The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki is about our connection to the earth…
…You can call it horticulture or agriculture or permaculture or even gardening. Just don’t call us late for harvest. Ba-dum. Anyway, that’s our starting point. From there, we want to help our listeners make the leap from their backyards to the rest of the planet. On this show, you might hear about why clover in your lawn is a good thing (bees and nitrogen fixing, anyone?), why roses are lovely but adding some native plants is a good idea, why trees are not only magnificent plants but are the lungs of the earth and add value to your property, and why growing your own vegetables is surprisingly easy.
You’re going to hear about why ocean levels are steadily rising (our wonderful meteorologist Rick DiMaio explains it in language everyone can understand), but why Great Lakes water levels vary from year to year. We talk about why we need to stop pumping carbon dioxide into the air, and why too many species are in decline. We explore why marginalized populations seem to be the ones that suffer the most from air, water and soil pollution.
From monarch butterflies to food to climate change to giant pumpkins, we don’t think there’s another show like ours anywhere. And, believe it or not, we have a good time while we do it! We bring in knowledgeable guests who are surprisingly accessible and entertaining. And so are we, of course.
Live streaming every Sunday morning, Mike, Peggy and Rick explore the science, the zeal, the humor, the commitment, the discipline, and the promise of treading a little more lightly on this good Earth. Green learning was never so much fun!
About Mike Nowak
In 2022 Mike Nowak celebrates 25 years talking about gardening, the environment and green living on his program. Before going “strictly internet,” Mike hosted programs on WGN Radio, WCPT 820AM, Que4 Radio, and WCGO 1590 AM. For two seasons, he was co-host of the local gardening and food TV program Dig In Chicago. His award-winning column was on the inside back page of Chicagoland Gardening Magazine for sixteen years before that publication’s unfortunate demise. In 2014, Around the Block Press published his first book, Attack of the Killer Asparagus and Other Lessons Not Learned in the Garden. He is also a popular speaker on the garden club circuit (in person or via Zoom).
In 2017, Mike and co-host Peggy Malecki (below) were prime movers in creating the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards (CEGA). That program revived a more than 50-year-old Chicago tradition that had been abandoned by the City in 2011. Mike co-founded the Midwest Ecological Landscape Alliance (MELA) and served as MELA’s president for four years. He is an Illinois Master Gardener and Openlands TreeKeeper. He is also a former board member of the Illinois Recycling Association and past president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition.
Mike often says that his background in gardening is show business, which is pretty close to the truth. He started on the Chicago stage, where where he garnered awards for acting, directing and writing. He also has awards for radio production work. As for horticulture, he remains a fervent amateur when it comes to growing things.
About Peggy Malecki
2022 is Peggy Malecki’s twelfth year as publisher of Natural Awakenings Chicago magazine. It is an independent monthly publication focused on living a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. Living green is important to Peggy, who strives to incorporate sustainable habits into her everyday life and teach others to do the same. Peggy is in her sixth year as part of The Mike Nowak Show team.
Although she grew up on the northwest side of Chicago, Peggy says she spent countless childhood hours with her grandparents in then-small-town Antioch, IL. There she learned how to compost, grow veggies without chemicals and appreciate the outdoors.
In prior business incarnations, Peggy specialized in marketing, technical and process documentation, training development and delivery, and product and project management. She also has experience developing website content, penning newsletters, chairing national sailing regattas and publishing a sailing magazine. As described above, she worked with Mike to create the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards (CEGA), which were presented for the first time in 2017. An avid sailor, Peggy was the first woman commodore and board president of the North Shore Yacht Club and served as a Lakefront Commissioner with the City of Highland Park. She is also a Highland Park beach captain for the annual Adopt-A-Beach clean-up.
About Rick DiMaio
Rick DiMaio is not just a weatherman on The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki. He is our expert on climate, climate change and all the ways our environment shapes and is shaped by us. A meteorologist and climate scientist, Rick DiMaio specializes in aviation meteorology and environmental sustainability. His online textbooks, Weather and Aviation Volumes I and II, were released by Great River Learning Publishing in 2021. Rick is a Chicago media veteran of outlets that include Fox 32 Chicago, CBS 2 Chicago, WGN Radio, and he has been with The Mike Nowak Show…for 14 years! He is also an instructor at several local colleges, including Loyola University and Lewis University.
During his tenure at United, Rick designed and produced an International Pilots Weather Manual for the airline’s European and North Atlantic operations. He also produced various in-house case studies on diverse weather conditions and supervised and co-published a one-year thunderstorm study.
All of that is seriously impressive, but Rick is also impressive when he’s not serious. He has a real penchant for the kind of jokes usually told by seven-year-olds. Aside from that, he’s pretty funny.