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Moguls and Movie Stars Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne talks about TCM’s “Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood:” a 7-part documentary series that talks about the history of Hollywood from 1890 to 1970, and tells the story of Hollywood’s power shift from the men who ran the studios to the stars who made the studios rich. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth Fourth-generation farmer Eric Herm discusses commercial agriculture's strain on natural resources, ecosystems, and the farmer. Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, a Path to Agriculture’s Higher Consciousness looks at the harsh economic realities and complicated legislation facing farmers, as well as GMO crops and excessive chemicals. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dirty Life Kristin Kimball talks about her transformation from a freelance writer in New York City to a farmer in Upstate New York. After she interviewed a young farmer, she ended up leaving the city and moving near Lake Champlain to start a new farm with him. The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love is the chronicle of their first year on Essex Farm, and their ambitious plan to grow everything needed to feed a community. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "La Bête" on Broadway David Hyde Pierce, Joanna Lumley, and Mark Rylance discuss their roles in “La Bête.” The Olivier Award-winning play pits high-brow against low-brow in 17th-century France when two artists vie for a royal endorsement. “La Bête” is playing at the Music Box Theatre through January 9. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dirt, Microbes, and the Immune System Dr. Joel Weinstock, chief of gastroenterology/heptology at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston, explains how microbes and dirt help to improve our immune systems. He discusses his research into how exposure to certain microbes may help us develop resistance to allergies and autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes, asthma, and multiple sclerosis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brian Leung on his Novel, Take Me Home Brian Leung discusses his novel Take Me Home, a story about friendship and love set against the backdrop of 1880s Wyoming, about a woman who goes against society’s rules and develops a close connection with a Chinese man. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Company Towns Business journalist Hardy Green talks about how company towns have shaped the American economy. In The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy he looks at company towns from the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the R&D labs of Corning, New York; from coal mines to corporate campuses of today’s major tech companies, and explores the different strands of capitalism that company towns represent. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chris Hedges on the Death of the Liberal Class Senior fellow at The Nation Institute Chris Hedges examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state. In The Death of the Liberal Class he argues that the five pillars of the liberal establishment – the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities, and the Democratic Party— have become more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Norris Church Mailer Norris Church Mailer just died at the age of 61. Norris Church Mailer was originally a small-town girl from Arkansas whose life changed dramatically when she met and fell in love with Norman Mailer one night. She would be his wife for over thirty years.  She joined Leonard Lopate to discuss the challenges – and rewards – of life with Norman Mailer, which she related with considerable grace in her memoir, A Ticket to the Circus, on April 7th of 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stacy Schiff on Cleopatra Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff discusses one of the most intriguing women in world history: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Cleopatra: A Life is an original reconstruction of a dazzling life that reshaped the ancient world. It talks about her marriages, conflicts, and her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Health Care Reform President Obama's health care reform has been seen as too much intervention by some and not enough of an overhaul by others, but few people know exactly what the new law includes and how it changes health care and health insurance in this country. On this week's Please Explain, Washington Post correspondent T. R. Reid explains the ins and outs, the costs and the savings, of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He's the author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Be ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Laura Linney and Brian d’Arcy James on “Time Stands Still” Laura Linney and Brian d’Arcy James discuss Donald Margulies’ play “Time Stands Still.” It follows Sarah and James, a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent, trying to find happiness in a chaotic, violent world. They confront challenges at home when they decide to settle down into a more conventional life. "Time Stands Still" is playing at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Miranda Richardson on “Made in Dagenham” Miranda Richardson discusses the film “Made in Dagenham.” Set against the backdrop of the 1960s, the film is based on a true story about a group of women who joined forces and stood up to their bosses at the Ford Motor Factory to demand equal pay for equal work. By daring to stand up and push boundaries, the women changed a broken system. “Made in Dagenhau” opens November 19 at Lincoln Plaza and Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bomber County: Poetry and World War II Just as the trenches produced the most remarkable poetry of World War I, the bombing campaigns of World War II produced haunting poetry as it altered lives forever. Daniel Swift discusses the connections between poetry and WWII’s air war, and the life of his grandfather: a pilot with the 83rd Squadron of the Royal Air Force, who died in the war. Bomber County: The Poetry of a Lost Pilot’s War is about Swift’s search for his lost grandfather and an investigation into the experience of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Viktor Bout Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was arraigned yesterday in a New York court on terrorism charges. On today’s Backstory, Stephen Braun, National Security Editor with the Associated Press and co-author of the book Merchant of Death, explains how Bout has shipped goods for everyone from the Taliban to the United Nations. Plus, we’ll find out why the United States wanted to prosecute him and why the Russian government has protested his extradition from Thailand, where he was arrested in 200 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Liberal Champion Justice William Brennan Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel talk about the influential Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, champion of free speech and public access to information. Justice Brennan granted Wermiel access to a trove of personal and court materials, and Wermiel also conducted more than 60 hours of interviews with Brennan over the course of six years. Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion makes Brennan’s case histories public for the first time, as well as records of the strategizing behind all the major ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Opera Star Elina Garanca Latvian opera superstar Elina Garanca discusses her career and her performances in “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera. She debuted in “Carmen” to spectacular reviews last year. Her new CD of gypsy-inspired music is titled “Habanera.” She's performing at the Met November 20, 24, 30 at 8:00 pm; November 27 at 1:00 pm; and December 4 at 8:30 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paul Auster on Sunset Park Paul Auster talks about his latest novel, Sunset Park, which follows the hopes and fears of a cast of characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the 2008 economic collapse. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: 130 Liberty Street Ten years after 9/11, workers are still dismantling the Deutsche Bank building, which was damaged after the South Tower of the World Trade Center fell. WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly discusses why it has taken so long to take it down and why it has cost $400 million (and counting). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner Word maven Patricia T. O’Conner answers questions about the confounding English language and talks about ungrammatical song lyrics. An updated and expanded third edition of her book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, has recently been published in paperback, and  Origins of the Specious, written with Stewart Kellerman, was also recently issued in paperback. Call us at 646-829-3985, or leave a question as a comment! a paperback version of Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Liberation of European Jews Michael Goldfarb discusses the emancipation of Europe’s Jews in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance gives a account of how Jews ushered in a second renaissance after they were freed from their ghettos, and how within a century, Marx, Freud, and Einstein revolutionized politics, human science, and physics that continue to shape our world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Claire Denis and Isabelle Huppert Discuss "White Material" Director Claire Denis and actress Isabelle Huppert discuss “White Material.” Set in Africa, the film tells the story of a woman trying to sustain the coffee plantation she runs with her ex-husband while the country around her is in the throes of a volatile regime change. “White Material” opens November 19 at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC Center. There’s also a retrospective of Denis’ films, “No Fear: The Films of Claire Denis,” at IFC Center through November 18. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website All the Devils are Here Business journalists Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera discuss the many problems that helped bring down the economy. The full story is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant—almost everyone has missed the big picture, and almost no one has put all the pieces together. Their book All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis goes back several decades to explore the complex, hidden history of the financial crisis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room South African writer Damon Galgut talks about his latest novel, In a Strange Room, which was a finalist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. It tells the story of a young loner who travels across eastern Africa, Europe, and India. Unsure what he's after, and reluctant to return home, he follows the paths of travelers he meets along the way. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website There is Power in a Union Historian Philip Dray gives an account of American labor from the dawn of the industrial age to the present day—from the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first real factories in America, to the waning influence of unions today. There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America  gives an account of the accomplishments of organized labor and reveals its central role in our social, political, economic, and cultural evolution. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website B. J. Thomas Legendary singer B. J. Thomas talks about his 40-year career and his latest album, “Once I Loved.” He’s been awarded five Grammy Awards, two platinum and eleven gold records, and two Dove Awards, and is responsible for 15 Top 40 pop/rock hits, such as “Hooked On A Feeling,” “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” B. J. Thomas is performing at City Winery November 26th at 8:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Richard Wolffe Inside the Obama White House Journalist and political analyst Richard Wolffe tells the dramatic inside story of the defining period of the Obama White House. Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House is an epic tale that follows the president and his inner circle, and paints a portrait of a White House at work under exceptional strain across a sweeping set of challenges: from health care reform to a struggling economy, from two wars to terrorism. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dick Cavett Legendary talk show host Dick Cavett host of The Dick Cavett Show, which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on PBS from 1977 to 1982, discusses the great figures he has known and shares his thoughts on culture and politics today. In Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets, he tells his best tales and he recounts great moments with the legendary entertainers who crossed his path. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Force for Nature John H. Adams and his wife Patricia Adams talk about founding the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the organizations mission to protect the environment. Their memoir A Force for Nature: The Story of NRDC and Its Fight to Save Our Planet, gives an account of the NRDC’s founding in 1970, and its evolution from a small grassroots environmental advocacy group to an international powerhouse with 1.2 million members. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ian Frazier’s Travels in Siberia Ian Frazier talks about Siberia, the vast, storied expanse of Asiatic Russia that takes up one-seventh of the land on earth. In Travels in Siberia, he writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the climate, and the bugs. The book is a historical travelogue, an account of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, and a personal reflection. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Susan Cheever on Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever discusses the life of writer Louisa May Alcott. Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography is an account of Alcott’s life, based on extensive research, journals, and correspondence, that portrays her as an idealists who led the charge in support of antislavery, temperance, and women’s rights. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Empire State Apples It’s the tail end of apple season. Steve Clarke of Prospect Hill Orchard in Milton, New York, joins us to taste some of the local and antique varietals found in New York State—from the Newtown Pippin to the Black Twig. We'll also speak with Emily Vaughn, biodiversity coordinator with SlowFoodUSA. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Master Switch Tim Wu discusses the history of the information industry in America, and looks at whether the Internet will be taken over and privatized as radio and television has before it. In The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information, he tells stories of the power over information, and wonders if the Internet—and the entire flow of American information—will come to be ruled by one corporate leviathan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Food Myths Harold McGee discusses and debunks myths about food and cooking for today's Please Explain. He’s the author of Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Kennedy Detail Former Kennedy secret service agents Gerald Blaine and Clint Hill discusses the inside story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the weeks and days that led to it, and its aftermath. The Kennedy Detail: JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence, written by Blaine and Lisa McCubbin, draws on the memories of his fellow agents, men who devoted their entire beings to protecting the presidential family, and looks at the terrible impact the assassination had on agents’ psyches and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Daphne Kalotay's Novel Russian Winter Daphne Kalotay discusses her novel Russian Winter. It tells the story of Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, who decides to auction off her jewelry collection. She finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cynthia Ozick on her Novel Foreign Bodies Cynthia Ozick discusses her sixth novel, Foreign Bodies. She retells the story of Henry James’s The Ambassadors—the work he considered his best—but while the story’s plot is the same, the meaning is reversed. It tells the story of Bea Nightingale, a fiftyish divorced schoolteacher whose life has been on hold since her brief marriage, and who becomes entangled in the lives of her brother’s family and her ex-husband. