The library is more than just books, and our series with the Milwaukee Public Library called Books and Beyond showcases just that.

This month we are exploring some stories in honor of the spooky season with MPL’s special collections and archives department. They’re hosting an event called ‘Milwaukee Mysteries: True Crime and Paranormal’ to take a historical spin on the theme with real people, places, haunts, and events in the Milwaukee area.

To learn more, Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by librarian archivist Casey Lapworth, who begins by explaining how their librarian take on spooky season came about.

Today, we’re continuing our tour of some of Milwaukee’s Yemeni coffee shops. Over the past year, five of them have opened in the area. The shops offer drinks made with Yemeni coffee beans and stay open late into the night.

WUWM’s Maayan Silver and Eddie Morales visit one shop that has a particularly active evening social scene.

It’s been just over a decade since the game-changing discovery of gravitational waves in the distant universe. Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time caused by cosmic collisions. By processing massive amounts of data, UW-Milwaukee scientists played key roles in the discovery, contributing to a Nobel Prize in Physics.

The discovery of gravitational waves opened a new door of study, and this work continues in our backyard today. To learn more about the significance of this anniversary and the new discoveries it led to, Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski speaks with UWM physics and astronomy assistant professor, Lia Medeiros.

A Black-owned art gallery in Milwaukee is at risk of closing. Fatima Laster purchased the building in 2018 seeking to make a communal space for underrepresented artists. Since then, hundreds of artists have come through the doors of the 5 Points Art Gallery.

Laster acquired the building through the city of Milwaukee’s Art and Resource Community Hub loan program, or ARCH. She’s now in talks with her lender, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, about restructuring the terms of her loan. She’s also launched a fundraising campaign to help with a large mortgage payment due on December first.

Laster joins WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell to talk about the gallery and how she’s trying to make sure it stays open.

October marks the start of the respiratory viral vaccine season in earnest. Illnesses like the flu, covid, and RSV are making the rounds. Fortunately, there are tried and tested tools to help us stay healthy while protecting others – like vaccines.

To go over the vaccines available, how they work, and the importance of getting your annual shots, Dr. Jim Conway joins me now. He’s the medical director of the UW Health immunization program, and he begins by explaining what factors contribute to the flu and other illnesses peaking at this time of year.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands of Native American children were sent to schools run by the federal government and churches. Many suffered abuse at the schools, where the goal was to erase Indigenous cultures starting with the communities’ children.

On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we have the story of a Wisconsin survivor of one of these schools. His name is Dewey Schanandore (shan-an-door). When he was a child on the Menominee reservation, he went to a Catholic school called St. Anthony’s. Dewey shares his story and what it took to heal with WUWM reporter Jimmy Gutierrez and Eric Von Fellow, Maria Peralta-Arellano.

Fat Body Hotties is here to celebrate fat joy in Milwaukee and they’re proud about it. Sarah Chojnacki started the group after seeing a need for affordable and size-inclusive clothing. Alongside their co-organizer, Ashley Mertes, they regularly host free clothing swaps for fat folks.

Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez spoke with Chojnacki and Mertes about how the group has created community through its inclusive and accessible events.

The next clothing swap is tomorrow, Saturday October 11.

For many people facing end-stage organ failure, a donated organ is their only life-saving option. But the waiting list is long, and finding the right organ match is incredibly difficult. In Wisconsin it’s becoming even more difficult, as more than 800 people have removed their names from the organ donor registry this year. Experts say misinformation about organ donation may be driving some of those removals.

Lake Effect's Joy Powers is joined by two people who are trying to counter misinformation and share the benefits of becoming an organ donor. Dr. Nikole Neidlinger is a transplant surgeon and medical director of UW Organ and Tissue Donation. And Colleen McCarthy is the vice president of organ and tissue donation at Versiti Wisconsin