Monday 7/6/26: 911 & AI, hot weather safety, Cherry Street Garden

David Lee: Support for WUWM podcasts comes from Johnson Financial Group, helping customers build financial plans around their unique goals for over 55 years. More at johnsonfinancialgroup.com. Johnson Bank and Johnson Wealth, Inc., are Johnson Financial Group companies.

Joy Powers: From 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR, this is Lake Effect. I'm Joy Powers. Today we'll learn how local municipalities are using AI to field calls. Then we'll share some tips on how to exercise outside safely during the summer months.

Ann Swartz: Our bodies have a harder time releasing heat in the summer really when it's humid, more so than when it is hot. The humidity is really what impedes our ability to release that heat.

Joy Powers: Plus, we'll visit Milwaukee's Cherry Street Garden and learn about the approach to food stability and beauty there.

Lisa Roszkowski: I firmly believe that every neighborhood in this city deserves beauty. And so to me, as a total gardener geek, to me that was flowers, to me that having the beauty of the natural surroundings. All of that is beauty.

Joy Powers: Coming up on Lake Effect. This is Lake Effect from 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR. I'm Joy Powers, and thank you so much for joining us. If you call your city government with a request for services, you could soon be talking to AI instead of a person. A pilot artificial intelligence program has already launched in Waukesha and La Crosse counties. According to journalist Adam Rogan, it's likely to spread to other parts of the state. But what could that mean for residents in need of help, or people dealing with an emergency? Rogan joins me to explain how the AI is being used. Adam, thank you so much for joining us here on Lake Effect.

Adam Rogan: Appreciate it.

Joy Powers: So let's say I need to call 911. What's gonna happen next?

Adam Rogan: So right now, as it has been for past however many decades, when you call 911, you are going to get a human being operator responding to your emergency call. That is, wonderfully, unchanged, as human beings are still better than computers at responding to an emergency, especially when it comes to interacting with somebody who might be panicked, or might not be making sense because of the emergency going on.

Joy Powers: So good news: if there is an emergency and you call 911, you are going to be dealing with a person who is trained to deal with an emergency. So how is this AI being implemented?

Adam Rogan: So right now, this AI called Ava, made by a company called Aurelian, is in most of the state of Washington, and it's starting to spread elsewhere, including La Crosse and Waukesha Counties here in Wisconsin. And what has been happening for the past, really, 20, 30 years is emergency dispatch centers have become the red-headed stepchild of public safety. They've become the dumping ground for kind of the random calls after hours or when a courthouse is on lunch break. If you were to call the courthouse and say, "Hey, what time is so-and-so court?" or, "What time it is my hearing?" those calls are being forwarded to 911 operators. And a lot of times your call is gonna be put on hold because somebody's dealing with an emergency, or these trained 911 operators are gonna figure out how to help you when their job and what they wanna do is to respond to emergencies. And so what Aurelian does is it's this AI-trained, it's weird to call it a program because it's not really how AIs work, but it is an AI that will answer those forwarded calls that otherwise were clogging these dispatch centers and can answer them. They'll be trained on the local database. It will know what court hearing is tomorrow, what the current parking laws are, that kind of thing, for your local area, and they can respond to you. The goal being to not overwork these already overworked 911 operators. The impetus for this was really realizing that there was study, I think it was in 2023, that found that one-third of all emergency dispatch centers in the U.S. were more than 30% understaffed. One of the biggest reasons for big turnover there was burnout. By taking some of the workload off, by not having to make them deal with this procedural work, 911 operators are free to do their jobs. And that is the purpose of this AI.

Joy Powers: So that gets to something that I think can be a little confusing. We're calling it AI. Is this generative AI? Is that what we would describe it as or is this a little different?

Adam Rogan: So this is different from, for example, asking an AI online, whether it's Chat GPT or something, "Hey, make a picture of a purple duck flying in space." What this program is doing is it's being trained on local information, whether it is parking laws in La Crosse County or court dates in Waukesha County, and being able to respond to that using colloquial English language. And something I really foresee is we're going to be losing a lot of call centers and also a lot of desk workers whose jobs are to work with the public or work with courthouse staff who are also answering questions in public. They're just gonna have an AI do it. We're gonna have a lot fewer of, when you call to get the pharmacy, you're not gonna have to listen to, "press one for whatever" and "press two for whatever." You're gonna get an AI, and you can just talk to it. And it will probably be just as susceptible to error as AIs are now, but it's not, let's say, wasting somebody's time who has a more important job to do. And that's where I kind of see the future of this type of technology going.

Joy Powers: I think all of us have dealt with AI at this point in some aspects of our lives, especially phone calls. And I don't find it very efficient, having had, I think, the experience you're talking about with prescriptions. AI, at this point, when they're utilizing it on phone calls, is often pretty useless. It won't give you the right information. It will continually redirect you to different things that don't really make sense. And that's pretty concerning when we're talking about really essential services. Is that the future that we're looking at, or what?