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why Americans Choose War From the American Revolution to the end of World War II, the United States spent 19 years at war against other nations. But since 1950, it has spent 22 years and counting. Noted scholar Richard E. Rubenstein explores the rhetoric that sells war to the American public and the underlying cultural and social factors that make it so effective. In Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War, he offers new ways to think about issues of war and peace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: This Week's G-20 in Seoul As the meeting of the world’s 20 richest economies gets under way in Seoul, Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor and an assistant editor for the Financial Times, describes what leaders hope to accomplish at the G-20 summit. Plus, a look at the global reaction to last week’s announcement that the Federal Reserve would buy $600 billion in Treasury Bonds. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The History of PTSD It’s Veteran’s Day, and on today’s first Backstory segment: Jon Alpert and Matt O’Neill, two of the producers of new documentary Wartorn: 1861-2010, discuss history of post traumatic stress disorder. Wartorn debuts on HBO tonight at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Edwidge Danticat on Art and Exile Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile, and discusses what it means to be an immigrant artist from a country in crisis. Her book Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work combines memoir and essay to tell the stories of artists, including herself, who create, despite—or because of—the suffering, violence, poverty, and oppression that drove them from their homelands, and continues to haunt them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zoe Heller Talks About Nancy Mitford Novelist Zoe Heller discusses Nancy Mitford’s enduringly popular novel, The Pursuit of Love, (for which she wrote the forward).The novel is a classic comedy about growing up and falling in love among the privileged and eccentric, and Mitford modeled her characters after her own famously unconventional family. Heller will also discuss the importance of Mitford’s work as a whole, on the occasion of the publication of her 1935 novel Wigs on the Green, which was kept out of print for more t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, on the Mitfords Editor Charlotte Mosley and Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, youngest of the six legendary Mitford sisters, talks about her life and her eccentric family. Wait for Me!  chronicles her remarkable life, from her childhood to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage, to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire. She also discusses her friendship and a lifelong correspondence with writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor, which she ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Leaves in your gutter? Furnace on the fritz? The Gurus of How-To, Al Ubell and Larry Ubell, are here to help! They'll answer questions about home repair. Call 646-829-3985 with your questions or leave a comment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Quincy Jones Quincy Jones talks about his first album in five years "Q: Soul Bossa Nostra," which features performances of classic songs that he wrote and/or produced over his 60-year career. Guests on the album include Amy Winehouse, Usher, Ludacris, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Mark Ronson, Robin Thicke, LL Cool J, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip, and others. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Audrey 100 Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn’s son, talks about the life and career of Audrey Hepburn. She is an icon, an actress, and humanitarian whose beauty and elegance will never go out of style. Audrey 100 features 100 of the most compelling and iconic photographs of her. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Taste of a Place Rowan Jacobsen explains terroir—the "taste of place"—and the way local conditions such as soil and climate affect the flavor of wine and other foods. American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields is the first guide to how our environment influences some of our most iconic foods—including apples, honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, wine, cheese, and chocolate. It includes recipes by the author and important local chefs, and a complete ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pain Chronicles Melanie Thernstrom talks about pain throughout the ages—from ancient Babylonian pain-banishing spells to modern brain imaging—to reveal the mysterious nature of pain itself. In The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing, and the Science of Suffering, she reflects on her own battle with chronic pain, discusses the latest medical research, and gives insights on coping with pain from science, history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, literature, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nora Ephron on I Remember Nothing Nora Ephron talks about the past, the present, and the future, recalling everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten. In I Remember Nothing, she writes about her journalism career, about breaking up, lists, and more. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Mexican Suitcase" at International Center of Photography Curator Brian Wallis, and Cynthia Young, exhibition organizer, discuss the “The Mexican Suitcase.” Considered lost since 1939, the so-called Mexican Suitcase is actually three boxes containing 4,500 negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. The cache includes new images and previously unknown portraits, and it not only provides a rich and panoramic view of the Spanish Civil War, but shows the role of these photographers in laying t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Isabel Wilkerson on The Warmth of Other Suns Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens, who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. In The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, she tells this story through the lives of three individuals, and examines how the migration changed the face of America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rock Roadie James “Tappy” Wright talks about being a roadie and tour manager for some of the world's greatest music stars. In his book Rock Roadie: Backstage and Confidential with Hendrix, Elvis, The Animals, Tina Turner, and an All-Star Cast, he tells stories from the world of rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Running The New York City Marathon is this Sunday, and thousands of runners will be racing through all five boroughs. On today's Please Explain, we'll find out what’s involved with completing the marathon’s 26.2 miles. David Willey, Editor-in-Chief of Runner's World magazine and Charlie Butler, executive editor of Runner's World and co-author of The Long Run: A New York City Firefighter's Triumphant Comeback from Crash Victim to Elite Athlete, join us now to talk about how runners race, train, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Windfall Director Laura Israel and cartoonist Lynda Barry talk about the controversy over wind turbines. Israel directed “Windfall,” a revealing look at wind energy that tells the story of residents of Meredith, NY, who are divided when companies want to build wind turbines in the traditional dairy farm community. “Windfall” is playing as part of DOC NYC Friday, November 5, and Monday, November 8, at IFC Center. Lynda Barry is researching a book on homes near turbines. Her latest book is tit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Antonia Fraser Remembers Harold Pinter Prize-winning biographer Antonia Fraser discusses her life with playwright Harold Pinter, one of the literary world's most celebrated marriages. Her memoir Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter is a love story and an insightful account of their years together, from their initial meeting through their shared devotion to their work, their crises and laughter, through his death in 2008. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Talking to the Enemy Social scientist Scott Atran traces terrorism's root causes in human evolution and history. In Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists he touches on the nature of faith, the origins of society, the limits of reason, and the power of moral values. He interviews and investigates Al Qaeda associates and acolytes, and other non-Qaeda groups, such as Hamas and the Taliban, and the communities they live in: from the jungles of Southeast Asia to New York, London, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Virals Kathy Reichs discusses her young adult novel Virals. It’s a thriller about a ragtag band of teenage "sci-philes" who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics Physics professor James Kakalios explains complicated science through comic books and science fiction. In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science that Made Our World, he gives the basics of quantum mechanics using the work of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Isaac Asimov, examples from Superman, X-Men, Star Trek, and The Incredible Shrinking Man, and plenty of illustrations. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Prospects for Indian-Pakistani Peace President Obama travels to India this weekend, and while his trip may come at time of heightened tensions between in the region, but India and Pakistan have been feuding for decades. Ending that conflict has become a centerpiece of the President’s foreign policy. On today’s second Underreported segment Mira Kamdar, senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and an associate fellow at the Asia Society looks at prospects for a comprehensive (and elusive) peace deal between India and Paki ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crafting with Amy Sedaris Amy Sedaris, America's most delightfully unconventional hostess, talks about the joys of crafting. Her new book Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People shows that crafting is pleasurable and constructive. It includes instructions for popular crafts and gifts: crab-claw clips, tinfoil balls, and crepe-paper moccasins, hints for getting inspired, and includes recipes for cooking your own edible crafts. She’ll also launch a listener craft contest! loadSurvey( "cheap_craft_c ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Protecting Human Rights in Egypt Hossam Bahgat, founder and director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, discusses his work to protect civil and religious rights in Egypt, and the threat of violence and discrimination aimed at the country’s religious minorities. And, with Egypt’s parliamentary elections less than a month away, he describes the government’s crackdowns leading up to the vote. He received the Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism earlier this week. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson looks into what sparks brilliant ideas and how innovation happens. In Where Good Ideas Come From, he tells the exciting and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Technology Wants Kevin Kelly, former executive editor of Wired magazine, discusses his brand-new view of technology, and explains how technology can give our lives greater meaning. In What Technology Wants he suggests that technology is a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies, and by aligning ourselves with the long-term imperatives of this near-living system, we can capture its full gifts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Women of the Hudson River School Jennifer Krieger and Nancy Siegel, curators of the exhibition “Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School,” the first to focus solely on women artists associated with the 19th-century landscape painting movement. It features paintings, embroidered landscapes, photography and drawings by Julia Hart Beers, Susie Barstow, Sara Cole, Josephine Walters, among others. “Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School” is on view through October 31 at The Thomas Cole Histor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chekhov for Children Director Sasha Waters Freyer, writer Phillip Lopate, and Angus Johnston talk about “Chekhov for Children,” a documentary about the 1979 staging on Broadway of Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya” by New York City 5th and 6th graders, directed by Phillip Lopate and starring Angus Johnson. It explores the interplay between art and life for a dozen friends across 30 years. “Chekhov for Children” is screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Thursday, October 21, at 6:30 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Psychedelic Drugs Please Explain takes a look at LSD and psychedelic drugs. Dr. Nicolas Langlitz, assistant professor of Medical Anthropology at the New School, and Dr. Stephen Ross, Assistant Professor at NYU Medical Center, Departments of Psychiatry and In-Patient Service, explain how psychedelic drugs affect the brain, how hallucinogens work, and new research into therapeutic uses for psychedelic drugs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arab Roots, American Stories Alia Malek looks at the last 40-plus years of American history through the eyes of Arab Americans. A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories includes timeless stories of an immigrant community becoming American, the nostalgia for home, and the alienation from a society sometimes as intolerant as its laws are generous. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Democracy and Iran Hooman Majd, the grandson of an esteemed ayatollah, discusses a group of influential ayatollahs in Iran who still believes in the Iranian republic, and explains their notion of “Islamic democracy." In The Ayatollah’s Democracy: An Iranian Challenge, he introduces top-level politicians, clerics, and ordinary Iranians who express pride for their ancient heritage and fierce independence from the West. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bill Bryson on At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson explains the history behind the place we call home, and shows how each room has figured in the evolution of private life. In At Home: A Short History of Private Life, he set out to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Tidal Power Earlier this week, offshore wind farms got major financial investment from Google and Good Energies. On Backstory, we look at another way to harness the energy of the ocean: tidal power. Paul Jacobson, Ocean Energy Leader for EPRI, a non-profit electricity research company, and Michael Peterson, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maine-Orono and leader of the University’s Tidal Power Initiative, join us to explain how the tides can produce electric power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stealing the Mystic Lamb Art historian Noah Charney discusses Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece—one of the ten most important paintings ever made, and happens to be the most frequently stolen artwork of all time. Stealing the Mystic Lamb traces the stories behind its thefts: Since its completion in 1432, it has been looted, burned, dismembered, forged, smuggled, illegally sold, hidden, ransomed, rescued, and stolen a total of thirteen times. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reshaping the Work-Family Debate Joan Williams discusses why the United States has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world, and she shows how that disadvantages men as well as women. In Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, Williams looks at why new mothers are often pushed out by discriminating and inflexible workplaces that pit men against woman, and she examines the often-ignored role of class in work-family issues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dinaw Mengestu on his novel How to Read the Air Dinaw Mengestu, who has been compared to Bellow, Fitzgerald, and Naipaul, discusses his novel, How to Read the Air. It tells the story of Ethiopian immigrants in search of a new identity as an American couple, and their son’s challenges with generational and cultural differences. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The Ex Gay Movement Today’s Backstory segment looks at the ex-gay movement, a collection of religious and psychological groups that espouse discredited theories about sexuality and claim to be able to "cure" homosexuality. We’ll talk with Peterson Toscano, an ex ex-gay with the group Beyond Ex-Gay, and with Dr. William Meyer, a clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at Duke University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bo Caldwell on her novel City of Tranquil Light Bo Caldwell discusses her second novel, inspired by the lives of her maternal grandparents. City of Tranquil Light is a portrait of a young marriage of two missionaries in China in the early twentieth-century. They find themselves witnesses to the crumbling of a dynasty, which plunges the country into decades of civil war. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Daniel Beaty's "Through the Night" Daniel Beaty discusses his play “Through the Night,” which he wrote and stars in. He portrays an entire community of people, who all experience an epiphany on the same evening, which changes their lives forever. The play succeeds at weaving together humor, poetry, music, and drama. “Through the Night” is playing at the Union Square Theater. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Steven Rattner on the Auto Industry Bailout Steven Rattner, the Obama Administration’s former Car Czar, who led the effort to restructure GM and Chrysler, gives an insider’s account of the process. In Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry, he tells what happened during the historic auto-industry intervention, covering political brinkmanship, corporate mismanagement, and personalities under pressure. He also explains the tough choices he and his team made to keep Chrysle ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Guru of How-To Al Ubell, one of our Gurus of How-To, answers your questions about home repair. Call 646-829-3985 with your questions or leave a comment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? New York Times columnist Gail Collins joins us for another installment of our series looking at the outlandish things politicians have been saying and doing lately, How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? loadSurvey( "outlandish-statements", "survey_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Elmore Leonard on Djibouti Crime fiction master Elmore Leonard talks about his latest novel, Djibouti. It tells the story of Dara Barr, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, who travels to Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa to film Somali pirates in action. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nicole Krauss on Great House Nicole Krauss talks about her latest novel, Great House. It’s about a stolen desk that contains the secrets of the lives it passes through and becomes the obsession of those who own it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website General Hugh Shelton General Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during 9/11, chronicles his journey to the Pentagon and White House, and explains how decisions were made behind the scenes in the inner sanctum of the E-Ring and Oval Office. His memoir Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior tells his experiences in the military, from Vietnam to Haiti, and his role as chief architect of the U.S. military response to 9/11. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture: Iraq and Afghanistan On this week’s edition of The Big Picture, a look at why our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been more of an issue on the campaign trail during this election season. David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, explains what the official withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and the increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan has meant for candidates and voters so far this year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Uncommon Life of the Common Cold Jennifer Ackerman explains what a cold is, how it works, and sifts through all the treatments—what works, what doesn't, and what can't hurt. In Ah-choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold, she looks at what scientists have learned over the past decade about cold viruses, what they do to the human body, and how symptoms can be addressed, and looks at current research, in the hopes of finding a cure for the common cold. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Rakoff on Half Empty David Rakoff, writer at large for GQ and regular contributor to This American Life, defends pessimism. His new book Half Empty includes reporting and personal essays, and examines the realities of our ever-optimistic culture to find that, most of the time, the best is not yet to come and dreams don’t come true. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Oyster Shucking John Bil, a three-time Canadian oyster-shucking champion from Prince Edward Island, demonstrates how to properly shuck an oyster. He and Executive Chef Ted Grant, an instructor at the Culinary Institute of Canada, talk about the ins and outs of oysters and mussels—how to pick the perfect oyster, how to tell when one has gone bad, and how to choose oysters at restaurants. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Half a Life Darin Strauss tells the true story of how an outing in his father’s Oldsmobile resulted in the death of a classmate, which changed his life forever. In Half a Life he explores his past— the collision, funeral, the drama of a high-stakes court case—and what starts as a personal tale of a tragic event turns into an examination of guilt, responsibility, and living with the past. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Olivier Assayas and Edgar Ramírez on "Carlos" Director Olivier Assayas and actor Edgar Ramírez, who stars as Carlos, discuss the new film “Carlos.” It is the definitive portrait of the renowned international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, who masterminded a wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in the ’70s and ’80s. “Carlos” airs on the Sundance Channel as a three-part mini-series from October 11-October 13, and it opens October 15 in New York at the IFC Center (in three parts) and at Lincoln Plaza C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rene Redzepi on Nordic Cuisine Rene Redzepi, head chef of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, talks about Nordic cuisine. Noma was recognized as the #1 in the world by the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant awards in April 2010. Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine features over 90 recipes, insights into his philosophy and creativity, Redzepi's diary excerpts, and 200 color photographs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Mark Strand, U.S. Poet Laureate, 1990-1991, and Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator, and Stephanie Hughley, Vice President of Programming and New Media for NJPAC, discuss the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, in Newark, NJ, October 7-10. It's the largest poetry festival in North America and is expected to bring 20,000 people to Newark. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pee-Wee Herman Show Paul Reubens discusses his signature character, Pee-Wee Herman, his career, and the Broadway adaptation of “The Pee-Wee Herman Show.” It starts performances on October 26 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Tipping Doling out 15 percent of the check to the waiter is standard, but how much should you tip cab drivers and hairdressers?  Today’s Please Explain is all about tipping. Milla Bloch and Diane Gottsman explain how much to give, to whom, and where tipping comes from. Do you have different tipping methods based on service? Do you tip a cab driver the same way you tip a waitress or a hairdresser? Current and former waiters: do you tip more generously than others? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Solving the Colony Collapse Mystery Colin Henderson, associate professor at the University of Montana's College of Technology, discusses the team of military scientists and entomologists who have discovered a new suspected cause of colony collapse syndrome. Over the past four years, 20 to 40 percent of bee colonies in the United States have suffered from colony collapse. He'll explain the team's research and findings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cherry Jones and Doug Hughes Actress Cherry Jones and director Doug Hughes discuss the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of “Mrs. Warren’s Profession.” Considered one of George Bernard Shaw’s greatest plays, the play tells the story of Kitty Warren (played by Cherry Jones), a mother who makes a terrible sacrifice for her daughter Vivie’s independence. This is the first time Jones and Hughes have worked together since “Doubt.” “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” opens October 3, at the American Airlin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Quarrymen Rod Davis, Len Garry, and Colin Hanton, founding members of “The Quarrymen,” discuss being in the band with John Lennon, before his days with the Beatles. This chapter of Lennon's life is the subject of the film “Nowhere Boy: The Extraordinary Untold Story of John Lennon,” that opens Friday, October 8, at Film Forum. Saturday marks what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Update on Pakistan's Flood-Stricken Regions It’s been more than two months since flood waters started rising in Pakistan. On today’s Underreported, as the waters from the worst flooding in 80 years continue to recede, we get an update on how relief efforts are going and the challenges that workers there face. Michelle Fanzo, Project Leader for the World Policy Institute, and Dorothy Blane, Country Director for Concern Worldwide, join us to discuss how the flooding continues to affect Pakistan and its government. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Hungarian Sludge Spill The toxic spill of red sludge from an alumina plant has finally reached the Danube River. On today’s Backstory segment, we’ll look into the messy method of producing aluminum and what can be done with all the so-called “red mud” that’s created in the process. We’ll speak with Dr. William Cary, a professor of ceramic engineering at Alfred University, Dr. Lex Van Geen, a geochemist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Gabor Figeczky, acting director of the World W ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Divine Sister Charles Busch, writer and director of “The Divine Sister,” and Julie Halston, who stars in it, will discuss the play. It serves as an outrageous comic homage to nearly every Hollywood film involving nuns—The Song of Bernadette, The Bells of St. Mary’s, The Singing Nun, and Agnes of God. It's playing at SoHo Playhouse. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Washington: A Life Although George Washington inspires reverence, he remains lifeless and one-dimensional for many Americans. National Book Award winner Ron Chernow breaks the stereotype of Washington and paints a portrait of him as a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people in Washington: A Life; a groundbreaking work based on massive research. Washington A Life Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Operation Dark Heart Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer was part of the “dark side of the force” in Afghanistan, the shadowy elements of the U.S. government that function outside the bounds of the normal system. In Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan and the Path to Victory, he tells the story of what really went on—and went wrong— in Afghanistan. He also addresses why the Pentagon has destroyed copies of the book. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blood-Dark Track Joseph O’Neill, author of the novel Netherland, tells a personal family history. His grandfathers—one Turkish, one Irish—were both imprisoned during the Second World War. In Blood-Dark Track: A Family History, he traces their stories, set against the history of the last century's most inhuman events. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hank Williams' Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus Jett Williams, Hank Williams’ daughter, spent more than 30 years confirming her father's true identity. She discusses that and the much anticipated “Hank Williams Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus,” a 16-disc collector’s boxed set that contains 72 complete 15-minute radio shows, featuring 143 performances by Hank Williams, together with conversations. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Age of Autism Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill trace the long overlooked history of mercury poisoning. In their book, The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, they write about how mercury has been used in medicine, and why it's one of the earth's most toxic substances. They present their findings about the link between mercury and illness, and investigate how chemical and environmental clues may be overlooked by medical experts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? New York Times columnist Gail Collins joins us for another installment of our series looking at the outlandish things politicians have been saying and doing lately, How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? loadSurvey( "outlandish-statements", "survey_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Deeds of My Fathers Paul David Pope discusses the family that created the tabloid: National Enquirer. The Deeds of My Fathers: How My Grandfather and Father Built New York and Created the Tabloid World of Today draws on more than 500 interviews, as well as voluminous documentary and archival sources. He's joined by Philip Turner, the books editor and publisher. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sanctuary Photographer Gregory Crewdson talks about his photographs of the legendary film studio Cinecittà, where Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini shot their iconic works. His book of photographs, Sanctuary, presents haunting black-and-white portraits of deteriorating buildings and deserted streets. Photographs from Sanctuary are currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, through October 30. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture: The Environment The 2010 midterms are heating up, but none of the candidates seem to be talking about global warming. For the latest installment of The Big Picture, New York Times columnist Andy Revkin joins us to talk about why climate change and the environment are MIA in this election, along with Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent. His article “As The World Burns” can be found in the most recent issue of the magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Walter Mondale's Life in Politics Walter Mondale shares insights from his five decades in public life, his role in creating the modern vice presidency, and the parallels he sees between the Carter years and the Obama years. In The Good Fight: A Life in Politics, he describes his evolution from a young Minnesota attorney general, to a U.S. senator, to vice president and a presidential candidate. He spells out the principles required to restore the United States as a model of progressive government. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Melissa Clark's Good Appetite Melissa Clark, writer of the weekly feature “A Good Appetite” in the New York Times Dining Section, talks about dishes that are easy to cook and that speak to everyone. In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About the Food You Love, presents delicious, simply sophisticated recipes for foods so many of us like to eat. Clark prefaces each recipe with the story of its creation—the missteps as well as the strokes of genius—to inspire improvisation in her readers. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Martin Fletcher's Walk in Israel Martin Fletcher, longtime chief of NBC’s Tel Aviv news bureau, discusses walking along the entire coast of Israel, from Lebanon to Gaza, observing facets of the country that are ignored in news reports. His book Walking Israel: A Personal Search for the Soul of a Nation is packed with humor, historical insights, emotion, and true-life tales. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Cunningham's Novel By Nightfall Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Cunningham discusses his latest, By Nightfall. It tells the story of Peter and Rebecca Harris: mid-forties denizens of Manhattan’s SoHo, with successful careers in the arts. All goes awry when Rebecca’s wayward, much younger brother, who has a history of drug problems, shows up for a visit. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lucky Ones Historian Mae Ngai, uncovers the three-generational saga of a Chinese family and the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience in America. The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America is centered on the Tape family, the first of a brand-new social type—middle-class Chinese Americans. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Death Row to Freedom John Thompson, a wrongfully convicted death row inmate, and lawyer John Hollway discuss the long fight for Thompson’s exoneration. In Killing Time: An 18-Year-Old Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom John Hollway and co-author Ronald M. Gauthier tell the story of the quest for Thompson’s freedom, paint a portrait of life on death row, and reveal the corruption in the Louisiana police and DA’s office. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Rubber Rubber is all around us: from sneakers to tires to basketballs. On today’s Please Explain, we'll find out where rubber comes from, how it’s created and used, and how it changed the world. We're joined by John Loadman, analytical chemist and author of  Tears of the Tree: The Story of Rubber--A Modern Marvel, and Joe Jackson, author of The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website John Canemaker on Two Guys Named Joe John Canemaker, director of the film animation program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, talks about two great animators: Joe Grant and Joe Ranft. Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant & Joe Ranft explains their unique influences on storytelling during two important periods in the history of animation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Newtown Creek Gets Superfund Status On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency named Newtown Creek, the polluted industrial waterway that runs between Brooklyn and Queens, a Superfund site. On today’s Underreported Update, Katie Schmid, director of the Newtown Creek Alliance, explains what the designation will mean for the creek and the people who live nearby, and why it’s taken so long for any cleanup effort to begin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sigrid Nunez on her Novel Salvation City Sigrid Nunez talks about her latest novel, Salvation City. Set after a deadly flu pandemic in the United States, it tells the story of an orphaned teenager who finds refuge with an evangelical pastor and his wife in a small Indiana town. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War Is Not Over When It's Over Writer and photographer Ann Jones looks at the aftermath of wars and their impact on women. In 2007, the International Rescue Committee sent Jones to Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, and she gave cameras to women to document how war had affected their lives. Her book War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War, reveals the consequences of modern warfare for those most vulnerable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Frugal Superpower Foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum argues that the age of America’s expansive foreign policy is coming to an end. The country's soaring deficits, fueled by the huge costs of the financial crash and our government entitlement programs, will mean a scaled-back American international presence. In The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era, he describes the policies the United States will have to discontinue, assesses the potential threats, and recommends ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: U.S. Extradites Colombian Paramilitaries and Seals their Case Records Since 2006, the United States has extradited more than a dozen Colombian paramilitaries, only to seal the records of their court cases. On this week’s Underreported, Jennifer Janisch and Oriana Zill de Granados of PBS’s Wide Angle series, explain how they discovered that the cases, and what the use of judicial secrecy here in the U.S. means for their Colombian victims seeking justice. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Mexican Suitcase" at ICP Curator Brian Wallis, and Cynthia Young, exhibition organizer, discuss the “The Mexican Suitcase.” Considered lost since 1939, the so-called Mexican Suitcase is actually three boxes containing 4,500 negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. The cache includes new images by these photographers and previously unknown portraits, and it not only provides a rich and panoramic view of the Spanish Civil War, but shows the role of these ph ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Warmth of Other Suns Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens, who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. In The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, she tells this story through the lives of three individuals, and examines how the migration changed the face of America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rock Roadie James “Tappy” Wright talks about being a roadie and tour manager for some of the world's greatest music stars. In his book Rock Roadie: Backstage and Confidential with Hendrix, Elvis, The Animals, Tina Turner, and an All-Star Cast, he tells stories from the world of rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives Journalist Annie Murphy Paul discusses the new field of fetal origins—which looks into how the conditions we encountered before birth influence our health, intelligence, and temperament. In Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives, she interviews experts from around the world and explores the history of ideas and the latest scientific discoveries. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Maasai Life Robin Wiszowaty talks about how she ended up leaving her middle-class American life to join an impoverished Maasai community in rural Kenya. In My Maasai Life: From Suburbia to Savannah, she explains why she wanted to break free of her suburban existence and discover something deeper, and how she ended up finding in it Africa. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cell Phone Radiation Dr. Devra Davis, founding director of the toxicology and environmental studies board at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, discusses the recent and long-suppressed research on the dangers of cell phone radiation. In Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family, Davis reveals the dark side of these ubiquitous gadgets and the trillion-dollar industry behind them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna Barbara Kingsolver discusses her latest novel, The Lacuna. It moves from the Mexico of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. It tells the story of a man pulled between two nations and is a portrait of the artist—and of art itself. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? New York Times columnist Gail Collins joins us for another installment of our series looking at the outlandish things politicians have been saying and doing lately: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? loadSurvey( "outlandish-statements", "survey_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture: The Stimulus For this week’s edition of The Big Picture, Michael Grunwald, Senior Correspondent for Time magazine, discusses the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009—the stimulus bill—which Republicans have called 'too much government spending' and 'not enough' by many Democrats. He’ll explain what the stimulus bill called for, where funds have gone, and how effective it has been in boosting the economy and creating jobs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Secret History of MI6 Historian and author Keith Jeffery tells the history of the world's oldest and most storied foreign intelligence service: Britain’s MI6. In The Secret History of MI6, he explores the important and largely hidden role MI6 had in shaping the history of Europe and the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Little Charlie Fest Composer and sound artist Charlie Morrow talks about the Little Charlie Fest: a three-day festival of performances, including concerts, multi-media projections, and public art. Little Charlie Fest is from September 28 through October 2. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adrian Grenier on "Teenage Paparazzo" Adrian Grenier, star of the HBO series “Entourage” discusses his documentary “Teenage Paparazzo.” The film is a chronicle of his relationship with 14-year-old paparazzo: Austin Visschedyk. The film is an intimate look at paparazzi and the celebrity culture they serve. It debuts on HBO at 9:00 p.m., September 27. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ingrid Betancourt on Her Captivity in Colombia Ingrid Betancourttalks about being held hostage by a terrorist guerrilla organization, the FARC, for more than six and a half years in the Colombian jungle. Born in Bogotá, raised in France, she returned to Colombia to become a political leader, and was abducted while she was campaigning as a candidate for president. She tells her story inEven Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fatima Bhutto on Pakistan's Political Dynasty Fatima Bhutto, daughter of Murtaza Bhutto and niece of Benazir Bhutto, discusses her father’s murder and the long line of tragedies in her family. Songs of Blood & Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir reveals how a family of feudal landlords became powerbrokers and politicians. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Roller Derby Today’s Please Explain is all about the sport of roller derby, from its earliest roots to its modern day revival. Alex Cohen (aka Axles of Evil) and Jennifer Barbee, the authors of Down and Derby: The Insider's Guide to Roller Derby, stop by our show today. Alex Cohen is a skater and trainer, and also served as the derby consultant/choreographer for Drew Barrymore’s film "Whip It!" Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William Gibson's Zero History William Gibson discusses his new novel, Zero History. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Nuclear Family Christopher Brownfield describes his early life in the Navy and how he, a submariner, ended up in Iraq. In My Nuclear Family: Coming of Age in America’s Twenty-first Century Military, he writes about his years serving on a nuclear submarine, his ship’s secret missions in the global war on terror, and why his faith in the entire operation began to erode. He also describes working with General Petraeus and developing plans for energy efficiency, development, and counterinsurgency in Iraq ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dean Obeidallah and "Arabs Gone Wild" Arab American comedian Dean Obeidallah talks about headlining the multi-city tour “Arabs Gone Wild.” The tour is coming to New York City’s Town Hall Theater on Saturday, October 2. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: U.S. Weapons Sales The United States Congress is poised to approve a major weapons sale to Saudi Arabia valued at over $60 billion, making it the largest arms sale in history. On today’s Backstory segment, William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, examines the deal, its political implications, and how the United States came to be the largest weapons dealer in the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Roma in Europe In recent weeks, France has been locked in a war of words with the European Union over its effort to expel the Roma living there. But the Roma in Italy have also been facing discriminatory policies and prejudice. On today's Underreported, Bernard Rorke, director of Roma Initiatives at the Open Society, discusses what’s behind these restrictive policies towards Roma. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Big Citizenship Alan Khazei, who founded the non-profit City Year with his friend, Michael Brown, talks about national service and social entrepreneurship. In Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America, he explores how social change could be achieved through Congress, popular movements, and motivated alliances of groups. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Citizen Architect Documentary filmmaker Sam Wainwright Douglas talks about “Citizen Architect,” his documentary on the late artist, architect, and educator Samuel Mockbee and the radical educational design/build program: the Rural Studio. The film explores Mockbee’s effort to inspire students to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. “Citizen Architect” will be screened at Cooper-Hewitt on September 23. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sara Gruen’s Novel Ape House Sara Gruen, the author of the best-selling novel Water for Elephants, discusses her latest novel, Ape House. It tells the story of a scientist at a Great Ape Language Lab who doesn’t understand people as well as she understands animals, and the reporter she meets who risks his career and his marriage to follow a story. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inside Iran Iran is viewed as a security threat that's part of the Axis of Evil, but it is also is a proud nation with a 2,500 year history of Persian poetry, art, and passion, and its complexities are often overlooked. Scott Peterson discusses Iran: from its recent internal struggles to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In Let the Swords Encircle Me: Iran—A Journey Behind the Headlines, he speaks with clerics and reformers, filmmakers and journalists, True Believers and the Westernized resisters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wall Street and Washington Former Newsweek reporter Michael Hirsh, now at the National Journal, explains why presidents, from Ronald Reagan through Barack Obama, have put Wall Street before Main Street. In his book Capital Offense: How Washington's Wise Men Turned America's Future Over to Wall Street, he looks into how that preference has caused numerous economic crises around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ravi Coltrane Jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane talks about his legendary parents, his career in music, and the Ravi Coltrane Quartet’s performances at the Village Vanguard September 21-26. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coke Machine Coca-Cola has billed itself as the world's most popular beverage. Journalist Michael Blanding looks into the Coca Cola Company’s global impact. In Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World’s Favorite Soft Drink, he looks at how Coca Cola became one of the most profitable companies on the planet, and made "Coca-Cola" the world's second- most recognized word after "hello." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michelle Norris on The Grace of Silence Michelle Norris, cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered, discusses “the hidden conversation” on race that’s unfolding in America. In her new book The Grace of Silence, she unearthed and confronted painful family secrets and came to terms with her own identity and the history of race in her family. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? New York Times columnist Gail Collins joins us for another installment of our series looking at the outlandish things politicians have been saying and doing lately, How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? loadSurvey( "outlandish-statements", "survey_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture: California With unemployment passing 12% and a state budget shortfall around $20 billion, the economic picture in California is looking bleak. On today's edition of our 2010 midterm-election series The Big Picture, Cathleen Decker, state politics editor and writer for the Los Angeles Times, and by Dan Walters, political columnist for the Sacramento Bee, look at the crises plaguing the Golden State and candidates who want a shot at fixing them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scott Spencer’s Man in the Woods Acclaimed novelist, Scott Spencer talks about his latest novel: Man in the Woods. It tells the story of a man who has been on his own since he was a teenager; leading a life of freedom and independence. He thought his life would have no constraints, but then he meets a beautiful woman and her daughter, who offer stability and consistency. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arianna Huffington on the Middle Class Arianna Huffington discusses the plight of the middle class, why she sees it disappearing, and what it means for America. Her book Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream lays out the threats to middle-class stability: shrinking industry and fewer blue-collar jobs, a weakening education system, economic turmoil, and a loss of faith in our political system. She also addresses what can be done to restore and strengthen the midd ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dogfight Matt Burgess talks about his novel, Dogfight, A Love Story, about a young drug dealer having a very bad weekend. Burgess brings Queens to life in all its distinctive glory. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Negotiating with Evil Mitchell B. Reiss discusses his experiences at the center of some of America’s most sensitive diplomatic negotiations—from forging peace in Northern Ireland to stemming the nuclear crisis in North Korea. In Negotiating with Evil: When to Talk to Terrorists, he addresses two vital questions: Should we talk to terrorists? And How should we conduct the negotiations with them in order to gain what we want? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patti LuPone The legendary Patti LuPone, known for her roles in Evita, Les Misérables, Anything Goes, Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy, talks about her life both onstage and off. In Patti LuPone: A Memoir, she tells stories about the life of a working actor, how she developed and honed her Tony Award–winning performances, and how she knew, even at the age of four, that she was destined for the stage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Picture Me Filmmaker Ole Schell and model Sara Ziff, discuss their documentary “Picture Me:” a raw and personal video diary that charts model Sara Ziff’s rise from fresh face to high-fashion, and lifts the veil on the glamorous world of high fashion modeling. “Picture Me” opens September 17 at the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Soda Ever since Joseph Priestly discovered how to "impregnate water with fixed air" in the 18th century, carbonated beverages have been ubiquitous. Sodas have been used to cure diseases, fight alcoholism, and spread American culture around the globe. On this week's Please Explain, we’ll find out what soda is, what’s in it, and when it became so popular. We’re joined by Dr. Kelly Brownell, the co-founder and director of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and Darcy O'Neil, bev ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On the Bowery Rob Hollander, cofounder of the Lower East Side History Project, and Michel Rogosin son of Lionel Rogosin, the legendary filmmaker of “On the Bowery,” talk about the 1957 film about life on the streets in downtown Manhattan. It won Best Documentary at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. “On the Bowery,” is showing at Film Forum September 17-23. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sarah Palin’s Sound and Fury Vanity Fair writer Michael Joseph Gross discusses the paradox of Sarah Palin. As the public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Gross’s article “Sarah Palin’s Sound and Fury” is in the October issue of Vanity Fair. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Teaching the Afghan Army to Read The American-led strategy in Afghanistan relies on training local Afghan forces so they’re able to take over their own security. Only 18 percent of those 243,000 Afghans in the army and police have more than a Kindergarten-level ability to read. Noah Shachtman, contributing writer for Wired magazine, discusses the US military’s efforts to teach Afghan security forces to read as well as to fight. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Uighur Update New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs discusses the ongoing tensions between the Han Chinese and the Uighur population in Western China. He’ll recount the violence that erupted and killed nearly 200 people last July, and look at what’s happened since. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Interviewing Fidel Castro Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg discusses his exclusive interview with Fidel Castro. Among the revelations from his reporting are Castro’s criticisms of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Castro’s doubts about his own behavior during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kings of Pastry Legendary documentary filmmaking team D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus discuss the world of fantastical French pastry. Their film "Kings of Pastry" documents the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, France’s highest honor in the art of patisserie. They’re joined by chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School. The film follows him as he journeys to his childhood home of Alsace to practice for the contest. "Kings of Pastry" is playing at Film Forum th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tom McCarthy’s Novel, C Acclaimed writer Tom McCarthy talks about his latest novel, C. Set in England at the turn of the twentieth century, it tells the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence aside his troubled older sister, Sophie: with whom he shares an intense sibling relationship. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tony Blair Tony Blair, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, discusses his ten years in office as Labour Party leader. He explains his decisions to go to war in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and, most controversially of all, Iraq. He shares his views on emerging power relationships and economies, and looks ahead to the changing world. His memoir A Journey: My Political Life is his firsthand account of his years in office and beyond. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, has recently been published in paperback, and a paperback version of Origins of the Specious, written with Stewart Kellerman, was just issued. Have a question about language and grammar? Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave us a question as a comment below.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Daniel Kehlmann on Fame Daniel Kehlmann talks about Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes. It touches on fame and facelessness, truth and deception. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website James Ellroy on The Hilliker Curse Legendary crime writer James Ellroy talks about his mother’s death and his obsessive search for “atonement in women.” The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women is about guilt and the power of malediction. Ellroy describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown, and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the woman he’s been searching for. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Did Political Rhetoric in America Get So Weird New York Times columnistGail Collinson foolish things politicians have said, for our series “How Did Political Rhetoric in America Get So Weird?” Let us know some of the most outlandish things you've heard from a politician recently! loadSurvey("outlandish-statements","survey_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Per Petterson’s<em>I Curse the River of Time</em> NovelistPer Petterson,talks about his latest book: I Curse the River of Time. It tells the story of a mother and son's turbulent relationship. Set in 1989, when Communism is crumbling, it follows Arvid Jansen, who is facing his first divorce, and his mother, who’s been diagnosed with cancer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inside Tea Party America Kate Zernikelooks inside the Tea Party movement—where it came from, what it stands for, and what it means for the future of American politics. InBoiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America, she shows how the Tea Party movement emerged and explains that it’s important to understand the movement to understand American politics in 2010 and beyond. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, tells the story of how he and his wife found true love with two tiny strangers from the other side of the world. InBaby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption, he shares the anxieties, along with the joy, of adoption, and includes the stories of other adoptive families. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture: New York For our weekly election series,The Big Picture 2010, WNYC's reportersBob HennellyandAzi Paybarahtake a look at the elections in New York State this November and what we can expect this primary day. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Fight Against Breast Cancer Ambassador Nancy Goodman Brinker discusses how her sister, Suzy’s death from breast cancer in 1977 inspired her to change the way the world talked about and treated breast cancer. She founded the organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure, one of the most influential health charities, and tells the story of creating it in Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Max’s Kansas City Steven Kasher and artist Forrest Myers (aka Frosty), talk about Max’s Kansas City, the gathering place for artists and musicians from the 1960s to the early 1980s. It was home to Andy Warhol and his entourage, as well as the iconoclastic New York music scene—the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, and undiscovered musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Blondie, Iggy Pop, and Madonna. Kasher’s book Max’s Kansas City includes essays by Lou Reed, Lenny Kaye, Danny Fields, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Big Girls Don’t Cry Rebecca Traister, who covered the 2008 presidential election for Salon, explains how it was transformative for American women and for the nation. In Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, she looks at the ways the campaign sparked some of the most difficult American conversations—on gender, race, generational difference, about sexism on the left and feminism on the right: discussions crucial to improving our nation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Don Maynard Pro Football Hall of Famer Don Maynard talks about his time playing with the New York Jets. You Can't Catch Sunshine tells the story of his transformation from laid-back Texan to the toast of New York, and how his unlikely friendship with a newly minted quarterback named Joe Namath, resulted in the most unlikely upsets in football history: Super Bowl III. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website This Time Is Different Kenneth Rogoff, a Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard University, looks at the current recession in context of centuries of financial meltdowns. This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, written with Carmen Reinhart, shows that throughout history, rich and poor countries alike have been lending, borrowing, crashing—and recovering—their way through an extraordinary range of financial crises. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Honey Trail Grace Pundyk discusses the ways honey and bees are being affected by globalization, terrorism, deforestation, the global food trade, and climate change. The Honey Trail: In Pursuit of Liquid Gold and Vanishing Bees looks at the state of our environment and the impact it is having on bees and honey. The novel takes us to the Yemeni deserts and Borneo jungles, through the Mississippi Delta and Tasmania’s rainforests, over frozen Siberia, and through ancient Turkish villages in search of hon ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website John Hodgman's Areas of Expertise Humorist John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require, discusses his particular kind of humor and his work on The Daily Show. He’ll also talk about taking part in the Brooklyn Book Festival’s panel on humor writing on Sunday, September 12. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Breakfast Cereal Today’s Please Explain is all about breakfast cereal. Food historian Andy Smith, the author of Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, among other books, joins us along with Edwin Chavey, aka Mr. Breakfast, director of the Mr. Breakfast Website and "The Cereal Project," a database of 1,200 cereals made in the United States, to explain what cereals are made of, how truthful health claims made about some are, and how there got to be so many varieties. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roy Haynes Jazz master and Grammy Award-winning drummer Roy Haynes talks about his career, which began with an apprenticeship with Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan, and he discusses his performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Human Egg Trafficking On today's first Underreported segment, Scott Carney, contributing editor at WIRED Magazine, tells us about the rise in human egg trafficking in Cyprus and Spain, and how loose regulations for egg donation and IVF in certain countries are resulting in a global egg trade. His article “Unpacking the Global Human Egg Trade” appears in the September issue of Fast Company.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Angelique Kidjo Grammy Award-winning artist Angelique Kidjo talks about her career as a singer-songwriter, and her latest album, “Oyo,” which embraces rhythm & blues, soul music, jazz, and Beniese melodies. The album features interpretations of songs from artists as diverse as James Brown, Otis Redding, Miriam Makeba, and Santana, and includes guests: John Legend, Bono, Roy Hargrove and Dianne Reeves. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Guinea-Bissau's Cocaine Coast In 2005, the small coastal West African nation of Guinea-Bissau was a poor, sleepy backwater whose main export was cashews. Now, in 2010, it is the hub of West Africa's burgeoning cocaine trade, and many observers believe that it is in danger of becoming a narco-state--completely at the whim of drug traffickers in Latin America and Hezbollah leaders who depend on a cut of a profits to fund their terrorist efforts. For today's second Underreported segment, James Traub, a contributing writer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Steve Rosenbaum on the Memorial at Ground Zero Documentarian Steve Rosenbaum discusses his project: videotaping and photographing construction at the memorial center at Ground Zero. An article about his work, "Inside the Future 9/11 Reliquary," appears in the September 5 issue of New York magazine.  Rosenbaum is also the director of the acclaimed documentary film "7 Days in September," which combined his own video footage with donated video footage of New Yorkers dealing with the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Tra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Larry UbellandAl Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call212-433-9692with your questions or leave a comment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sailing Solo Sixteen-year-oldJessica Watsontalks about being the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and nonstop around the world—a 210-day journey of more than 22,000 nautical miles. InTrue Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World, she describes her voyage in a 33-foot boat, and how she prepared for it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why the World Looks Different through Other Languages Acclaimed linguistGuy Deutscherlooks at the thorny question of how—and if—culture and language shape each other. His new bookThrough the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different through Other Languagesre-examines the long discredited belief that our native tongues influence the way we see the world. He argues that the words we have and expressions we use can profoundly shape our understanding of everything: from color, to gender to morals. