Added 5.22.18. From not-so-distant decades when aldermen and committeemen had the Real Juice, to the present day where power is more concentrated in the Mayor’s Office, novelist Mark M. Quinn in this 2009 conversation with Milt explores the fascinating and dismaying ins and outs of Chicago political corruption. It’s a somewhat fluid and nuanced thing, and will likely remain so. Quinn had just authored a roman-a-clef titled, “The Chairman – A Novel Of Big City Politics.”

Added 5.15.18. Milt in 1982 goes mano a mano with Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, in this rare and revealing interview. The author of penetrating current-events, cultural and political essays – in the Chicago Daily News and later the Sun-Times and Tribune – under Milt’s questioning delves into his remarkable rib-cooking prowess, the politics of Chicago snow, the growing fiscal and political weakness of large U.S. cites, and of course, Chicago politics, its Machine and mayors. Royko also discusses how he does what he does; proffers an argument for greater handgun control laws; and argues for getting out the vote – over boycotts and protests.

Added 5.15.18. In this brief historical excerpt shortly following the 1973 publication of a young, Cambridge-educated Arianna Huffington’s critique of Western feminism, “The Female Woman,” Milt opens the disquisition with an admittedly chauvinist question: “What’s a nice Greek girl like you doing taking on the women’s liberation movement?” Arianna explains that although there has been no shortage of male chauvinist pigs to which she has been exposed in her homeland, and while she fully supports equal opportunity and equal pay, she was “repelled” by modern Western feminism for denigrating traditional female values and roles. Then she faces callers to the show.

Added 5.8.18. Milt in 2010 talked with author Bart Madden about what Madden calls the “invisible graveyard” of patients who “are dying needlessly because they are denied timely access to the most innovative new drugs.” Drawing from his book, “Free To Choose Medicine” Madden argues that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bears considerable responsibility for the problem. Offering additional perspectives are two other guests. They are Jeffrey M. Senger, a former Acting Chief Counsel at the FDA and partner at the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley and Austin; and emeritus professor of economics at the University of Chicago, Sam Peltzman.

Added 5.7.18. Milt opens up the line to callers to talk about an epidemic of street violence including 11 fatal shootings and the wounding of 43 others over Chicago’s 2012 Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, the storyline gained impetus in the years to follow. Hear what Chicagoans calling in to the show, and public officials, had to say then.