Adam Rogan: So the public safety professionals who I spoke with for the story were very adamant that, when it comes to the emergencies, when it come to whether you're just calling in a car crash that you witnessed, or you're the victim of a crime, you're gonna continue to deal with a human. For the really important things, you're going to keep working with humans, and they can't see a future where human beings are taken out of that equation. So on a emergency basis right now, you're still dealing with humans. When it comes to these little procedural annoyances that we are continuing to deal with more and more in our lives, we're going to start seeing more AI. I think that's unquestionable. And I just find it very surprising and also interesting that it is kind of getting its first foothold, at least here in Wisconsin, through this public safety, even if it is not actually dealing with public safety situations, but rather kind of protecting public safety resources by answering questions that otherwise would have gone to courthouses or city halls who, oftentimes, the one person on the phone is taking a lunch break, or if it's after 5 p.m., and nobody's there. Unlike a 911 call center, where it's 24-7.

Joy Powers: Have you spoken with people who have been using these systems?

Adam Rogan: Yeah, the initial reviews, the reporters who have talked to it have had, let's say, good experiences. But also, when you're testing it, you tend to test them on predictable kind of questions. With these more complicated questions, I can foresee situations where you're talking in a circle with an AI. But at the same time, those more complicated questions are going to take up more of a staff member's time who is supposed to be answering 911. So how much time wasted? And I can't say one or the other. It's a very specific use case.

Joy Powers: So why not hire a person to help with these calls, who wouldn't be on an emergency line?

Adam Rogan: That is another question I asked. And one of the big answers was: you're getting so much turnover on these positions already. It's not the most desirable position, so that a lot of counties say, "I'd rather just pay the equivalent of that for this one program." And then also, that person doesn't need a vacation. That person's available 24-7. Aurelian is costing counties around $70,000, $100,000 a year. That's only one to two staff members. But also, one to two staff members does not cover you 24-7. This kind of program does.

Joy Powers: But one to two staff members also have a lot more flexibility in how they might respond. As a person who has dealt with these kinds of phone systems, it's much easier, generally, to talk to a person and get to the department you're looking for, versus going in circles with an AI, potentially getting frustrated, not being able to get your issue solved, and then being really disenchanted with the entirety of how our government and community systems work.

Adam Rogan: I couldn't agree more that that kind of situation is going to continue to happen. But also, whether it's good or bad, the way that AI has ballooned, the way that the business systems and government systems in our country are going, I think we're going to start seeing more of this and not less. And hopefully, when things work well and efficiently, they get better, they don't suck up all the water in the world, and we can make the world more efficient. But for right now, I think that we're very much in a trial period.

Joy Powers: So we'll see how this impacts government efficiency, I suppose.

Adam Rogan: That we will.

Joy Powers: All right, well, Adam, thank you so much for joining us here on Lake Effect.

Adam Rogan: I appreciate it, Joy.

Joy Powers: Adam Rogan is a journalist, whose piece was featured in Milwaukee Magazine earlier this year. Do you need some flexibility for when you listen? You can listen to Lake Effect on demand. Find it as a podcast wherever you like to listen, to download and enjoy on the go. Neighborhood beauty is something that's often overlooked as an aspect of health. Later in the show, we'll visit a community garden that takes beauty seriously, by inviting students to create art and infrastructure that supplements the fresh produce and flowers already growing there. But first, not everyone can just move inside when it's hot. We'll share some ways that outdoor workers can stay safe when temperatures are high. That's coming up on Lake Effect on 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR. You're listening to Lake Effect on 89.7 WUWM. I'm Joy Powers. Last week, we saw a streak of hot weather in Milwaukee. Many of us tried to stay indoors and in air conditioning, but not everyone can just stay inside when the temperatures soar. People who work outside have to find ways to stay safe in the heat. Kate McCoy directs the Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance Program at the State Department of Health Services. She co-wrote a report that shows heat is a concern for workers in Wisconsin. Lake Effect's Xcaret Nuñez is joined by McCoy to talk about the dangers of high heat in the workplace, and ways to stay safe.

Xcaret Nuñez: A report you co-authored last year says heat stress on the job could be a bigger problem as climate change starts to make days hotter. What kind of things are we worried about? In the worst-

Kate McCoy: In the worst-case scenario, heat can kill. People are not meant to work in very hot conditions without proper protections in place. So we really need to make sure that workers and employers are aware that this is a real threat, that it can overtake somebody very quickly, that it can affect even young and healthy individuals, and that even when the worst doesn't come to pass that he can take a toll on people's health, generally. It can cause organ damage, kidney damage, heart damage, and overall, it can just make life miserable for people on the job and raise a lot of other risks along the way. So there are certain things that employers and workers can do to avoid those worst-case scenarios, and we want to make sure that the public is aware of those.

