Story Mark Studios
356 episodes listed below
Milwaukee stories, straight from the locals.
Milwaukee Uncut is a conversational tour through the people and places shaping Milwaukee culture. Episodes move from family grocery stories and local bars to film festivals, Packers fandom, restaurant picks, and messy local dating lore.
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Milwaukee Uncut is a city-culture podcast centered on the businesses, creators, restaurants, bars, sports obsessions, and social stories that make Milwaukee feel lived in. It has a strong local-business spine. Episodes linger over how family companies survive, grow, and keep their identity, whether the subject is Ted Balistrieri talking about Sendik's reaching 100 years or Steve Sazama recounting the unlikely rise of Saz's. These conversations often start with origin stories and move toward practical texture: family succession, customer service, community giving, staff culture, and the unglamorous decisions behind familiar names. The show also spends plenty of time in Milwaukee’s food and drink world. Orey Laev talks Ray's Wine & Spirits, staff tastings, bottle recommendations, industry trends, and memorable customer purchases. Lil Wocky brings a creator’s view of restaurant culture, content momentum, and the places people actually ask about. The creative scene gets similar attention. Jolee Mallmann and Alyssa Borkowski use the Milwaukee Film Festival as a doorway into local features, shorts programs, filmmaker Q&A's, UWM connections, and the reality of making art in a state with difficult arts funding. Then the feed can swing into dating. Those episodes trade founder stories for call-ins, awkward encounters, best-date-spot debates, and Milwaukee’s small-world social math. It gets candid, but the appeal is the local specificity: McGillycuddy's, mutual friends, restaurant choices, and the feeling that everyone is one connection away from everyone else. Sports fandom adds another lane, especially in the episode about No Packers. No Life., where Japanese Packers fans, Green Bay hospitality, and Lambeau’s communal pull become the story. Richie Burke gives the show its recurring frame, with Bree also appearing in the orbit of the conversations. The pacing is informal and sometimes sponsor-heavy, closer to a neighborhood media hang than a tightly edited magazine show. That looseness is part of the point. Milwaukee Uncut works best when it lets a guest ramble into a memory, a bar story, a family-business lesson, or a recommendation someone in the city might actually use.
Made for: For Milwaukee residents, Wisconsin expats, local-business watchers, food-and-drink explorers, and anyone who likes city culture told through familiar names and specific places.
What sets it apart: Its edge is hyperlocal access: local owners, creators, filmmakers, sports fans, and dating voices all pass through the same Milwaukee-centered conversation. The show feels close to the city because it names the restaurants, bars, festivals, local spots, and people that shape the stories.
The podcast that brings you closer to the city of Milwaukee by highlighting entertaining, uncut stories from Milwaukee legends and uncovering the restaurants, bars, spots and events around the city you need to check out! Milwaukee Uncut is hosted by Richie Burke and produced by Story Mark Studios. Located in the heart of Walker's Point, our Milwaukee roots run deep.
One Milwaukee table seats Steve Novak, a century-old grocer, filmmakers, and your next bottle recommendation.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A hometown grocery story about family, service, and staying power.
This grocery chain comes across as a Milwaukee family business built on immigrant roots, steady standards, and a century of change. Ted Balistreri speaks plainly about leaving law after about a decade in practice and stepping into the family business, and the part about mistakes…
A Milwaukee film update that folds festival talk into a clear look at the city’s creative scene.
Milwaukee Uncut uses the coming Milwaukee Film Festival as an entry point into Milwaukee's film and creative scene. Julie Malman and Alyssa Borkowski move through the local features, the shorts programs, and the Q&A format that gives filmmakers room to speak for their work…
A grounded look at shelves, sales, and the changing math of spirits retail.
Orey Laev gives a plainspoken look at how a liquor store actually works. The team tastes 75 to 150 wines a week, compares notes, and buys together, while the shelves get shaped by demand for high-end tequilas and solid bottles under $30.
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.
Pat Murphy says the Brewers’ belief after last year’s Dodgers sweep helped shape the 2026 club’s World Series push.
Steve Novak joins Milwaukee Uncut to discuss the Knicks' 50-plus-win season, a 13-game winning streak, and the team's 53-year championship drought.
Milwaukee Uncut hosts Tommy G and Keegan discuss investigations into Pentagon spending, Senate stock trading, AI data centers, Flock Safety, and other institutions.
Dwyane Wade and Travis Diener preview Home Court Weekend on July 16–18, which includes guest bartending, a dinner, a basketball camp and a silent auction benefiting a Marquette reading program named after Wade's sister.
Milwaukee Uncut host talks with Ted Balistrieri, third-generation co-owner of Sendik's Food Market, about the grocery chain's 100th anniversary and its founding by Sicilian immigrants who settled in Milwaukee's Third Ward in 1926.
Milwaukee Uncut brings together Julie Mallmann and Alyssa Borkowski, two Milwaukee filmmakers tied to Milwaukee Film and the Oriental Theater, to talk about the Milwaukee Film Festival running April 16th through 30th.
Host Richie Burke interviews rising racing star Cam Eben about his iRacing championships and motorsports career.
This episode features a replay of Bre and Richie's appearance on the 'Joshing Around Milwaukee' podcast, where they discuss the story behind Milwaukee Uncut and their favorite things to do in the city.
This episode features an unplanned interview with Steve Sazama, founder of the iconic Milwaukee brand Saz's, sharing his journey from a bartender with a small loan to building a company with over 800 employees and multiple divisions.
Ori Laev traces Ray's Wine & Spirits from the Dietz family in the early 1960s to a 13,500-square-foot Mequon expansion and a wine-heavy shift after 2002.
Host Richie Burke interviews food creator Lil Wocky about her rise, favorite Milwaukee burgers, and her romantic story of meeting her husband at a bar.
Host Richie Burke shares hilarious dating call-in stories and interviews a food creator about date night restaurants and her romantic meet-cute.
A dating podcast episode featuring single Milwaukeeans sharing their dating experiences and stories.
Host Richie Burke interviews the creators of a documentary about Japanese Packers fans visiting Green Bay.
Gary Witt and J.R.
Host Richie Burke interviews NHL player Colin Blackwell about his career and life in Milwaukee.
Host Richie Burke previews an episode featuring a chef's Cutthroat Kitchen win, a Northwestern Mutual meeting, and local event recaps.
Host Richie Burke shares wild dating stories from Milwaukee locals, including a woman who tattooed an ex's name and another who discovered her partner had a secret family.
Host Richie Burke interviews Pat and Mike from the Crash Dummies, discussing their show's origin, hilarious call-ins, and Milwaukee recommendations.