Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

This interview with Tony Award-winning singer Brian Stokes Mitchell was recorded back in 2010, before his first appearance on the Music by the Lake series in Lake Geneva.  He is back for a concert in Lake Geneva on Saturday evening,  August 10th!    (A new interview with Brian Stokes Mitchell that I recently recorded will air on Monday morning - and will drop as a podcast later that day.)   

Our guests are Debbie Ford,  chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside ... and David Brukardt,  Interim Vice-President of Corporate Relations for the UW System .... talk about the presentation that they made at the University Industry Innovation Network conference in Helsinki, Finland earlier this summer.   

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for National Public Radio- and the host of the popular podcast "Pop Culture Happy Hour."   She has just published her first novel - titled "Evvie Drake Starts Over" - and it has earned rave reviews.   

The summer of 2019 is the 40th summer that the American Players Theater have presented first-rate open-air live theater performances in Spring Green, WI.   We speak with Brenda DaVita, artistic director of APT,  who has been with them for 25 years.  

In anticipation of this weekend's Relay for Life in Kenosha - a benefit for the American Cancer Society - we hear the stories of three cancer survivors:  Michelle Jenewein, Christina Spears, and Kathy Vescova.  We also speak with Matthew Elmer, Sr. Community Development Manager for the American Cancer Society.  

Cameron Swallow,  First Lady of Carthage College, returns to the Morning Show to talk about the organization Better Angels, which seeks to facilitate civil and meaningful dialogue between political conservatives ('reds') and liberals ('blues.')  A documentary film about Better Angels is being screened this Thursday at the Southwest Public Library in Kenosha-  and there will also be a screening in Union Grove on Monday.   Both screenings are free and open to the public.  

On the 90th birthday of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, we replay this conversation with best-selling biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli in which he talks about his book "Jackie, Janet, Lee:  The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and her daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill."  

From the archives comes this fascinating look at the exploits of two outstanding high school wrestlers in Iowa- each of whom is hoping to win his fourth straight state championship title - an extraordinarily difficult achievement.  Mark Kreidler's marvelous book is titled "Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland."   

This is a preview of two big events occurring in Kenosha over the first weekend in August-  the Tall Ships Festival and the Pike River Rendezvous.  My guests are Kris Kochman, Community liaison for the City of Kenosha (and coordinator of major events for the City of Kenosha) and Nancy Mathews, who recently retired from the Kenosha Public Museum but happily agreed to help coordinate this year's 22nd Pike River Rendezvous,   which is a large-scale re-enactment of life in Wisconsin at the height of the fur trade industry (1650-1850.)  

The Carthage Choir scored an impressive (and fairly rare) double-decker victory at this summer's Spittal Choral Competition in Austria - in which ten choirs from ten different nations compete with one another.  The Carthage Choir ended up finishing in first place in both the Folk Music category and the Classical category.  Chronicling that experience are Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, conductor of the Carthage Choir - and three members of the choir:  Elena Cressy (choir president,)  Christopher Wojciechowicz (vice president) and London Roysden.  

In the summer of 1995,  the city of Chicago was besieged by a horrific heat wave that saw temperatures of 106 degrees and a heat index of 126 degrees - and by the time it was done,  700 people were believed to have perished due to the heat.   NYU Sociology Professor Eric Klinenberg (who was born and raised in Chicago) wanted to know why so many people died- and why particular neighborhoods and particular sectors of the population suffered exceptionally high death rates.  His 2002 book is titled "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago."   

We talk about the play "Boswell" with its playwright, Marie Kohler, and three people involved in the production of the play that is being performed at UW-Parkside this weekend before being taken to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland- one of the most important theatrical festivals in the world. 

Carthage College Associate Professor of Education Jackie Easley offers some intriguing ideas on how to keep children reading through the summer months. 

This memorable interview was done in the studios of WGTD back in 2000 when Sergei Khrushchev,  the son of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev,  visited the campus of Carthage College.   Not long before his visit,  he had written a book about his father titled "Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Super Power."   Sergei Khrushchev  had a hand in the Soviet space program and knew many of its principal players.   Sergei Khrushchev is a featured guest in the new American Experience documentary "Chasing The Moon."  

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon - which occurred 50 years ago today -  we replay two interviews that were originally recorded in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.  Part One is Craig Nelson, author of "Rocket Man: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon."   Part Two is Andrew Chaikin, author of "Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe their Lunar Experiences."   

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon,  Carthage College professor Dr. Art Cyr offers his reflections on the importance of Apollo 11 and the entire American space program, both then and now.   The interview begins with analysis of recent events in Great Britain, Turkey, and Hong Kong.    Dr. Cyr is Director of the Clausen Center and is Clausen Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and World Business.   Professor Cyr is a monthly visitor to the Morning Show.  

This is the monthly visit of Gateway Technical College president Bryan Albrecht.  His guest is Dr. Casey Sacks, Deputy Assistantship Secretary for Community Colleges in the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education for the U.S. Department of Education.   The two of them were part of an American delegation that visited Switzerland to examine the ways in which they handle apprenticeships in higher education.   

This 2011 conversation is with Patricia Bosworth,  author of "Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman."   Ms. Fonda is going strong at the age of 80, co-starring in the popular series "Grace and Frankie" with Lily Tomlin.   She is among the most gifted, ambitious and controversial artists of her era. 

This is a conversation about comedic improvisation (think about the TV show "Whose Line is it Anyway?" or Comedy Sportz) - its joys and its challenges - with three participants in the Over Our Head Players' improv event that's coming up over the next two weekends at the Sixth Street Theater.   Kristen Altoff, who teaches improv, has organized the event- A.J. Laird and Malissa Zeien are two of the six actors who will be onstage.   We talk about what it takes to do comedy improv well.  

Allen Salkin is co-author of "The Method to the Madness:  Donald Trump's Ascent as told by those how were hired, fired, inspired- and inaugurated." This book chronicles the years 2000-2015, the fifteen years before Donald Trump officially declared himself a candidate for U.S. President- a period of time during which Mr. Trump repeatedly explored the possibility of pursuing the presidency.  The co-authors spoke to more than one hundred people associated with Mr. Trump, including insiders like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone as well as others like Katie Couric and Jessie Ventura.