Many Midwesterners have worn a pair of ice skates to hit the rink or a frozen pond in the winter. But have you ever tried a skating ribbon?

It’s essentially an ice skating trail in the woods and the first one opened up in Wisconsin last winter. It’s called “The Glide” and it’s at Boulder Junction Winter Park — an outdoor winter recreation area. And for this month’s Wandering Wisconsin, we’ll help you plan a trip there. Lake Effect’s Becky Mortensen is joined by Mary Jones, the executive director of the Boulder Junction Chamber of Commerce and Amanda Weibel with Travel Wisconsin.

This year marks 100 years of recognizing Black people's contributions to the United States with Black History Month. It began as Negro History week in 1926.

The Association for the Study of African American Life & History was established in 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who is often referenced as the Father of Black History. In honor of the milestone year, WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell is joined by the national president of the Association, Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead to learn about the origin of Black History Month.

You don’t have to fly to Italy to see Olympic-level skiers. They’re coming to Wisconsin this weekend.

As the largest ski marathon in North America, the American Birkebeiner promises to attract over 10,000 people to Hayward Wisconsin for a celebration of cross country skiing. Starting tomorrow and running through Sunday, there are several races for kids, dogs, and yes, Olympic-level skiers. But the main race is where the action is, and it involves carrying a real-life infant for a portion of the course.

A new baby is chosen every year. While this year’s baby was not much of a talker, Lake Effect’s Sam Woods caught up with 2010’s baby and his parents. 16 years later, their story reveals a tapestry of love, living history, and a life of skiing.

The library is more than just books, and our Books and Beyond series with Milwaukee Public Library showcases just that. We share resources, book recommendations, and some cool stuff you might not know about. For this edition of Books and Beyond, we’re learning about an early literacy program called ABC Academy offered at the Central Library Branch.

This program hopes to help fill Milwaukee’s literacy gap. Since 2009, our public-school literacy rates have fallen, and just this year MPS launched a new plan to try to turn these rates around. The library’s ABC Academy program is for young readers to help with kindergarten readiness. The program goes beyond your typical story time and focuses on different activities to help build on letter recognition.

To share more, Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by Central Library children’s room librarian Erin Sloan and Milwaukee artist Wave Chapelle – who's here today as a dad helping his son learn to read.

Milwaukee native Malik Johnson is a grammy-nominated cellist, composer and music producer. He recently added the title of Artist in Residence at Milwaukee’s Betty Brinn Children’s Museum.

Johnson became the museum’s first artist-in-residence last year and returns to the role this year to continue connecting with children and families through music. He spoke with Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez about his work and the Betty Brinn artist-in-residence program.

'Group Chat' is when we hand over the mic to community members and let them share their stories and experiences.

This Group Chat is all about falling in love. And while that might conjure up images of young couples making wrinkle-less eyes at each – this conversation is about loving later in life. As people get older, they can lose their friends, family and partners. But some seniors still want to find connection…and love.

On this month’s Group Chat, we hear from two seniors, Laeh, 82, and Allen, 78, who’ve been dating for the past three years. They talk about the joy of finding someone, the hurdles they’ve had to overcome, and what it’s been like to feel butterflies again.

Data centers serve as the foundation of the internet. With tech companies like Microsoft investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence, even larger data centers are being built and proposed around world.

In Wisconsin, projects like the Vantage data center in Port Washington have stirred controversy. In Mount Pleasant, Microsoft is building what it calls “the most advanced data center in the world. With these large-scale, billion-dollar projects comes questions about what how it will impact Wisconsin communities.

To help answer these questions, WUWM has a new resource on our website for you to better understand what’s happening with data centers. WUWM reporter Eddie Morales is here in studio to talk about it. Eddie, thank you for being here.

There are many ways to observe and celebrate Black History Month, including a trip to the movie theater. Milwaukee Film curated a month-long lineup to recognize Black History Month.

Ty Williams is the Black Lens Programmer for Milwaukee Film, and he handpicked a variety of films you can see on the big screen that reflect Black icons in fiction. They’re all a part of the series “Afrofuturism: Fates Beyond Fiction.” Williams joins Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski to share more.