Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

We begin the interview with Aldo Cazzullo, a renowned Italian journalist, talking about his newest book- which is also his first book intended for an international audience ... "The Neverending Empire: The Infinite Impact of Ancient Rome." The book sketches the long history of the Roman Empire and explores the many ways in which it is still a vital part of cultural and political life in the West. We finish out the hour with a portion of a 2009 interview with Adrian Goldsworthy, who discusses his book "Why Rome Fell." (We'll share the Goldsworthy conversation in its entirety in tomorrow's podcast.)

We preview Saturday night's concert of the Kenosha Symphony with conductor Robert Hasty and guest cellist Alexander Hersch, an award-winning young cellist who is also responsible for creating a series of compelling videos featuring some of his favorite chamber music. (They can be viewed on YouTube.) He'll be playing the Haydn Cello Concerto in C Saturday night. Also, Katie Gray talks about the Lakeside Players' production of the musical "Hairspray" that opened last weekend and runs for the next two weekends. Behind the show's lively score is a story about diversity and inclusiveness.

We talk about the 25 years of the Arthur F. and Mary Lou Mahone Foundation- and the annual Reaching for Rainbows Pursuit of Excellence Gala that will be happening at Carthage this Friday evening - an event at which a number of collegiate scholarships will be given, and past recipients will be honored. We speak with Tim Mahone and Ardis Mahone Mosley- Tamara Coleman, CEO of the Racine YMCA and the parent of a scholarship recipient- and Kalon Bell, a 2012 Mahone scholarship recipient who has returned to Kenosha to give back to his home community.

Gabe Henry discusses his new book "Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell." The book, though entertaining, is a thoroughly serious and meticulous chronicle of the concerted efforts that have been made over the years to make the English language easier to spell. Advocates for such reforms have included Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, Mark Twain, and Theodore Roosevelt. Needless to say, all of those efforts have been unsuccessful. The book also sketches the history of the language and how it became so unpredictable in its spelling.

From the archives- Fern Schumer Chapman, author of "Brothers, Sisters, Strangers: Sibling Estrangement and the Road to Reconciliation."

From 2016- Dr. Allan J. Hamilton talks about his book "Lead with your Heart: Lessons from a Life with Horses."

From 2012 - Michael Wallis talks about his book "David Crockett: The Lion of the West." The title refers to a famous early American known to most people as Davy Crockett. The book seeks to separate fact from myth.

Attorney-turned-writer Mike Papantonio talks about his latest book .... a novel titled "The Middleman" ..... which sheds light on the so-called 'middlemen' in the pharmaceutical industry who help to drive up costs for consumers.

Brian Gill joins us from the theater faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside to talk about their production of Shakespeare's MacBeth, which is performed for the next two weekends on the main stage of The Rita. MacBeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies and a truly remarkable play around which a great deal of mystique has developed over the years.

We explore undergraduate research with a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and three UW-Parkside students who were recently honored for their outstanding research work. Dr. David Higgs, Professor of Biological Sciences, will be joined by Connor Alton, Mallory Farmer, and Magnus Schroeder.

For the last day of National Autism Awareness Month, we are sharing a 2012 interview with best-selling author Sy Montgomery, talking about her book "Temple Grandin: How the girl who loved cows embranced Autism and changed the world." After that comes an excerpt from a 2006 interview with Temple Grandin herself, talking about her best-known book, "Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior." In the book, Grandin explains how her autism has actually enhanced her ability to understand the thinking of animals and how they see and move through the world.

Elizabeth Minnich discusses her remarkable new book "The Evil of Banality- On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking." At the heart of Minnich's book is an examination of the phenomenon of what she calls Extensive Evil, where many people allow some sort of evil to occur. American Slavery, the Holocaust, and the Genocide in Rwanda are three examples of Extensive Evil (as opposed to Intensive Evil, in which an evil act is perpetrated by an individual or small group of people. Minnich contends that it is when we live life thoughtlessly that we so easily become participants in evil on a widespread scale. Minnich worked for many years with Hannah Arendt, who coined the phrase "the banality of evil" in the early 1960s and was harshly criticized for it.

We preview an Independent Lens documentary airing tomorrow night titled "Free For All," which chronicles the history of public libraries in the United States and highlights some of the people who have figured most prominently in that history. The film also celebrates the many ways in which public libraries have been called upon to transform themselves in the 21st century and broaden what it means to be a public library.

For National Autism Awareness Month, we replay this 2007 conversation with J. Elder Robison, talking about his memoir "Look me in the eye: My Life with Aspberger's."

From 2010- W. B ruce Cameron talks about his best-selling novel "A Dog's Purpose

We preview three different musical events happening this weekend: the University of Wisconsin-Parkside orchestra concert Saturday afternoon .... the Racine Symphony Orchestra Saturday night ..... and the musical "Head over Heels" at Carthage College.

For Holocaust Remembrance Day.... here is my complete interview with Alexandra Zapruder, author and editor of "Salvaged Pages: Young Persons' Diaries from the Holocaust."

For Holocaust Remembrance Day - here is a portion of my 2002 interview with Alexandra Zapruder, author and editor of "Salvaged Pages: Young Persons' Diaries from the Holocaust." The book presents 15 diaries that are somewhat comparable to the famous diary of Anne Frank. Each of them offers a unique and compelling account of what it was like to live through those terrifying and tragic events. <The entire interview, which lasted nearly eighty minutes, is also being shared in its entirety in a separate episode.>

Ross Benes talks about his newest book, "1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted our Bizarre Times." The book examines the dramatic emergence of the Jerry Springer Show, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, the video game Grand Theft Auto, and other examples of what Benes refers to as 'low culture.'

In honor of Earth Day ..... Part One: (from 2022) Carole Douglis, co-author (with Peter Fiekowsky) of "Climate Restoration: The Only Future That Will Sustain The Human Race." Part Two: (from 2024) Eric Schaeffer, founder and director of the Environmental Integrity Project, which monitors the work of the EPA.