- Coming up next on Wisconsin Life...

- All I had to do was like make two trips with those athletes
and I just-- I fell in love with it.
- It usually takes me about 9 to 11 seconds to solve.
And my best is 7.06 seconds.

- I probably have a story for every one of my photos.

- Some people call it a dance.
They like watching it
because you know what's going to happen next.

§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

- My name is Steve Brown,
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

§ §

Actually, I started when I was about six years old.
I grew up in a little town called Galesville, Wisconsin,
which is 20 miles north of La Crosse.
When I was in my back yard,
I had to take three steps, put my hand out,
and I could open the door to a little three-sheet curling club.
I've been a rink rat since I was six years old.
After I got out of college,
and after I got out of the military in 1971,
all my effort into the sport of curling.
It turned out to be a good decision.
I've been very, very fortunate.
I got to play in four world championships
representing the United States.
I've been involved as coaching or playing
at something like 30 world championships
so it's been pretty exciting.

Actually, the game of curling,
some people think it's relatively complicated.
Actually, I think, in its simplest form,
it's pretty easy to explain.
How the game is played:
You're throwing at a big bull's-eye
that's 12 feet in diameter.
What you're trying to do is get your stones
closer to the center than the opponent.
Just like in horseshoes.
For every stone that you have closer to the center,
you get to score a point.
But only one team can score a point
in any one particular end of the game.
An end is like an inning of baseball.
You play back and forth eight different times.
It takes about 15 minutes to play one of those ends.
And the game itself will take roughly about 2 hours.
At the world championship level, they are actually timed.
It's like a chess clock.
So you have to complete your play within the required time
or you would lose the match.

Okay, let's see if you can throw a 13.

The rewards of coaching a Paralympic team
are just immeasurable.

- My wife Diane was very instrumental
in actually getting the wheelchair program started
in the United States.
My wife had been covering every aspect of it.
She was the coach, the team leader, the travel agent,
the booking agent, everything for the team.
When they said it was going to be in the Paralympics,
she said, "I don't feel I've got the background
in coaching if we're going to be at that level."
She promised to do the administrative stuff--
It's going right in--
and I would do the coaching stuff.
[loud knock] Nice shot!
I didn't think I'd be very good, to tell you the truth,
because I'd never been around any disabled people.
So, I was very hesitant.
I was actually kind of scared of going into the unknown.

All I had to do was make two trips
with those athletes...
That looked pretty darn good.
...and hear their stories and hear their positive attitude
and I fell in love with it instantly.

[stones knock loudly]

I mean, the basic premise of the sport stays the same.
Unfortunately, the Paralympic athletes
or the wheelchair athletes
do not get to use sweeping in the game.
And that's a pretty major factor in our sport.
They have to rely strictly on their technical skill
to be able to throw the stone.
Deliver that stone
with a proper weight, direction, and rotations,
because they don't have sweepers to help them out,
if they're a bit off target.
[loud knock]
We have eight athletes
in our high performance program.
Looks pretty close.
We just got back from a competition
called the U.S. Open in Utica, New York.
The team won a gold medal.
Things are looking positive.
We have a couple more camps
and tryouts coming up.
Then, we will select the top five out of those eight.
Those five will represent
the United States at the 2016 World Championships
in Lucerne, Switzerland this year.
The process of building a team up
is through constant daily training.
But in our practice sessions. we are, basically,
sometimes setting up skills tests or drills--
playing mock games and stuff like this,
so we can assimilate
what they're gonna have happen to them
in an actual game situation.
[stone knocks loudly]

You ask yourself, "What would I be like
"if I got in a car accident
"and was paralyzed from the waist down?
"Would I be depressed?
"Would I feel like I got a bum steer in life?
Would I be able to handle it?"
Each and every one of these athletes I work with
is so positive, it's incredible.
They wake up every day
not feeling like they got a bad break in life,
but they feel like, "I got a good break.
"I am still alive.
I can still play a sport."
It's just incredible.
And I say this over and over and over,
but I have learned far, far more
from my wheelchair athletes
than I've been able to teach them-- without a question.
[stones knock loudly] [Steve Brown chuckles] You like that close up, huh?

§ §

[mechanical twisting and clicking]
- I'm Joshua Feran,  and this is my Wisconsin Life.

- If you lived through the 1980s, you might remember
cassette tapes,
big hair,
floppy disks,
and this: the Rubik's Cube.
54 squares, 1 goal:
to turn each side into a solid color.
This shape-shifting puzzle has stumped millions of people.

