Jerry Apps & Natasha Kassulke

Two well-known names among readers in Wisconsin’s farming and environmental communities have teamed up for a first-of-its-kind book. Planting an Idea: Critical and Creative Thinking about Environmental Issues, published on Earth Day, doubles as a history of the environmental movement and a guide for defining potential actions and solutions to agricultural, land use, endangered species and air quality issues. Authors Jerry Apps and Natasha Kassulke (Apps' daughter-in-law) will discuss the book at this virtual event hosted by Mystery to Me, on Crowdcast.

media release: Planting an Idea is part guidebook for better critical and creative thinking and part overview of the environmental challenges that face our planet today. It is designed to help readers young and old examine and develop opinions on a variety of environmental issues based on substance, creativity, and fact.  An essential read for anyone interested in protecting the environment, Planting an Idea will enable readers to unlock ways to navigate some of today's most pressing and important challenges.

Jerry Apps is a former county extension agent and is now professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for thirty years. Today he works as a rural historian and full-time writer and is the author of many books on rural history, country life, and the environment. He has created six hour-long documentaries with PBS Wisconsin, has won several awards for his writing, and won a regional Emmy Award for the TV program A Farm Winter. Jerry and his wife, Ruth, have three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandsons. They divide their time between their home in Madison, Wisconsin, and their farm, Roshara, in Waushara County.

Natasha Kassulke is a former journalist for the Wisconsin State Journal and former editor of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. Today, she directs communications for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and teaches journalism courses part-time at Madison College. She and her husband, Steve Apps, live in Madison, Wisconsin.