The Mike Nowak Show Podcasts

The Mike Nowak Show is live on location at Kolatek's Bakery and Deli on Chicago's northwest side. Mike talks to Bart Kolatek about the 44 artisan breads they bake on location. In the second hour, Jill Neiwoehner of MamaGrows and Jeanne Nolan from the Organic Gardener and author of From the Ground Up offer tips on growing mushrooms and vegetables, in that order.

On the final show of 2013, Mike talks to his listeners about the issues of the year that they considered important.

EcoConsumer writer and advocate Tom Watson chats with Mike about how to keep the holidays particularly green this year by getting some advice from the King County, Washington Green Holidays page. Melinda Myers talks about her new book, the Midwest Gardener's Handbook, and helps Mike answer some late year gardening questions.

Cindy Skrukrud, Clean Water Advocate for the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, Lorin Schab of Midewin Heritage Association, and Andrew Armstrong of the Environmental Law and Policy Center discuss the proposed Illiana Tollway, that would connect !-55 near Joliet, Illinois and I-65 near Lowell, Indiana, and whether it is worth the cost, in terms of dollars, damage to farms and environmentally sensitive lands.

Certified arborist Skeet (yes, that's his name) from The Care of Trees explains how to keep your trees hydrated in time of drought and heat. Cindy Skrukrud from the Illinois Chaper of the Sierra Club, Andrew Armstrong from the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Lorin Schab from Midewin Heritage Association discuss why environmental groups have have filed suit against the construction of the so-called Illiana Tollway in Will County. Rob Greenfield talks about his 4700 mile trip across the country on a bamboo bicycle to raise awareness of environmental issues.

Artist Leah Gauthier talks about her campaign to help rescue the Marshall Strawberry from near-extinction. Landscaper, horticultural consultant and permacultural grower Nance Klehm explains how she became yet another environmentalist fined by the City of Chicago for allegedly growing weeds on her parkway. The charges are absurd, by the way. Mike examines whether this policy is just a way for the financially-strapped City to raise cash.

Blake Davis is Adjunct Professor of Sustainability and Urban Agriculture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. At the Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago conference in November, he did a presentation called A 50 Year Plant for Surviving Climate Change. It anticipates the decline of environmental, economic and social systems throughout the world in the coming decades how to survive those catclysmic changes.

Robert Nevel and Gloria Needlman from the KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in Hyde Park preview their fourth annual MLK Food Justice and Sustainability Weekend program. IIT Professor Blake Davis presents his 50 Year Plan for Surviving Climate Change and says that the next few decades will not be pretty unless we make some quick and radical changes.

Josh Mogerman from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) joins Mike, Lisa Albrecht and Sarah Batka to talk about the lack of regulation of the burgeoning hydraulic fracturing (fracking) industry in Illinois. Much of the sand used in that process is mined in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Mike talks to a Phil and Diane Gassman, who live in what has become Ground Zero for frac sand mining in Utica, Illinois.

Mary T. McClellan from Glacier Oaks Nursery explains why they are selling living Christmas Trees to benefit the Land Conservancy of McHenry County and how to care for the plants after the holidays. Jeff Gohringer, National Press Secretary for the League of Conservation Voters, joins Mike and Lisa Albrecht in a conversation about which national and local political candidates are likely to be champions of environmental causes.

Pam and Lan Richart from Eco-Justice Collaborative, and John Edel from The Plant preview the The Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago event The Living City, which will be held from November 2 to 4 at UIC in Chicago. Daphne Mitchell from the Illinois River Coordinating Council, Tracy Yang from the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club and LaSalle County land owner Susan Dodd Calhoun report on the battle to keep an open pit sand mine from being dug next to Starved Rock State Park and report on a rally to be held next week to save the park from environmental degradation.

Benjamin Cox, Executive Director of Friends of the Forest Preserves tells the story of how 45 acres of mature trees were wiped off the map in Evergreen Park in order to create a shopping mall for Meijer. Menards and other stores, and who should be held accountable for what is an environmental travesty.

Jack Darin, Illinois Sierra Club Director, talks to Mike about a proposed open pit sand mine adjacent to Starved Rock State Park that would seriously affect the environmentla aesthetics of the the park. They are joined by LaSalle county residents Mike Phillips and Debbie Burns, who testified in a recent LaSalle County Zoning meeting against the project. Should you wish to voice your objection to the mine, you can log onto this Illinois Sierra Club web page.

Mike talks to Barbara Melera, ownder of Landreth Seed Company, about her efforts to save the 228 year old heirloom seed business by selling one million catalogs in a month, and how the social media have stepped up to help.

Zina Murray is the owner and operator of the Logan Square Kitchen, a shared-use kitchen in Chicago--part of the new wave of innovative local food businesses in the city. For two years, she has been confronting out-dated and byzantine regulations of the Chicago Department of Public Health that have caused her facility to be inspected 19 times in two years. Now she is fighting back, and has started a petition to reform outdated practices within that city department.