Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

Benjamin Runkle's book is 'Generals in the Making: How Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton and their Peers Became the Commanders Who Won World War II."  The book focuses on the experiences of these generals (plus Douglas MacArthur and others) between the end of World War I and the start of World War II and examines the events and experiences that helped shape them into the important leaders they eventually became.  After that comes an excerpt from my 2013 conversation with Gene Edward Smith, author of "Eisenhower: In War and Peace."  

This interview from 2006 is with Bob Harris,  a 5-time Jeopardy champion (back in the days when that was the longest that a person could compete on the show.)   His book about the popular game show is titled "Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy."   We're sharing this interview as Alex Trebek (battling pancreatic cancer) is beginning his 36th season as the host of Jeopardy.  

This interview with best-selling author Buzz Bissinger was recorded in 2015 at the time of the publication of the 25th anniversary edition of "Friday Night Lights: A Town,  a Dream, and a Team."  Bissinger's book chronicled a season of the high school football team in Odessa, Texas,  a community where football is followed with ferocious intensity.  

Joan Wickersham's lost her father to suicide.  "The Suicide Index: Putting my Father's Death in Order" is a very thoughtful examination of that heartbreaking event and Wickersham's attempt to understand it.   We're playing this just ahead of the 10th annual Labor of Love Music Festival tomorrow (September 1st) in New Munster... a fundraiser for Just Live, a local non-profit organization that is working to draw attention to the issue of  suicide and supporting organizations and agencies working on suicide prevention.  This interview was recorded in 2008. 

Ronald C. Rosbottom's book is "Sudden Courage: Youth in France Confront the Germans, 1940-1945."  It explores the many and varied ways in which young adults in France were part of the Resistance against the Nazis occupying their country.  

In this interview,  Doug and Kim Instenes talk about their recent visit to the Fringe Festival in Edinburg, Scotland-  the largest theatrical festival in the world-  and some of what they saw and experienced there.   We also talk with Kim about the honor she received back in the spring when she was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year at Carthage, where she is Associate Professor of Theater and heads up the costume department.  Her husband Doug is director of the Racine Theater Guild. 

Dr. Art Cyr, Clausen Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and World Business at Carthage College, pays his monthly visit to the program to offer his analysis of current events and issues.   Topics in today's discussion include the so-called Trade War with China,  new tensions with Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the fires in the Amazon Rain Forest,  and the importance of discretion in intelligence work. 

David Vann, author of “ Legend of a Suicide.” Although a work of fiction, the novel draws heavily upon Vann’s real-life experience of losing his own father to suicide.

From 2007 comes an interview I recorded with Susan Clancy, author of a fascinating book titled "Abducted:  How People come to believe that they were kidnapped by aliens."   Clancy, a Harvard University research fellow at the time she wrote this book, chronicles how her interest in "false memory formation" led her to explore what might be behind the earnest claims of hundreds (if not thousands) of Americans that they have been kidnapped by extraterrestrials and subjected to various experiments.  This is a truly remarkable book.  I'm grateful I was able to speak with her. 

From 2015 comes a conversation with Neil Swidey, author of "Trapped under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, 5 Men, and a Disaster 10 Miles into the Darkness."  It chronicles the efforts in Boston to construct a huge tunnel beneath Boston Harbor that would allow the city to discharge waste well out to sea rather than directly into the harbor.   It was an engineering project of enormous complexity- and, regrettably, it resulted in the deaths of two of the five divers involved in the most dangerous phase of the construction.  

We speak with three representatives of the non-profit Just Live, which for the past ten years has been working on the important issue of Suicide Prevention.  Their major fundraiser of the year,  the Labor of Love Music Festival, is coming up on Sunday,  September 1st.   

This 2010 conversation is with NPR's Scott Simon (host of Weekend Edition) talking about his memoir "Baby, we were meant for each other:  in Praise of Adoption."  The book is a chronicle of the experience which Simon and his wife had in adopting two beautiful baby girls from China.    

My guest is Rayna R. Andrews, who calls herself a public health ambassador advocating for more people to seek out- and have access to- good, healthy food.   To help reach young people, she has written a children's book titled "Alex McGreen and the Tale of the Mysterious Kale."   Also on hand for this interview is Dr. Howard Moon, a former administrator for the Kenosha Unified School District,  who heard Ms. Andrews speak and suggested that she be invited to the Morning Show.  More information about her work can be found at healthyfoodmovement.com.  

Gateway Technical College President Bryan Albrecht is joined by Clare Anderson, V.P. with CORD, the Center for Occupational Research and Development in Waco, Texas  -  for a conversation about the Future of Work.  

From 2014 comes this interview with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, author of "Reign of Error:  The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public School."   In her book, she spells out her grave concerns about the many ways in which public education in America has been reshaped along industrial models.

From the archives comes this 2009 interview with sportswriter Tim Wendel, author of "High Heat:  The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of all time."  

For the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, which unfolded August 15-18, 1969 (but which was supposed to finish on August 17th), I am replaying my 2009 interview with Mike Evans, co-editor of the book that many regard as the definitive account of this important moment in our history.   It is titled "Woodstock:  3 Days that Rocked the World."  The book was created in cooperation with the Museum at Bethel Woods, NY- located very close to the site where Woodstock took place - to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.  

Today's Morning Show features conversations with two women - Susie Burns from Dallas, TX and Lynn VanEimeren from Racine, WI - who tell their respective stories about attending Woodstock fifty years ago.  

Ted Howard's book "The Making of a Democratic Economy: Building Prosperity for the Many, not just the Few,"  spells out his idea of the ideal American economy - which rejects both capitalism and socialism in favor of a third model.   In part two, we draw from the archives for a conversation with Sarah Van Gelder, founder of the non-profit magazine Yes! -  and author of "The Revolution Where You Live."  In this book, she talks about the many people she has met across the country who are changing the world by working for change where they live.  

My guests on today's program are WGTD News Director Dave McGrath and his wife, Guida Brown, Executive Director of the HOPE Council.  They recently undertook a long trip in which they visited all of the stops on the final concert tour of rock & roll legend Buddy Holly - a tour which ended tragically when Buddy Holly ("Peggy Sue") , Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba"), and the 'Big Bopper' were killed in a plane crash outside of Clear Lake, IA.   That ill-fated tour happened 60 years ago.