Millions of people, but not Joshua Feran.
This Waunakee teen not only collects these colorful cubes,
he solves them
faster than most people run the hundred yard dash.
- It usually takes me about 9 to 11 seconds to solve it,
but my best is 7.06 seconds.

- Joshua first picked up a Rubik's Cube
when he was six years old.
It took a few years to turn the corner.
- It was like 2009, when I was 11,
when I figured out how to solve it finally.
Since then, I've pretty much been doing it a lot.

- He soon discovered the sport of speed cubing.
Rubik's Cube tournaments across the country
where he could compete against others who shared his new hobby.
- I saw a post on Facebook
that there's going to be one in Minnesota.
I decided that was a reasonable distance
so I went to that.
It was a while later 'til my next competition.
As I started getting faster,
I started going to more and more competitions
and making more friends.

- Fast forward to today and the 18-year old
now competes in more than a dozen tournaments a year,
shaping his skills in up to 18 different events.
His fast fingers have almost conquered them all.
- I have 11 state records which is currently tied for the most.

- So have his toes.
Joshua can use his feet to finish a cube
in less than a minute.
- I was originally doing, like, over a hundred feet-solves a day
to try and get faster.
- From these building blocks,
Joshua hopes to one day master every speed cubing event.
[video game music]

- The events are 2x2 through 7x7.
And there's some other 3x3 events.
There's 3x3 one handed, 3x3 with feet, 3x3 blindfolded,
3x3 multiple blindfolded,
and then, the fewest moves challenge for 3x3, 4x4,
and 5x5 blindfolded.
And then, there's Square One, Megaminx, Scube,
Pyraminx and Clock.

- Joshua's currently one of North America's ten fastest
at solving cubes with his feet.
And he's ranked second with a puzzle called the Rubik's Clock.
Whether it's a triangle, trapezoid or timekeeper,
he says the strategy is identical.
- After the 3x3, everything is pretty much the same.
It's about reducing it to, basically,
just solve it like a 3x3.
It takes it just takes longer as the cubes get bigger.
There's lots of different algorithms.
I probably know well over 100 algorithms
for different puzzles.
- That may sound overwhelming,
but Joshua believes anyone can master the art of cubism.
It just takes a search function and lots of practice.
- Really, just looking it up on YouTube is pretty much the best.
That's how I learned.
That's how a lot of people learn.
The best solvers in the world learn on YouTube originally.

- It eventually inspired him to create his own YouTube channel.
- I've always been interested in film,
even before the Rubik's Cube.
So, when I started getting into the Rubik's Cube,
I naturally wanted to make videos about it
and solving it and showing other people
my times and the different cubes I could solve.

- It was all downhill from there.
- Ohhh! First try.

- Joshua's YouTube channel has more than one million hits.
He's landed endorsement deals from cube companies
and traveled from coast to coast competing in tournaments.
In 2013, he was a guest on "Good Morning America."

Despite his dexterous digits,
Joshua says a cubing career isn't in the cards.
[mechanical clicking]
- I make some money doing it,
but not enough that it would
warrant having this over a well-paying job.
- For now.
- I used to never see other people that could solve a cube,
but cubing has grown so much in Wisconsin that
at least half the time when I pull out a cube in public,
I'll meet someone that knows how to solve it.
- Joshua's plan is to attend film school.
Meanwhile, he's happy letting this '80s relic
open doors for him,
while making plenty of new friends along the way.
- That's one of the really cool things is knowing
all of these people all around the world
and seeing them every couple of years at competitions.

- And sharing a hobby that's a little...
square.

- Still to come on Wisconsin Life:
Do you like bikes?
Are you a history fanatic?
Then Ariel Beaujot
has a two-wheeling oral history tour for you.
- We're bringing the new form of history out of the ivory tower,
and we're putting it into, into the public.
- Pedal through some pivotal moments from the past
in the city of La Crosse.
Later on Wisconsin Life.
§ §

- My name is Mary Lee Agnew
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

[piano music, water trickling]

- A wood duck glides across the glassy water surface
on a crisp fall day.

A gray fox pauses a moment in the snow in winter.

On a fresh spring day,
hungry baby green herons await their mother's return.

These animals were not photographed in the Northwoods,
but in Wisconsin's largest city.
All were captured by intrepid Milwaukee photographer,
Mary Lee Agnew.
- I grew up in the city. I'm a city girl.
We have it right here.
We've got all these beautiful parks here,
with all this beautiful nature right in the city.
- Being out among that beautiful nature
has become Mary Lee's calling
and a source of a special connection with wildlife.
- I would keep doing it even if I didn't have a camera at all.
Being out in nature, watching it, looking at it,
observing it, enjoying it.
- But a camera in hand
intensifies her passion.
- I'm scared of walking out on ice,
but I really wanted to get that shot.
[laughs] I did it.
And, amazingly, didn't even scare the owl.
I got off the ice without falling through.