Xcaret Nuñez: And in this report, you looked at different jobs and occupations that reported problems with heat and filed workers' compensation claims. What are some of the fields you looked at?

Kate McCoy: So in that particular report, like you said, we were looking at workers' compensation claims. So that's one way that you can get at who was affected by heat. And in that data, we saw that a lot of the claims were from folks like firefighters, protective service workers, people operating heavy machinery, people working in manufacturing. And more generally, we know those are people who are at risk, but there's even a broader group than we are able to show with that data source. So really, anyone who does outdoor work in hot conditions without proper precautions in place can be at risk. So you think about your construction sites, landscaping, agriculture, utility workers, delivery drivers, all those folks and more. And then indoor workers can also be at substantial risk. So if you think of stuffy hot spaces or a location where there's equipment that radiates a lot of heat, all of a sudden, even if it's not terribly hot outside, those spaces can become very hot inside. Think about a warehouse, think about a hot kitchen, think about a stuffy attic that someone is removing asbestos from where it's much hotter up there than it is outside. All of the sudden those can become very risky environments. So really there are a lot of workers who can be at risk under the wrong conditions.

Xcaret Nuñez: So workers who are experiencing heat illness, what are some of the common signs and symptoms that coworkers and employers should watch out for when they're working outside or in stuffy hot places, like you mentioned?

Kate McCoy: So the most dangerous things are, you know, if somebody starts passing out, if they start seizing, having seizures, if they are acting confused or abnormal or slurred speech. That's an immediate 911 call. And there's some other things we can talk about that need to happen right then. But there are also earlier signs and symptoms that people need to pay attention to. If you're feeling dizzy, lightheaded, if you're getting nauseous, or vomiting, or getting a real headache or cramps on the job when it's hot, those are a few of the symptoms to be aware of. And really, I would say to people who are working in hot conditions, if it feels uncomfortably hot to you, and you're feeling off, start paying attention to it right then.

Xcaret Nuñez: And something else that I found really interesting, too, was that the report noted that workers who would file worker compensation claims for heat-related illnesses were often denied. Can you talk more about that finding and why you and your co-authors found that concerning?

Kate McCoy: Isn't that an interesting finding? Yes, it is something that we wanted to call out in that data, because we know this is a bigger and bigger concern for more people, not just in Wisconsin. And it was surprising to us that we were seeing more and more denials in the claims. We're not sure exactly why that is. We are in contact with folks who work with insurers and workers comp generally and really trying to get the word out about that finding. But what we want to make sure is that people are not being dissuaded or discouraged from bringing up these claims, or for coming forward and saying, "I need medical help, and this happened on the job." People need that income if they are injured or sickened on the job. They need that to cover the hours that they've lost after they were downed by heat. And we also need that information because, like we used in our report, it's one of the ways that we can try to keep track of how many people are affected. So it's problematic when people are dissuaded from being able to make those legitimate claims.

Xcaret Nuñez: And just to add onto that, I was wondering, when you're looking at worker compensation claims and the reasons for filing injuries related to heat, what are some of those common injuries?

Kate McCoy: We were looking more narrowly at things that were classified as heat-related illness. But it's a great question because that's part of the reason why it can be harder to identify all of these situations, because oftentimes a heat-related emergency doesn't get written down as such. So we know, for instance, on death records, oftentimes when someone dies due to complications from heat, it's not heat-related illness that is on the death certificate. It's going to be the more immediate heart attack or organ failure, things like that. And so I have a colleague in another state who makes it her business to look into those situations and call the coroner back and discuss what's on the death certificate because It's not that it's wrong, per se, but it's that a lot of different things can contribute to heat deaths. So we don't see them as much as you'd like because they get kind of accidentally hidden in those ways. Also in some of the data that we've seen, people will start to get foggy headed, start to lose consciousness and they'll fall off of some place. Like, there's an example of a lifeguard falling off the chair poolside and hitting that hard pool surface, that concrete. And then, you know, that injury is what gets reported primarily, versus what caused them to fall. So it's a great question. A lot of times we don't see all of the heat cases in the data because heat causes other things, and that's what it gets categorized as.

Xcaret Nuñez: That's so interesting. So it seems like a lot of follow-up.

Kate McCoy: Yes.

Xcaret Nuñez: Well, reflecting on what we've talked about so far, what's your message to employers on how to create a safe workspace, outdoors and indoors?

