Mike's partner and webmaster Kathleen Thompson talks about recent changes on the website for The Mike Nowak Show. Karen Hudson, an Illinois farmer and co-founder of Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water, warns that the historic site of Abraham Lincoln's New Salem home could be despoiled by a nearby hog factory farm. Writer and native plant specialist Benjamin Vogt describes The Ultimate Pollinator & Native Plant Gardening Guide, which he posted on his blog, The Deep Middle.

Canadian filmmaker Su Rynard has teamed with scientists, ecologists, bird enthusiasts and a superb film team to create a documentary called The Messenger. In it, they travel the globe to look at the causes of songbird decline, whether it's possible to reverse that distrubing trend, and what it means for all of us.

Mike runs into University of Illinois entomologist Dr. May Berenbaum at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show and takes the opportunity to ask her about the status of bees as we enter the 2015 growing season. She comments on bee populations (they're up slightly), bee health, and whether a ban on pesticides like neonicotinioids would be effective.

A few short years ago, Ohio gardener Bren Haas helped to create a Twitter forum called gardenchat, which now regularly engages thousands of gardeners from all over the planet. Mike caught up with Bren outside of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show to find out how she became an accidental social media guru.

Raya Carr is sales manager for Mint Creek Farm, a family-run business that raises premium, grassfed meats for the Chicago area on Certified Organic central Illinois pasture. They are also part of the FamilyFarmed Good Food Business Accelerator and are participating in the Good Food Festival and Conference this week at the UIC Forum. She talks about having grown up on the farm and what separates it from so-called conventional meat operations.