Wgtd's The Morning Show With Greg Berg

We preview the next concert of the Racine Symphony Orchestra..... "Violins of Hope- A Concert of Remembrance and Resilience" on Saturday evening, October 11th at First Presbyterian Church. Present at the concert will be several string instruments recovered from the Holocaust and restored to their original beauty.

We talk with Joseph Tenuta, the Rogers Palmer Distinguished Professor in Business at Carthage College, about the Biz Starts Kenosha program that will begin at the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood on Saturday, October 18th. This is a program designed to assist aspiring entrepreneurs; it includes 6 Saturday morning sessions with Carthage business faculty followed several months of followup and mentorship. The program explores such crucial matters as developing a viable business concept, designing a profit model, and successfully setting up operations. It's designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs the background, resources, and connections to successfully launch and sustain their new business.

We talk with Brian Gill - a member of the theater faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside - about their next theatrical production: an intriguing play by Anne Washburn titled "Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play." In this black comedy, the earth has been devastated by a catastrophe that has, among other things, destroyed the planet's power grid. The play imagines a small group of people deciding to re-enact an episode of "The Simpsons" - and how those re-enactments might change over time.

We explore the vast, exciting and disconcerting landscape of A.I. with David Eliot, author of "Artificially Intelligent: The Very Human Story of A.I."

We welcome into our studios Dr. Maggie Burk, Director of Choral Activities at Carthage College, and Polly Amborn, who has followed up a 35-year career as a choral conductor in the Kenosha Unified School District with a stint as a choral director at Carthage, which is her alma mater. Between the two of them, they will be conducting Carthage's four large choral ensembles in the Fall Choral Concert this Saturday evening, October 11th- a concert which is free and open to the public.

From the archives, we talk to the author of a book titled "Carlisle vs. Army" which tells the story of an epic football game back in 1912 that had participants such as future Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe, future president and general Dwight D. Eisenhower, and renowned football coach Pop Warner. In part two, also from the archives, we talk with the author of a series of books for young readers that tells the story of some extraordinary athletes.

We speak with Ruchira Gupta about "The Freedom Seeker," a novel intended for young readers - in which the main character .... a young teenage girl .... is forced to leave her homeland in search of a place where she and her parents can live in peace.

We speak with Ashley Hanson, Vice President for Enrollment from Carthage College- which has just welcomed the largest freshman class in its history despite the very challenging environment in which higher education is operating right now.

Best-selling author Mary Roach is back to talk about her most recent book, "Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy- 17 Glimpses at Human Fabrication." The book explores things like hair transplants, dentures, skin grafts, prosthetic limbs, hip transplants, and more.

We speak with Dr. Jay McRoy, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, about UW-P's Foreign Film Series, which is now in its 44th season. The season has already opened, but nine more outstanding foreign films remain. (Next up is a Fellini classic.) We talk about each film- and about the exciting change of venue that will occur after the first of the year when the series will move to the mainstage auditorium in The Rita.

With the film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale showing in movie theaters across the country, we are replaying an interview from the archives in which I speak with the current occupant/owner of Highclere Castle, the beautiful castle where Downton Abbey was filmed.

As part of this weekend's homecoming festivities, four people were inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame ... including longtime Carthage baseball coach Augie Schmidt, who recently retired after 38 years as coach. In honor of his legacy, we are replaying an interview that date's all the way back to the late 1990s. It was conducted by the original host of the Morning Show, Bill Guy.

We speak with longtime Kenosha journalist Karl Frederick, who for 38 years worked for the Kenosha News. In his retirement, he has become active with the Kenosha County Historical Society and has had a major hand in an oral history project called Kenosha Voices. 173 interviews have been recorded on video- most of the by Frederick - and they have included conversations with officials, company owners, educators, as well as members of the community. We are talking about this today because of the 175th anniversary of the City of Kenosha.

We preview Carthage College's groundbreaking production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, which will be performed the next two weekends in Carthage's Wartburg Theater. (This first weekend coincides with the school's Homecoming festivities.) We speak with Matthew Hougland, director of the school's musical theater program..... (who is also the stage director of this production) .... and three students who are headlining the cast: Annaliese Ruhs (Jesus), Vivian Alexander (Judas) and Lorelai Amborn (Pontius Pilate.)

We speak with Dr. Art Cyr - a former faculty member at Carthage College and a nationally-syndicated columnist - about various current events and issues.

Our guest is Dr. Carlo Rotella, Professor of English at Boston College, talks about his newly published memoir "What can I Get Out of This? - Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics." Rotella talks about the experience of teaching a course that is affectionately known by BC students as "Core Lit" - an English literature survey course that all freshmen at the college must take..... exactly the sort of liberal arts course that some might view as fairly meaningless if not downright useless if they regard a college education as nothing more than job preparation. Rotella persuasively argues in his book that a course like "Core Lit" offers tremendous benefits to any student, no matter what their post-college aspirations happen to be. By the way, the semester that Rotella focuses on was the spring semester of 2020, which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread shutdown that drastically altered every aspect of our lives, including that

We talk with Don Costante about his book "Beyond the Scoreboard: The Ultimate Guide to Sports Events Presentation." Costante has enjoyed a career of more than 3 decades in event presention- and has directed, produced or managed more than 2,500 live events, including 3 NBA finals and 2 MLB world series. Costante explores the nearly limitless number of details that must be addressed to make everything work. Costante says that this is the book that he wishes had existed when he was beginning in this business.

We preview this Saturday's concert by the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra - a program of great film music - with music director David Anderson. The concert kicks off the orchestra's 25th anniversary season.

From 2024- Best-selling author William Kuhn (a former faculty member at Carthage College) talks about "Mrs. Queen Takes the Train: a Novel" - which centers on the scenario of a bored Queen Elizabeth II managing to slip away from her courtiers for what amounts to an adventure out in the real world by taking a train ride.

From 2020- Marc Freeman, co-author of "Modern Family: The Untold Oral History of One of Television's Groundbreaking Sitcoms."