Kate McCoy: Absolutely. So there are things that employers can do that make a huge difference. The sort of tagline for both employers and workers, the shortcut is: water, rest, shade. But when we break it down, here's kind of some of the things it looks like. So if you're an employer, that shade part is really about how do you put measures in place that counteract heat, whether that's air conditioning, shaded areas, exhaust ventilation, using misters, giving out specialized cooling PPE, things like that. So that's one thing you can do to just reduce the heat risk. For indoor environments, another thing you can do is insulate equipment that produces a lot of heat. The other thing is make scheduling adjustments. So that might be scheduling some of that heavier lifting, heavier work during cooler parts of the day or at night. It might mean slowing down your production schedules enough to get those rest breaks in. And I try to tell businesses, go slow to go fast here. Our productivity is already down in hot weather. And so even though it might feel bad for employers to say we're gonna build in rest breaks when you feel a lot of pressure. Note that those rest breaks are refreshing your workforce and keeping people sharp. And it keeps them from being sick, and it also keeps them from making expensive mistakes with equipment. Build those things into your schedules. If you have new folks on the job, make sure that they have time to acclimatize and let their bodies get used to heat. We know that 70 percent of heat related fatalities on the jobs take place during the first week of work, because people's bodies just need that time to get used to it. So that's one thing that can be done. Also, for both the employer and the frontline supervisors and workers to know the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness, post information about the signs, and symptoms, and the 911 calls, and the emergency response that you need to enact, and just spend a little bit of time training on it. And most importantly is tell your workers that it's okay for them to speak up sooner rather than later when they're feeling the effects of heat, because too often people I'll push through. And that's when some of the scariest scenarios happen.

Xcaret Nuñez: So how would you also encourage workers and coworkers to watch out for themselves when they're working outside?

Kate McCoy: Hopefully, their employers are looking out for them, but it's important also for workers to know what to do and to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Pay attention, like we said, to any of the symptoms that we've mentioned. Get water, rest, and shade as needed. There is an OSHA heat safety app, which I encourage both employers and workers and really anyone can use to sort of help you gauge what's the risk in general on any given day, and it also has information about the signs and symptoms, what to look out for and what to do in an emergency. So that's really a handy thing to have on your phone. The other thing I say to people is know your own risk factors. So there are things that can affect people's susceptibility to heat, things like if you have pre-existing conditions. So be aware of those things. And then look out for one another. That's really important. A lot of the heat emergencies happen when someone is on their own, and they don't get tended to right away. And so if you can implement a buddy system, check in with one another on hot days, you know, those are really little things that can help you keep one another safe on the job.

Xcaret Nuñez: The report also notes that federal and state-level protections are needed to keep people safe from heat at work. Is this something you're noticing lawmakers, at both the federal and the state levels, are working on?

Kate McCoy: Yes and no. So there is an effort right now, federally, that has been going on for awhile to get national heat protections through OSHA. So ever since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was formed, there have been people who've been saying we need heat protections. And now that process is farther along than it's ever been. It's an active, what's called a rule-making process right now. But like a lot of things federally right now, there's a lot of uncertainty around whether or not that will go into place. It is positive that it's moving forward at this point. Also Senator Baldwin from Wisconsin and some other of her colleagues have, from their position, sort of reinforced the need for a federal standard and proposed federal heat legislation, which pretty much backs what OSHA is trying to put into place. So those are good signs federally. We don't have anything at the state level currently, and that would be nice to have, since the future is uncertain right now about whether or not there'll be a federal heat law. That's another avenue that could be pursued, and there are states that have heat protections in place.

Xcaret Nuñez: And before we wrap up, I want to ask you why it's important to have these conversations surrounding heat-related illness in the workplace and protections for them too.

Kate McCoy: Yeah, absolutely. These are simple things that can save a life, right? There are no employers, no supervisors who wake up in the morning and say, "Gee, I hope something terrible happens on my work site today." Nobody wants that to happen. But these are things that can happen, and they happen all the time in hot weather. So, by knowing these simple things that people can do, we're hopeful that workplaces can stay safe, that people can remain healthy and on the job for as long as they're able.

Xcaret Nuñez: Absolutely. Well, Kate, thank you so much for speaking with me today. I really appreciated learning more about your research on heat in the workplace.

Kate McCoy: Thank you so much for having me.

Joy Powers: Kate McCoy is program director for the Occupational Health and Safety Surveillance Program at the State Department of Health Services. She spoke with Lake Effect's Xcaret Nuñez last year. Summertime in Wisconsin is short-lived. And naturally, we want to be outside as much as possible during these warmer months. But when it comes to extreme heat and exercise, there are some things to keep in mind to stay safe. To go over some do's and don'ts of exercising in hot weather, Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by Ann Swartz, a professor of kinesiology in the Zilber School of Public Health at UW-Milwaukee. She begins by explaining why it feels like our bodies have a harder time exercising during those hot summer days.

