WGTD's The Morning Show with Greg Berg

Ryan Swanson's book is titled "The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete."  The book explores how important athletic endeavor was to TR - and also chronicles all that he did as president to make athletics a more central element of American culture in that era.  

Benjamin Runkle's book is 'Generals in the Making: How Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton and their Peers Became the Commanders Who Won World War II."  The book focuses on the experiences of these generals (plus Douglas MacArthur and others) between the end of World War I and the start of World War II and examines the events and experiences that helped shape them into the important leaders they eventually became.  After that comes an excerpt from my 2013 conversation with Gene Edward Smith, author of "Eisenhower: In War and Peace."  

This interview from 2006 is with Bob Harris,  a 5-time Jeopardy champion (back in the days when that was the longest that a person could compete on the show.)   His book about the popular game show is titled "Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy."   We're sharing this interview as Alex Trebek (battling pancreatic cancer) is beginning his 36th season as the host of Jeopardy.  

This interview with best-selling author Buzz Bissinger was recorded in 2015 at the time of the publication of the 25th anniversary edition of "Friday Night Lights: A Town,  a Dream, and a Team."  Bissinger's book chronicled a season of the high school football team in Odessa, Texas,  a community where football is followed with ferocious intensity.  

Joan Wickersham's lost her father to suicide.  "The Suicide Index: Putting my Father's Death in Order" is a very thoughtful examination of that heartbreaking event and Wickersham's attempt to understand it.   We're playing this just ahead of the 10th annual Labor of Love Music Festival tomorrow (September 1st) in New Munster... a fundraiser for Just Live, a local non-profit organization that is working to draw attention to the issue of  suicide and supporting organizations and agencies working on suicide prevention.  This interview was recorded in 2008. 

Ronald C. Rosbottom's book is "Sudden Courage: Youth in France Confront the Germans, 1940-1945."  It explores the many and varied ways in which young adults in France were part of the Resistance against the Nazis occupying their country.  

We speak with mandolin player Erik Berry, a charter member of the outstanding bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles.  The group is headlining this Sunday's Labor of Love Music Festival in New Munster.   In this interview, we explore Berry's career- the history of TBT- and even hear the story of how Berry came up with the group's fantastic name.  In part two, Susan Tatsui D'Arcy talks about Project Merit, a program she created more than twenty years ago that helps high school students create meaningful community projects. 

In this interview,  Doug and Kim Instenes talk about their recent visit to the Fringe Festival in Edinburg, Scotland-  the largest theatrical festival in the world-  and some of what they saw and experienced there.   We also talk with Kim about the honor she received back in the spring when she was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year at Carthage, where she is Associate Professor of Theater and heads up the costume department.  Her husband Doug is director of the Racine Theater Guild. 

Dr. Art Cyr, Clausen Distinguished Professor of Political Economy and World Business at Carthage College, pays his monthly visit to the program to offer his analysis of current events and issues.   Topics in today's discussion include the so-called Trade War with China,  new tensions with Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the fires in the Amazon Rain Forest,  and the importance of discretion in intelligence work. 

David Vann, author of “ Legend of a Suicide.” Although a work of fiction, the novel draws heavily upon Vann’s real-life experience of losing his own father to suicide.