The ALL NEW Big Wakeup Call with Ryan Gatenby

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On this episode, I visit with Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Lee Loughnane, trumpeter and original member of Chicago. The band will be performing live on "A Capitol Fourth," broadcast on PBS at 8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central on July 4th. 

Brian "Uncle John" Boone has been a contributor to the "Bathroom Reader" series for more than two decades. We chatted about the newest book in the series, "Strange USA."

And Jean Chatzky, award-winning journalist and host of the "Everyday Wealth" podcast, called in to discuss the financial challenges facing historically under-represented groups.

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From April 26, 2018: Amy Chock,  writer-at-large for the New York Times, visited the show to talk about her book, CHASING HILLARY: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling.

The debut memoir from award-winning New York Times journalist Amy Chozick, CHASING HILLARY: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling is the rollicking, irreverent, refreshingly honest personal story of Chozick's decade spent covering Hillary Clinton's pursuit of the presidency.

ABOUT AMY CHOZICK

Amy Chozick is a writer-at-large for the New York Times. She served as a national political reporter and was the Times' lead reporter covering Mrs. Clinton's 2016 campaign. Previously, Ms. Chozick was a business reporter at the paper. Before joining the Times, she spent eight years at The Wall Street Journal, where she served as a foreign correspondent based in Tokyo and a political reporter traveling with Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaigns. Ms. Chozick is a frequent contributor to CBS News, MSNBC, CNN and NPR. She was recently profiled in Vogue and Cosmopolitan and interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She served as a consultant on the Netflix political drama,House of Cards,advising the writers on the development of the female journalist characters. Born in San Antonio, Ms. Chozick moved to New York in 2001 with no job, no apartment and a stack of clips from The Daily Texan. She lives in New York with her husband.

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From April 6, 2018: Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award-winning actress Christine Lahti promoted her memoir, True Stories from An Unreliable Witness: A Feminist Coming of Age.

ABOUT CHRISTINE LAHTI

Christine Lahti is an Academy, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning acclaimed director and stage, television, and film actress with a career that spans over forty years. She won an Oscar for her short film, Lieberman in Love, and a Golden Globe award twice: once for the 1989 TV movie No Place Like Home, and the second time for her role as Kate Austin in the CBS series Chicago Hope (1995-99) for which she also won an Emmy Award. She was the Broadway star of 8, God of Carnage, and The Heidi Chronicles among others. She most recently starred in "F**king A" by Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Lori Parks at The Signature Theatre.

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From October 25, 2017: Iconic songstress Petula Clark was a guest on the show to talk about her new album, Living For Today, and an upcoming local show at the Arcadia Theater in St. Charles, Illinois. 

ABOUT PETULA CLARK

Petula Clark was born in Epsom, England, but her love of music began at a very early age in her mother's land of Wales. She was already a star in the U.K. by the age of 9, singing for the troops stationed in England during World War II.

Many years later, when, after marrying French PR man Claude Wolff, she moved to France. Almost without trying, she soon became a star in that country, and across Europe, also recording in French, Italian, German and Spanish, finding time to produce two delightful daughters, Barbara and Kate (and later a splendid son, Patrick).

While still living in Paris, English songwriter Tony Hatch presented her with his new composition: Downtown. The recording was made in London and was destined to become a worldwide hit, leading to a string of top ten records (including I Know A Place, My Love, A Sign Of The Times, Don't Sleep In The Subway, etc.), winning her 2 Grammy awards, and taking Petula’s career to international level. She has been living in Geneva, Switzerland for many years, where she met up with Charlie Chaplin who wrote one of her major hits This Is My Song.

She has performed in her own TV shows in the U.K., the U.S.A. and France. She has starred in movies (including Finian's Rainbow with Fred Astaire, Goodbye Mr. Chips with Peter O'Toole), theater in London's West End and on Broadway. 


 

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From November 9, 2020: Chicago's own Jeremy Piven, star of Entourage, was a guest on our show to discuss his new movie, My Dad's Christmas Date:

My Dad's Christmas Date stars Jeremy Piven, Olivia Mai Barrett, Hadar Cats, Megan Brown Martinez, Roger Aston-Griffiths, Nathalie Cox, and Joely Richardson and is directed by Mick Davis.

It's Christmas and the charming city of York, home to Jules, 16 and her Dad, David is decked out ready for the festive season. In many ways, David and Jules' relationship is no different from that of most fathers and their sixteen-year-old daughters. He struggles to understand her, she refuses to communicate with him. He wants to be involved in her life, she wants her own space. In one important respect, however, David and Jules share a profound bond: the death of Jules' mum, and David's wife, in a car crash two years before. With both struggling to cope with everyday life in the shadow of their loss, Jules, inspired by happy memories of her mum, decides to take matters into her own hands.

ABOUT JEREMY PIVEN

Jeremy Piven can next be seen in the feature film Crabs in a Bucket opposite Oscar winner Bruce Dern and Orange Is the New Black star Taryn Manning. Other upcoming films include: American Night opposite Oscar nominee Emile Hirsch, Jonathon Rhys Meyers, and Paz Vega andLegit Wiseguy with Palme d'Or winner and Oscar nominee director Roland Joffe.

Piven was most recently a series regular on the CBS television series Wisdom of the Crowd. From 2013-2016, he starred as HARRY HORDON SELFRIDGE in the critically acclaimed series Mr. Selfridge. He's best known for his role as ARI GOLD in the hit HBO series Entourage, which aired for eight seasons where Piven won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

In 2015, Piven reprised the fan-favorite role in the Entourage feature film released by Warner Bros. Other notable credits include: Sin City - A Dame to Kill For from directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, Todd Phillip's hit comedy Old School, Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, Peter Chelsom's Serendipity, Peter Berg's Very Bad Things and The Kingdom, Cameron Crowe's Singles, Joe Carnahan's Smokin Aces, Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, and The Player from director Robert Altman.

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From July 18, 2019: Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Stu Cook, bassist for Creedence Clearwater Revival, called in to promote the last tour of his follow-up band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, along with an upcoming special charity concert.

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From May 9, 2018: Rita Coolidge joined the show for the second time when she called in to talk about her new solo album, "Safe In the Arms of Time," featuring her original tunes, a collaboration with Keb' Mo', and a special composition from Graham Nash.

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From December 20. 2017: Nancy Cartwright called in to talk about her new film "In Search of Fellini," based on true events in her life. We discussed seeing her life played out by a young actress, why she didn't cast herself in the film in a major role, and thinking about what it means for Bart Simpson to be a grandma.

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From September 26, 2016: Chicago's own Tom Dreesen called in to talk about his career in comedy, touring with Frank Sinatra, and promoting a new DVD set, THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON: THE VAULT SERIES.

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From May 1, 2013: Actress and comedian Kristen Schaal called in to talk about Bob's Burgers and 30 Rock.