Ann Swartz: Our bodies have a harder time releasing heat in the summer, really, when it's humid, moreso than when it is hot. The humidity is really what impedes our ability to release that heat, and the reason for that is because the primary way that we release heat is through evaporative cooling. So we get hot. Our body tries to get rid of that heat by increasing our sweat rate, and then when that sweat actually evaporates, that's what cools our body down. And so when it's really humid outside, then there isn't enough of a difference between the vapor in the air and the vapor on our body. And so we don't do as good of a job evaporating. So we can't cool down as quickly. When you're exercising and it's cool out, your body is really, its job is to help you perform the movement. But when you introduce that heat, your body also has a secondary job of having to get rid of that heat. And that's the role of your cardiovascular system. And so sometimes when we're exercising, it feels like it's a lot harder, and you notice your heart rate's a little higher, because your heart is actually having to do more work to get around it.

Audrey Nowakowski: So the classic Midwestern line, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity," is really true, hey?

Ann Swartz: That is absolutely true.

Audrey Nowakowski: So if people, you know, 'cause we want to be active and ideally like if we have a routine, we don't really want to get out of it, per se. And if people don't have access to a gym with air conditioning, with climate control, what strategy would you recommend for people planning to do their workouts outdoors in the summer when it's extreme heat?

Ann Swartz: Right, yes. Well, those of us living in Wisconsin, we love to get outside when we can get outside. So how can we make it a little bit more enjoyable or bearable when it's really hot and humid outside? The first thing is really thinking about your timing. You really wanna think about the times of the day when it not going to be as hot. So avoiding that 10 a.m. To maybe 4 p.m time. Those are the times where the sun's the most intense. And so that's gonna heat you up even moreso, if you exercise in the sun during that time. So thinking about exercising in the morning or later in the evening, those are good strategies. Some other things you might wanna think about doing is making sure that you're hydrating. So making sure you're getting enough water when you're exercising because, as you sweat, you're going to lose water, you're gonna start to dehydrate. And that hydration level is really important for you to help maintain your body temperature. So you wanna make sure that, about one to two hours before you go out, you wanna maybe have about 16 to 20 ounces of water to drink and maybe a couple sips before you. If you're gonna to exercise for longer than 60 minutes, then you wanna think about maybe taking something with you. And having some sips of water as you're going along. If you're gonna go out for 30 minutes, you should be fine not exercising. And then when you get back, you wanna make sure that you rehydrate, either with some sort of water or electrolyte drink, depending on how much you've sweated. A really easy way to determine how much should drink afterwards is you can weigh yourself before you work out, and then weigh yourself after. And the amount of weight that you lost is really the amount that you need to replenish then. You want to pick your clothing wisely. You want to wear things that are lightweight, that are breathable, that are moisture-wicking, so they can help you with that evaporative heat loss. You want wear light clothing because that reflects the sunlight. It doesn't absorb the sunlight, so it'll help you stay a little bit cooler. And of course, you want to try and maybe wear a hat or a visor and definitely some sunscreen to make sure to protect your skin.

Audrey Nowakowski: These are all super great tips, including the water one, because often the body weight divided by two equals ounces ratio... You know, it's a lot to keep track of. So I like that simple tip. Now as adults, we're pretty good about knowing we should do X, Y, Z, even if, say, we don't feel like drinking because when you get hot, maybe your desire to eat and drink is a little less. But what are tips for kids, or people taking care of children, to keep in mind for hot weather activity?

Ann Swartz: So, for our kids, when they're outside, they're playing, they're having fun, you're right. They don't think about having to drink. And so we need to make it as easy as possible for our kid to drink something while they're out playing. And so maybe putting it in a place that's central or easy to locate for them. Maybe we have to step into their game every once in a while, every half an hour, and remind them to drink some thing. And then having something that they enjoy drinking, so that they will be more likely to drink it. The other option is to provide snacks that have a high water content, so, you know, some watermelon. It's ripe, it's in season, it' delicious, and it's got a high-water content. So having that as a snack will help the children to rehydrate while they're playing. Something else that we need to start considering at this time of year, as our kids are going back to school and getting more involved in organized sport and starting their practices: they may be practicing in very intense times of the day where the sun is really intense, and they may not have the luxury of doing some of the things that we suggested earlier, like wearing really light clothing that's moisture-wicking. So for instance, our kids that are interested in football, they have to wear helmets and all this padding and all of this clothing that is going to prevent them from being able to release that heat. And so, it's a really good strategy for them to take breaks often. And when they take a break, take off their helmet so that they can, that can help them cool off a little bit, but then also drinking some water or some sort of electrolyte drink while they're taking their break to help them cool down. And that's really important to help prevent any type of heat-related injury for those athletes.

Audrey Nowakowski: With making a plan to work out outside, you mentioned hydration, planning before, during, if needed, if you're out for a certain time and after. How important is the warm-up and or cool-down components of exercise during hot days?

