Daniel Wanschura
Host and Executive Producer of Points NorthEver since he was young, Dan has been fascinated with audio. From hearing the dulcet tones of John Gordon broadcast Minnesota Twins games, to staying up late listening to radio theater, to creating a podcast when hardly anyone knew what that word meant – he's been captivated by the imaginative medium.
In 2012, Dan graduated from Thomas Edison State University. In 2015, he moved from the Twin Cities to northern Michigan to work at Interlochen Public Radio. After stints as IPR's Arts & Culture reporter, 'Morning Edition' host, and Broadcast Director, Dan took the helm of the 'Points North' podcast in late 2021.
Dan's reporting has garnered numerous awards including a national Edward R. Murrow Award and many PMJA awards. His work has also been featured on top podcasts and radio stations across the country including 'Snap Judgment', 'Science Friday', NPR, 'The Pulse', Michigan Public, Minnesota Public Radio, Ideastream Public Media, and 'BirdNote'.
Dan enjoys going on long walks his wife and two boys, road tripping, and bonfires with friends at his favorite Lake Michigan beach. He is also a lover of the Oxford comma — much to the chagrin of his editors.
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In 2021, Emily Ford goes on a winter vacation. She doesn’t go to some warm beach location, though. She sets out to thru-hike Wisconsin’s 1,200 mile Ice Age Trail. -
Among the hundreds of barns that still dot our landscape across northern Michigan, one special wood relic on Old Mission Peninsula stood out - and it’s recently been recognized as a Barn of the Year. Find out why in this audio tour with IPR. -
Minnesota and Wisconsin are bitter rivals at just about everything. So in 2019, when Wisconsin’s secretary of tourism claimed Wisconsin had more lakes than Minnesota, the embers of an age-old debate were stoked. Minnesota is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, but does Wisconsin really have more? -
In local arts news this week, we explore Classical IPR’s new podcast through the lens of humor. And then there’s a murder, a fictional one. -
This Easter weekend brings a contemporary wave of Easter egg hunts, rolls and celebrations across northern Michigan, with ties to the past. Why have these rituals endured? -
This week we look at forest damage caused by a recent ice storm Up North, talk about the return of cougars to the Great Lakes states, and ideas for your summer garden. -
Inside rustic cabins and yurts at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park there are log books. For more than 70 years, visitors have written in them. We went into this time capsule to see if people’s experiences here had changed much over the changing decades. -
Two cubs were spotted March 6, on private property in the western Upper Peninsula. -
Americans stepped up to do something about dying bees. Beekeeping is all the rage right now. But what if all those backyard colonies are making the problem worse? -
Erik Grams has been taking trips to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota for over 30 years. It’s his favorite place in the world. But last year, during a fishing trip, there was a fatal accident that left Erik wrestling with his feelings about the place he loved.
