Milt Rosenberg

Oh, Chicago. Where did we go wrong? With our shocking fiscal crisis, looming and potentially crippling property tax hikes, rampant crime, out flight of businesses and youth, crumbling infrastructure, education system mired in corruption and under performance, rising cost-of-living...the list of ills goes on and on.

What can Chicago teach the rest of the nation? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Here we diagnose the patient and, hopefully, suggest a way out of the mess for our beloved yet beleaguered city.

Ted Dabrowski of the Illinois Policy Institute has been studying this issue in depth and joins us alongside Donald Haider, a one-time mayoral candidate and esteemed professor at Northwesterns Kellogg School of Management.

Interesting to this conversation is the input of our listeners. Some think our days are numbered. Others see a bright future for this beautiful town.

(Cartoon courtesy of Eric Allie. Even more of Mr. Allies work here)

Richard Lindberg is one of the foremost authorities on Chicago history. Hes written multiple, fine books on some of the lost history of this city. In his latest book, Gangland Chicago, Richard talks gangsters. From the organized crime outfits to vice to booze and gambling and all that these endeavors entail, this is the book you need to read if youve ever been interested in crime. Chicagos done it as well as any other city. Lindberg tells this fascinating story from the beginning, when Chicago was a nothing town, all the way up through the modern-day street gangs and organized cartels involved in the drug game.

Joining Lindberg is one of our favorite guests, John Drummond. John is a legendary newsman who knew of all of the crooks and bosses during his day and is still keeping up with it.

On this show we again investigate the events of another devastating attack on the French capitol. Were joined in studio by W. Rand Smith of Lake Forest College, a political scientist who studies French politics and Daniel S. Kamin, adjunct professor of International Relations at DePaul.

Via phone we check in with Fred Kagan of American Enterprise Institute and Fred Burton, VP of Intel at Stratfor.

Like the rest of the civilized world, we were horrified by the weekends events in Paris. Immediately we moved to bring you the most sober and informed analysis possible.

In this episode, were joined by to fine academics who study terror and its machinations--John Allen Williams of Loyola and Barry Kellman of DePaul--in studio. Via phone we talk to Daniel Greenfield, who has some very strong assertions toward Islam and the role of the faith in terror and the inimitable Victor Davis Hanson, who had a timely article on the tragedy.

What began as a show on the political world at large and the insanity on the campuses (campi?) of American colleges quickly turned into a discussion of the events in Paris, again, following the attacks on a concert venue and other locations Friday evening last. Charles Lipson of the University of Chicago and Richard Baehr, both members of our Political A-Team, were with us on all topics. Also joining was Michael Barone, Fox News contributor and Washington Examiner political correspondent. This is a topic we will cover in depth over the coming days.

Yet another debate was held in Milwaukee and we are on the scene to tell you who won and who lost. Several under-performing candidates have left the big table, and Ben Carson and Donald Trump are at the top of the leaderboard as of this writing.

To discuss, we have in studio Dick Ciccone and Joe Morris, two members of our political A-Team.

Jim Baggott is an influential science writer. A scientist himself by training, he has turned toward a career in the commercial world as a successful author who popularizes complex scientific theories by making them, well, understandable.

His latest, Origins: The Scientific Story of Creation, is a concise history of how we got here, how life has evolved on this planet, and where life may be heading next. Baggott joins us here for an hour. We only wish that wed had more time.

Dark Matter. How does it differ from Dark Energy? What role has it played in mass extinctions throughout history? To answers those and many, many more questions of cosmological and biological import is Dr. Lisa Randall, one of our nations most esteemed physicists and professor at Harvard. Her latest book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe, sheds light on some of the greatest mysteries concerning our existence.

When most of us think of the supernatural in the Catholic religion, we think of the Shroud of Turin, or sightings of Mary, or exorcisms. These are just the big ones in a limitless line of claims which the Church must investigate.

John Thavis has years of experience working in the Vatican as he was the Rome Bureau Chief of the Catholic News Service and has written previously about what goes on with the Holy See. He goes deep into how this secretive team must vet miracles of those to be canonized, how they go around the world doing detective work on apparitions, or sightings of the Saints or demons. In The Vatican Prophecies Thavis also sheds some light on Pope Francis, a pope who has been thrust into the limelight at a time when the Church has passionate debate within and increasing pressure from the outside to adapt to an increasingly secular world.

When most people hear the name of the town Salem they immediately think, Witches! To be sure, that is the legacy of Salem in the minds of the masses. But beyond the wrongful execution of some young women for practicing witchcraft and sorcery, most people know nothing.

Stacy Schiff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a master storyteller. She has turned her attentions to Salem, 1692 to bring to life the real people behind the legend and to investigate how hysteria gripped a town and a nation. Not only were women the focus of the investigations--an inquisition, really--but there were men also. Families turned their backs on each other. Educated people left their senses--certain the devil was at work--and became complicit in murder.

The Wtiches: Salem, 1692 is a certain bestseller and a welcome inquiry into a story and a time that have had, unfortunately, only the most rudimentary understanding in American history.