Uniquely Milwaukee

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, participants say the classes build community,  boost their mental health and provide an all-around good time. Kim Shine joined in as everyone celebrated the ev...

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, Pretti would make the trip to Milwaukee for the annual Riverwest 24 bike ride. When the 37-year-old was shot and killed by federal border patrol agents while protes...

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 left and right of our home, and then imagine friendly conversations with them. But what about the neighbors we pass on the street everyday on our commute — those...

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 typically meets on the last Sunday of the month, rolling out from places like Cactus Club and The Daily Bird, with riders of all kinds joining in. Radio Milwaukee d...

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 closing, and it's in one of the city’s food deserts. Earlier this month, the owners of Sherman Park Grocery Store asked the public for support — a message that...

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. Plus you'll hear from the founder, Ryan Castelaz, as he shares the story of how this innovative concept came to fruition. Click here to learn more about Agency....

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 failure ... and bust a little ego in the process. ##### Podcast host: Kim Shine Encore host: Salam Fatayer Uniquely Milwaukee is supported by our Radio Milwaukee mem...

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 brand new year.  ##### Podcast host: Kim Shine Guest host: Jordan Lee, Radio Milwaukee executive director Uniquely Milwaukee is supported by our Radio Milwaukee...

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 who went on that journey — with a very different outcome. Keilyn Borrero, a single mom of four, was in the same headspace Tarik was at the start. She convinced h...

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 My Death, an alternative rock/punk DIY band here in Milwaukee. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go listen to part one right now . In that episode, our...

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 Milwaukee , we’ll dive into this sub-culture with guidance from someone who knows it well: former Radio Milwaukee intern and current freelance contributor Jona...

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 namesake, Friendsgiving has grown in popularity over the last few decades as people set aside time for their chosen family. These are gatherings with the people who ha...

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 that?” The answer: Oak Hill Cemetery, a final resting place on a small plot of land that’s easy to miss and hard to get to.  In this episode, host Kim Shine is join...

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 the corner of 27th and Wells, the space opened in July 2024 with what you’d expect from the name: coffee, tea, kombucha, baked goods, and protein-packed sandwiche...

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 humans connect and better understand one another. Sharing our experiences helps us be more compassionate and can also inspire others to open up. One of the places...

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 restaurant in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood that some say is haunted. Guided by general manager DeVante Lisch, along with Allison Jornlin and Tea Krulos of American...

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 hasn’t always been easy to find in Milwaukee: an art gallery that also serves as an incubator for creatives, particularly in the Merrill Park neighborhood. In thi...

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 tech landscape for girls and women in Wisconsin, and learns more about Wisconsin Tech Month events as a whole. Guests: Nadiyah Johnson, founder of Wisconsin Tec...

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 widespread job cuts, restructurings and closures of hundreds of outlets across the country. Radio Milwaukee is a public-media station, and as we begin our fall membersh...

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 — big, small and everything in between. Harmonic Harvest launched on Giving Tuesday in November of 2023. Less than two years later, it celebrated the opening of i...

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, with access to more than 160 locations around the city, mostly for free. It’s an annual celebration of the city’s architecture, history and neighborhoods, and it...

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 Library (MPL), its modern façade brighter, bigger and more inviting for all to enter. For this episode, podcast host Kim Shine was in the mix for a very big day for...

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 parking enforcement officer Eldricht Hill. On this episode , you’ll be right there as we go behind the scenes on a ride-along with Hill, and chat with him and parking...

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 enter, and its design wasn’t fully accessible to all. This month, that started to change. There’s now a ramp alongside the building — just the first of many plan...

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 Hands Boatworks , a local nonprofit teaching youth — and adults — about the craft of wooden boatbuilding, Milwaukee’s rivers and the Great Lakes. But the learning...