WGTD's The Morning Show with Greg Berg

We are rebroadcasting this 2009 interview in memory of Dr. Tom Noer, a longtime and beloved memory of the Carthage faculty (he taught history there for 4 years) who passed away on April 7th. In this interview, Professor Noer talks about G. Mennen Williams, a highly unconventional political figure whom Professor Noer greatly admired. We also hear from Professor Noer on how he went about researching the life and career of Williams.

From 2007 - Benjamin Woolley discusses his book "Savage Kingdom: The true story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America." 2007 marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

From 2015- Patrick McGilligan talks about his book "Young Orson: The years of luck and genius on the path to Citizen Kane." 2015 was the year of the renowned filmmaker's 100th birthday. Welles born in Kenosha, and the city welcomed a number of experts to its Welles Centennial Celebration; McGilligan was one of them.

Part 1 - Sy Montgomery talks about her latest book, "Secrets of the Octopus" (published by National Geographic.) Part 2- (from the archives) World-renowned chef Eric Ripert talks about two of his books: "Avec Ripert" and "On the Line."

Kailyn Palormares is naturalist and education manager for Hawthorn Hollow. With her is a colleague of hers, Emily Leonard, who is the resident ecologist there. We explore together the important topics of invasive species and habitat restoration.

Sarah Ashworth, director of Wisconsin Public Radio, talks about the changes in WPR's operation that were announced yesterday - and the impact of those changes on the listeners of WGTD. WPR's two networks are being renamed and realigned. WGTD will become part of WPR News. The changes go into effect on May 20th. (More information about the changes is available at wpr.org/new.)

Award-winning artist and illustrator Ed Steckley talks about his wide-ranging career, which has includes work for Mad Magazine and Saturday Night Live. He recently won a Reuben Award for Best in Book Illustration. We also talk about some of the ways in which the industry has dramatically changed in recent years thank to new technologies.

We speak with renowned Tony Award-winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice, whose setting of "From Here to Eternity" opens this Friday night at Milwaukee's Skylight Theatre and runs through early May. Sir Tim Rice's credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Lion King, Aida, Chess, and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Rice's "From Here to Eternity" (with music by Stuart Brayson) premiered in 2013. Skylight's production is the show's midwest premiere.

From 2017 - Nancy Davies, a woman active in community theater in Southeastern Wisconsin, talks about her lifelong love of the circus and the experience of working with Ringling Brothers. The interview was recorded shortly after Ringling Bros. announced the shuttering of its "Greatest Show on Earth." (It remained dormant until last year when it was revived in a different format that does not utilize live animals.)

From 2010- Steven Solomon, author of "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization." In his fascinating book, Solomon charts how the need to secure plentiful fresh water has helped shape the history of human civilization.

Best-selling author Keith O'Brien talks about his new book "Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball." The book chronicles Pete's blue collar roots, his improbable rise to greatness as one of baseball's greatest hitters, and the disastrous disintegration of his career due to his gambling addiction. (Pete Rose was banished from major league baseball for the rest of his life.) In part two, we go into the archives for a 2010 interview with Tim Wendel, author of "High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of all time."

We learn all about the non-profit group Adventures in Lifelong Learning (A.L.L.) from president Shelly Underhill, past-president Karen Kempinen, and day trips co-chair Carole Kotese.

Just in time for the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8th - we hear from David Baron, author of "American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World." The book focuses on the 1878 total solar eclipse that was visible in much of the United States. A trio of brilliant Americans (including a young Thomas Alva Edison and an extraordinary young astronomer named Maria Mitchell) raced to the Rocky Mountains to view the eclipse, gather information, and help elevate America's status in the eyes of the world's scientific community. Baron is himself an 'umbraphile,' which means he is an eclipse chaser; he traveled around the world to observe multiple total solar eclipses. The book was initially released in 2017; it has been re-released with a new afterword.

