WGTD's The Morning Show with Greg Berg

This is a conversation about comedic improvisation (think about the TV show "Whose Line is it Anyway?" or Comedy Sportz) - its joys and its challenges - with three participants in the Over Our Head Players' improv event that's coming up over the next two weekends at the Sixth Street Theater.   Kristen Altoff, who teaches improv, has organized the event- A.J. Laird and Malissa Zeien are two of the six actors who will be onstage.   We talk about what it takes to do comedy improv well.  

Allen Salkin is co-author of "The Method to the Madness:  Donald Trump's Ascent as told by those how were hired, fired, inspired- and inaugurated." This book chronicles the years 2000-2015, the fifteen years before Donald Trump officially declared himself a candidate for U.S. President- a period of time during which Mr. Trump repeatedly explored the possibility of pursuing the presidency.  The co-authors spoke to more than one hundred people associated with Mr. Trump, including insiders like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone as well as others like Katie Couric and Jessie Ventura. 

This conversation is with Bert and John Jacobs, the co-founders of the apparel company Life Is Good .... and the co-authors of "Life is Good: The Book." 

Chris Ballard's book is titled "The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People who found their calling way off the beaten path."  

From the archives comes one of my all-time favorite interviews.  It's with sportswriter S. L. Price and his book "Heart of the Game:  Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America."   The book is about a much-admired minor league baseball player who was tragically killed when he was hit in the head by a line drive.  But beyond that, the book is also about the world of minor league baseball as a whole and both the joys and the stresses that its players experience.  

For Nan Calvert's monthly environmental program, we talk about the Zero Waste Initiative in Racine - which is a proposal that goes before the Racine Common Council on Tuesday.  'Zero Waste' initiatives have sprung up in cities and communities across the country.  In this conversation, we explore the many ways in which we generate far more waste than we need to- the difficulties that communities face when their landfills reach capacity- and what we can do as citizens and consumers to combat the problem.  

Part one of today's program is a preview of the Four Seasons Garden Club's annual Secret Garden Walk - in which people can walk through seven local gardens that are normally private residential gardens.  This year's tour also includes the Chiwaukee Prairie.   Part two preview's the performances occurring this weekend and the following weekend by Fleeing Artists Theater of William Shakespeare's most violent play,  "Titus Andronicus."  

Alexander Garvin is the author of "The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for the New Century."   His book examines some of the most impressive success stories with downtowns- such as New York City, Chicago, Houston, etc.- and also looks at downtowns such as Detroit and St. Louis that are struggling.    Garvin teaches at Yale.  

This interview explores the principle of Religious Liberty - the notion that people should be free to believe what they believe - and how Religious Liberty for Muslims is being challenged in Modern America.   Asma T. Uddin is a Muslim and an attorney who works on cases involving Religious Liberty.  Her new book is titled "When Islam is not a Religion: Inside America's Fight for Religious Freedom."  The book is both only a wide-ranging examination of the issue as well as a very personal chronicle of what the author herself has experienced as a Muslim living in America. 

This interview from 2010 was recorded to commemorate an important anniversary for a beloved local educator and musician named Frank Germinaro - the 40th anniversary of his first kidney transplant.    Frank and his wife Janet came on the Morning Show to talk about their journey and about this extraordinary milestone.