Information from Past Shows

Just another public service day here at The Mike Nowak Show. Peggy Malecki and I start by giving you the lowdown on some of the best, strangest and most…uh…off-putting (I’m trying to be kind here) green holiday gift ideas we’ve found, with Michelle Byrne Walsh from Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. Then Scott Steward, director of the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, tells us why winter is still a great time to be viewing outdoor plants. And there’s great stuff happening at Conserve Lake County, where friend of the show Sarah Surroz recently became executive director. We expect great things and she’ll tell us all about it.

Mike MacDonald has spent the past year teaching people through photography and prose that the Chicago area has a lot more spectacular nature than they ever imagined. He comes to the studio to talk about his book, My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago. Then Elizabeth Lyon, manager of the Plant Chicago Farmer’s Market, Alex Poltorak, founder of The Urban Canopy, and others discuss how difficult it can be to run a successful farmers market.

Sometimes shows come together almost by themselves. Today on The Mike Nowak Show we give you a perfect example. The program is about the stuff we make, the food we eat, and how we deal with all of it before, during and after its useful life. It features artist Mary Ellen Croteau, Food Tank president and founder Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank Summit participant Roger Thurow from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Kay McKeen from SCARCE and Erlene Howard from Collective Resource.

Today we celebrate more successes on Chicago’s southeast side with Tom Shepherd of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, who says that even more progress needs to be made. Environmental Reporter Steve Horn makes his first appearance on the show to talk about his investigative reports about the #NoDAPL movement in North Dakota. The Food Tank Summit comes to Chicago on November 16 and this is the first of two segments devoted to their mission of worldwide food system change.