It’s the start of the spookiest month of the year, and that’s especially true for educator and content creator Geo Rutherford. The UWM grad and Sauk City based artist celebrates every October with her TikTok series “Spooky Lake Month.” In it, she explores the world’s most eerie and unusual bodies of water - including some right here in Wisconsin.
Rutherford’s work was featured in this month’s Milwaukee Magazine. She joins Lake Effect’s Joy Powers to talk about the series and what makes water so spooky.
1 Oct 2026
Chirp Chat: how to save a bird's life
Up to one billion birds die from building collisions (https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/116/1/8/5153098) every year in the U.S. In downtown Milwaukee alone — hundreds of birds die from flying into glass buildings each year. But one local program is working to change that.
Wisconsin Night Guardians for Songbirds, also known as WINGS, has volunteers document bird collisions downtown during spring and fall migration. They bring injured birds they find to the Wisconsin Humane Society’s Wildlife Rehab Center. All of the data WINGS volunteers gather is used to better understand the scale of collisions and help building managers reduce them.
Amanda Tokuyama is the GIS and field data manager at the Urban Ecology Center, and Maggie Steinhauer is the research manager at the Urban Ecology Center. They speak with Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez for this month’s Chirp Chat about the WINGS program.
29 Sept 2026
Milwaukee museum exhibit examines the legacy of racist memorabilia in the US
America’s Black Holocaust Museum & the Wisconsin Black Historical Society have partnered on a new exhibit that opens tomorrow. It’s called: An American Inheritance: The Story of Racist Memorabilia in Wisconsin and the U.S.
The exhibit highlights some difficult images and artifacts in the hopes that people of all backgrounds gain a better understanding of the legacy of racist imagery.
Jamila Benson is the program director at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Brad Pruitt is the executive director of America’s Black Holocaust Museum. They join WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell to talk about some of the things in the exhibit.
Who has been a guest on Lake Effect Spotlight
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