Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

Today's program features a conversation with sportswriter and historian Gaylon H. White, whose newest book is a revelatory examination of the heyday of minor league baseball in America.  It is titled "Left on Base in the Bush Leagues:  Legends, Near Greats and Unknowns in the Minors." 

This interview from back in 2009 is with Norman Love, who was a friend of Julia Child and appeared with her on her final television series,  "Baking with Julia."   This interview was done shortly after the release of the popular film "Julie & Julia."  

Documentarian D.A. Pennebaker died on August 1, 2019.  He was one of the pioneers of the Direct Cinema/Cinema Verite style of making documentaries.   This 2009 conversation was done with him and his wife Chris Hegedus (also a filmmaker) before the PBS premiere of their film "Kinds of Pastry."

We talk about a spectacular exhibition of Latin American art that is about to open at the Kenosha Creative Space in downtown Kenosha.  We speak with Francisco Loyola, executive director - Margaret Heller, project director for the exhibit - and Lorna Baird,  whose family has offered up the 31 pieces of art from their own personal collections.   Lorna's father, Tom Baird, was instrumental in the initial commissioning of these works from some of the finest Latin American artist of the day.   

For Nan Calvert's monthly visit to the program, we talk about a project in Southeastern Wisconsin to help restore the declining population of the Rusty Patched Bumblebee, one of our most important native pollinators.  Guests include Jessica Orlofski, Assistant Professor of Biology at UW-Parkside,  and Dave Giordano and Chelsea Snowden-Smith from the Root Pike Watershed Initiative Network.    We discuss the difference between bumblebees and honeybees,  why we are losing bumblebees at such an alarming rate, and what we can do to help bumblebees to flourish. 

We talk about Hospice care with two guests:  Rita Hagen, executive director of Hospice Alliance of Kenosha-  and Kimberly Paul, a nationally--known advocate for hospice care- author of "Bridging the Gap: Lessons Learned from the Dying" - who is on a nationwide speaking tour titled "Live Well-Die Well."  

Today's Morning Show is dedicated to Woodstock, which happened fifty years ago this month.   Part one is a conversation with Jamila Ephron, co-director of the American Experience documentary "Woodstock:  Three Days that Defined a Generation" that premieres Tuesday night on PBS.   We follow that up with a conversation with Dave Jones,  who was one of the 400,000 people who made their way to the countryside outside of Bethel, NY to attend the festival.   He offers his reminiscences.  

This 2006 interview is among my very favorites.   It's with Edwin John Wintle, author of "Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle's Memoir."   The name Tiffany in the title refers to the author's troubled niece,  who ended up coming to live with her Uncle Ed while she was in high school.   The book is a honest and illuminating chronicle of their relationship and how that relationship - which had always been close and affectionate - was challenged when she came to live with him.  

This interview with Tony Award-winning singer Brian Stokes Mitchell was recorded back in 2010, before his first appearance on the Music by the Lake series in Lake Geneva.  He is back for a concert in Lake Geneva on Saturday evening,  August 10th!    (A new interview with Brian Stokes Mitchell that I recently recorded will air on Monday morning - and will drop as a podcast later that day.)   

Our guests are Debbie Ford,  chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside ... and David Brukardt,  Interim Vice-President of Corporate Relations for the UW System .... talk about the presentation that they made at the University Industry Innovation Network conference in Helsinki, Finland earlier this summer.   

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for National Public Radio- and the host of the popular podcast "Pop Culture Happy Hour."   She has just published her first novel - titled "Evvie Drake Starts Over" - and it has earned rave reviews.   

The summer of 2019 is the 40th summer that the American Players Theater have presented first-rate open-air live theater performances in Spring Green, WI.   We speak with Brenda DaVita, artistic director of APT,  who has been with them for 25 years.  

In anticipation of this weekend's Relay for Life in Kenosha - a benefit for the American Cancer Society - we hear the stories of three cancer survivors:  Michelle Jenewein, Christina Spears, and Kathy Vescova.  We also speak with Matthew Elmer, Sr. Community Development Manager for the American Cancer Society.  

Cameron Swallow,  First Lady of Carthage College, returns to the Morning Show to talk about the organization Better Angels, which seeks to facilitate civil and meaningful dialogue between political conservatives ('reds') and liberals ('blues.')  A documentary film about Better Angels is being screened this Thursday at the Southwest Public Library in Kenosha-  and there will also be a screening in Union Grove on Monday.   Both screenings are free and open to the public.  

On the 90th birthday of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, we replay this conversation with best-selling biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli in which he talks about his book "Jackie, Janet, Lee:  The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and her daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill."  

From the archives comes this fascinating look at the exploits of two outstanding high school wrestlers in Iowa- each of whom is hoping to win his fourth straight state championship title - an extraordinarily difficult achievement.  Mark Kreidler's marvelous book is titled "Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland."   

This is a preview of two big events occurring in Kenosha over the first weekend in August-  the Tall Ships Festival and the Pike River Rendezvous.  My guests are Kris Kochman, Community liaison for the City of Kenosha (and coordinator of major events for the City of Kenosha) and Nancy Mathews, who recently retired from the Kenosha Public Museum but happily agreed to help coordinate this year's 22nd Pike River Rendezvous,   which is a large-scale re-enactment of life in Wisconsin at the height of the fur trade industry (1650-1850.)  

The Carthage Choir scored an impressive (and fairly rare) double-decker victory at this summer's Spittal Choral Competition in Austria - in which ten choirs from ten different nations compete with one another.  The Carthage Choir ended up finishing in first place in both the Folk Music category and the Classical category.  Chronicling that experience are Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, conductor of the Carthage Choir - and three members of the choir:  Elena Cressy (choir president,)  Christopher Wojciechowicz (vice president) and London Roysden.  

In the summer of 1995,  the city of Chicago was besieged by a horrific heat wave that saw temperatures of 106 degrees and a heat index of 126 degrees - and by the time it was done,  700 people were believed to have perished due to the heat.   NYU Sociology Professor Eric Klinenberg (who was born and raised in Chicago) wanted to know why so many people died- and why particular neighborhoods and particular sectors of the population suffered exceptionally high death rates.  His 2002 book is titled "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago."   

We talk about the play "Boswell" with its playwright, Marie Kohler, and three people involved in the production of the play that is being performed at UW-Parkside this weekend before being taken to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland- one of the most important theatrical festivals in the world.