Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

This conversation is with Bert and John Jacobs, the co-founders of the apparel company Life Is Good .... and the co-authors of "Life is Good: The Book." 

Chris Ballard's book is titled "The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People who found their calling way off the beaten path."  

From the archives comes one of my all-time favorite interviews.  It's with sportswriter S. L. Price and his book "Heart of the Game:  Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America."   The book is about a much-admired minor league baseball player who was tragically killed when he was hit in the head by a line drive.  But beyond that, the book is also about the world of minor league baseball as a whole and both the joys and the stresses that its players experience.  

For Nan Calvert's monthly environmental program, we talk about the Zero Waste Initiative in Racine - which is a proposal that goes before the Racine Common Council on Tuesday.  'Zero Waste' initiatives have sprung up in cities and communities across the country.  In this conversation, we explore the many ways in which we generate far more waste than we need to- the difficulties that communities face when their landfills reach capacity- and what we can do as citizens and consumers to combat the problem.  

Part one of today's program is a preview of the Four Seasons Garden Club's annual Secret Garden Walk - in which people can walk through seven local gardens that are normally private residential gardens.  This year's tour also includes the Chiwaukee Prairie.   Part two preview's the performances occurring this weekend and the following weekend by Fleeing Artists Theater of William Shakespeare's most violent play,  "Titus Andronicus."  

Alexander Garvin is the author of "The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for the New Century."   His book examines some of the most impressive success stories with downtowns- such as New York City, Chicago, Houston, etc.- and also looks at downtowns such as Detroit and St. Louis that are struggling.    Garvin teaches at Yale.  

This interview explores the principle of Religious Liberty - the notion that people should be free to believe what they believe - and how Religious Liberty for Muslims is being challenged in Modern America.   Asma T. Uddin is a Muslim and an attorney who works on cases involving Religious Liberty.  Her new book is titled "When Islam is not a Religion: Inside America's Fight for Religious Freedom."  The book is both only a wide-ranging examination of the issue as well as a very personal chronicle of what the author herself has experienced as a Muslim living in America. 

This interview from 2010 was recorded to commemorate an important anniversary for a beloved local educator and musician named Frank Germinaro - the 40th anniversary of his first kidney transplant.    Frank and his wife Janet came on the Morning Show to talk about their journey and about this extraordinary milestone.  

This interview is with John Sullivan, author of "7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin."  This 2010 biography chronicles the career and explores the extraordinary influence of one of the most innovative comedians of his time. 

Part One of today's podcast is an interview with Adam Waytz, author of "The Power of Human: How our Shared Humanity can Help us Create a Better World."   Waytz explores (among other things) how human beings can flourish in a world that is increasingly automated.  Part Two has Allen Shawn talking about his memoir "Wish I Could Be There:  Notes from a Phobic Life," in which the author recounts how his life has been riddled with many and various phobias and the ways in which he has worked to contend with those phobias. 

Etiquette author Judith Martin (a.k.a. Miss Manners) discusses her book "Star Spangled Manners: In Which Miss Manners Defends American Etiquette (For a Change.)"  It is the contention of the author that American manners are often unfairly criticized, when in fact America deserves credit for its laudable innovations.  There is a small flaw in the audio file at the very end of the interview.  My apologies.  

This interview is a preview of a superb three-part documentary titled "Chasing the Moon" that airs next week (July 8, 9 and 10) on the PBS series American Experience to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.    My guest is Robert Stone,  an Academy Award nominee, who both directed and produced the film.  Stone calls this the biggest undertaking of his career - and 25 years in the making.  

Best-selling author's Peter Stark examines George Washington as a young adult in his illuminating book "Young Washington:  How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father."   

David E. Drew's book is titled "Stem the Tide:  Reforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in America."  It is Professor Drew's contention that the United States is falling behind our global competitors when it comes to educating our young people in the so-called S.T.E.M. fields.  

This interview is with best-selling author Jon Meachem, talking about his book "Franklin and Winston," which explores the out-of-the-ordinary friendship between two of the most important figures of the mid-20th century:   U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 

This interview from 1998 is with Dr. John Windh, the longtime director of the Carthage Choir.  It was recorded shortly after the completion of a European choir tour by a group comprised of alumni from the Carthage Choir.  (Yours truly came along as the spouse of a Carthage Choir alum.)  The tour went to Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and Venice.   I'm sharing this podcast episode because the current Carthage Choir is about to depart on a tour of Austria.  

Paul Beston is the author of "The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the World."  Beston looks at the careers of such boxing legends as Jack Johnson,  Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis,  Rocky Marciano,  Cassius Clay,  Joe Frazier and Evander Holyfield.

Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin talks about his memoir "Alan Arkin: An Improvised Life."   

Part One:  Ron Pyle talks about his book "First to the Moon: an Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Experience."  The book is enriched by many photographs that have never been published or shared with the public.   Part Two:  Martin Rosenberg discusses his book "War as they knew it:  Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest."   The book explores two of college football's most noteworthy coaches and how their respective programs functioned during the height of the Viet Nam War. 

This interview is with Nicholas Carr, author of "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains."  The book not only discusses the effects of the internet but also looks at other technological breakthroughs in human history (such as the printing press) and how those innovations affected human beings and how they thought about and processed all that they experienced.