Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

Best-selling author's Peter Stark examines George Washington as a young adult in his illuminating book "Young Washington:  How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father."   

David E. Drew's book is titled "Stem the Tide:  Reforming Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in America."  It is Professor Drew's contention that the United States is falling behind our global competitors when it comes to educating our young people in the so-called S.T.E.M. fields.  

This interview is with best-selling author Jon Meachem, talking about his book "Franklin and Winston," which explores the out-of-the-ordinary friendship between two of the most important figures of the mid-20th century:   U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 

This interview from 1998 is with Dr. John Windh, the longtime director of the Carthage Choir.  It was recorded shortly after the completion of a European choir tour by a group comprised of alumni from the Carthage Choir.  (Yours truly came along as the spouse of a Carthage Choir alum.)  The tour went to Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and Venice.   I'm sharing this podcast episode because the current Carthage Choir is about to depart on a tour of Austria.  

Paul Beston is the author of "The Boxing Kings: When American Heavyweights Ruled the World."  Beston looks at the careers of such boxing legends as Jack Johnson,  Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis,  Rocky Marciano,  Cassius Clay,  Joe Frazier and Evander Holyfield.

Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin talks about his memoir "Alan Arkin: An Improvised Life."   

Part One:  Ron Pyle talks about his book "First to the Moon: an Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Experience."  The book is enriched by many photographs that have never been published or shared with the public.   Part Two:  Martin Rosenberg discusses his book "War as they knew it:  Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest."   The book explores two of college football's most noteworthy coaches and how their respective programs functioned during the height of the Viet Nam War. 

This interview is with Nicholas Carr, author of "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains."  The book not only discusses the effects of the internet but also looks at other technological breakthroughs in human history (such as the printing press) and how those innovations affected human beings and how they thought about and processed all that they experienced.  

From the archives comes this interview with Gerald Koeppel, author of "Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire."  It explores the fascinating story of why and how the Erie Canal was conceived, designed and constructed- and the powerful effect it had on our young nation. 

This 2002 interview is with Richard Blow, who worked closely with John F. Kennedy Jr. on George magazine.   His memoir is titled "American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy Jr."   This interview is being offered up in light of this past Thursday's interview with J. Randy Tarborelli, whose latest book is called "The Kennedy Heirs," which examines that generation of the Kennedy family that includes JFK Jr. 

Today's podcast is a follow-up to Thursday's interview with the author of "The Kennedy Heirs," which tells the complicated story of the third generation of the Kennedy family (the children of JFK, RFK and their siblings.)  Today's podcast guests are both daughters of Robert F. Kennedy.  Part one is a 2004 conversation (in-studio) with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the oldest daughter of RFK.  Part two is a phone interview with Kerry Kennedy about her book "Ripples of Hope,"  which features the reflections of a number of different public figures who were inspired by RFK.  

Dr. Art Cyr pays his monthly visit to the program to offer his analysis of current events and issues.  In this interview, he talks about Brexit,  U.S. tensions with Iran,  demonstrations in Hong Kong,  the founder of Foxconn's announcement about seeking the presidency of Taiwan, and the 75th anniversary of D-Day.   Dr. Cyr is the Clausen Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and World Business and Director of the Clausen Center at Carthage College.  

Best-selling author J. Randy Taraborrelli has written four book about the Kennedy family.  The most recent is focused on the so-called Third Generation - the grandchildren of Joe and Rose Kennedy (John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and their many cousins.)  The book is titled "The Kennedy Heirs: John, Caroline, and the New Generation- a Legacy of Tragedy and Triumph."

This interview concerns a musical called "The Scottsboro Boys," one of the last collaborations of Kander & Ebb, best known for their shows "Cabaret" and "Chicago."  The Scottsboro Boys is based on the heartbreaking true story of 9 young African-Americans who were unjustly accused of raping a white woman back in the 1930's.   Kenosha Unified mounted a superb production of the show that will be taken to the International Thespian Festival.   I speak with Holly Stanfield, coordinator of KUSD's music theater program,  and two members of the cast:  Ben Woods and Nick Daly.

Journalist Mark Segal's came of age during the earliest days of the gay rights movement.   His illuminating and moving memoir is titled "And then I Danced:  Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality."   

Our guest, Josh Howard, is the director of a fascinating documentary that airs tomorrow (Tuesday) night on PBS called "The Lavender Scare."  The title refers to a troubling chapter in our history that was touched off by an executive order  by newly-elected president Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953  that called for the firing of all known gay men and women employed by the Federal government. (The rationale was that such persons might be vulnerable to blackmail by entities wishing ill on the United States.)  The few brave souls who dared to challenge this helped give birth to the gay rights movement.   

This 2011 interview is with Dan Gediman, who is well-known to many public radio listeners for the series This I Believe.   "This I Believe: On Fatherhood" features a wide array of first-person essays that reflect on many different facets of the experience of being a father. 

Barbara Risman's book "Where the Millennials will take us:  a New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure"  examines the way in which millennials regard the matters of gender and gender identity very differently from previous generations.     

Writer and journalist Jared Yates Sexton attracted an enormous amount of attention with the publication of a New York Times op-ed piece titled "Donald Trump's Toxic Masculinity."   His book "The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of our Own Making" is a follow-up to that piece.   Sexton believes that far too many American men (including himself) are caught in an ultimately self-destructive trap in which they try to live up to certain ideals of masculinity that are in fact unattainable and create stresses that can lead to abuse, addiction, violence, and mental and emotional disorders.  

This interview is with two remarkably gifted and successful writers,  Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, who also happen to be husband and wife. The occasion of this interview in 2009 was the publication of Chabon's memoir  "Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son."   We also talk about Waldman's book "Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace."