The Mike Nowak Show Podcasts

Jim Slama is founder and president of FamilyFarmed, and he created the Good Food Festival and Conference in 2004. He previews this year's conference at the UIC Forum in Chicago, where The Mike Nowak Show will be broadcasting Saturday, March 18 at 10am. Mike and Peggy also discuss a number of environmental issues, including proposed cuts to the EPA, which could endanger the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Mike and Peggy talk to the winners of the Good Food Chef of the Year award, Christine Cikowski and Josh Kulp of Chicago’s Honey Butter Fried Chicken. Their food — much of it locally and sustainably sourced — comes with a large side of social conscience, which is why they are receiving the award at the Good Food Festival and Conference. Then, Tony Abruscato, director of the Chicago Flower and Garden Show stops by to promote a Chicago tradition dating back to 1847. The Mike Nowak Show will be broadcasting live from each event on consecutive Saturdays--March 18 and March 25 at 10am on 1590 WCGO.

Carol Niec and Kerrie Rosenthal are the founders and owners of The Seed Keeper Company. They drop by the WCGO studios to talk about their annual event, The Seed Keeper Project, which recognizes school gardens across the country. The One Earth Film Festival returns for its sixth year, expanding to two weeks with showings all over the Chicago area. Mike and Peggy talk to two of the filmmakers for this environmental event--Catherine Zimmerman, director of a film called Hometown Habitat, and Gwendolen Cates, who directed The Good Mind.

John Arena, Alderman from Chicago's 45th Ward, and Melissa Brice, founder of Chicago 350, stop by the WCGO studio to talk to Mike and Peggy about the how the City of Chicago might divest certain funds from the fossil fuel industry.

Kim Hankins, director of the McHenry County College Sustainability Center, talks to Mike and Peggy about their annual Great Lakes Bioneers Speaker Series, a way to connect MCC employees, students and residents to cutting edge environmental topics that directly impact the local economy and community. Robb Telfer, Calumet Outreach Coordinator for The Field Museum, will be the plenary speaker, along with Emily Graslie, at the upcoming sold-out Wild Things Conference in Chicago. He explains their talk, Chicugly: Redefining Natural Beauty in Chicago.

Karen Hudson from Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water (ICCAW) and Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP). and Craig Porter, member of the Isabel Township Board of Trustees, talk to Mike and Peggy about the threat to small farmers and rural citizens by factory farms. They are both farmers and members of Illinois Farm Bureau, which they claim isn't acting in the interest of its constituency when it comes to factory farms. They also advocate for a change in Illinois law to empower local governments to be able to reject the siting of CAFOs.

Mike and Peggy welcome Melinda Myers once again to the show. She has more than 30 years of horticultural experience, and has written more than 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening and the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook. Today, they discuss winter pruning and give away one of her DVDs in the Great Courses "How to Grow Anthing" series,  Make Your Trees and Shrubs Thrive.

Allen Lawrance from Chicago’s Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and Rich Hatfield from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation discuss the recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

Lisa Hilgenberg is Horticulturist at the Regenstein Fruit and Vegetable Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Not to put too fine a point on it, but she’s in charge of 50,000 vegetable plants, which people pay to see. No pressure at all. She stops by the 1590 WCGO studios to talk to Mike and Peggy about which seed catalogs she thinks are best and how she makes the seed selections for the garden each year.

With this show, Mike and Peggy move to their new home, 1590 WCGO Radio. They welcome Robert Nevel from KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation in Chicago's Hyde Park Neighborhood, and Dr. V. Bala Chaudhary from DePaul University. KAMII presents its 8th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Sustainability Food Justice and Sustainability Weekend from January 13 to 15, and Dr. Chaudhary will be one of the many presenters. Carly Persson, Winter Farmers Market Coordinator for Faith in Place, talks about their Winter Farmers Markets.

Audrey Fischer of the Chicago Astronomical Society stops by the Que4 Studio to talk about the Chicago Smart Lighting Project, which is already being tested in seven neighborhoods, as the City replaces some 270,000 streetlight. She is joined by Dr Fabio Falchi, who is co-author of The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, and is one of the world’s leading experts in the area of dark skies research, and Dr Mario Motta, a past board member of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) and the lead person for the American Medial Association declaration on human health and light pollution. They discuss what the City of Chicago needs to do to create a safe, effective lighting system.

On January 7, 2017, The Mike Nowak Show moves to 1590AM, WCGO Radio to be back to back with old friend Ron Cowgill and his Mighty House Home Improvement Radio. Mighty House airs from 7-10am, Mike and Peggy go from 10am-noon. Ron visits to talk about the new venue. Audrey Fischer of the Chicago Astronomical Society stops by the Que4 Studio to talk about the Chicago Smart Lighting Project, which is already being tested in seven neighborhoods. She is joined by experts Dr Fabio Falchi and Dr Mario Motta, and they discuss what the City needs to do to avoid over-illumination. Patrick O’Neill, CEO of an LLC called Amp Your Good, explains how it is changing the way people participate in food drives.

Steve Bailey of the Illinois Natural History Survey explains why 30,000 sandhill cranes flew directly over Chicago during their migration this fall. Jean Bragdon, operations manager at Lurvey Garden Center in Des Plaines, talks about the expansion of the business and gives some tips for winter plant care. Karen Hudson of Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water (ICCAW) and the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP) and attorney Kevin Sullivan tell the story of how bullying tactics by the factory farm industry resulted in a lawsuit against Hudson that was recently dismissed by an Illinois appellate court.

On The Mike Nowak Show this week we try to connect the environmental dots–to see how the Future Energy Jobs Bill, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly this week, ties in to contamination in Chicago’s recycling blue carts and the recently passed plastic bag fee in Chicago. Mel Nickerson from the Illinois Recycling Association and Melanie Eckner from the Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network join us to add some clarity to these issues. Then friend of the show Michele Hoffman Trotter explains why the microuniverse of our oceans holds the key to life on this planet and how she is creating a ninety-minute film to present this story to the world.

Michelle Byrne Walsh from Chicagoland Gardening Magazine and State by State Gardening helps Mike and Peggy come up with green holiday gifts that are good, bad and just plain weird. Scott Stewart, director of the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, waxes poetic on the fall/winter garden and explains how just five acres of land has transformed Chicago's lakefront. Sarah Surroz is the new executive director of Conserve Lake County and she explains her vision for utilizing both public and private lands in the service of nature.