Milt Rosenberg

Irwin Weil is a fine storyteller we have known for years. As professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at Northwestern, he is also an expert on Russian life and culture. He has just penned an autobiography, and joined Milt to talk Russian life, music, a bit of politics and culture and to share some of…

Victor Davis Hanson is, quite simply, one of the finest minds in America. Professor Emeritus, Classics, at the University of California, Fresno, he is also one of the foremost writers on American politics and foreign policy. It is always an education speaking with him and today is no different.

Decades ago, the grade most given to high school students was a C. Today? It’s an A. Does anyone honestly believe that American youth are smarter than they were 50 years ago? What has changed? Cultural Literacy is a theme we will be visiting again on this program. It’s an ongoing theme. Mark Bauerlein and…

Jesus is one of the greatest philosophers the Earth has ever known. He is the Son of God to many, a great prophet to others, and a rabble-rousing revolutionary to some. Then there’s the claim claim he didn’t exist. On the latter point, we feel that it is no point at all. To deny that…

Compiling lists of our top ten songs, favorite ball players or films is always a fun endeavor. Who makes the list? Who did we anguish over having to leave out? We turned to our learned panel of film scholars and critics. Sitting in, Pete Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com and EFilmCritic.com, filmmaker and scholar Spencer Parsons of…

What? Why? How? The basic questions are sought after by scientists, men of religion, and some of our favorite people: philosophers. From Socrates to Descartes, to Wittgenstein to Locke to Lao Tzu, these were learned and wise men who sought answers to those questions. Two fantastic philosophers from contemporary times are Rick Lee of DePaul…

Jefferson, Reagan, Goldwater. Those are the names you’d expect to see on a list of influential conservatives. But interestingly, Mr. Tucker has compiled a fascinating list of others whom he deems worthy of study. It may surprise you. Well researched, and oozing with passion for this nation and what it stands for, “Conservative Heroes: 14…

A question often bandied about is how Americans’ feel about our involvement overseas. Maybe a better one is how our leaders feel about it, and whether or not their feelings are in line with the citizens’. That’s just one of the many that are posed in this informative entry into the series, as Milt is…

Chicago Crime. It sounds like the newest dramatic series coming to a network near you. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s a big, big problem. And there’s no shortage of people who believe they know how to fix it, or who’s to blame. But on this program, we always leave the passion behind and use our minds.…

Much has been written about our 40th president. Many are hagiographies, many are hit pieces. But few are as even handed as this latest biography by the great H.W. Brands of the University of Texas at Austin. Milt and professor brands speak in depth on Reagan’s boyhood life, particularly the psychological wounds Reagan took from…

Imagine that everything you knew about living life was lost. You couldn’t do your job. You couldn’t even walk. You couldn’t recognize people by name, even your children. For Dr. Clark Elliot, a professor of Artificial Intelligence at DePaul University, this nightmare was his reality. To top it off, he was told he had a…

Sometimes we have to decompress a bit and step back from the interviews. When that’s the case, we go to music class with Dr. Rosenberg. Such was the occasion on this program, another installment of Milt’s music.

Kenneth C. Davis is a marvelous historian and the author of the wildly popular ‘Don’t Know Much‘ book series. He’s turned his well-trained eye to the military and, specifically, though it should come at no surprise based on the title, American war history. As he always does, he uncovers many facts we may not have…

One of our great guests over the years is the Tribune’s Architecture Critic Blair Kamin. With several exciting renovation projects underway and the new 606 Trail once again proving the visionary leadership of Chicago in regard to green space, we thought it was time to take stock of this city’s rich architectural history and standing.…

We love dispelling myths on this show. One longstanding myth is that we only use a small percentage of our brain. What’s the truth? We enlisted David Uttal, the Director of Cognitive Psychology, and Paul Reber, the Director of Brain, Behavior and Cognition, both at Northwestern University, to tell us. You’ll have to listen to…

On the panel today: Charles Lipson, Joseph Morris, and Dick Ciccone. Also joining is the American Enterprise Institute‘s Fred Kagan, the architect of the Troop Surge in Iraq. Is it time to concentrate forces to destroy ISIS? Or will we wait and let them retake the whole of Iraq and Syria? This is the most…

We make clear in no uncertain terms that we are lovers of art and lovers of words. There is no greater form of art and words than poetry. But what makes poems great? What makes some more successful than others? What makes one poem stir the heartstrings of one man or woman and, in another,…

If you’re a fan of this program you probably know that the title of the new book by Chris Wright is a quote about Alexander the Great. If you’re not into history, you may remember it as one of the many quotable scenes from Die Hard and the great actor Alan Rickman. At any rate,…

If you don’t know the truly heartbreaking story of the MS St. Louis, you are in for a shock. Fleeing Germany in the ramp up to hostilities in World War II, a group of Jews was first turned away from asylum in Cuba, then the United States and then Canada. All returned to Europe. The…

Washington and Jefferson hated each other. What? Washington and Jefferson hated each other? How can that be? That was our reaction when we read what Tom Fleming had discovered and made the central theme of his great new book “The Great Divide“. It seems anathema to everything we’ve come to believe of our founding fathers…