Uniquely Milwaukee
Society & Culture
About
Our flagship program finds the stories in Milwaukee that lift your spirits, prompt you to think, make you feel grateful and inspire you to do more. They connect you to our community, shining a spotlight on what is good about the city, what still needs work, and what makes it Uniquely Milwaukee.
Episodes
- How SheWolf boxing gym separates from the pack
SheWolf, a boxing gym in Milwaukee’s Silver City, provides women a dedicated space to develop strength, confidence, and discipline. Members like Trudy Watt highlight the gym's community aspect and the noticeable growth in personal strength…
- Months after its founder’s death, Roufusport’s impact is still strong
Roufusport MMA Academy, founded by Milwaukee native Jeffrey “Duke” Roufus, maintained a strong national and global reputation. Months after his October 2025 death, guest host Jon Adler speaks with those continuing the academy
- From clippers to cancer: Gee Smith’s expanding mission to serve MKE
Gee's Clippers, initially a community health clinic focused on access, has expanded its mission with the Gee's MKE Foundation. Owner Gee Smith launched the nonprofit to broaden efforts in wellness, mentorship, and addressing health dispari…
- By fixing rips and tears, sewing clinic strengthens the fabric of community
Washington Park Library offers a free "Mind Your Mending" clinic where residents can get clothes repaired. Launched by Carol Lee Hopkins, the clinic provides simple fixes like patching holes and repairing zippers, fostering kindness and co…
- Cine Sin Fronteras at the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival
Paula Lovo, programmer for Cine Sin Fronteras, discusses the films selected for the Milwaukee Film Festival's Cine Sin Fronteras program, which showcases the Latin Diaspora.
- Pulaski automotive program turns students’ passion into possibility
Casimir Pulaski High School’s automotive program is the largest in Wisconsin. Created in 1963, it’s also the only one left within Milwaukee Public Schools. Episode host Kim Shine takes you inside the shop where students learn everything fr…
- Milwaukee’s young filmmakers go from study hall to the big screen
The Milwaukee Film Festival has always been a place to see movies from a variety of filmmakers, including local talent from here in southeastern Wisconsin. One of the groups getting their own spotlight at this year's event: the area’s yout…
- Campus Changemakers: Marquette Students Lead 10th Annual Justice in Action Conference
‘What is justice without democracy? This was the question asked at Marquette University's 10th annual "Justice in Action" conference. It's a student-led initiative encouraging students, and residents, to think critically about their world.…
- Feel the Beat: Mad Hot Rhythm Celebrates 20 Years of Inspiring Young Dancers
“1,2,3 swing those arms!” This is the magic of young students learning to let go. They’re understanding the power of movement, as part of the in-school dance program – Mad Hot Rhythm. The Danceworks series is celebrating its 20th anniversa…
- Comité Sin Fronteras comes to the aid of Milwaukee’s immigrant community
Comité Sin Fronteras has diligently worked alongside other organizations on leading immigration reform in Milwaukee. They support a community-defense network that’s responding to the growing ICE presence in the Midwest. A grassroots collec…
- The ‘Swing State’ view of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race
Wisconsin’s Spring Election is April 7, and the most high-profile race is the State Supreme Court seat vacated by conservative judge Rebecca Bradley. So who better to talk with than someone who put the court at the center of an entire podc…
- Scaling the heights for a new perspective on the Miller High Life Theatre
Q: What do Queen, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and Martin Luther King, Jr. all have in common? A: They’ve all played at the historic Miller High Life Theatre. The venue earned that official designation in December of 2025, and a few…
- Voices across generations have their say at Black Advocacy Day
The last time Lisa Caruthers visited the Wisconsin State Capitol she was about seven or eight years old, and on a school trip. More than 50 years later, she returned as part of “Black Advocacy Day," hosted by the Wisconsin Legislative Blac…
- Celine Farrell is proof positive that art and creativity are ageless
“You know, we all are made in the image and likeness of God, and God is creation. So we're all creative, but sometimes I think some of us are given an extra dose.” Celine Farrell has lived a lot of life, and those words are just a sliver o…
- Milwaukee’s oldest open mic is a door to the local music scene
In the heart of the Riverwest neighborhood is a weekly showcase of some of Milwaukee’s most talented voices. Linneman’s Acoustic Open Stage began in 1993, making it the city’s oldest open mic and a staple of the local music scene. “Linnema…
- A Milwaukee woman's life in flight is getting off the ground again
A true calling always finds its way to you. Valencia Caldwell is living proof. Her father was an air-traffic controller who always encouraged his children to follow their dreams. After his death, a special flight helped lead Caldwell back…
- Community dance event underlines the importance of joy, connection
