Mike Nowak Show Podcasts

Carrie Schloss wrote The Asheville Bee Charmer Cookbook and visits the WCGO studios to talk recipes featuring honey. Jerry Gudauskas of the Illinois Beekeepers Association talks about the insects that make the honey. Mike and Peggy look at environmental stories of the past few weeks.

As we celebrate Bat Week, Indiana State University's Joy O'Keefe tells us why this mammal is so important and so misunderstood. Kim Hankins previews the Green Living Expo at McHenry County College. Madison Hopkins from the Better Government Association follows up on her wave-making article about recycling in Chicago.

Landscape architect Thomas Rainer offers some heretical advice on what makes plants happy. Peggy and Mike welcome some winning gardeners from the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards ceremony.

Folk musician Mark Dvorak and Stephanie Schrodt stop by the studio to promote next week's Folktober Fest in Oak Park. Holly and Joey Baird, The Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener, have early fall tips. In the advance of the ILCA's IMPACT Conference, Marcus de la fleur talks about the benefit of putting native plants in your home's landscape, and the difficulty of finding companies that will maintain them.

Mike and Peggy broadcast live from Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, just southwest of Chicago near Wilmington, Illinois, and talk to range of guests about one of the great restoration projects in the history of the planet.

The cast and crew of Green Scene’s play “Helianthus!” talk about this theatrical history of the plant we call a sunflower. On the final day of Food Waste Weekend, Gary Oppenheimer of AmpleHarvest.org promotes distribution of excess food in America.

Members of the Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts promote the 2018 Windy City Coop & Eco-Yard Tour...and provide some musical entertainment. Mike test drives an electric vehicle in nine minutes. Doug Taron, PhD from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum reports on large numbers of migrating monarch butterflies.

Gardening expert Melinda Myers has late season advice for hydrangea care; Dr. Jack Gilbert, author of Dirt Is Good talks about why protecting your kids from germs might not be the best thing for them.

Marta Touloumes Keane, Recycling Program Specialist for Will County, explains what can and can’t be recycled, and why. Rich and Susan Eyre from Rich’s Foxwillow Pines prepare for their Hosta Happening Finale.

Susan Hand Shetterly, author of Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge, reports on how seaweed harvesting could be the next biological frontier. Marvin Strauch, and Chicago teacher Joe Lentino explain the Trout in the Classroom program.

Certified arborist M.D. Skeet from Bartlett Tree Experts returns to the show to talk summer tree issues. Carey Gillam, author of Whitewash: The Story of Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, also returns to report on a huge court judgment against the Monsanto Company and its weedkiller Roundup.

With the Garden Writers Association coming to town, Mike and Peggy welcome GWA members C. L. Fornari, Andrea Whitely and Mary-Kate Mackey in studio, who will be joined on the phone by James A. Baggett, who is being inducted into the GWA Hall of Fame.

Landscape horticulturist Dolly Foster teaches you how to make your garden pollinator friendly. Tom Buechel explains how the Plant Sentry program will theoretically keep plant e-commerce free of invasive plants and pests.

The Spirited Gardener Julia Bunn has rain garden advice. Dan Kosta reports on the Prairie State Bonsai Society annual show. KC Tomato talks–what else?–tomatoes. Stephanie Walquist and Terry Guen preview the Wild Ones West Cook Native Garden Tour.

Corey Chatman explains how SNAP purchases at farmers markets across the country are at risk. Green Diva Meg talks about her new podcast at The Green Divas. Nick Mink of Sitka Salmon Shares addresses the challenges facing Community Supported Fisheries.

Chicago Master Gardener Laury Lewis previews the 50th Annual Sheffield Music Festival & Garden Walk. Kayri Havens and Jennifer Schwarz Ballard from Project Budburst are looking for citizen scientists to participate in the Nativars Research Project.

Edith Makra, Director of Environmental Initiatives for the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus celebrates a milestone for the Greenest Region Compact. Tony Abruscato of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, previews the 811 Chicago Garden at Taste of Chicago.

Author, lecturer and “farmden” cultivator Lee Reich talks about his new book, The Ever Curious Gardener. Folks from the Dearborn Garden Walk and the Bucktown Garden Walk come to the studio to promote their summer events.

Garden expert Melinda Myers talk searly summer gardening. Environmental attorney Albert Ettinger and Cindy Skrukrud from the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club explain their lawsuit with Chicago Trump Tower over its violation of the Clean Water Act.

Mike and Peggy are live from the Custer Fair in Evanston, Illinois, where they welcome Tom Klitzkie of Nature's Perspective Landscaping, meteorologist Rick DiMaio and more.