Ann Swartz: Well, I would say warm up and cool down are always really important. The warm up is important because it really primes your body to get going and to start moving at a higher intensity or a faster rate. You may feel like your muscles are already warm, but you also need to warm up your heart and your lungs and all the other systems that are involved in exercise. And so it's really important to engage in that warm up. And then the cool down, that's important to help bring those systems back down to their resting level. And so we need to make sure that we're slowly starting to decrease our intensity. Maybe we go from a run to a walk, or something like that. But that really helps us to bring those systems down to our baseline and prevent us from feeling dizzy, or potentially even fainting after we exercise. So when you're exercising in the heat, you want to make sure that you just elongate those warmups and cool downs a little bit. And then ideally, do those warmup and cool downs in maybe a shaded area, if you could, to help your body warm up, but then cool down and bring your core temperature down in those shaded areas.

Audrey Nowakowski: If a situation arises or sneaks up on us, which it is kind of easy to do, what are signs of overheating or other heat-related illnesses to look out for when we're exercising outside?

Ann Swartz: Well, early signs are gonna be, you're gonna start to feel thirsty and you're going to really sweat pretty profusely. And so you just wanna kind of monitor that and make sure that once you start to feel a little thirsty, that you do attend to that. If you start feel dizzy or lightheaded, or you might get a headache, or even start to experience muscle cramps, and that might be one of the first things that you experience is muscle cramps, then you definitely want to decrease your intensity. So if you're running, again, you wanna bring it back to a walk and then head towards a shaded area to help your body cool down a little bit and get rid of some of that heat. But it's a serious situation. You wanna make sure that you are being kind to your body. You're doing something good for your body when you're exercising outside, so you wanna make that you're kind to it and you don't overstress it when it's so hot and humid out.

Audrey Nowakowski: Right, because what's the worst case scenario if overheating goes unaddressed?

Ann Swartz: Right, then it's a medical emergency. And you may find that you stop sweating. You may find your pulse is racing really high. And so you need to then contact medical professionals right away.

Audrey Nowakowski: So ideally, it doesn't get to that point. So what are some tools, you mentioned like find a shaded area, take a break. What are some other ways that people can help them come down from those initial stages of overheating or just overexertion and they feel like this isn't the same kind of exertion I wanna feel while exercising. This is, you know, a little different.

Ann Swartz: Right, so the first thing you want to do is stop the activity immediately, because when we're exercising, about 75% of the energy that we use when we are exercising is released as heat And that's why we get so hot when we were exercising and so what you want To do is you want take away that excess heat production So you want slow down or stop exercising and then move to a cooler shaded region or area right away You know if you can find a building that's air-conditioned perfect, then that'll help you cool down quite a bit. If you have extra clothing on, say you have two shirts on or you have a sweatshirt over your shirt, then you want to take off that excess clothing to help you cool down. You want to hydrate, so you want to drink some water, or drink an electrolyte drink to make sure to start to replenish all that water that you've lost through sweating. If you still aren't feeling like you're cooling down, you could try and apply a cool compress or use a fan, because a fan helps you to cool down quite a bit. Either one of those will help you lower your body temperature. If you're gonna use a cool compress, you want to apply it to areas that have a higher amount of blood flow close to the skin. And so this is why you see people applying it maybe to their forehead, or to the back of their neck or to their armpits. Those are all places where you have increased blood flow to the skin, and that cold compress then will help to decrease the temperature in your body even more effectively.

Audrey Nowakowski: And obviously, we've been talking a lot about hydration. Very important, no matter what kind of activity level you're doing, but my question is, is there such a thing as too much electrolytes? They are a good reinforcement with more strenuous workouts, or if you're being active all day, but if you are not planning a strenous exercise outdoors, like during the summer, do we need electrolytes all day every day?

Ann Swartz: Right, there definitely can be too much. You can overdo electrolytes, and especially sodium. And if you do overdo it, you might have a little bit of stomach upset or it could cause an electrolyte imbalance. So you wanna make sure that you aren't overconsuming them. You wanna also be mindful of what's in the electrolyte drink. So know what else you're drinking with it because a lot of them contain sugar as well as the electrolytes. But for most casual exercisers and those of us who do less than 60 minutes of exercise at one go, plain water is gonna be sufficient. Anything over that, if you're going longer than 60 minutes or if you are doing a really high intensity workout, then you may wanna consider supplementing with some sort of electrolyte.

Audrey Nowakowski: Well, all these are really great tips to keep in mind, and most importantly, to help judge where our body's at and stay safe and cool in the summer. So I wanna thank you so much for joining me today to share some tips on how to keep cool and healthy.

Ann Swartz: Well, thank you so much, and I hope you do keep cool and healthy.

Joy Powers: Anne Swartz is a professor of kinesiology in the Zilber School of Public Health at UW-Milwaukee. Still to come, we'll visit Milwaukee's Cherry Street Garden and learn about the approach to food stability and beauty there. That's next on Lake Effect on 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR. This is Lake Effect on 89.7 WUWM. I'm Joy Powers. When you think of the Housing Authority of Milwaukee, you probably think of, well, housing. But one Housing Authority lot is serving a different purpose: neighborhood beautification. Located near 23rd and Cherry Street in the Midtown neighborhood on Milwaukee's north side, Cherry Street Community Garden is a place for residents to connect to their agricultural roots and nurture beauty. Cherry Street Garden is place for area residents, many living in adjacent Housing Authority property, to gather amongst food and art. Lake Effect's Sam Woods visited the garden in 2023 to learn how it was founded and what it's become.