I probably have a story for every one of my photos.
[birds chirping]
- Mary Lee's story starts with an unusual job
working as a model for art classes.
She was even featured on the cover
of a figure drawing textbook.
- I started traveling by bike
'cause I go to several different schools.
So I'd be traveling...
I'd go to Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design,
UWM, even Cardinal Stritch,
at all different times of the day.

Just basically started seeing wildlife everywhere.

- And she started photographing it.
- I wanted to capture the stuff that I was seeing.
I had a little point and shoot
where you could just get scenes and stuff like that.

- A chance encounter in the field with a fellow photographer
helped Mary Lee get closer to her subjects.
- He was out there in the cold and he handed me this camera,
with a 300 millimeter lens and he had it in a backpack
and he said, "I'm giving you this camera."
I was just astounded.
I was like, "No you're not.
"You're not just giving me this camera!"
He literally set the backpack down and he said,
"I'm just going to leave it here then."
And I'm like, "Thank you very much!"

You know, "Thank you."

Maybe he could see the potential there, I don't know.
The thing about having better images is not about,
"Oh, I want to win awards." or "I wanna be famous."
It's more about,
"Then people will connect more and see the beauty there,"
because I want to reach people.
I want people to see that this is beautiful.
- Mary Lee's experience
as an art model who could hold a pose for hours
turned out to be a valuable asset
in her newfound passion.
- I do think that really helped me out
with dealing with wildlife because I can sit patiently
for long periods of time
and not move or not feel anxious.
Just very relaxed.
- That relaxed patience has particularly paid off
in Mary Lee's pursuit of her favorite subject, foxes.
- I'm very focused, but very relaxed.

The real big examples I've shot
where I saw the fox coming across the ice.
It happened so quick.
This duck flew up and he nailed this duck.
I just stayed calm and just kept shooting.
And I got the shots.
I named him "Big Red."
He would let me follow him while he was hunting,
and he just didn't seem to care.

I will never get over that.
He just trusted me beyond all belief.

He would bring his little kits
right literally almost to my feet.
Wow.
And it's like almost like I was one of the foxes.
I mean they just went about their lives
right in front of me.
They would be running around.
And like I was just sitting there,
like, with a front row seat.
- A front row seat that Mary Lee has shared
with her Facebook followers
and purchasers of her cards and calendars.
- This picture is one of my favorite shots of all time.
- Even at home, Mary Lee has surrounded herself with foxes.
A reminder of the special connection she shares
as a close observer of urban wildlife.

- A lot of people really like my photos because
they felt like they could feel a connection I had with the foxes.
I hope that's the case because I really had a strong connection.
I just always hope that people
see these animals for what they are.
That I'm not just, like, a drive-by shooter
or I'm just, like, 'click' and moving on.
That I actually know these animals
and trying to share that with other people.
Just wonderful to see this stuff in the city.

§ §

- I'm Ariel Beaujot,
and this is my Wisconsin Life.

§ §
- In La Crosse, they call this district "Historic Downtown."
But whose history is it?
That's a question a historian is asking
through an innovative and interactive
oral history project.
- This project is called
"Hear Here: Voices of Downtown La Crosse."
My name is Ariel Beaujot.
I'm the executive director.
I'm also a professor of history
at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse.
- But today Ariel is a tour guide.
- The question put to all of you is,
"How did this space change over time?"
[bike bells ringing]
- As part of the city's annual bikefest,
she's leading a two-wheeled tour of historic sites.
- This is not telling a certain story of downtown.
It's telling all the stories
that we could gather about downtown.
- You don't need Ariel's personal tour
to hear the downtown stories gathered by "Hear Here."
- This phone number never changes.
So it might be a good idea
to put this phone number
into your phone.
- Call the "Hear Here" number.
Enter an ID number
and soon you'll hear a story
of something that happened right here.
- Please select the number of the story
you would like to hear. [beep]
- We're standing by the Hanifl Market
and the Ten Commandments monument at the corner.
- It's called public history.
- So "Hear Here" is a public history project
because it's in the public.
People listen to it in the public.
And it's outside of academia essentially.
We're bringing the new form of history out of the ivory tower.
And we're putting it into the public.
- What Ariel calls the new form of history
doesn't tell the usual story of the powerful and influential.
- When we tell a certain arc,
we're telling only certain people's stories.
And we should be telling everybody's stories.
- One stop on the "Hear Here" tour
exemplifies this inclusive approach to telling history.
- The mural, it represents, basically,
the people of La Crosse.
- "Hear Here" storyteller Terry Littlejohn
joined the bike tour to discuss her reaction
to the new mural in the city's art district.
- We are starting to represent a little bit
of the global community rather than
just what was-- used to be here in the 1800s.

