Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

Dean Tolson, author of "Power Forward: My Journey from Illiterate NBA Player to a Magna cum laude Master's Degree."

Judith Pearson talks about her new book "Crusade to Heal America: The Remarkable Life of Mary Lasker." She spent decades of her life relentlessly lobbying for the federal government to underwrite medical research. Her husband, Albert Lasker, was an advertising genius who gave her invaluable assistance and advice.

From 2004 - Best-selling author John Weisman talks about his thriller "Jack in the Box."

We dug deep into the Morning Show archives to find this interview recorded by Bill Guy, the original host of the Morning Show. It's a conversation with architect John Eifler about the work of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright.

We preview two theatrical productions opening this weekend. Part 1: "Seasonal Allergies" at the Racine Theater Guild .... Part 2: "Blithe Spirit" at the Lakeside Players in Kenosha.

Part One: Don Pompei, co-author of "The Football 100," a book that presents a carefully crafted list of the 100 greatest players in NFL history - with illuminating portraits of each player. Part Two: (from 2008) Michael Rosenberg, author of "War as they knew it: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest." The book is about these two legendary college football coaches and their programs during the tumult of the Viet Nam War.

In anticipation of UW-Parkside's upcoming Nonprofit Leadership Conference on Friday, November 17th, we speak with Debra Karp, Director of the Alan E. Guskin Center for Community and Business Engagement at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and Beth Ridley, who is the keynote speaker for this year's event.

Dr. Art Cyr, from the faculty at Carthage College, pays his monthly visit to the program - offering his thoughts on the Hamas attack on Israelis in the Gaza Strip, an historic accord reached between the U.S. and Viet Nam, and the ongoing struggles of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to select a new Speaker to replace ousted Kevin McCarthy.

Ed Haddon's book is "The Modern Maverick: Why writing your own rules is better for you, your work, and the world." Haddon argues in his book that adhering to the tried-and-true or conventional way of doing things can be a trap that prevents us from realizing our full potential.

From 2004- Peter Smith, author of "Two of Us: The Story of a Father, a Son, and The Beatles." This memoir is the story of how Smith and his son became much closer to each other through their mutual love for the music of The Beatles.

From 2005- Michael Finkel talks about his riveting book "True Story: Murder, Memoir, and Mea Culpa." Finkel's was fired from New York Times Magazine in a very public and embarrassing professional reversal - and shortly thereafter, his identification was stolen by a fugitive wanted for murder. It's an incredible story that became a major motion picture of the same name in 2015.

Gail Merrifield Papp talks about her fascinating memoir "Public/Private: My Life with Joe Papp at the Public Theater." Joe Papp's remarkable theatrical career included creating free performances of Shakespeare in Central Park- and creating and running NYC's Public Theater, where groundbreaking works like "Hair" and "A Chorus Line" had their world premieres. Gail Papp was an indispensable assistant to her husband until his death in 1995.

For Nan Calvert's monthly visit to the Morning Show, she welcomed back Dr. Marissa Jablonski from the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to talk about the enormous damage done to the environment by plastics- and what we can do to reduce our own usage of plastics in our daily lives- and what needs to be done in the realm of public policy and industrial practices to effectively confront the crisis.

Nadia Steinzor from the Environmental Integrity Project talks about their new report titled "The Aluminum Paradox" that outlines some of the environmental damage that is done in the way we currently produce aluminum, a material that - ironically - figures prominently in some alternative energies.

Michael D. Smith, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, discusses his new book "The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education in the Digital World." Smith offers up some provocative ideas about how higher education should reevaluate its mission and priorities as we move further and further into the Digital Era.

The Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin is performing Adrian Snell's "The Cry: A Requiem for the Lost Child" this Saturday night at 7 p.m. We speak with conductor James Schatzman, violinist Rebecca Engstrom, soprano soloist Talia Engstrom, and baritone soloist Leif Olsen. The performance will feature projected images of artwork by Ukrainian children.

From 2018 - Pulitzer Prize winning author Alvin E. Roth discusses his book "Who Gets What - and Why: The Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design."

(From 2021) In honor of UW-Parkside's production of "The Laramie Project," which is being performed this weekend and next weekend, we are sharing a MS conversation from the summer of 2021 about the Racine Theater Guild's virtual performance of "The Laramie Project," which concerns the murder of Matthew Shepard outside of Laramie, Wyoming - and the struggles of the people of Laramie to come to terms with that savage hate crime. It was 25 years ago on October 12th that Matthew Shepard died.

Investigative Reporter Irving Muchnick (Concussion, Inc. - "Wrestling Babylon") discusses his latest book, "Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads: The American Way of Death in Football Conditioning." The book examines the disturbing phenomenon of young football players dying during conditioning workouts. The book focuses on three such incidents, including one which occurred at Northwestern University.

From 2019 - Diana Butler Bass, author of "Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks." (The book has also been published with a different subtitle: "The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks.") The book is a lovely exploration of what true gratitude is and what sort of difference it can make in a person's life.