Sam Woods: In a city of concrete, nicknamed after cream-colored bricks, keeping a connection to your family's agricultural roots might seem impossible, or at least impractical. But Santana Webb is finding a way. She has been growing food next to her midtown neighborhood home for over 10 years, together with her grandmother, Linda. Now, I visited her garden plot recently, and let me tell you, she beams with pride when she tells me about everything she's growing, from the tomatoes to the jalapenos, the peppers, the beans, all of it. But she also is reflective about how nurturing these crops helps her connect to her family's southern roots.

Santana Webb: My mom and my grandmother was actually raised in the South, so they make fried green tomatoes every now and then, and tomatoes are just great. And then the collards, my mom and grandmother, when they were in the south, they used to let the frost hit them first, and then they would pick them, because they taste better like that, and they're more tender and stuff. And then she stores them in freezer bags, so she could use them for like holidays, like New Year's Eve, Christmas. Sometimes she cooks them on Easter. So just like special events.

Sam Woods: And while Santana is the one connecting to family traditions established in previous generations, she actually played a big role in getting her family gardening again after they moved to Milwaukee. Originally starting in the Cherry Street Garden with her grandmother as a child, she slowly brought more and more of her family across the parking lot from their home to dig into the soil and develop their roots.

Santana Webb: Basically, after like the first or second year of gardening, I went back to my mother, and I was telling her about it, and like I was so eager. Like my mom, she knew that I really liked it, so I asked her if she'd start coming out and get a garden for me, so we can have our own garden. And she was like, "alright." She was like, "I'll try it." And so she started coming with me my grandmother. And basically, once we got her out, we got my other grandmother out. And since then everyone has been gardening.

Sam Woods: Stories like these bring a smile to Lisa Roszskowski's face. In 2012, Lisa and her husband Rick founded Cherry Street Garden, built on land owned by the Housing Authority and operated by Bloom MKE, a nonprofit that manages the garden, in addition to providing gardening education programs and even Little Free Library book drives. The garden was named for its proximity to Cherry Street in Milwaukee's Midtown neighborhood. But the cherry trees that line the garden's borders today would coincidentally come later.

Lisa Roszkowski: Yeah, this garden's really blossomed over the last 10, 12 years. So we started with 19 raised beds. We've now grown to 33, plus a few little spot gardens to kind of highlight some additional growing techniques. And then in 2015, the city put in an orchard space here. So we have cherry trees growing at Cherry Street Garden.

Sam Woods: Makes sense.

Lisa Roszkowski: And then I think we're actually the only orchard that got the cherry trees that year. So we're very happy to have those.

Sam Woods: Well, they probably saw your application and they were like, "Well, we have to give it to them, right?"

Lisa Roszkowski: Yeah, it's pretty spectacular also. The cherry trees are incredibly productive. Anybody and everybody should come by and pick those in July because we have plenty to share. And then we have the apple trees which are just coming into bloom now, into harvest time now. We're making some amazing apple cider out here in the garden, at a few different events. So we've got grown, both in the number of beds we have, as well as having the orchard. And we've also refurbished a lot of our beds from being the original eight-inch high beds to being more accessible 24-inch beds, because more than half the gardeners here are older or elderly and/or physically disabled. So our goal is for people to be able to easily reach into their bed, to be fully participating in the garden experience.

Sam Woods: Yeah, and so on that note of the gardeners who are here, the people who are gardening here, I see names on a lot of these beds, right? And from talking to some of the gardeners, my understanding is that a lot of them live in the surrounding area, right?

Lisa Roszkowski: Correct. So almost everybody who gardens here lives within walking distance. So either they live a block over at the Cherry Court Apartments, which is the Housing Authority building, or there's our surrounding neighborhoods, neighbors. Which is great. Keeps a lot of eyes on the garden. Keeps people walking over and engaged. And this is classified as a food desert, so it's really nice to have a space here where healthy food's getting grown. We have a couple beds that we plant just to share with neighbors, so that even if you don't buy in and have a bed and are one of the garden club members, you're still welcome here.

Sam Woods: Lisa and Rick established this garden for a very tangible purpose: access to healthy food in a food desert. Over time, though, the garden has served additional intangible purposes, like connecting Santana and her family to their southern roots, and recently, becoming a place where beauty is celebrated. At first, this meant flowers on the grounds. Natural for a garden, right? Bloom MKE received a grant to get some public art in the garden. They went straight to gardeners for ideas, who came back to them with ideas on how to celebrate the community that was building there, as well as to serve a functional purpose, like benches that are easy for people with mobility issues to get into and out of, as well a shade station held up by totems designed by local students, as well murals to celebrate the gardeners there. Altogether, these pieces are helping the garden function as a gathering place, both for pollinators and for people.