Step by step… Left foot, then right. Each month, line dancing takes over the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace at a free community event held in partnership with Primetime Line Dance. Whether they're grooving on the floor or have two left feet,…
- Milwaukee riders join global event in remembrance of Alex Pretti
On Saturday outside Milwaukee City Hall, solidarity showed itself in the form of hundreds of bike riders. They came together in the name of one of their own: Alex Pretti. A longtime resident of Green Bay before he moved to Minneapolis, Pre…
- Street Angels’ foundation is simple: Trust, friendship, kindness
Mister Rogers once challenged us by saying: “Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered just one kind word to another person.” When he gave us these instructions, it wasn’t hard to look at the neighbors to the…
- Sun or snow, this Milwaukee cycling group keeps rolling
In the middle of Milwaukee winter, most of us are used to being outside and active if the conditions are juuust right. But there's a cycling group that meets every month — warm or cold, rain or shine — to ride and connect. Scrappy Hour typ…
- Sherman Park Grocery Store asks for help to keep serving the community
We’re changing things on the podcast this year, with shorter stories and themed months, each one with a different topic. For January, it’s Health & Wellness. In this episode, we focus on yet another Milwaukee grocery store in danger of clo…
- Encore: Mixing drinks and Dry January at Milwaukee's first hybrid bar
Join us for this encore edition of Uniquely Milwaukee as we grab a drink at Agency, Milwaukee's first hybrid bar and a 2025 James Beard Award finalist. Immerse yourself in the choice of indulging in an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage.…
- Encore: Starting the year by getting rejected ... on purpose!
Happy New Year! This Uniquely Milwaukee throwback goes beyond the age-old question: "What's your New Year's resolution?" For this episode, we embraced the idea of rejection therapy by trying new things we were pretty sure would end in fail…
- A big thank you and an even bigger year ahead
Thank you for listening and supporting Uniquely Milwaukee ! In this episode, we have a special message of gratitude from Radio Milwaukee executive director Jordan Lee as he reflects on the triumphs and changes of 2025, and looks ahead to a…
- From hope to home: The generational impact of one city program
A few years ago, Radio Milwaukee's Tarik Moody tried to buy a house in the city. Every offer got outbid by LLCs with out-of-state addresses and cash offers that closed in two weeks. He gave up. Recently, Tarik spent time with someone else…
- Making the scene: How DIY artists and venues get down to business
Every DIY scene needs its supporters. In Milwaukee, Bay View’s Cactus Club is a big one. This beloved music venue is one of the scene’s most revered spots, and headlining there is a dream for bands from all genres. So far, you’ve met Fake…
- Day jobs and late nights: The DIY lifestyle of Milwaukee musicians
Milwaukee is a place filled with creatives, especially in the city’s music scene. We’re home to dozens of independent artists and bands who’d rather do it their way than rely on a mainstream framework. For the next two episodes of Uniquely…
- A feast for the real ones: How Friendsgiving joined the holiday calendar
As the holiday season begins, we’re honoring the roots of Thanksgiving while also celebrating the traditions we’ve created along the way. "Friendsgiving" is one of the latter. Although its history doesn’t go back quite as far as its namesa…
- The cemetery that literally changed the course of Capitol Drive
Right along West Capitol Drive in Wauwatosa, history hides in plain sight — a time capsule to the city’s past, just off North 119th Street near the northbound I-41/45 ramp. It’s a quiet corner many have driven by and wondered, “What is tha…
- Fruition Cafe feeds body, soul as part of Near West Side resurgence
Everybody needs nourishment. It’s at the top of the list for survival. But it’s not the end of the list. Tiffany Miller was well aware of that as she made plans for what would become Fruition Cafe. Located in the Concordia 27 Building on t…
- AfterDark gives Milwaukee’s storytellers a place to shine
The driving force behind Uniquely Milwaukee is storytelling. Most of the time, it comes in the form of a news-style piece. But this episode breaks from that while still putting at its center the stories that get to the core of how we as hu…
- Ghost stories: The spirits inside Café Corazón and Radio Milwaukee
Do you believe in ghosts? With Halloween followed closely by Dia de los Muertos, we’re right in the middle of spooky season — the perfect time to explore and answer that question. In this episode, we take a tour of Café Corazón, a restaura…
- There’s a Third Space for the city’s art community in Merrill Park
The outside of Third Space Collective MKE is hard to miss: a black door with vibrant colors streaming down, as if the paint was striving desperately to spill out onto the sidewalk. The goal of Third Space Collective MKE is something that h…
- The women blazing a trail through Wisconsin’s tech landscape
October is Wisconsin Tech Month , and an upcoming Oct. 23 event specifically highlights an underrepresented group in tech: women, who make up only about 30% of the industry's workforce. In this episode, host Kim Shine dives deeper into the…
- Public-media funding has officially stopped. How are stations coping?
