Moyers in your ear buds...

Bill Moyers is a favorite personality on WPT. Even though he retired from his position on Now last year, he is still a regular presence. This summer he hosted a series called Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason and starting in October, he will return to the state's airwaves with Moyer's on America -- a collection of investigative documentaries on the important issues facing the nation, including lobbying scandals, religious connections to the government and big corporations' attempts to destroy Internet neutrality.

There is a little more than a month until the first of those three episodes airs on Oct. 4, but there is a way to get your Moyers fix in the mean time. If a summer vacation, barbecue or other happening kept you from seeing all of the episodes of his Faith and Reason program, they are available to download in an audio podcast format for no charge via iTunes. If you are a regular podcast junky, you can simply search for "Moyers" in the iTunes podcast directory. If you haven't taken advantage of podcasting before, there are more detailed instructions available here.

If you enjoy this program in the podcast format, take some time to explore the other public broadcasting podcasts available on iTunes.

Always up-to-date...

As talk of the fall election cycle increases and talking heads from all parties converge on the weekly news programs, there is no better place to get the best coverage on a daily basis than on the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, which airs at 6 each weeknight on WPT.

Lehrer and his team of journalists have been covering important world and national events on a daily basis for than 30 years -- since the earliest days of what was then called the Robert MacNeil Report.

And, while there is always the 60 minutes of news, commentary and in-depth investigations on your television each night, the NewsHour is available to you around the clock. Their online home is one of the most comprehensive information sources on the Web. So any time of the day, you can keep up-to-date with breaking news, podcasts and an audio, video and transcript archive of all episodes since 1997.

I scream, you scream...

Wednesday night at 7, WPT offers two scoops of fun with the aptly titled An Ice Cream Show. The show is from a long line of plainly-named, yet always interesting, documentaries from Pittsburgh producer Rick Sebak. He has also brought A Cemetary Special, A Hot Dog Program and Sandwiches That You Will Like to public television airwaves in the past few years.

Of all of his programs, none should resonate with viewers from America's Dairyland more than a full hour on the country's favorite frozen treat. Our state's premier university in Madison even has its own award-winning ice cream. In fact, the campus dairy plant is funded entirely by sales of its delicious products on the UW-Madison campus.

Another piece of Wisconsin ice cream lore traces the first ice cream sundae's creation to Two Rivers (although, for fairness' sake, there are a couple of other towns with similar claim).

If all of this ice cream talk gets your taste buds salivating, Be more Tuned In has even found a simple recipe for making your own ice cream without any elaborate machinery. And, when you're down take a look here to see what your favorite ice cream flavor says about your personality.

Great music and a way to help out...

Tis' the season for a bit of fundraising on WPT's airwaves. So, you've probably noticed a lot of viewer's favorite programs being broadcast during the past few days. Viewer support is the most important part of WPT's annual programming budget, so if you have the means to help out, please do so.

Another good part of the pledge cycle is there are always a few great new programs that pop up within the week. Tonight is the night for those programs.

At 7, Great Performances features Bruce Springsteen and his new Seeger Session's band in a rousing concert event from England. Springsteen's new project is unique in many ways. It is his first time embracing the work of classic American folk artist Pete Seeger on record and in concert. The resulting album was recorded mostly in Springsteen's home and the band he chose for the project is composed almost entirely of New Jersey musicians. Late night television fans might even recognize Mark Pender and Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg from Late Night With Conan O'Brien's Max Weinberg Seven.

At 8:30, a special will feature the eclectic Ontario band, Leahy. And, at 10, John Fogerty: The Long Road Home features concert footage and classic tunes from the creative force of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Chasing the storm...

It takes a special breed of person to chase powerful storms and tornados. Most folks hear the warning sirens and head for shelter, but there are a few hearty souls who are so fascinated and intrigued by the storms that they actually seek them out. At 9 Thursday night, WPT will present a documentary called Tornado Glory. It is a film by Ken Cole that follows storm chasers Reed Timmer and Joel Taylor as they follow dangerous tornados and come face-to-face with some of the harshest storms.

Be more Tuned In speaks with Timmer to find out what drives a person to become a storm chaser, how close he has come to a tornado and how the pursuit of the next big storm drives chasers throughout North America.

Fittingly, when we catch up with Timmer via cell phone, he and Taylor are in the midst of a chase. On the road, the excitement of a potential storm is obvious in his voice as he describes the ideal conditions for tornados that are forming in South Dakota and he is only one hour away. This excitement is unique for someone like Timmer, because his relationship with storms wasn't always this positive.

"When I was younger, I was very afraid of storms," he explains. "But, at the same time, I was always fascinated with them. That soon grew to obsession -- to the point where I would watch the Weather Channel 12 hours a day." (Continued...)

As he headed off to college in 1998, Timmer hadn't yet seen a tornado in person. His home in Grand Rapids, Mich. wasn't ideal for storm formation with Lake Michigan halting many of the potential weather systems. So, he decided to pursue meteorology studies in Oklahoma -- a hotbed of tornadic activity. Since that time, he has gotten his bachelor's and master's degree and is in the process of obtaining a PhD.

At the University of Oklahoma, Timmer met Taylor and Cole. Taylor had the same passion for storms and Cole was a film student. The result was Cole's documentary that follows the two storm chasers through a busy 2003 season.

"It's great to have something like Tornado Glory to show people what it really means to chase storms," Timmer says. "It's exciting, but there is a lot more than just the pictures and videos. It's probably about 99 percent driving -- we drive about 50,000 miles each year."

And, while Timmer and Taylor make some money by selling their videos to television stations, film companies and other storm fanatics via their Web site (Caution: The videos on the linked site might contain adult language), Timmer is quick to point out that it isn’t the most lucrative career.

"Last year, we did pretty well," he says. "But the year before that, we came out about $5,000 in the negative."

In the realm of storm chasing, there are more than gas costs to be considered when deciphering profitability. Just this year, Timmer and Taylor have had at least two windshields crushed by huge hailstones. Last year, their car was submerged during Hurricane Katrina. After being stranded, they hitched a ride on a passing boat and were never able to retrieve the car. And, their vehicles have sustained a couple of direct hits from tornados during the past few years.

"In Southeast Nebraska in 2002, we were actually hit by the Hallam tornado, which was the widest tornado (2.5 miles) in history," Timmer says. "Luckily, it was an F-1 when it hit us. By the time it hit the town, it was an F-4."

Armed with a wireless-connected laptop, a lot of photo equipment and cell phones, the duo and their partners use their meteorology knowledge to attempt to forecast the location of pending storms. Those forecasts take them from the border of Mexico through Canada each year. Along the way, they've been featured on national media outlets, including interviews with Paula Zahn and Anderson Cooper. Their storm chases aren't merely selfish either. When they gather information, they always share it with local law enforcement.

"We're obviously not happy when these storms do damage to people or their property," Timmer says. "But, seeing the power of these storms is truly incredible. We help as much as we can and then back out of the way when emergency vehicles arrive."

With his pending doctoral degree, Timmer says he isn't looking for an out from the storm-chasing business. Money or not, it is a passion and he is in it to stay.

"Really, I might just try to be a professional storm chaser," he says. "I've never needed much, so I'd probably be happy making $5,000 a year and living in a beat-up Yugo."

With that, Timmer mentions an anvil cloud formation in the sky ahead and bids farewell as he and Taylor push on into the pending storm.

Photos courtesy tornadovideos.net and stormgasm.com.