Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

We preview two big events at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside this weekend:  a UW-Parkside Orchestra concert featuring music from the Star Wars movies .... and the opening of a play by Lauren Gunderson titled "Silent Sky" that is based on the extraordinary life and accomplishments of three female astronomers from the turn of the last century.

This is a 2009 conversation with writer and historian James Perry, author of "Touched With Fire:  Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles that Made Them."   This book examines the Civil War battlefield experiences of five men - Ulysses S. Grant,  Rutherford B. Hayes,  James Garfield,  Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley - who would each go on to be elected President of the United States.    

From the archives comes this conversation withElaine Khosrova, author of "Butter: A Rich History."  

This 2007 conversation is with David Standish, the author of a fascinating book titled "Hollow Earth:  The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface."    The book examines the many and various ways in which human beings through the generations have been drawn to the notion that our planet is actually hollow, and that its central cavity holds all kinds of wonders - and perhaps terrors as well.  

To celebrate National Community Foundations Week, we speak with Robert Schneider from the Kenosha Community Foundation and Liz Powell from the Racine Community Foundation.  

From 2016:  Kostya Kennedy's book is "Lasting Impact:  One Team, One Season.  What Happens When Our Sons Play Football."  

From the archives:  Howard Sounes, author of "Fab: The Intimate Life of Paul McCartney." 

From the archives comes this 2006 interview with Margaret George, who has written an array of fictional biographies of such historical figures as Henry VIII, Cleopatra, and Nero.  This particular conversation centers on her book "Helen of Troy: A Novel." 

Nan Calvert's monthly environmental program is a conversation about the miracle of SOIL and the importance of preserving it.  Joining her are Jamie Patton, a soil expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Dave Giordano,  Executive Director of the Root Pike Watershed Initiative. 

Cornelius Bond's newly-published biography is titled "T. Rowe Price:  The Man, The Company, and the Investment Philosophy."  

From the archives comes Bernard Cornwall's "Waterloo:  The History of 4 Days, 3 Armies and 3 Battles."   

Journalist John McNamara was one of five employees of the Annapolis Capital Gazette who was gunned down by a mass shooter.  His widow, Andrea Chamblee,  has finished the book that he was working on at the time of his death:  "The Capital of Basketball:  A History of DC Area High School Hoops."  The book examines the rich history of basketball in our nation's capital, going all the way back to 1900.  

On this Veteran's Day, we speak with Mark Jacob, co-author of "Aftershock: The Human Toll of War- Haunting World War II Images by America's Soldier Photographers."  The book contains 250 images taken by photographers of the U.S. Signal Corps of the U.S. Army during 1945, the last year of World War II.   Jacob and his co-authors looked through more than 100,000 images housed in the National Archives before choosing these particular images to include in the book. Most of these photographs have never before been published.  

Part One features a conversation with Kristen Ann Ware, a former cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins.  Her story helped inspire the new play "The Handbook" that just had its world premiere at Carthage College.   In Part Two,  Dr. Edward Kawakami, director of the Carthage Philharmonic, previews the group's upcoming concert that will feature music by three women composers.  

From the archives comes this 2014 interview with Dan Epstein, author of "Stars & Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76." 

From the archives comes this 2009 interview with David Vann, author of "Legend of a Suicide," which is comprised of five stories set in the beautiful but forbidding vistas of Alaska.      

We speak about the 4th Annual Vet Night of the Arts, coming up Monday evening, November 11th at Carthage College, with Dr. Martin McClendon, Associate Professor of Theater .... Robert Stevens, community activist and a faithful supporter of the event .... and Josh Beadle and Jordan Wilson from Three Brothers Theater in Waukegan, IL,  which is about to present the play "Afghanistan/Wisconsin" by Carthage grad Laurel McKenzie.  That play helped inspire the creation of Carthage's Vet Night of the Arts.  

Mikhal Deker's father was one of hundreds of Jewish children in Poland who managed to escape death by finding their way to Tehran, Iran - where they were welcomed and kept safe.  She was able to retrace his 3,000 mile journey and write about it in her book 'Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey.'

We speak with Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy, co-authors of a much-discussed new book titled "All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator."  

We're joined by Dr. Thomas Carr, director of the Paleontology Department at Carthage College- and four of his Paleontology students.  Several weeks ago, they traveled to Brisbane, Australia to participate in the 79th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.  The four students presented posters that focused on the lifespan growth and development of giant marine lizards,  herbivorous long-necked dinosaurs, and wooly mammoths.   The students are Adam Larson, Amelia Zietlow, Brady Holbach, and Douglas Stefanski.