In the Loop

Faith Salie has spent her life striving for the best. She was a top student and a Rhodes Scholar. She has an Emmy and serves as a panelist on Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me. But in her new memoir, she says a lot of those accomplishments were driven by a need to please others. Salie joins us to talk about Approval Junkie: Adventures in Caring Too Much.

Maryiah Winding is a rising senior at the School of the Art Institute from the South Side of Chicago with a big idea. She wants to develop a rap therapy program that would allow urban youth to grapple with their feelings and deal with trauma through hip hop and rap music.  This summer, Maryiah is moderating a series of events where rappers perform a cappella and then talk about how their music helped them cope with challenging aspects in their lives. Morning Shift talks to Winding about making rap therapy a reality.

Mourners gather in Louisville Friday for the funeral of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. That city was his hometown, but he also had deep ties to Chicago. After he refused to fight in the Vietnam War, he stepped out of the ring for some time and focused on his commitment to the Nation of Islam. This period brought him to Chicago, where he grew stronger in his faith and eased into life on the South Side.  In These Times editor and WVON host Salim Muwakkil met Ali a few years after Ali lived here. He joins us to explain how Chicago shaped Ali. We also talk with filmmaker Bill Siegel about his award-winning documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.

In the latest installment in our series What’s That Building?, Dennis Rodkin of Crain’s Chicago Business talks about Harpo Studios.  Oprah’s soundstage and offices have been vacant for a few years, but McDonald’s will be moving much of its operations there in 2018. Rodkin walks us through some of the backstory on the building from before the Oprah days began in 1988 through the present day.

When Garrison Keillor retires from A Prairie Home Companion this July after 42 years hosting the show, he’ll be replaced by mandolin wizard Chris Thile.  Thile has been appearing on PHC in skits and as a musician for 15 years. Morning Shift talks to Thile about the very, very big shoes he’s about fill and what changes might be in store for the show in the future. He also plays some live music.

The title of Andy Mozina’s debut novel, Contrary Motion, is derived from a musical term. That makes sense since it centers around a male harpist trying to make a living in the music world in Chicago, while raising a daughter and trying to date after his divorce. We talk to Mozina who is in town for this weekend’s Printers Row Lit Fest.

After several months with no CEO, Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism arm, announced that David Whitaker, a former tourism executive for Miami, Toronto and the good old US of A will lead the organization.  Morning Shift talks to Whitaker about some of the challenges of luring people to the Windy City, including Chicago’s gun violence.

It’s been a big week for Hillary Clinton. On Monday night, the Associated Press announced that she had secured enough delegates overall to get the Democratic nomination for President. That delegate math included super delegates.  Then, Tuesday night she won four primaries and claimed victory as the first female candidate to win the presidential nomination for a major political party. Morning Shift talks to Clinton and Sanders supporters about what comes next.

In a statement, Kirk criticized Trump’s contention that a Mexican-American judge would not be able to remain objective in a case involving Trump. Kirk called Trump’s stance “un-American.” In a related tweet, Kirk said Trump does not have the temperament to run the U.S. military and to handle nuclear codes. Kirk’s decision not to support Trump comes a day after his challenger U.S. Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth slammed Kirk for remaining silent about Trump’s comments about the Mexican-American judge.

The Chicago Booth Review from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business wanted to get beyond the anecdotes about corporate leadership to actually quantify the qualities that people in the C-suite need to succeed. We find out what the analysis reveals.