin and the country sharing his love of music, history, and his Yiddish heritage. (This story originally aired on December 4, 2013)

It seems that every season has its cocktails. When the temperature drops and the snow piles up, people want a little more warmth and folks in Wisconsin turn to a hot drink known as the Tom and Jerry. That got listener Pam Stachowski of Whitewater wondering, "Is the Tom and Jerry a Wisconsin thing?"

For some people, Christmas in Green Bay is not complete without a visit to “Bruce the Spruce.” It’s a fake tree that talks to visitors. Bruce was created by the H. C. Prange department store chain in 1973 and would startle shoppers back in the day when more people shopped at brick and mortar stores. Bruces

With the holidays right around the corner, WPR's Andrea Anderson was talking about all things festive­ — Christmas trees, twinkling lights, cookies ­— and she brought up a really interesting question: “Gov. Tony Evers is accepting homemade themed ornaments for the capitol holiday tree. Is this tradition new? How long has it been happening?” We then went to investigate.