Nick Barootian, artistic director of Racine's Belle Ensemble, talks about the group's production of Gian Carlo Menotti's beloved Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors," which will be performed tonight (Friday) at the DeKoven Center in their Great Hall. n

This program was guest-hosted by WGTD's Troy McDonald.  It featured Nan Calvert in her monthly environmental segment - and the guest was Dr. Doug Tallemy from the faculty at the University of Delaware, who one of the country's leading experts on native landscapes.   The address of his website is bringingnaturehome.net.  

Emma Swain is a senior English and Music Theater major at Carthage College.  Her play "Wire Taps" has been selected to receive a public reading at the Region III Kennedy Center College Music Theater Festival in Madison this weekend.   The play, something of a coming out story, consists entirely of phone calls, emails, and text messages .... and Emma has written the play without any gender-specific pronouns.   

Stefan Klein's book is titled "Leonardo's Legacy:  How da Vinci Re-imagined the World."   This interview was originally broadcast in 2010. 

Broadcast journalist Mary Ellen Geist stepped away from her professional career to return home and care for her father as he contended with the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease.   Her memoir about that experience is titled "Measure of the Heart."  This is the full interview.  (An abridged version was heard in today's Morning Show broadcast.)   This interview was recorded in 2009.  

From the summer of 2018 comes a conversation with Anneka Barrow, a young woman from Racine, talking about the time she spent working with refugees in the heart of Mexico (refugees fleeing from various parts of Central and South America, many of them hoping to eventually end up in the United States.)   She was working in Mexico under the auspices of Young Adults in Global Mission, which is an outreach organization of the ELCA (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.)  

Susan Quinn discusses her book "Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady."   The title refers to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok and the very intimate relationship that they shared for many years.  

From 2004- Jay Boninsinga's book is "The Sinking of the Eastland:  America's Forgotten Tragedy."   On July 15, 1915, a boat sank in the heart of Chicago- on the Chicago River- killing 840 people.  

Seth Shulman's book is "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret."  The 'secret' mentioned in the book's subtitle is the fact that Bell does not deserve sole credit for 'his' famous invention.  The book chronicles the complex story of all of the people besides Bell who had a hand in the creation of the telephone.

From 2003-  Renowned activist Todd Gitlin dispenses advice to a new generation of activists in "Letter to a Young Activist," which is part of the well0-known book series "The Art of Mentoring."