Lisa Roszkowski: I firmly believe that every neighborhood in this city deserves beauty. And so, to me, as a total gardener geek, to me that was flowers. To me, that was having the beauty of the natural surroundings. But then when we had this opportunity to get this community challenge grant from the Joy Engine project, they gave us the money and the founding, and honestly the inspiration to say, "Hey, what else could you do here?" And it has been out of this world transformational to me. As beautiful as it is, it's just a whole other level, now that there's art in the space. So they gave us this grant in the summer of 2022 and in the fall we started meeting with gardeners and doing listening sessions and saying, "What would you want to see?" And some themes came out really strongly. One was the gardeners felt that this is a space that's important for community building and community gathering. So they wanted to see more seating. They wanted to see some shade. I mean, none of us love sitting on the hot sun, but especially if you're elderly or if you are on some blood pressure medications, that hot sun can be dangerous. So we had the idea of part of the art could be this shade oasis that we're sitting in right now. And so we have the shade sail above us, but then instead of just having posts in the ground, we have these totems that were designed by Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design students and then carved by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee architecture students. So we have these carved totem posts holding up the shade sale. And then we have this amazing benches that were designed by the architecture students and built by them. And they are creative and comfortable. I'm glad to see it.

Sam Woods: Yeah!

Lisa Roszkowski: So it's it's been really amazing to to have this little oasis right in the middle of the garden, so you can sit here and look out at your plants and enjoy the natural beauty and be very comfortable doing that. But then, if you look around at the five different mural projects that are in here, it... For me, it just blows my mind. Each of them was done by a different Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design or MIAD student, or a group of students, but what you see is that they really heard from the listening sessions that we shared with them how important it was that the garden talk about family, that it talk about legacy, and the legacy of agriculture for people moving up from the South, as well as the sense of community they wanted to feel in this space. So when you look at these pieces, they're all unique and different. The artists have totally different styles, but you absolutely feel that sense of groundedness and community and family and how important the agricultural roots. That this community has are, even though they're now living in urban settings. And so to me, it really powerfully speaks for itself.

Sam Woods: One of those MIAD design students that Lisa mentioned is Isaic Pulliam. He met Lisa and Rick through the school service learning program, and he was immediately drawn to the project. He listened to stories about Santana and her grandmother and knew he wanted to feature them in a mural that he would create for the garden.

Isaic Pulliam: Well, when we heard about this opportunity, it was in the middle of winter, so there wasn't much action here in the garden.

Sam Woods: We don't really go outside in the winter.

Isaic Pulliam: Yeah. So basically, I just got a whole lot of photos from Lisa of Santana and her family, and I just created a photoshopped composition of the different photos that I had from them.

Sam Woods: Now, Isaic is a humble guy, and he's not one to talk himself up. And believe me, I tried to get him to do so, because this is a beautiful piece, beautiful in just a matter of fact, everyday, slice-of-life kind of sense. It captures Santana and her grandmother carrying their harvest home amidst a backdrop of cherry trees and fruiting tomatoes. When you look at the mural, it's as if Santana just noticed you standing there, while her grandmother just looks ready to get home and fry some fresh tomatoes after a long day harvesting. And Isaic is happy with how the piece turned out, but he's also happy with where it ended up. He sees gardens as a natural place for the visual arts to live, because he sees gardeners as artists, who have a similar process to muralists like himself, but just happen to use soil as their medium instead of paint.

Isaic Pulliam: It's a good feeling to be part of this community. And especially being in a community of gardeners, there's a lot of connections that go hand in hand with gardening and art, especially like from beginning to end deciding how you're gonna plan out like the process. You've got to plan out everything, like how you're going to apply everything, what you got, what materials you have to have used that get put into everything. And you don't really know how it's going to turn out until it's a finished product.

Sam Woods: After spending about an hour in the garden with Santana, Lisa, and Isaic, it felt like an extended exhale. More than a breath of fresh air, Cherry Street is a reminder of how beautiful our city can be when we take the time to nurture and appreciate it. For Lake Effect, I'm Sam Woods.

Joy Powers: The Cherry Street Community Garden is located near 23rd and Cherry Street and is managed by Bloom MKE, a non-profit organization that uses gardening to foster community engagement. And that wraps up today's show. Thank you so much for being here with us. I'm Joy Powers. If you miss any of Lake Effect, you can find all of our conversations at wuwm.com. If you'd like to take the show on the go, you can download the Lake Effect podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Tomorrow on Lake Effect, we'll learn about a library program working to improve early literacy skills. Plus, we'll about King's Chord, Rufus King High School's a capella group. Thanks so much for joining us right here on listener-supported 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR.