Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

From 2010 - Diana Jean Schemo discusses her book "Skies to Conquer: a Year inside the Airforce Academy."

Professor Tom Noer was a member of the history faculty at Carthage College for 46 years. He passed away on April 7th. In his memory, I want to re-share my final Morning Show interview with him, which was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this conversation, he talks about other health scares and epidemics in America's past.

David Coggins talks about his most recent book, "The Believer: A Year in the Fly-Fishing Life." Coggins has loved fly-fishing for most of his adult life, and this latest book chronicles some of his experiences with fly-fishing in places in locales all around the world. We follow this interview with an archival interview dating back to the days when Wikipedia was a relative newcomer to the internet. John Broughton wrote a book that amounted to a manual on how Wikipedia works.

Nate Stamper, director of theater at Case High School in Racine, is the guest director of the Racine Theater Guild's production of "Stargirl," based on the Jerry Spinelli novel of the same name, which explores important issues of conformity/non-conformity for young people. Filling out the program today is an archival interview with sportswriter and author John Feinstein in which he talks about one of his best-selling novels for young readers. "The Walk-On- May the best quarterback win."

Jonathan Fanning, author of "Creativity Unleashed: 5 Habits of World-Class Innovators"

I speak with Dayvin Hallmon, founder and director of the Black String Triage Ensemble in Milwaukee. This group of string musicians - during the summer months - will go to the site of gun violence or other civil unrest and will play music to try and bring comfort and healing to those directly impacted.

We are rebroadcasting this 2009 interview in memory of Dr. Tom Noer, a longtime and beloved memory of the Carthage faculty (he taught history there for 4 years) who passed away on April 7th. In this interview, Professor Noer talks about G. Mennen Williams, a highly unconventional political figure whom Professor Noer greatly admired. We also hear from Professor Noer on how he went about researching the life and career of Williams.

From 2007 - Benjamin Woolley discusses his book "Savage Kingdom: The true story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America." 2007 marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

From 2015- Patrick McGilligan talks about his book "Young Orson: The years of luck and genius on the path to Citizen Kane." 2015 was the year of the renowned filmmaker's 100th birthday. Welles born in Kenosha, and the city welcomed a number of experts to its Welles Centennial Celebration; McGilligan was one of them.

Part 1 - Sy Montgomery talks about her latest book, "Secrets of the Octopus" (published by National Geographic.) Part 2- (from the archives) World-renowned chef Eric Ripert talks about two of his books: "Avec Ripert" and "On the Line."

Kailyn Palormares is naturalist and education manager for Hawthorn Hollow. With her is a colleague of hers, Emily Leonard, who is the resident ecologist there. We explore together the important topics of invasive species and habitat restoration.

Sarah Ashworth, director of Wisconsin Public Radio, talks about the changes in WPR's operation that were announced yesterday - and the impact of those changes on the listeners of WGTD. WPR's two networks are being renamed and realigned. WGTD will become part of WPR News. The changes go into effect on May 20th. (More information about the changes is available at wpr.org/new.)

Award-winning artist and illustrator Ed Steckley talks about his wide-ranging career, which has includes work for Mad Magazine and Saturday Night Live. He recently won a Reuben Award for Best in Book Illustration. We also talk about some of the ways in which the industry has dramatically changed in recent years thank to new technologies.

We speak with renowned Tony Award-winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice, whose setting of "From Here to Eternity" opens this Friday night at Milwaukee's Skylight Theatre and runs through early May. Sir Tim Rice's credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, The Lion King, Aida, Chess, and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Rice's "From Here to Eternity" (with music by Stuart Brayson) premiered in 2013. Skylight's production is the show's midwest premiere.

From 2017 - Nancy Davies, a woman active in community theater in Southeastern Wisconsin, talks about her lifelong love of the circus and the experience of working with Ringling Brothers. The interview was recorded shortly after Ringling Bros. announced the shuttering of its "Greatest Show on Earth." (It remained dormant until last year when it was revived in a different format that does not utilize live animals.)

From 2010- Steven Solomon, author of "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization." In his fascinating book, Solomon charts how the need to secure plentiful fresh water has helped shape the history of human civilization.

Best-selling author Keith O'Brien talks about his new book "Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball." The book chronicles Pete's blue collar roots, his improbable rise to greatness as one of baseball's greatest hitters, and the disastrous disintegration of his career due to his gambling addiction. (Pete Rose was banished from major league baseball for the rest of his life.) In part two, we go into the archives for a 2010 interview with Tim Wendel, author of "High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of all time."

We learn all about the non-profit group Adventures in Lifelong Learning (A.L.L.) from president Shelly Underhill, past-president Karen Kempinen, and day trips co-chair Carole Kotese.

Just in time for the total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8th - we hear from David Baron, author of "American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World." The book focuses on the 1878 total solar eclipse that was visible in much of the United States. A trio of brilliant Americans (including a young Thomas Alva Edison and an extraordinary young astronomer named Maria Mitchell) raced to the Rocky Mountains to view the eclipse, gather information, and help elevate America's status in the eyes of the world's scientific community. Baron is himself an 'umbraphile,' which means he is an eclipse chaser; he traveled around the world to observe multiple total solar eclipses. The book was initially released in 2017; it has been re-released with a new afterword.

From the archives: Marta McDowell, author of "Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places that Inspired the Iconic Poet." [Today's Morning Show broadcast was with gardening expert Nina Koziol. That interview was shared in the podcast back on March 28th.]