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website True Prep Lisa Birnbach, the author of the best-selling phenomenonThe Official Preppy Handbookwhich debuted thirty years ago, is back with an update.True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World, designed by Chip Kidd, is a contemporary look at how the old guard preppies are adapting to the new order of things. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Political Rhetoric in America Get So Weird? New York Times columnist Gail Collins is back to share some of her favorite examples of outlandish things politicians have been saying recently. loadSurvey( "how-did-politics-america-get-so-weird", "survey_how-did-politics-america-get-so-weird"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website “My Trip to Al Qaeda” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and playwright Lawrence Wright discusses the film adaptation of his one-man show “My Trip to Al Qaeda.” It chronicles fundamentalist Islam’s rise to power, as well as his struggle to maintain objectivity as a journalist in the wake of 9/11.  “My Trip to Al Qaeda” debuts at 9:00 pm, September 7, on HBO. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Picture 2010: Immigration For the first segment of our series on the upcoming midterm election, Julia Preston, immigration correspondent for the New York Times, and Scott Wong, reporter for Politico, discuss how immigration reform is shaping the elections—from Arizona to New York. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Price Check Jonathan Mintz, commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, talks about discovering pricing violations in city grocery stores and explains how consumers can protect themselves. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Junior Officers’ Reading Club Patrick Hennessey, Jr., gives an account of his coming of age as a young enlistee, staving off the tedium and pressures of army life in the Iraqi desert by creating a book club. In The Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars, Hennessey captures how boys grow into men amid the frenetic violence, frequent boredom, and overwhelming responsibilities that frame a soldier's experience. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sportswriting from The New Yorker New Yorker editor David Remnick and longtime writer Roger Angell discuss the art of sports writing. The Only Game in Town, Sportswriting from the New Yorker is a classic collection of more than eighty years of some of the wisest, funniest, and most moving sports writing around—from reportage and analysis to profiles and tributes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vendela Vida’s The Lovers Vendela Vida talks about her new novel,  The Lovers, about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children. It tells the story of Now Yvonne, a widow with grown twin children, who returns to the Turkish coastal village where she and he husband honeymooned, hoping to remember a happier time. But her plans for a restorative vacation are quickly complicated. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Searching for a New Kidney Daniel Asa Rose discusses the lengths he and his cousin Larry Feldman went to in order to get a kidney transplant. In Larry’s Kidney, Rose tells the story of helping his black-sheep cousin, who he hadn’t spoken to in 15 years, go to China and secure a kidney transplant, even though Chinese law forbids transplants to Westerners. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress Historian William Jelani Cobb looks at the 2008 election of Barack Obama—who won the Democratic nomination even though old-line civil rights leaders—Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Andrew Young—all openly supported Hillary Clinton. In The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, Cobb examines America's changing political and social landscape, and a new generation of voters with priorities not shaped by the legacy of Jim Crow. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Lyme Disease Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in North America, and the number of reported cases has been steadily climbing over the last decade. We’re joined byBrian Fallon, associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of theLyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center, andDr. Carolyn Britton, associate professor of clinical neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, and chief neurologist for the Lyme research studies conducted ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Mitchell’s<em>The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet</em> David Mitchelltalks about his latest book,The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, a historical novel set in Japan at the turn of the 19th century, when the country was isolated from the West with the exception of a small Dutch outpost called Dejima, in Nagasaki Harbor. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Just Food James McWilliamschallenges conventional views about what it means to eat ethically, and cuts through myths and misinformation. InJust Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, he helps us determine what to eat and how our choices can help save the planet and feed the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roof Gardens in NYC We’ll find out how to build a roof farm for growing food and discuss the viability of urban farming as a means of feeding cities.Annie Novak, founder and director of Growing Chefs and co-founder and farmer ofEagle Street Rooftop Farmin Greenpoint, andLisa Goode, ofGoode Green, a green roof design and installation firm, talk about how Rooftop Farms has built a local community in Greenpoint. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gerard Lordahl Answers Your Gardening Questions Gerard Lordahl, Greening Director of GrowNYC, discusses end-of-summer gardening, how to care for your plants when you go on vacation, and what kinds of heirloom vegetables he recommends growing. He’ll also answer listener questions about gardening! Call us at 212-433-9692. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Katrina's Effects on Hurricane Research Hurricane Katrina fundamentally changed the landscape of New Orleans and radically altered the way the federal government responds to natural disasters. It also changed the way scientists study hurricanes—what factors they consider and where research funds are directed. Atmospheric scientists James Kossin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology, explain and look ahead to how we're preparing for Hurricane Earl. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website “Last Train Home” Director Lixin Fan talks about his film “Last Train Home:” a look at the journey of 130 million migrant workers to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration, and it reveals a country caught inbetween its rural past and industrial future. “Last Train Home” opens September 3 at IFC Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Parks, Plants, and People Public garden designer Lynden Miller talks about the benefits of enhancing cities with gardens, parks, and street trees. Her work has changed the face of New York City’s public places—in neighborhoods rich and poor. In Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape, she calls on the public, gardeners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects and public officials to create and support well-planted parks and gardens. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Citizen's United and the Midterms We'll look at the impact the Citizen's United ruling has had on the 2010 midterm elections so far with Sheila Krumholz, Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Wife to James Whelan" at the Mint Theater Jonathan Bank, artistic director of the Mint Theater and director of "Wife to James Whelan," andJanie Brookshire, who stars as 'Nan', talk about the play. It's the first of two plays by Theresa Deevy and produced by the Mint, being shown in the next two years. The plays are part of the "Teresa Deevy Project," which will also include readings, recordings and publications. Set in a small town in the middle of Ireland, the play tells the story of star-crossed lovers. “Wife to James Whelan” ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Rubicon" Peabody Award winnerHenry Bromell, the executive producer of the AMC drama "Rubicon," discusses the new series: a conspiracy thriller about a group of clandestine code-crackers working in lower Manhattan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Political Decision-Making How do you decide who to vote for? Is there one issue that determines which candidate you side with? Are you loyal to one party over another?Andrew Westen, professor of psychology at Emory University and the author ofThe Political Brainjoins us in taking listeners' calls on what's influencing their vote this election season. Call us at 212-433-9692 to tell us what influences how you vote! Or leave a comment below! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Collins: How Did Politics in America Get So Weird? Today is the first of our weekly series withNew York TimescolumnistGail Collins,How Did Politics in America Get So Weird?We'll review the dishonest, distracting or just downright silly things politicians are saying as we head into the 2010 elections.loadSurvey("outlandish-statements","survey_outlandish-statements"); loadSurveyResults("outlandish-statements","outlandish-statements-report","surveyreport_outlandish-statements"); Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hostage Nation Victoria BruceandKarin Hayesexamine the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC): the drug-funded revolutionary army. InHostage Nation: Colombia's Guerrilla Army and the Failed War on Drugs, they explore the political and socioeconomic conditions that enabled the FARC to gain unprecedented strength, influence, and impunity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Weather of the Future Heidi Cullen, senior research scientist with Climate Central, looks at climate change not just as an event set to happen in the distant future, but as something happening right now. Her book The Weather of the Future: The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet, combines the latest research from scientists on the ground, with state-of-the-art climate-model projections in order to create climate-change scenarios for seven of the most ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Untold Story of Charlie Chan Yunte Huang discusses Charlie Chan, the fictional detective based on Chang Apana, a detective from Honolulu, and how the character defined America’s distorted perceptions of Asians and Asian Americans. His book Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, weaves the story of the evolution of the character of 'Charlie Chan' with the real-life detective Chang Apana’s rough-and-tumble career. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zebratown Greg Donaldson talks about spending eight years reporting on a couple—an ex-con from Brownsville, Brooklyn, and a young woman with a six-year-old daughter—attempting to make a home together in Elmira, New York. Zebratown: The True Story of a Black Ex-Con and a White Single Mother in Small-Town America looks at the difficulty that ex-cons have in successfully re-entering society and the problems that this can cause for them, their families, and the communities where they live. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Billionaire Brothers New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer discusses Charles and David Koch, billionaire brothers who are waging a war against President Barack Obama. They have donated more than $100 million to right-wing causes; including the Tea Party. Her article “Covert Operations” appears in the August 30 issue of the New Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro Janice Perlman's 1969 bookThe Myth of Marginalitywas the first in-depth account of life in Rio’s favela. She carries that story forward in her new bookFavela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro by re-interviewing many longtime favela residents whom she had first met in 1969—as well as their children and grandchildren—to reveal the effects of violence, drugs, poverty, and unemployment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Flying Karamazov Brothers Two Flying Karamazov Brothers,Paul MagidandMark Ettinger, discuss The Flying Karamazov Brothers performance “4PLAY” at the Minetta Lane Theatre. It’s a unique blend of music, comedy, dance, theater, and juggling. Paul Magid wrote and directed “4Play.” Musical direction and original music by Mark Ettinger. “4Play” is playing at the Minetta Lane Theatre through November 30. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marty Stuart Performs Live Country music singerMarty Stuartperforms live in our studio. He’ll also discuss his new album “Ghost Train” and his performance atJoe’s Pubon Monday, August 30. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Election in Haiti New Yorkercontributing writerAmy Wilentztalks about the elections in Haiti. Her article “Running in the Ruins” appears in the September 6 issue of theNew Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Child Soldier to U.S. Marine Tchicayo Missamou gives an account of his experience as a child soldier in Congo and his journey to America. In his book In the Shadow of Freedom: A Heroic Journey to Liberation, Manhood, and America, he tells the story of the horrific civil war in his country, becoming a soldier at 11, having to flee his country at 18, and eventually making his way to America, where he joined the Marines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Jet Lag As summer nears its close, many of us are flying away to get our last taste of summer vacation, but nothing ruins a good jaunt to Europe like a bout of jet lag. In fact, jet lag was once considered such a problem that Congress set up a special unit at NASA devoted to studying the condition. Joining us to explain why jet lag occurs and how we can prevent it are Dr. Kevin Gregory, a former scientist at the NASA Jet Lag Center and the current senior scientist at Alertness Solutions Inc., and D ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ghita Schwarz's novel Displaced Persons Ghita Schwarz discusses her debut novel, Displaced Persons. The story moves from the Allied zones of postwar Germany to New York City, and explores grief and anger, memory and survival, and the experiences of "displaced persons" struggling to remake their lives in the decades after World War II. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vincent Cassel French actor Vincent Cassel discusses his role as notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine in the two-part biopic “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” and “Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1.” The film gives an account of Mesrine’s criminal career. He committed numerous robberies, kidnappings, and murders, and managed to escape from prison three times. “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” opens Friday 27, and “Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1” opens September 3 at teh AMC Empire 25 and the Angelika Film ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Space Junk Orbital debris is quickly becoming a serious problem for satellites and manned spacecraft. Collisions and other incidents have increased the amount of potentially harmful space junk floating around in low earth orbit by a third in the past year-and-a-half alone. Mark Matney, of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office, and Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute, tell us about the problem and what (if anything) can be done about it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine expert Harry Karis talks about the French wine region: Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book gives detailed information on over 200 winemakers, and an in-depth look at climate, soil, grapes, and winemaking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mastering the Wok Grace Young discusses the technique and tradition of stir-frying. Her cookbook Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, with Authentic Recipes and Stories shares more than 100 classic stir-fry recipes from the great Cantonese stir-fry masters, to the culinary customs of: Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Positive Psychology Gary Greenberg, psychotherapist and contributor to Harper's magazine, examines how psychotherapy has changed since the days of Freud. Psychology today focuses on winners: strong people who are highly resilient and psychologically fit. His article “The War on Unhappiness,” in the September issue of Harper’s, describes the latest U.S. brand of psychoanalysis—Positive Psychology, which is not being funded not by the National Institutes of Health, but by the Department of Defense. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The North Atlantic Garbage Patch On today's second Underreported segment, Kara Lavender Law and Giora Proskurowski, both oceanographers at the Sea Education Association (SEA), discusses the North Atlantic garbage patch, where plastic bags and bottles form a floating, swirling mass in the ocean. They’ll talk about the 22 years of research on the garbage patch, and new research that shows it hasn’t been growing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Investigating in New Orleans: Five Years after Katrina We’ll take a look at New Orleans five years after Hurricane Katrina. Frontline correspondent and Pro-Publica reporter A.C. Thompson discusses the documentary “Law & Disorder:” a special report on a number of incidents in which police shot civilians in the hurricane’s aftermath. Also, Pro-Publica contributor Dr. Sheri Fink, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for her story, “The Deadly Choices at Memorial,” a joint effort between the New York Times Magazine a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adam Langer’s The Thieves of Manhattan Novelist Adam Langer talks about his latest work, The Thieves of Manhattan, which serves as: a comical literary caper, an exploration of authenticity and fakery, and a tribute to books. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: John Williams For our latest Underappreciated segment, Morris Dickstein, Distinguished Professor of English and Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center, discusses John Williams: author of the 1965 novel, Stoner. The book’s main character, William Stoner emerges not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero; standing alone in unforgiving world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Computers and Language Computers can speak and understand spoken language. They can also convert text to speech, speech to text, and so much more. Julia Hirschberg, Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, and Steve Lohr, New York Times technology reporter, explain how computers can converse with humans, identify voices and dialects, detect deception, recognize human emotions, and generate images to illustrate text. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kristen Schaal Kristen Schaal, who has appeared on "The Daily Show," "Flight of the Conchords," the recent movie, “Dinner for Schmucks,” and the upcoming film “Butter,” talks about her career in comedy. She’s also written a whole new kind of sex advice book with her real-life partner, Rich Blomquist, called: The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Twilight at the World of Tomorrow James Mauro discusses the 1939 World’s Fair, which took place at an important turning point for America—the window of time between the Great Depression and World War II. His book Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War describes how the fair began to symbolize the transformation from acute optimism to fear and dread. The novel tells the story of four men struggling against the impending global violence as the World’s Fa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Savory Recordings The National Jazz Museum in Harlem recently acquired a trove of heretofore undiscovered jazz recordings known as the "Savory Recordings," which feature some of the biggest names in jazz: from Coleman Hawkins to Billie Holiday to Benny Goodman. Scholars and critics are already claiming that once these recordings are cleaned up, they will fundamentally alter jazz history. Director of the museum Loren Schoenberg will join us to discuss how he acquired the recordings. He'll be joined by Eugene ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website More on the BP Oil Spill BP’s well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico exposed multiple weaknesses in our preparations for a major disaster and our regulation of the companies drilling in deep waters.  We will speak with Tad Patzek, Professor and Chair, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, and Dave Valentine, professor of Geology at UC Santa Barbara. They will discuss the cleanup, the ecological damage it has caused, and how effective the proposed changes to rules and regu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires Veteran defense analyst David Isby looks at the current situation in Afghanistan and discusses what he believes must be done so that the U.S. and NATO coalition can succeed there. His book Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires: A New History of the Borderland sheds light on the challenges of the military efforts there and offers a blueprint for the country’s future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coming of Age as the Son of Two Shrinks Micah Toub describes growing up with parents who were both Jungian therapists. His memoir, Growing Up Jung: Coming of Age as the Son of Two Shrinks, is a personal history and a survey of Jungian psychology, and looks at whether it’s possible for the child of two shrinks to reach adulthood mentally unscathed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Prison Without Walls Atlantic magazine contributing editor Graeme Wood explores the radical idea of turning prisons inside out, with convicts released into society under constant electronic surveillance. His article “Prison Without Walls” is in the September issue of The Atlantic. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Strangers at the Feast Jennifer Vanderbes talks about her second novel, Strangers at the Feast. It’s both a portrait of a family struggling to find happiness and an exploration of the hidden costs of the American dream. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website For-Profit Colleges For-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix and ITT Technical Institute promise flexible degree programs and guaranteed career placement, but they’ve recently come under government scrutiny for misleading applicants about career prospects and encouraging them to lie on financial aid forms.Dan Golden, of Bloomberg News and author ofThe Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges -- and Who Gets Left Outside the Gatesjoins us, along withVicente Lec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Citrus County John Brandontalks about his novel,Citrus County, set in the backwaters of Florida. It tells the story of a teenage girl who moves to Citrus County with her single father, little sister and her abused love interest, Toby, and tracks a dissolving family and a dissolving community. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Tillman Story DirectorAmir Bar-Levdiscusses his documentary “The Tillman Story.” It tells the story of Pat Tillman, a professional football player who left the NFL to join the Army Rangers in 2002 and became an instant symbol of patriotic fervor and unflinching duty. When the government tried to turn his death into propaganda, Pat’s mother led the family’s crusade to reveal the truth beneath the mythology of their son’s life and death. “The Tillman Story” opens Friday, August 20, at the AMC ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Canning and Pickling Wondering what to do with this summer's bounty? This week's Please Explain is all about canning, pickling, and preserving. We're joined by Katherine Alford, director of the Test Kitchen at The Food Network, and food writerEugenia Bone. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Counterfeit Drugs Journalist Paula Park discusses the proliferation of counterfeit drugs around the world, and how these fake medications have led to the development of drug-resistant strains of malaria. We’ll find out who’s making and distributing these counterfeit drugs, and more about the efforts being made in Cambodia and other countries to close down illegal outlets. Her article “Lethal Counterfeits” appeared in World Policy Journal’s summer issue. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zoo Story Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Thomas French gives an account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants: both animal and human. Based on six years of research, his book Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives follows a handful of characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: from an alpha chimp, to a ferocious tiger, to a brilliant but tyrannical CEO. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: India’s Maoist Insurgency An explosion of mining in India has fueled the country’s economic boom, but it has also helped fan the flames of a deadly Maoist insurgency there. On today’s Backstory segment we’ll talk with Jason Miklian, a researcher at Peace Institute Oslo, and Scott Carney, an investigative journalist and contributing editor for Wired, about their article on the insurgency called Fire in the Hole for the September/October issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech Reporter Julia Angwin on "What They Know" Julia Angwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal, discusses her latest series for the newspaper, "What They Know:" an exploration of the information that companies, websites, and even police agencies can collect on you based on your Internet searches. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yoga in America Stefanie Syman tells the story of yoga’s transformation from a centuries-old spiritual discipline to a multibillion-dollar American industry. Her book The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America looks at yoga’s history in America and finds it to be longer and richer than even its most devoted practitioners realize. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Telling Swiss Secrets Michael Bronner talks about his interview with Bradley Birkenfeld, the UBS whistleblower who was responsible for exposing the biggest tax fraud case in United States history. His five-part series for the Global Post, "Telling Swiss Secrets: A Banker's Betrayal," gives the play-by-play of the lead up to the exchange of information, exposes information about Birkenfeld's plea bargain, and explains why Birkenfeld, despite helping the government to get over $780 million from UBS, is still sitt ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website White-Nose Syndrome Worsening Nina Fascione, Executive Director of Bat Conservation International, discusses new research that predicts regional extinctions of one of the most common bat species, the little brown myotis, within two decades due to White-Nose Syndrome. She’ll explain what White-Nose Syndrome is, the recent study, and efforts being made to save the species.       Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Film Unfinished Filmmaker Yael Hersonski, discusses “A Film Unfinished:” her acclaimed documentary about the atrocities in The Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. The footage, shot by the Nazis in May 1942, became a resource for historians. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel that included multiple takes with staged scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. “A Film Unfinished” presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences, and explores ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Louis Couperus Our latest Underappreciated is all about writer Louis Couperus, considered to be one of the greatest Dutch novelists of his time. Author and literary critic Paul Binding and award-winning translator Ina Rilke join us to discuss the life and work of Couperus, whose 1889 novel Eline Vere launched his career as an author. A psychological novel inspired by the naturalist style of Zola and the innovative characterizations of Flaubert, this "novel of The Hague" presents readers with an entire soc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, has recently been published in paperback, and a paperback version of Origins of the Specious, written with Stewart Kellerman, comes out next week. Have a question about language and grammar? Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave us a question as a comment below.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Iraq: The Impasse Joost Hiltermann, contributor to the New York Review of Books and the Middle East and North Africa Deputy Program Director at the International Crisis Group, discusses Iraq's political climate in the four months since its elections and the fear of a Baath Party resurgence. His article "Iraq: The Impasse," in the New York Review of Books summer issue, explains the apparent stalemate in the formation of a new government and explores this precarious stage in the country's development. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ayelet Waldman’s Red Hook Road Ayelet Waldman talks about her latest novel, Red Hook Road. Set on the coast of Maine over four summers, it tells the story of two families whose lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, good intentions, failure, and by love and calamity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Preserving Endangered Languages Linguists Juliette Blevins and Daniel Kauffman discuss endangered languages and the Endangered Language Alliance, which is working to record and save dying languages. They’ll look at the richness of languages spoken in New York City, and how many of those languages are at risk of fading from the city and the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Twain’s Feast Andrew Beahrs discusses the all-Americans menu in the Mark Twain’s classic work A Tramp Abroad, made up of regional dishes from a time before railroads had broken down the country’s culinary boundaries.  In Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens, he looks for these forgotten regional specialties, tracing Twain's footsteps as he goes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lidia Bastianich and Her Mother Chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich and her mother, Erminia Motika, talk about Italian food. They’ll speak with Christopher Walken about their shared roots in Astoria, Queens. Lidia Bastianich is the author of many cookbooks, including her most recent book: Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zoe Kazan Actress Zoe Kazan, who starred with Christopher Walken in “A Behanding in Spokane,” talks about her family and her roles on stage and screen– including her role in the upcoming production of “Angels in America.” Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jack O’Brien and Richard Easton Three-time Tony Award-winner Jack O’Brien, director of Tom Stoppard's trilogy of plays “The Coast of Utopia,” director and producer of the musical “Hairspray,” director of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” and many other plays, discusses his career in theater. He's joined by Richard Easton, who starred in "The Coast of Utopia" and won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play in 2001 for his role in Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jacques D’Amboise Jacques D’Amboise, one of the finest classical dancers of our time, discusses his work in the field of arts education. In 1976, while still a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, he founded the National Dance Institute, a model program that exposes thousands of school children to the magic and discipline of dance. He's joined by Alex Shimizu, a 15-year-old dancer in the National Dance Institute. They’ll talk with Christopher Walken about the challenges and rewards of dance. An ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Summer Vacation or Staycation? We want to hear about your summer vacation! Have you changed your plans due to the economic climate? If you've taken time off, but stayed at home, what did you do? Call us at 212-433-9692 to share your stories or leave a comment to tell us if, and how, the lingering recession has affected your summer vacation plans or how you've made the most of the city! