Join us for episode 2 of The Saturday Show, an all new, totally awesome variety show for kids and their families. Hosted by Toby and his puppet pals, The Saturday Show is chock full of awesome segments – cooking, science, nature, crafts, reading, jokes, riddles, games, and much much more.

Join us for a relaxing Saturday morning!

This video original appeared here on our youtube channel AADL.tv

In Western Lake Erie, massive mats of blue-green algae blossom every summer, stirring up memories of the 2014 Toledo Water Crisis with every reappearance. Meanwhile, in Lake Michigan, there are nearly as many invasive mussels in the lake as there are gallons of water. Each mussel is the size of a thumbnail and, under the right conditions, their combined force can filter the entire volume of water in Lake Michigan in less than a week. The resulting crystal clear waters are great for beachgoers but extremely problematic for the lake ecosystem.

The Great Lakes Committee of the Ann Arbor chapter of the League of Women Voters hosts a panel discussion on challenges facing the Great Lakes, with an update on the Line 5 oil pipeline. A panel of experts, including Dr. Eric Anderson (NOAA) and Liz Kirkwood (Executive Director, FLOW), presents and discusses the issues.

The Great Lakes Basin is the largest surface freshwater system on Earth and there are more than 30,000 islands dotted throughout. A surprising number of islands—each with its own character and often harboring more than a bit of intrigue in its history—can be reached by merely taking a ferry ride, or crossing a bridge, offering everyone the chance to experience a variety of island adventures.

Author Maureen Dunphy made numerous trips to a total of 135 islands that are accessible by ferry or bridge in the Great Lakes Basin. On each trip, Dunphy was accompanied by a different friend or relative who provided her another adventurer’s perspective through which to view the island experience. Her book, Great Lakes Island Escapes: Ferries and Bridges to Adventure, explores over 30 of these islands.

This 2017 Michigan Notable Book covers islands on both sides of the international border between the United States and Canada and features islands in both the lakes and the waterways that connect them. Anyone interested in island travel or learning more about the Great Lakes will delight in this comprehensive collection.

From Ernest Hemingway’s rural adventures to the gritty fiction of Joyce Carol Oates, the landscape of the “Third Coast” has inspired generations of the nation’s greatest storytellers.

Michigan Notable author Anna Clark explores Michigan’s extraordinary written culture as she discusses Michigan authors and her new book, Michigan Literary Luminaries: From Elmore Leonard to Robert Hayden.

This fascinating book is a shines a spotlight on this rich heritage of the Great Lakes State with a mixture of history, literary criticism, and original reporting. Discover how Saginaw greenhouses shaped the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Theodore Roethke. Compare the common traits of Detroit crime writers like Elmore Leonard and Donald Goines. Learn how Dudley Randall revolutionized American literature by doing for poets what Motown Records did for musicians.

Anna Clark is a freelance journalist in Detroit. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Grantland, Vanity Fair, the Columbia Journalism Review, Next City, and other publications. She is the director of applications for Write A House and founder of Literary Detroit. Anna also edited A Detroit Anthology, a 2015 Michigan Notable Book.

What do a mild mannered grocery store manager from Northern Michigan and the infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper have in common? How can a married couple and the aircraft they were traveling in just disappear over a populated area? What really happened to the freighter that sailed out of Grand Haven, over the horizon and into oblivion?

Join author and shipwreck hunter Ross Richardson in exploring the baffling disappearances of a person, a plane, and a ship, and other mysterious unsolved disappearances in the Michigan Region.

Ross Richardson was the National Writer Series Author Next Door for October 2014, and the Grand Traverse Scene Magazine named his book Still Missing to their Notable Michigan Books list. He has spent the last decade and a half researching Great Lakes maritime history and searching for the Michigan Region’s missing aircraft and ships. He has been involved with over a dozen shipwreck discoveries, including recent discoveries in Northern Lake Michigan. Previously, Richardson penned the book The Search for the Westmoreland, Lake Michigan's Treasure Shipwreck. He operates a popular website, Michigan Mysteries, which is dedicated to missing persons, missing aircraft, and missing ships.

Long distance hiker Chris "Wolverine" Hillier earned his "Triple Crown" title by completing the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Appalachian Trail, covering a total distance of about 7,900 miles. He was also the first to hike Michigan's 924-mile trail that reaches from Belle Isle to Ironwood. Chris will share his love for hiking through photos and stories, and pass along some of the lessons he has learned firsthand on the trail.

Tom Hayden, a U-M graduate and California environmental leader, discusses his work as an activist, and how Michigan and the Great Lakes region can move the U.S. towards the protections of a clean energy economy. He believes the problems of economic recession and climate crisis must be addressed in a Global Green New Deal.

After over 50 years of activism, politics, and writing, Tom Hayden is still a leading voice for ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, for eradicating sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through a more participatory democracy. He was a leader of the student, civil rights, peace and environmental movements of the 1960s, and went on to serve 18 years in the California legislature, where he chaired labor, higher education and natural resources committees.

In this episode, 2010 Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads author Jerry Dennis stops by to talk about Reads title The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas. Apart from being an award-winning nature writer, Jerry is also a lifelong Michigander whose experience of the Great Lakes reaches back to boyhood fishing trips.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center will discuss their research that takes place on the Great Lakes, including deep-water science, invasive species, coastal ecosystems, restoration ecology, and environmental health. Speakers include: Dr. David Warner (USGS Deepwater Science Program); Dr. Bruce Manny (Restoration of Fish Spawning Habitat in the Huron-Erie Corridor); Joseph Baustian (Reconnecting Coastal Wetlands in the Great Lakes Basin to Improve Ecosystem Functioning); David Galbraith (Forecasting Invasive Phragmites Expansion in the Great Lakes Coastal Zone) Headquartered in Ann Arbor, The Great Lakes Science Center exists to meet the Nation's need for scientific information for restoring, enhancing, managing, and protecting living resources and their habitats in the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. The Center has biological stations and research vessels located throughout the Great Lakes Basin and is the only federal agency that has a large research vessel (70 ft.+) operating on all five Great Lakes!