Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

Nan Calvert welcomes to the program Dave Giordano (executive director) and Kristine Heuser (storm water consultant) for Root Pike WIN (Watershed Initiative) to talk about a couple of exciting projects, including one that involves a partnership with Microsoft. NOTE: Nan Calvert has been arranging for monthly environmentally-themed Morning Show interviews for the past 18 years. This is her final such interview as co-host. At the end of this interview, she introduces Kailyn Palomares- education manager at Hawthorn Hollow- who will be taking over. We plan to share some favorite Nan interviews from the past in the Saturday and Sunday podcasts for the next several weekends, in honor of and appreciation for the great contribution that Nan has made to the program over these many years.

From 2004 - Ron Clark, author of "The Excellent 11: Qualities Teachers and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire and Educate Children."

Dr. Kathleen Corley talks about her book "The Magical Place We Call School: Creating a Safe Space for Learning and Happiness in a Challenging World." Dr. Corley has served as the first principal for four different public schools. She started out her career as an elementary music teacher.

Part 1 - David Anderson, music director of the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, talks about recent and future projects with the ensemble (whose members are all volunteers.) The group has an Around The World gala fundraiser this weekend. Part 2- (from the archives) Joanne Lipman, author of "Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Gift of Great Expectations."

Roger Moreano, founder and president of Bridges 4 Justice (and former staff member at Carthage College) talks about Racism. He will be facilitating a so-called Courageous Conversation about racism this Thursday evening at Kenosha's Civil War Museum. - -- The program finishes out with an excerpt from a 2014 interview with Debby Irving, author of a memoir called "Waking Up White- and finding myself in the story of race."

From the fall of 2022 - Kenosha's own John Hambrock and Ann Morse Hambrock discuss their comic strip "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" shortly after it received the highest award given to newspaper comic strips- the Silver Reuben from the National Cartoonists Society.

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

From 2016- Howard Sounes talks about his book "27: A History of the 27 Club thru the lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse." These six music superstars share something tragic in common- all six of them died at the age of 27.

We talk with Dr. James Ripley, director of instrumental activities at Carthage College, and five members of the Wind Orchestra that has just returned from its tour of Japan. The group plays its homecoming concert this Sunday afternoon, February 4th, 2:00 in Siebert Chapel. (Joining Dr. Ripley were Jack Kelley, Rosie Ehle, Ella Monk, Vinnie David and John Cargille.)

Simon Shuster, correspondent for Time magazine, talks about his new book "The Showman: Inside the invasion that shook the world and made a leader of Volodymyr Zelensky." Zelensky was an entertainer before his unlikely rise to power as the leader of Ukraine. Shuster was granted remarkable access to Zelensky and was actually on the ground in Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. (This is the full interview. An abridged version of the interview aired on today's Morning Show broadcast.)

Mike Frontier and Mark Hertzberg talk about the proposed ice arena in Racine County and what it would mean for the community.

Rich Smith, managing artistic director of the Over Our Head Players in Racine, talks about the Snowdance 10-Minute Comedy Festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It has been a blockbuster success, with hundreds and hundreds of submissions coming from writers all across the country. (As of this posting, there appear to be a few seats available for some of the March performances.)

Part One: Dr. Ritu Raju, the president of Gateway Technical College, pays her first visit to the Morning Show. Part Two: (from 2011) Activist-turned-author Erin Brockovich talks about her novel "Hot Water."

Julie Farnam, author of "Domestic Darkness: An Insider's Account of the January 6th Insurrection and the Future of Right-Wing Extrermism." Farnam was an intelligence office for the Capitol Police at the time of the insurrection- and her warnings of the likelihood of such an attack went largely unheeded.

From 2014- John Feinstein, author of "Where Nobody Knows your Name: Life in the minor leagues of baseball."

From 2012- Mark Bowden, author of "The Finish: THe Killing of Osama Bin Laden."

Part 1- Barney Saltzberg, author of a new children's book called "Arlo Needs Glasses." Part 2- (from 2007) Robert Kurson, author of "Crashing Through: A true story of risk, adventure, and the man who dared to see." It's the true story of a man blinded by an accident at the age of 3 who was offered the chance to have his vision restored with a revolutionary stem cell surgery. Part 3- (from 2024) David Shoemaker, author of "The Squared Circle: Life, Death and Professional Wrestling." We're replaying this because of a major motion picture, "The Iron Claw," which is in movie theaters right now. It tells the tragic true story of the Von Erich Family. (They figure prominently in Shoemaker's book.)

Dr. Elizabeth Brownson, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, discusses the historic context of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She is teaching a one-day course on the topic for Adventures in Lifelong Learning on February 8th.

From 2011- Ethan Trex, editor/co-author of "Mental Floss: The Book - The Greatest Lists in the History of Listory."

We talk about the proposed renovation of the ceremonial courtroom in the Kenosha County Courthouse with retired Circuit Court Judge Mary K. Wagner and Kenosha County Projects Manager Frank Martinelli. The once beautiful room was drastically altered in 1970 to accommodate much-needed air conditioning- and the proposed renovation will restore the room to its original splendor.