Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

We celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Rita (The Rita Tallent Picken Regional Center for the Arts & Humanities) with Dr. Lesley Walker, Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.  At the end of the program is an excerpt from the Morning Show interview done ten years ago right before The Rita opened its doors to the public.  Dr. Dean Yonhk, who was Dean at the time, shares a bit about what it took to make this long-held dream a reality. 

Greg Brennecka, author of "Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong."  Brennecka has been studying meteorites for most of his professional life.  

We preview the next film in the PBS series American Experience...... "Riveted: The History of Jeans."   The film traces the history of blue jeans through the lens of our country's history- examining who has worn jeans at various points in time and why.   The film airs on PBS next week.  

Mark Zwonitzer, author of "The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain and the Rise of American Imperialism."  

Young poet Jacob Hunt bills himself as Otherpoet.  The book "Shift" is a collection of his poems.   

From 2005-   Barry Becher and Edward Valenti, co-authors of "The Wisdom of Ginsu: Carve Yourself a Piece of the American Dream."  Becher and Valenti help make Ginsu knives a retail phenomenon beginning in the late 1970's.  

From 2006-  Dr. Norman Berlinger, author of "Rescuing Your Teenager from Depression."  

We speak with Trevor Jung, Transit Manager for the city of Racine.  In 2019, he was elected to the Racine Common Council at the age of 23.  We talk about his passion for public service as well as his uncommon personal story.  (He was adopted from a Russian orphanage when he was two years old.)

For Holocaust Remembrance Day, here is an additional interview- from 2004- with Alexandra Zapruder, author and editor of "Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust."  The book is a collection of 15 diaries written by young people during the Holocaust... diaries like the Diary of Anne Franck, but not nearly so well known - and in many cases just as compelling.  

For Holocaust Remembrance Day:  Mina Miller, founder and artistic director of Music of Remembrance,  a Seattle-based music organization that tells the story of the Holocaust and pays tribute to its victims through music.  MOR involves itself both in live performances and recordings - and have commissioned an array of superb new works related to the Holocaust.  They have also shared with the world a number of works that were actually created amidst the horror of the Holocaust, some even within the walls of concentration camps. 

Part One:  David S. Rudolf, author of "American Injustice:  Inside Stories from the Underbelly of the Criminal Justice System."   Part Two: Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan, co-authors of "Justice for None: a Novel."  

Dr. Art Cyr, Clausen Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and World Business at Carthage College, offers analysis of current events and issues. 

R.D. Rosen, author of "A Buffalo in the House: the True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West."  

(from the archives)    Concert Pianist Jerome Rose

(From 2018) In a followup to Tuesday's Morning Show, a rebroadcast of my conversation with Emily St. John Mandel (author of Station Eleven), I thought I would share an earlier conversation with three staffer members from the UW-Parkside Library who oversaw that year's Big Read Project.  In this interview, they talk about why they selected "Station Eleven" for that year's Big Read- and we also learn something about all that a university library has to offer.  

We speak with Dr. Anthony Barnhart, Associate Professor of Psychological Science at Carthage College, about the J-Term course he is currently teaching:  "The Cognitive Science of Magic."  Professor Barnhart is an accomplished magician,  and to assist him with this course he has invited an array of his fellow magicians to speak to his class.  

For her first monthly visit of 2022,  Root Pike WIN's Nan Calvert welcomes her former colleague Allison Werner, who is now Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin, a non-profit that works to safeguard Wisconsin's water.  

Peter J. Boni, author of "Uprooted: Family Trauma, Unknown Origins, and the Secretive History of Artificial Insemination."   Shortly before his 50th birthday,  Boni learned (quite by accident) that his birth was the result of artificial insemination.  His book chronicles the history of artificial insemination as well as his own personal journey to come to grips with this unexpected revelation about his own origins.  

From 2017-  Emily St. John Mandel discusses her best-selling book "Station Eleven,"  which has just been adapted into a highly acclaimed ten-part miniseries on HBO Max.  (The first episode debuted in mid-December; the tenth and final episode dropped last Thursday.)  This interview was recorded while "Station Eleven" was the focus of that year's Big Read Project.  

For Martin Luther King Day-  Debby Irving discusses her book "Waking up White - and Finding Myself in the Story of Race"