Points North | Stories from the Great Lakes
Points North is a window into life in the Great Lakes. Each episode tells a story rooted here that ends up being about all of us. A smooth-talking stone skipper. A woman forced to sell her family sawmill. A scientist who stumbles on a tree that shouldn’t exist. We take you into the woods, onto the water, down a back road, or into the life of someone who calls this place home.
New episodes every other Tuesday.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find podcasts.
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A brief conversation about chestnut trees sends a hospice nurse down a rabbit hole that changes his life. -
George Bernier spent long, cold nights as a sled dog mailman in Michigan’s wilderness in the 1800s. What did those nights sound like and feel like? -
A small Wisconsin village is known for one thing: frog jumping. This yearly cultural competition has been happening for over 70 years and brings out hundreds of people. But all that tradition is ending, due in part, to one woman who says her mission is protecting frogs. -
Darren Bush has a rule about gifts. He won’t sell anything that was given to him. And, when the time is right, he will give that item to someone else. With one carbon-fiber paddle, that time came on a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. -
Marcia Bjornerud says we live in a time illiterate society. Most people don’t have a good sense of how extremely long the geologic chapters of earth’s history were. And she argues that’s leading to many of the environmental problems we’re facing today. -
One man in northwest Wisconsin thinks the deer population is out of control. And he’s willing to go to great lengths to rein it in. -
Iceland has figured out how to use almost 100% of every fish caught – not just the filet. By making things like durable leather, beauty products and skin graft bandages, it’s increased the value of Atlantic cod from about $15 to over $5,000. Can this approach help the struggling Great Lakes fishery? -
Cheryl Steele didn’t want sleep. She once stayed up for 26 hours, just to avoid it. Because every time she drifted off, she dreamed she was in the middle of a storm on Lake Huron, clinging to a canoe with three of her friends. The reason she was having these nightmares was because she had lived them. -
Brick is beautiful, and it’s full of all these hidden stories. At least that’s what Will Quam wants to convince you of on his tour of Chicago brick. -
Something is killing moose calves deep in the woods of northeast Minnesota. The clues left behind are scarce: flecks of blood, bits of flesh, bone splinters. So to get answers, scientists are turning to dogs.