From the archives: Marta McDowell, author of "Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places that Inspired the Iconic Poet." [Today's Morning Show broadcast was with gardening expert Nina Koziol. That interview was shared in the podcast back on March 28th.]

From 2018 - Richard Ratay, author of "Don't make me pull over: an informal history of the family road trip."

25 years ago this year, Bert and John Jacobs ... two college-age brothers .... designed and sold their first t-shirts. They eventually founded the company Life is Good. In honor of that anniversary, here is an interview where they talk about the Life is Good book that they co-wrote.

From 2005- Stanley Newman's Opus 100 Crosswords.

From 2020- Matt Richtel, author of "An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System- A Tale in Four Lives."

Sneak Preview: One of the most prominent gardening experts/writers/teachers in the Chicago-area, Nina Koziol, is coming to Kenosha on Thursday evening, April 4th- in a program sponsored by the Four Seasons Garden Club. The interview is being broadcast on April 2nd, but we're sharing the interview today in podcast format since the event is coming up so soon.

Dr. Art Cyr

This is a newly-recorded interview with Debbie Irving, looking back over the last ten years since the publication of her memoir "Waking Up White: and finding myself in the Story of Race."

From 2014 - Debbie Irving, author of "Waking up White: and finding myself in the Story of Race." The book is a remarkably honest memoir about Irving's realization (in adulthood) that she had harbored all kinds of racist attitudes that she never realized were there. The book also explores the reality of systemic racism. (Tomorrow, we'll have a newly-recorded interview with Irving in which she looks back over the past ten years.)

We preview the next American Experience documentary film - "The Cancer Detectives" - with co-directors/co-producers Amanda Pollak and Gene Tempest. The film talks about the most important breakthrough in early cancer detection among woman: the pap smear, named for Dr. George Papanicolaou. The film charts the circuitous route by which this became a well-established practice- and the various barriers and attitudes that had to be surmounted. The film also tells about the enormously important contributions made to the cause by Dr. Papanicolaou's wife Andromachi and others.

From 2017 - S.C. Gwynne, author of "The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Revinvention of Football." The book is primarily the story of two football geniuses, Hal Mumme and Mike Leach, who helped revolutionize the game of football with a radical approach to the passing game that had never been seen before.

From 2020- Tom Clavin discusses his book "Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier's First Gunfighter."

We catch up with Dr. Thomas Carr, director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology, and Dr. Megan Seitz, who is the program's Preparator. We will revisit the history of the program, the way in which it has grown both in size and stature over the years, and the work that each of them does. We talk about plans for their next 'dinosaur dig' in Montana this summer. We also discuss a serious budgetary issue that threatens the very existence of the program. Last but not least - there is an amazing moment when I (Greg Berg) get to hold an actual dinosaur bone!

Sports journalist and podcaster Ann Liguori talks about her newest book, "Life on the Green: Lessons and Wisdom from Legends of Golf." In it, she shares some of the life lessons that some of the sport's greatest stars have learned through the course of their professional careers.

We introduce you to Aubrey Marquez, a junior at Park High School who is an apprentice at Delta Hawk, an exciting young engine company in Racine. We also speak with two Racine Unified School District employees who have worked with Aubrey - school counselor Jeffrey Wilkins and youth apprentice coordinator Mike Lynch - as well as two employees at Delta Hawk .... Lisa Booker, head of HR, and Aaron Nieto, lead engine technician. In Part Two, we hear from the author of the book "Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life."

From 2020- for Women's History Month- Lucinda Robb (granddaughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson) and Rebecca Boggs Roberts (daughter of Cokie Roberts) talk about their book "The Suffragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World." The book examines some of the most important suffragists and how they managed to accomplish what they did- often against nearly insurmountable odds.

Dr. John Swallow- the president of Carthage College

From 2003 - Malachy McCourt (younger brother of best-selling author Frank McCourt) discusses his book "The Claddagh Ring: Ireland's Cherished Symbol of Friendship, Loyalty and Love."

