The Mike Nowak Show Podcasts

Guests: Ken Haller, former president of the Illinois State Beekeepers Association in a discussion about Colony Collapse Disorder; Steve Reick from the Fertisorb Company, Amy Gulick, photographer for the book Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska's Tongass Rain Forest, Rick Moskovitz, President, A-Plus Pest Control, Inc .

Live Broadcast from Pesche's Garden Center in Des Plaines. Guests: Milo Shammas, Founder & Formulator, Dr. Earth, Inc.; frog monitor Matt Hokanson; Marjorie Hess from Gary Comer Youth Center about CEDA's"My Backyard Garden: 'Keepin It Fresh" contest for students from grades 8 through 12.

Guests: Thom Kraak and Shawn Kingzette from The Care of Trees explain how to decorate your outdoor trees and shrubs without harming them; Mariani Landscape's Marni Wilson offers some tips for great holiday containers; Tom Spaulding of the Illinois Local Food, Farms & Jobs Council talks about the importance of keeping food dollars in Illinois; Mike and producer Heather Frey start a firestorm by suggesting that there is only one way to pronounce the word "Poinsettia."

Beth Botts fills in for the vacationing Mike Nowak. Guests: Diane Blazek of All-America Selections and National Garden Bureau; Jim Kleinwachter, head of the Conservation@home program for the Conservation Foundation; garden designer Andrea Green of Gardens by Design in Oak Park.

Guests: Arborist Guy Sternberg, who created Starhill Forest Arboretum in Petersburg, Illinois, talks about his class, "Cemetery Botany," which he taught at The Morton Arboretum on Halloween Day; Jack Darin from the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club and Max Muller from Environment Illinois discuss their respective organizations' endorsements of Illinois candidates in this Tuesday's election; Mike introduces the first installment of "Good Growing," with correspondent Mr. Brown Thumb.

Beth Botts co-hosts. She and Mike talk about the latest funding crisis for Illinois Extension, the state of the economy in horticulture, why you should stop whining about snow (it's good for your plants), and they answer a few gardening questions along the way.

First show at new start time of 9:00 a.m. Guests: Sandy Syburg of Purple Cow Organics talks about organic soil amendments and a possible peat moss alternative; Bob Erlich, amateur Monarch butterfly raiser, brings a live chrysalis to the studio, and explains the mission of Monarch Watch and some of the difficulties in collecting and releasing these insects.

Josh Mogerman of the Natural Resources Defense Council talks about the safety of the Great Lakes following the capture of an Asian Carp in Lake Calumet; Mike answers some gardening questions, with the help of friend Dan Costa; Heather Frey talks about her attempts to get close to the Stanley Cup.

Tim Magner has written children's books and created truck farms to introduce kids to where there food comes from. Now he is working with people like like Elena Marre and Nance Klehm to create Nature's Farm Camp, a place for kids to have fun while connecting with nature, food, each other and themselves. They're also in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign, which runs through February 22.

Biologist, activist, author and parent Sandra Steingraber, PhD,talks to Mike about her fight against fracking in the states of New York and her home state of Illinois. She will be the keynote speaker for the Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago Conference on November 1 at Roosevelt University.

Guests: Julia Govis, author of Who's Poisoning Our Children? and Josh Mogerman of the the Natural Resources Defense Council talking about Atrazine in our water;; Beth Botts, who has written about alternatives to plastic pots in her blog, Growing in Chicago and Drew Effron, product manager for Ball Innovations, a part of Ball Horticultural Company, which is working on these alternatives. Beth also talks about the inaugural "Beer Under Glass" Micro Brew Event to benefit the Garfield Park Conservatory.

Beth Botts fills in for Mike. Guests: Jean Bragdon from Lurvey's gives advice on winter houseplant care. Shawn Kingzette from The Care of Trees weighs in on the advantages and drawbacks of live holiday trees; Steve Sullivan , curator of urban ecology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park runs Project Squirrel--do the squirrels know about this? And Beth tries to teach her listeners how to be citizen scientists through programs like Project BudBurst , Monarch Watch and CoCoRaH.

Discussions on 350.org International Day of Climate Action and City of Chicago's backtracking on Blue Cart rollout. Guests: Urban Worm Girl Stepanie Davies, Compost Queen Lynn Bement, Shedd Aquarium horticulturist Christine Nye, and Charles Martin of Terra Biotics.

Guests: Illinois Extension Fruits and Vegetables Educator Maurice Ogutu, about the safety of vegetables gardens that were flooded by recent heavy rains; 2010 STIHL Tour des Trees reunion with Mary DiCarlo of the TREE Fund, and riders Pam Pinkley, Mark Younger, Greg Cadieux, John Kirchner and Jim Skiera.

Guests: Wait a second...there are no guests. In this end-of-the year edition of "The Mike Nowak Show," Mike and producer Heather Frey relax, take some phone calls, and talk about some of the news stories that didn't make it onto the show earlier in 2010.