Door County, explained from the inside.
Door County Pulse Podcast is a place-based interview show rooted in the towns, institutions, and daily concerns of Door County. It moves from winter storms and battery disposal to museum history, local restaurants, artists, lifelong learning, and the ethics of AI.
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Door County Pulse Podcast offers a steady, local window into Door County, Wisconsin. It is built around interviews, newsroom conversation, and the kind of practical follow-up questions that make a community easier to understand. The show is not only about events. It is about the systems, memories, businesses, and people behind them. Episodes can start with a storm report, a museum weekend, a public-safety concern, or a local restaurant anniversary, then settle into the lived details that make those subjects matter. A conversation about lithium batteries turns into a plainspoken explanation of household electronics, garbage trucks, fire risk, and county collection sites. A visit to the Door County Maritime Museum becomes a wider story about Sturgeon Bay’s global shipbuilding footprint and the invention of the mobile boat hoist. Local business stories stay grounded in origin points, long work, family decisions, and the surprise of ending up three decades into a restaurant life. Cultural episodes give artists and musicians space to think out loud about craft, touring, memory, migration, and what Door County has meant to them. Civic and educational episodes do the same for older-adult learning, public spaces, partnerships, and how programs grow. The show can also reach beyond the peninsula when the local connection is strong, as in its discussion of artificial intelligence with Thomas Baer through a Lawrence University tie. Its best moments come from that mix of curiosity and specificity. Big topics are brought back to Bailey’s Harbor, Sturgeon Bay, local institutions, and actual residents. The pace is measured. The questions are direct without being stiff. The show is especially useful for people who know Door County, miss Door County, work in Door County, or want a less glossy account of what keeps the place running. It respects local culture without turning it into a postcard.
Made for: For Door County residents, regular visitors, former locals, and anyone who follows the peninsula’s news, culture, businesses, and public life. It also suits listeners who prefer patient local interviews over headline-only coverage.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its scale: global topics and civic questions are consistently brought back to specific Door County places, people, and institutions. It notices the practical mechanics behind community life.
The Door County Pulse Podcast is dedicated to bringing you the news and stories of Door County, Wisconsin.Hosted by Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald, the podcast brings you interviews with artists, musicians, and business owners who make Door County what it is, hear from journalists from the Peninsula Pulse, and catch up on the news that's shaping our community. For Door County news, events and more stories visit www.doorcountypulse.com
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Local reporting, practical questioning and generous interviews turn Door County's civic and cultural life into clear, useful listening.
Door County Pulse Podcast treats local life as a network of people and institutions worth understanding up close. Myles Dannhausen Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald move between interviews with musicians and artists and conversations about civic matters, including battery-disposal…
A musical greeting card's battery becomes local news, and suddenly your junk drawer has a conscience.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical local talk that turns batteries and outdoor lighting into everyday stewardship.
Door County Pulse turns a local public-safety issue into something immediate, moving from battery disposal to the risks posed by lithium cells and the new free collection sites planned for every county. Debra Fitzgerald and Miles Danhausen Jr.
A local museum talk that widens into shipping, storage, and global reach.
The Door County Pulse podcast uses a talk with Sam Perlman to show how the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay frames local history as something with global reach.
A working musician's path from Bailey's Harbor to Nashville, told through the jobs that paid for it.
Debra Fitzgerald's conversation with Vanessa McGowan keeps its attention on the working life of a musician: weddings, corporate events, original bands, a music event company, and the move from New Zealand to Nashville in McGowan's 30s to test whether full-time touring could…
A Door County artist reflects on how family memory and Venezuela's beauty continue to shape his art and sense of home.
Ram Rojas's story gathers around belonging, training, family memory, and Venezuela's long upheaval. Originally from Venezuela, the Door County artist and muralist recalls being chosen at 14 for the National Academy in Caracas, then invited at 17 to study at the Academy of Vedic…
A local learning program keeps asking what older adults might want to learn next.
Learning in Retirement in Door County lands as a grounded look at how older adults can keep learning close to home. Jeff Schmeckpepper, president of the Board of Learning and Retirement in Door County, presents a program built around variety, community fit, and practical…
A grounded local interview shows how NWTC turns employer needs into job-focused training on campus and at work.
Technical education comes through as local economic infrastructure: a way for a college to connect what people learn with the work employers actually need. Debra Fitzgerald's interview with Dr.
A grounded Door County conversation ties battery collection and property lighting to everyday local choices.
Miles Danhousen, Jr. and Debra Fitzgerald frame local environmental choices as the kind of Door County work that starts close to home. Their conversation moves from household batteries to property lighting, using a battery bill sponsored by Joel Kinchin, now signed into law, to…
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
SaaS operators on scaling, pricing and AI, metrics included.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
This episode features an interview with Jeff Lutsey from the Door County Climate Change Coalition, discussing solar energy initiatives, trees, and upcoming community events.
This episode features an interview with the leaders of Write-On Door County discussing their organization's work in inspiring young writers and an upcoming event for youth.
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Hosts Myles Dannhausen Jr.
Emily Elizabeth Baker, founder of the Indie Authors School, explains why she self-published her fantasy debut "The Last Empress" after struggling to get a literary agent.
Miles Danhausen Jr.
Door County Maritime Museum Deputy Director and Development Manager Sam Perlman describes a free community appreciation weekend in Sturgeon Bay, with admission from 10 a.m.
Two hosts discuss their experiences with Winter Storm Elsa, including snow removal efforts and a last-minute trip to Chicago to avoid the worst of the weather.
This episode features an interview with Stanford physicist Thomas Baer discussing the rapid evolution, societal impact, and ethical considerations of artificial intelligence.
This episode features an interview with Jason Estes, owner of Sonny's Pizzeria, discussing his 30-year journey running the restaurant in Sturgeon Bay and how he unexpectedly entered the pizza business.
Vanessa McGowan talks with Debra Fitzgerald in the Bailey's Harbor studio.
Ram Rojas talks about art, memory, Venezuela, and finding a sense of belonging in Door County.
Debra Fitzgerald of the Peninsula Pulse talks with Jeff Schmeckpeper, president of the Board of Learning in Retirement in Door County, about a program with 124 classes and more than 400 members.
This episode explores the 'Cherryland Problem' with historian Sergio González, examining the complex history of migrant labor in Door County's cherry industry beyond its tourism image.
This episode explores the restoration and transformation of the historic Door County Granary in Sturgeon Bay through an interview with lead architect James Dallman.
This episode features an interview with Mitch Larson, founder of On Deck Clothing Company, discussing the evolution of his business and its connection to Door County's local retail scene.