In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons

For every beer that sells itself on the small number of calories it has per bottle, there are dozens that outright avoid telling us how many calories they have. This is not due to beer having a particularly high caloric content, though some do. Due to regulations placed at the end of prohibition, alcohol manufacturers in the U.S. have been able to loophole their way out of sharing the nutritional facts on their labels. That is about to change. A new voluntary program from the Beer Institute will lead some of the biggest American brewers to start listing nutritional facts by 2020. Morning Shift talks to Beer Institute CEO Jim McGreevy.

So far, the Republican National Convention has focused on how to make America safe again and how to make America work again. At the midway point in the four-day event, Morning Shift checks in with WBEZ political reporter Tony Arnold who provides a behind-the-scenes account of how the party is positioning itself and working to come together at a time when Republicans are divided on the best path forward.

In the latest edition of our series: The Movie That Made Me, we talk to Chicago renaissance man Lee Bey. Lee Bey sat down with WBEZ’s Jenn White to explain why the movie that made him is Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life). ​

Professor Joel Goldstein has been studying the vice presidency for years. His new book looks at how an office that was considered a joke for much of American history has become a critical part of our government. He joins us to talk about VP picks and their relationships with the presidential candidates.

At this crucial inflection point for the Republican party, Morning Shift talks to Republicans about what “Republican” means to them. We speak with three guests:Pete Wehner is senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and recently penned an op-ed in the New York Times called “Can We Find Our Way Back to Lincoln?”David Harris (R-Arlington Heights) is a state representative and delegate for Ohio governor John Kasich. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) is a state representative and delegate for Texas senator Ted Cruz.

We check in with WBEZ’s Lauren Chooljian in Cleveland immediately after a breakfast where Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider reminded the attendees that the party is unified behind Trump, despite talk of division in the party. We also get reaction from the Illinois Trump delegates she and Tony Arnold have been following to hear how Day 1 of their first convention is shaking out.

The Republican National Convention in Cleveland is not the only large convention taking place in Ohio this week.  A couple hundred miles southwest, in Cincinnati, thousands of NAACP members are congregating for the group’s 107th annual convention. This year the theme is “Our Lives Matter, Our Votes Count.”  Morning Shift checks in with Jessyca Dudley from the Joyce Foundation’s Gun Violence Prevention Program.

Beyond his roots in Oak Park, a few war stories and tales of his time in Key West, how much do you really know about Ernest Hemingway the man?  In his new book Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park, Robert Elder and his co-authors reveal some of the lesser-known stories and history about Hemingway cobbled together from items in his archives like family photos, teenage diaries, bullfighting tickets love letters and 100-year-old musical compositions from his mother Grace Hall Hemingway.

We’ve all felt lost or unbalanced while navigating through life. In the latest installment of our series Working Shift, we sit down with someone who dedicates herself to helping people “connect the dots” through those personal and career transitions.  Morning Shift talks with life coach Anna Bray, of Jody Michael Associates, about what a coach does and how she navigated her own career change.

Maybe you’ve seen them? Droves of millennials wandering around the city holding their smartphones out in front of them and staring intently at the screens.  They’re not watching videos or looking at Instagram. They’re playing Pokémon Go, a new augmented reality game that brings the characters from the 20-year-old video game and television series Pokémon to life.  Since it was introduced on July 6, the game has gone viral, and the craze doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Morning Shift talks to Allegra Frank from the tech site Polygon about how the game works, why it’s so popular and the world of stories it’s spawned.