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Madison BookBeat

Madison BookBeat

By: Stu Levitan Andrew Thomas Sara Batkie David Ahrens Lisa Malawski
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Madison BookBeat highlights local Wisconsin authors and authors coming to Madison for book events. It airs every Monday afternoon at 1pm on WORT FM.

Copyright 2025 Madison BookBeat Art Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • Doug Bradley, "The Tracks of My Years: A Music-Based Memoir"

    Doug Bradley, "The Tracks of My Years: A Music-Based Memoir"
    Dec 29 2025
    Stu Levitan welcomes back to the program Doug Bradley to discuss his new book The Tracks of My Years: A Music-Based Memoir, just out from the good people at Legacy Book Press. And it is exactly what the subtitle promises – Doug recounting the literal soundtrack of his life, putting the seminal events of his first quarter century or so in the context of the music that accompanied, or symbolized, those events. And since most of the events recounted took place in the sixties and seventies, it’s a pretty great 46-song setlist, which you can find on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SiTq5A3GboxJ4uTNdMGJ1 Doug spent his early childhood in Philadelphia with his parents and older doo-wop singing brother, in a house filled with music. The family moved to Ohio for two years, then the Pittsburg suburb of Clairton, where Doug graduated from Thomas Jefferson HS in 1965, doing some party DJ work along the way, thanks to his brother’s record collection. He was admitted to Notre Dame but couldn’t afford the tuition; as a scholarship student to Bethany College in Bethany WV, Class of ’69, he was a Big Man on Campus as two-term chairman of the Social Committee , booking a lot of major pop acts. That's how he came to share a joint with the Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick and a drink with jazz legend Count Basie, play some pick-up hoops with Smokey Robinson’s Miracles, and hold Dionne Warwick’s hand on a tragic night in American history. He was drafted into the US Army in March 1970 and fortunately for him aced the job aptitude test and so was made an Army journalist, first domestically and then in 1970-71 at the Army’s Vietnam HQ in Long Binh. After his honorable discharge, he finally acceded to the entreaties of his high school mentor – whose interest in Doug may have been more that academic – and he received an MA in English from Washington State University in 1972. He also acceded to the entreaties of his wife, Pam Shannon, and relocated to Madison in 1974, where he was one of the first employees and later president of the community-based service center Vet’s House, which helped him work through some of his postwar issues. Pam also got him to appreciate the Grateful Dead, which gives her bonus points. Never a student at the UW, he spent more than 30 years in various communications and marketing positions there, including 15 years as director of public information at UW Extension, where his father-in-law Ted Shannon was a top administrator. He also for many years co-taught with his co-author Prof. Craig Werner a course based on their award-winning book “We Gotta Get Out of this Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.” Doug later continued the theme, writing Who’ll Stop The Rain: Respect, Remembrance and Reconciliation in post-Vietnam America, both books the subject of a BookBeat episode in February 2020. It’s a pleasure to welcome back to Madison BookBeat the 2025 recipient of the Vietnam Veterans of America’s Excellence in Arts Award, Doug Bradley
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • The Year in Books: three Madison booksellers on how their 2025 went

    The Year in Books: three Madison booksellers on how their 2025 went
    Dec 8 2025
    On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie chats with Madison booksellers Mira Braneck from A Room of One’s Own, Hilary Burg from Mystery to Me, and Molly Fish from Lake City Books to see how their 2025 went. Take a listen to learn about the new releases they loved, event highlights from the past year, recommended reads that'll keep you cozy this season, and what's in store for them in 2026. And for those still doing some holiday shopping, stick around until the end to hear their order deadlines this December! Photo by Jessica Ruscello.
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    50 mins
  • Cheryl Schiltz: When The World Falls Away: One Woman’s Triumph Over Invisible Disability

    Cheryl Schiltz: When The World Falls Away: One Woman’s Triumph Over Invisible Disability
    Nov 25 2025
    WORT 89.9FM Madison · Cheryl Schiltz - When the World Falls Away Lisa Malawski talks with Cheryl Schiltz today on Madison Bookbeat, November 24, 2025. Cheryl Schiltz is no stranger to silence—but not the peaceful kind. After a reaction to antibiotics destroyed her vestibular system—the part of the inner ear responsible for balance—Cheryl was plunged into a world of disorientation, instability, and invisible suffering. Even while lying down, she felt as if she were falling through space. The noise of disability wasn’t audible—it was internal, relentless, and isolating. In her powerful book, Silencing the Noise of Disability, Cheryl shares her deeply personal journey of loss, adaptation, and transformation. With raw honesty and poetic insight, she invites readers into the lived experience of invisible disability and the groundbreaking science that helped her reclaim her life. Through her collaboration with neuroscientist Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita and the use of the BrainPort device—a tool that rerouted balance signals through her tongue—Cheryl became a living example of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself. Her story was also featured in Norman Doidge’s bestselling book The Brain That Changes Itself, but in Silencing the Noise of Disability, Cheryl tells it in her own voice. “I didn’t just learn to walk again—I learned to live again.” This book is more than a memoir. It’s a call to recognize the dignity and complexity of those living with invisible disabilities. It’s a celebration of science, spirit, and the human will to adapt.
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    50 mins
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