From 2005 - Dr. Stanley Coren, author of "How Dogs Think: What the world looks like to them and why they act the way they do." Also, Emily Yoffe, author of "What the Dog Did: Tales from a formerly reluctant dog owner."

Dr. Lynn Akey, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, pays her first visit to the Morning Show. She assumed her position at Parkside in January.

Kailyn Palomares has taken over from Nan Calvert in organizing monthly Morning Show programs around various topics related to the environment and the natural world. Today's program focuses primarily on Maple Sugaring as it takes place at Hawthorn Hollow, where Kailyn is Naturalist and Education Manager. With her today is Hawthorn Hollow's Executive Director, TJ Leveque.

We speak with director Steve Mattnor and actor Sean Collier about the lakeside players' production of "The 39 Steps," a comic parody of the classic 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name.

We preview the Carthage College theater department's production of Eric Overmyer's "On the Verge, or The Geography of Yearning" with Professor Herschel Kruger as well as two students involved in the production: assistant director/dramaturg Katie Layendecker and costume designer Ani Gebaur.

Best-selling author Tiffany Jewell talks about her most recent book "Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned In School." Growing up in Syracuse, NY as a biracial young woman whom the schools categorized as white, the author was in an uncommon position to witness the many and various ways in which the school district failed to properly serve most of its students of color.

Part 1 - We catch up with the spectacular musical duo of Mia X Ally (Mia is a superb violinist, Ally is a award-winning bagpiper) who will be performing in Milwaukee on Saint Patrick's Day. Part 2 - (from 2016) the late Indian chef Raghavan Iyer talks about his book "Smashed, Mashed, Boiled and Baked: A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Recipes."

From a few years ago- three Carthage College faculty members: Wayne Thompson, Matt Borden, and Dimitri Shapovalov, talk about their respective experiences with bilingualism in the home- either as parents or growing up in a bilingual household.

From 2013- an exploration of the human voice with Elena Passarello, author of "Let me clear my throat."

Victoria Philips, author of "Martha Graham's Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy." The book explores some of the ways in which the renowned dancer and choreographer was utilized by the American government as a diplomatic tool at the height of the Cold War.

Russ Johnson, director of jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, talks about Jazz Week 2024, which is next week. We also talk about the difference between playing jazz and classical trumpet.

From 2009- Suzan Colon talks about her book "Cherries in Winter: My family's recipe for hope in hard times."

We talk about KAFASI (Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services) and their many programs with Executive Director Ron Tatum and AmericCorps Senior Project Director Rebecca Stevens. We give special emphasis to Meals on Wheels. (Next week they are doing a special event to draw attention to this life-changing program.)

Alexander R. Brash, author of "A Whaler at Twilight: A true account of Whaling and Redemption in the South Pacific." Brash's great-great grandfather fell on hard times and took to drinking, and ultimately chose to join a whaling expedition in the 1840s. He wrote a detailed account of his experiences that was shown to Brash a few years ago. This book is based on that journal as well as on the author's extensive research into the whaling industry in this period of time.

For Women's History Month: From 2003, Queen Noor, Queen of Jordan from 1978 to 1999, talks about her book "Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life."

From 2017 - Marc Elliot discusses his book "Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon."

Part 1- Zane E. Asher, author of "Where the Children Take Us: How one family achieved the unimaginable." The book his Asher's tribute to her mother and how she managed to raise her children as an unwed mother, often amid staggeringly difficult circumstances. Part 2- Sam Maggs, author of "Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors and Trailblazers."

Lucas Peters talks about his Moon Guide "Grand European Journeys: 40 Unforgettable Trips by Road, Rail, Sea and More." Also, from the archives- Rick Steves talks about his guide for cruises around the Mediterranean Sea.

Part One: We speak with Brian Gill, Associate Professor of Theater Arts at the University of WIsconsin-Parkside, about their production of "When We Dead Awaken," the last play by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Part Two: Singer Lynette Knapp Ryan talks about her cabaret program "I Wanna Fly," which is being presented under the auspices of Milwaukee Opera Theater.