- The tour then goes on
to a more controversial La Crosse landmark
known as the Big Indian.
The story told here
is about protesting this sort of representation.
[phone beeps] - Over the years, the Big Indian has become a symbol
with what is wrong with our perception of Native America--
out of date, primitive, savage.
- We're trying to get everybody's stories out.
What you need to do to get everybody's stories out
is start with the historically underrepresented populations.
But I didn't know what their stories would be.
I didn't know what the community's reaction
to those stories would be.
- Some reaction has been negative.
Someone even stole the sign that connects listeners
to a story about a police incident and arrest
that may have been racially-motivated.
[phone beeps]
- And the cops really only arrested the black guys.
And one of those dudes was my brother.
- This sign has also been silenced.
This story has been silenced.
- Despite this, Ariel sees positive value
in sharing stories, even if some can be hard to hear.
- I think always it's important to find the positive things.
I argue that they can be about creating a more ideal city.
Looking at the meaning for everybody in a city.
Seeing where sometimes there's ways that we,
as a population, could act better.
There's a moment for us to be able to make a difference.
- If Ariel believes that "Hear Here" can make a difference,
it's because it's changed her.
- I've become a different person and a different historian
because of this project.
I've become much more of a social advocate.
We can create a better community
if we want to. [laughs]
All right?

§ §

- I'm Sue Vojacek and I'm Anton Vojacek,
and this is our Wisconsin Life.

- Oulu, Wisconsin is sandwiched
between Highway 13 and Highway 2
in northern Wisconsin.
- You look on the map,
you'll notice all roads lead to Oulu.
- Originally, it was all Finnish immigrants.
I was a teacher and he liked to blow glass.
- Then I decided when we built my own place,
I would have fun with it.
- We just started building,
and eventually, we added the studio for the glass blowing.

- In order to get that glass out of the furnace
we have to use rods and pipes.
The rods are solid. Pipes are hollow.
- Then you'll gather your glass.
- It's at about 2,150 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can see it looks orange, but it's actually clear.
That's just the color of the heat you see.
As soon as you remove it from the furnace,
it starts to cool down.
- We start blowing glass in the middle of November
and blow into January.
- Something that we'll often do first thing in the morning,

find out how the glass is moving and find out how we're moving.
- We like to use something like a fish that has
a lot of different parts so that we can use the different tools,
kind of loosen up and see
if it's going to be a good glassblowing day or not.
- There's a partnership you have to develop.
- You don't have enough hands and arms
to do all that yourself.
- You don't have a lot of time to talk about it.
- Some people call it a dance.
They like watching it
because we know what's going to happen next.
- I've got to smooth the lumps out of the glass
to make it more symmetrical.
- Every time he touches the piece with something,
it cools it.
So he has to put it back in to reheat it.

- Just put a simple pattern on this.
- Then, you'll heat that up
in what's called a glory hole
and that will meld the colors together.

- There's really not all that much blowing
involved in glassblowing.

Still looks orange and it won't be
until the glass gets down to around 900 degrees
before you start to see the colors.
The object is not to try
to make a fish that looks like
any particular fish.
The object is exercises in manipulation and material.
Lot of cutting and chopping and tweezing and pulling
and pushing and paddling.

The hotter the glass is, the easier it moves.
I like to think of it like room temperature honey.
We call it a soft glass.
It's basically silica sand, soda ash, and limestone.
It's a formula that's been around roughly 2,400 years.

Two more bits and this thing will be done.
We have to get it off the pipe.

Cool it down slowly
so that when it was cold enough to touch,
it wouldn't break.
- The different things you can do with glass, it's amazing.

- Glass is one of those materials that
whatever you bring to it, it'll give back to you.
It's kind of a magical material.

- Curious to know more about
Steve Brown, Joshua Feran,
Mary Lee Agnew, Ariel Beaujot,
and Sue and Anton Vojacek?
You can head to WisconsinLife.org
to learn more about the people
featured in this week's stories.
And remember, we want to know:
What's your Wisconsin Life?
So send us your ideas to WisconsinLife@wpt.org.

Finally, we leave you this week in Milwaukee County
with some more of urban wildlife photographer
Mary Lee Agnew's striking photos.
Part of our Wisconsin Life.

§ §

- Funding for Wisconsin Life is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.