This fall marks a turning point for public-media outlets across the country. As of Oct. 1, federal funding for PBS, NPR and their local stations stopped. This $1.1 billion cut — a directive from the Trump administration — triggered widespr…
- Struggles into strength: Inside Harmonic Harvest’s mission
If you’ve ever experienced adversity, it can be tough to see the positive outcome. Sometimes, it’s less of a beacon and more of a silver lining. In this episode, we go inside one of the city’s nonprofits that focuses on the brighter side —…
- To the top of City Hall with Doors Open Milwaukee
In any city, there are interesting places — one that are typically not open to the public. They’re spaces you pass by and say, “I wonder what happens in there.” Doors Open Milwaukee gives everyone the opportunity to act on that curiosity,…
- The next chapter: Inside Milwaukee’s new MLK library branch
At the corner of Locust Street and King Drive, there’s a sense of purpose, happiness and hope. That’s because theHarambee neighborhood is welcoming back a community anchor: the new Martin Luther King, Jr. branch of the Milwaukee Public Lib…
- Taking another spin with Milwaukee parking enforcement
We're working hard on our next episode (obvious hint: it's connected to all the places getting ready to open their doors Sept. 27-28 ), so with this being Labor Day week, we decided to revisit our drive around the city with Milwaukee parki…
- Cactus Club ramp opens the door to more music and arts lovers
Cactus Club is one of Milwaukee’s beloved music and arts venues. Many have walked through the doors of the Bay View spot, but not everyone could enter with ease. The nearly 140-year-old building had 4-1/2 stairs to climb before you could e…
- From planks to pride: The local program building boats, confidence and character
The Menomonee River isn’t your typical classroom. Then again, the group of 10- to 12-year-olds who spent a week along its shoreline weren’t your typical class. These students, and some older teens, were part of a summer program from All Ha…
- A.I. Academy builds young innovators in Milwaukee
The future is technology. The future is A.I. It’s shaping industries while transforming how we communicate and how we learn. In this episode, we go inside a new summer program showing those capabilities — and more — to the young minds in o…
- A return visit to Milwaukee’s Hydroponics STEM Program
We’re taking a break this week, but that doesn’t mean the stories stop. In fact, it turned out to be the perfect time to revisit and update our episode from last July about Milwaukee’s Hydroponics STEM Program , which teaches Milwaukee hig…
- Inside Bronzeville’s golden era and HYFIN’s Harlem Renaissance tribute
Harlem and Bronzeville. Two neighborhoods separated by more than 700 miles. Despite the space between them, there’s plenty that unites these epicenters of Black culture — with reputations built over more than a century. There’s a historic…
- The groundbreaking, arts-loving, emo-listening Miss Wisconsin
Though her intuition was strong, Willow Newell didn’t know she’d be the next Miss Wisconsin. But the 22-year-old says it felt right because she did her best and felt connected to her highest self. Now, the Racine native has won the crown a…
- QWERTYFEST just seems to click with the city’s creatives
Q-W-E-R-T-Y. They’re the first six letters atop all our keyboards, from our phones to our computers, and they revolutionized communication. But their history is far from digital and, in fact, is rooted here in the Cream City. In 1868, Milw…
- Emmitt James' Big Band BBQ cooks up a mission with his music
Emmitt James is Milwaukee’s own DIY, hip-hop/jazz artist — a classification that gives him the freedom to do … well, anything. That includes using his music to give back to the community through events like his ever-growing fundraiser/conc…
- Throwback: Ebony Ice builds a snow-sport community for people of color
Ebony Ice launched in 1989 as a local branch of the National Brotherhood of Snowsports. The organization hosts events all year round for skiers and snowboarders of all experience levels, as well as seasonal “Learn to Ski/Snowboard” classes…
- Sound meets sole: The designer behind Summerfest artists’ custom kicks
Every creative tells a story — sometimes through lyrics, sometimes through shoes. This episode puts the focus on footwear, with an artist who’s making custom sneakers for some big names at this year’s Summerfest Brandon Johnston is owner o…
- How Milwaukee’s Juneteenth celebration joined forces with Summerfest
The annual Juneteenth celebration — recognized annually on June 19 — commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It was on that day in 1865 when the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred in Texas. While it t…