Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

We speak with longtime Kenosha journalist Karl Frederick, who for 38 years worked for the Kenosha News. In his retirement, he has become active with the Kenosha County Historical Society and has had a major hand in an oral history project called Kenosha Voices. 173 interviews have been recorded on video- most of the by Frederick - and they have included conversations with officials, company owners, educators, as well as members of the community. We are talking about this today because of the 175th anniversary of the City of Kenosha.

We preview Carthage College's groundbreaking production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, which will be performed the next two weekends in Carthage's Wartburg Theater. (This first weekend coincides with the school's Homecoming festivities.) We speak with Matthew Hougland, director of the school's musical theater program..... (who is also the stage director of this production) .... and three students who are headlining the cast: Annaliese Ruhs (Jesus), Vivian Alexander (Judas) and Lorelai Amborn (Pontius Pilate.)

We speak with Dr. Art Cyr - a former faculty member at Carthage College and a nationally-syndicated columnist - about various current events and issues.

Our guest is Dr. Carlo Rotella, Professor of English at Boston College, talks about his newly published memoir "What can I Get Out of This? - Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics." Rotella talks about the experience of teaching a course that is affectionately known by BC students as "Core Lit" - an English literature survey course that all freshmen at the college must take..... exactly the sort of liberal arts course that some might view as fairly meaningless if not downright useless if they regard a college education as nothing more than job preparation. Rotella persuasively argues in his book that a course like "Core Lit" offers tremendous benefits to any student, no matter what their post-college aspirations happen to be. By the way, the semester that Rotella focuses on was the spring semester of 2020, which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread shutdown that drastically altered every aspect of our lives, including that

We talk with Don Costante about his book "Beyond the Scoreboard: The Ultimate Guide to Sports Events Presentation." Costante has enjoyed a career of more than 3 decades in event presention- and has directed, produced or managed more than 2,500 live events, including 3 NBA finals and 2 MLB world series. Costante explores the nearly limitless number of details that must be addressed to make everything work. Costante says that this is the book that he wishes had existed when he was beginning in this business.

We preview this Saturday's concert by the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra - a program of great film music - with music director David Anderson. The concert kicks off the orchestra's 25th anniversary season.

From 2024- Best-selling author William Kuhn (a former faculty member at Carthage College) talks about "Mrs. Queen Takes the Train: a Novel" - which centers on the scenario of a bored Queen Elizabeth II managing to slip away from her courtiers for what amounts to an adventure out in the real world by taking a train ride.

From 2020- Marc Freeman, co-author of "Modern Family: The Untold Oral History of One of Television's Groundbreaking Sitcoms."

We begin with a newly-recorded interview with Adam Nimoy, talking about his memoir "The Most Human: Reconciling with my Father, Leonard Nimoy," which has just been re-released in paperback. We follow that up with excerpts from several Star Trek-related interviews from the Morning Show Archives. Those conversations feature story editor and writer D.C. Fontana as well as cast members William Shatner (James T. Kirk) and Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov.)

We speak with Dr. Herschel Kruger, Professor of Theater at Carthage College, and three Carthage students who recently returned from the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland- the largest performing arts festival in the world.

We speak with writer Lacy Fewer about her fascinating and moving novel "Yankeeland."

We preview the first offering in the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Foreign Film Series - the Indian film "All We Imagine as Light," which is being screened this weekend. We speak with Jay McRoy, Professor of Cinema Studies in the Department of LIteratures and Languages at UW-Parkside. He is the coordinator of the Foreign Film Series. "All We Imagine as Light" won the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

We talk with Kenosha's Ben DeSmidt, owner of Union Park Tavern - which is the site of a huge Oktoberfest celebration this weekend that also honors Kenosha's 175th anniversary. DeSmidt, a Professor Emeritus of Classics and Great Ideas at Carthage College, is also a newly elected member of the Wisconsin Assembly, representing the 65th Assembly District.

From 2011- Ken Jennings talks about his book "Map Head: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks." Jennings is renowned as the all-time record holder for most episodes won on Jeopardy (74 consecutive victories) as well as a victory in the Greatest Of All Time tournament. He now serves as host of the program. In this book, Jennings speaks both perceptively and affectionately about maps and how fascinating they can be if we simply take the time to explore them.

Alice Lovejoy discusses her book "Tales of Militant Chemistry: The Film Factory in a Century of War." The book explores the surprising connections between film companies like Kodak and the American military. (Many of the technological breakthroughs in the creation of camera film proved to be helpful in the development of certain kinds of weaponry.)

From 2005- Tom Tucker, "Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and his Fabulous Kite." The book explores the famous story of Franklin supposedly discovering electricity by flying a kite during a storm in 1752 - and how Franklin may have consciously concocted the story.

From 2009- Alex Scordelis, co-author of "Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere." The comedic group, founded in 2001, is famous for such public pranks as its Grand Central Station Mass Freeze- where several hundred participants suddenly froze in place for five minutes in the main terminal. Video of many of their pranks can be viewed either on YouTube or on the group's website, ImprovEverywhere.com.

Part One: A discussion about storm water runoff with Laura Buska (program managers with the Root Pike Watershed Initiative Network) and Samantha Katt (policy expert with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.) Part Two: Ann Burg talks about her novel "Force of Nature," based on the life and legacy of the legendary environmentalist Rachel Carson.

For the anniversary of 9-11 ..... from the archives (2005) Tom Downey talks about his book "The Last Men Out: Life on the Edge at Rescue 2 Firehouse." Many firefighters stations in Brooklyn's Rescue 2 lost their lives on 9-11. We replay this memorable interview in honor of first responders and the important, life-saving work that they do.

We speak with Shawn Rivers, Racine County Veterans Service Officer with Racine County Veterans Services. They are co-sponsoring a Veterans Stand Down resource fair this Saturday, September 13th, 10:00-2:00 at Racine's Festival Hall. We talk about the many services that RCVS offers - all free of charge - to veterans and their families. We talk in particular about resources designed to address concerns around veteran homelessness, food insecurity, and mental health.