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Neshoba: The Price of Freedom" Filmmaker Micki Dickoff discusses her documentary “Neshoba: The Price of Freedom,” which tells the true story of the Mississippi Burning murders. She’s joined by Ben Chaney , brother of James Chaney: one of three men killed by a mob of Klansmen in Neshoba County in June 1964, at the start of the Freedom Summer of the Civil Rights movement. The film looks at both the past and present race relations in the South, and across the United States. “Neshoba: The Price of Freedom,” opens A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Life and Influence of Leo Castelli Annie Cohen-Solal recounts the incredibly influential and astonishing life of Leo Castelli, who reigned for decades as America’s most influential art dealer. He was the first to exhibit the then-unknown Jasper Johns, and emerged as a tastemaker, becoming a champion of 20th-century masters like Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Twombly. In Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli she gives an account of his life, his gallery, and the ways he changed the art world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Prop 8 Stay Lifted Judge Vaughn Walker, who recently overturned Proposition 8, the state’s gay marriage ban, announced yesterday that same-sex marriages can resume in California. We’ll talk with Vikram Amar , associate dean for academic affairs and professor at law at UC Davis.     Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Caffeine This week's Please Explain will answer all of our caffeine-related questions, from whether or not we should drink coffee before we run a marathon to how caffeine differs from other stimulants. Bennett Alan Weinberg, co-author of the book The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug, explains how the world's most popular drug affects us. Do you have a question about how caffeine affects you? Ask it as a comment! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The Filibuster The U.S. Senate is set to tally up a record-breaking number of filibusters this term, slowing down the operation of what was already known as the “world’s most deliberative legislative body.” Brookings Institution Senior fellow and George Washington University political science professor Sarah Binder talks about the increasing use of the filibuster and it’s long-winded history. Though it's commonplace in the modern Senate, the filibuster came about because of a minor parliamentary r ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Grave Abuses at Arlington National Cemetery Mark Benjamin, Salon.com's national correspondent and the reporter who first brought the abuses at Arlington National Cemetery to light, discusses how his year-long investigation culminated in both the firing of the top two officials at the cemetery as well as an ongoing Senate investigation. An Army investigation recently found gross negligence at the nation's most well-known cemetery—including over 6,000 misidentified graves, bodies interred on top of each other, and remains found in, w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hot Time in the Old Town Edward Kohn discusses one of the worst natural disasters in American history—the 1896 New York heat wave, which killed almost 1,500 people in ten days. In Hot Time in the Old Town: The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt, he tells how the heat coincided with a heated presidential contest between William McKinley and Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Their hopes for the presidency began to fizzle in the heat just as a bright young police commissioner named Theodore ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fortunes of Change Historically, the wealthy have been inclined to vote for Republicans, but David Callahan, a senior fellow of the think tank Demos, discusses why the rich in America are becoming more liberal. In Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America he explores why some of America’s wealthiest people backed Barack Obama’s presidential bid, and are donating record sums to the Democratic Party and liberal organizations; even though they stand to see their taxes go up ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website “Peepli Live” Aamir Khan, producer of “Peepli Live,” talks about the film, which is a heartfelt portrait of India today: the rural society, bureaucracy, media, politics and life itself. It tells the story of two brothers, farmers from rural India, who seek the help of a local politician after losing their plot of land over an unpaid government loan. When the politician mockingly suggests that the brothers commit suicide to benefit from government aid, it sparks a chain of events that reaches the high ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Larry Ubell and Al Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answers your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions or leave a comment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Martin Amis on The Pregnant Widow Martin Amis talks about his new novel, The Pregnant Widow, set in 1970, when the youth of Europe were experiencing the chaotic, ecstatic changes of the sexual revolution. It tells the story of 20-year-old Keith Nearing, a college student spending the long, hot summer in a castle in Italy with his friends. The novel is a portrait of young lives being carried away on a sea of change. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Yasunari Kawabata For this week’s installment of Underappreciated, Martin Holman, literary translator, professor, and puppeteer, discusses the work of Yasunari Kawabata. After a tragic childhood, during which Kawabata lost nearly every one of his close family members, he achieved recognition from a number of his short stories shortly after he graduated from university. Kawabata received particular acclaim for The Dancing Girl of Izu in 1926. He went on to publish several successful novels, and in 1968: Kaw ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ask the Pilot Pilot Patrick Smith, who writes the column “Ask the Pilot” on Salon.com, talks about flying—from what causes turbulence, to which airports are well designed, to the TSA and airport security. Plus, he’ll answer questions from callers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Murder Room Bestselling author Mike Capuzzo and detective Willian Fleisher discuss the Vidocq Society—founded by three of the greatest detectives in the world: William Fleisher, Frank Bender, and Richard Walter, in order to bring together forensic investigators to solve cold cases. Capuzzo describes how the group was created and how they work in The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Background of the BP Oil Spill Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, and Tad Patzek, Professor and Chair of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas Austin, discuss the technical background of the BP oil spill: what lead to the blowout, and how that well compares to the many others in the Gulf of Mexico. We’ll also look at ways the accident could have been avoided and possibilities why the blow out has been so hard to stop. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Liespotting Friends, family members, work colleagues, and salespeople lie to us all the time. Pamela Meyer reveals how to recognize lies by using techniques used in the intelligence community and police, and new research. Her book Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception, explains facial recognition and interrogation training, and discusses research in the field to help business leaders, and others, detect deception. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rosanne Cash: Composed Rosanne Cash talks about growing up as the child of country legend Johnny Cash, and of her relationships with her mother and her famous stepmother: June Carter Cash. Her memoir Composed is her account of her artistic development, recording her first album, and working her way to success. She talks about her marriages, the country music establishment, taking a new direction in her music, leaving Nashville to move to New York, and her process of songwriting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website All the Best Victims Michael Shnayerson, contributing editor of Vanity Fair, looks at how Kenneth Starr, an accountant from the Bronx, pulled the likes of Bunny Mellon, Barbara Walters, Al Pacino, Caroline Kennedy, Martha Stewart, and Matt Lauer into his Ponzi scheme. His article “All the Best Victims” is in the September issue of Vanity Fair. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Good-bye to Dubai Joshua Hammer, New York Review of Books contributor, explores the effects of the global financial crisis on Dubai: a city only recently on the brink of fortune and success. He discusses the origins of the "Dubai fantasy" and the problems inherent in its construction and maintenance, Dubai's identity as a world city and the stark realities of its economic recession. He also disccuses illicit enterprises—from human trafficking to arms smuggling—allegedly going on in Dubai. His article "Go ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sydney Schanberg's War Writings Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg discusses his experience as a war reporter covering Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge-led genocide in Cambodia during the 1970s. Beyond the Killing Fields: War Writings is the first anthology of his war reporting, and commentary was drawn from the hundreds of articles he has written for the New York Times, Newsday, the Village Voice, and various magazines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Time to Betray Reza Kahlili tells us about the inner workings of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, which he witnessed as an Iranian man in the ranks spying for the American government. A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran is a chronicle of lives torn apart by a terror-mongering regime that brought an age of religious fundamentalism under the Ayatollah Khomeini, and an account of his decades leading a double life informing on Iran: t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The New Nutritionist: Your Grocer The Wall Street Journal's Timothy Martin discusses a new nutritional-scoring system being tested at grocery stores and looks at why retailers are getting into the business of offering nutritional advice. His article “The New Nutritionist: Your Grocer” looks at what grocery stores are doing nationwide—some are hiring dietitians to offer advice to shoppers, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the country's biggest food retailer, plans to announce launch a "nutrition program." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Samuel Maoz’s Film “Lebanon” Samuel Maoz talks about writing and directing the film “Lebanon,” which is based on his own experiences as a 20-year-old Israeli soldier during the 1982 Lebanon war. The film brings us inside an Israeli tank during the first 24 hours of the invasion, restricting the action entirely to the tank’s interior and shows us the outside world, only as the four young soldiers inside see it. “Lebanon” opens August 6 at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Landmark Sunshine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Running out of IP Addresses Imagine what would happen if the United States ran out of phone or social security numbers. We would be unreachable, even unidentifiable! That is exactly what's happening with IP addresses: those codes that identify each blackberry, iPad, and Website. IP addresses are set to run out in less than a year. Alexis Madrigal, lead technology writer for TheAtlantic.com joins us to talk about what this means in terms of the way we communicate in an Internet-driven world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Heat Stroke This summer’s high temperatures have brought headaches and heat advisories. On today’s Please Explain, we’re taking a look at some of the health risks that extreme heat brings—from dehydration to heat stroke. Dr. Susi Vassallo, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, explains how heat affects the body. Dr. Susi Vassallo  Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The @ Symbol, now @ MoMA The “@” symbol has recently been admitted to the Museum of Modern Art’s architecture and design collection. We’ll talk to MoMA’s Paola Antonelli , curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, about the acquisition. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Libel Tourism Rachel Ehrenfeld, writer and director of the American Center for Democracy, discusses the "libel tourism" bill passed last week by the U.S. Senate designed to shield U.S. journalists and writers from libel suits by repressive governments or wealthy business tycoons in foreign jurisdictions. Ms. Ehrenfield, the author of  Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It, talks about being sued for libel in England. Unlike the United States, the law is skewed in favor of the plaint ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mary Roach on Packing for Mars Mary Roach explores the strange universe of space travel. In Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, she looks at the science of preparing for life in space—a world devoid of the things we need to survive: air, gravity, hot showers, and fresh foods. She investigates what happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk and if its possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stephen Marshall’s “Holy Wars” Director Stephen Marshall discusses his documentary “Holy Wars,” a portrait of two very different fundamentalists. The film focuses on Aaron Taylor, an Evangelical Christian missionary who travels to Pakistan to convert Muslims, and Khalid Kelly, an extremist Muslim Irish convert living in London, whose goal is to wage global jihad against the West. "Holy Wars" is playing at IFC Center, as part of DocuWeek August 6-12.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Getting It Wrong W. Joseph Campbell debunks ten prominent media-driven myths by the news media: such as the notion that the Washington Post’s reporting on the Watergate scandal brought down Richard Nixon, or that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” in the 1898 conflict with Spain. In Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in Journalism, he explores these and other cases that feed stereotypes, deflect blame, and overstate the power and influence of the news media. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Whistleblower Claims Denied Eight years ago, in the wake of the collapse of Enron, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, intended to expand protections for corporate whistleblowers. But the Agency charged with carrying out the law—the United States department of Labor—has dismissed 98 percent of claims seeking whistleblower protection status. We’ll talk with Michael Hudson, a staff writer with the Center for Public Integrity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb Amitava Kumar looks at the global repercussions of the war on terror. His book A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb tells the story of two men convicted in U.S. courts on terrorism-related charges: Hemant Lakhani, a 70-year-old tried for attempting to sell a fake missile to an FBI informant, and Shahawar Matin Siraj, who was accused of being involved in a conspiracy to bomb a subway. Kumar explores the experiences of ordinary people caught up in the war on terror and the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zarela's Real Mexican Food Mexican chef and restaurateur Zarela Martinez talks about authentic Mexican food. Her restaurant Zarela opened in New York in 1981, and she remains committed to bringing regional Mexican food to New York. She discusses organizing an ongoing series of weekly gastronomic festivals featuring foods from different states in Mexico. She’s the author of Zarela’s Veracruz, Food from my Heart, and The Food and Life of Oaxaca. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act Monona Rossol, chemist and industrial hygienist, talks about the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act currently before Congress and what changes it calls for. She'll also take calls and answer questions about the safetly of household chemicals. Do you have a question about the safety of household chemicals? Leave a comment below! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Henry Green For this week’s Underappreciated segment, noted literary critic James Wood examines the life and work of English writer Henry Green, whose novels are frequently described as among the most important works of English modernist literature. His best-known work is Loving, and altogether he wrote nine novels and a memoir, Pack My Bag, between 1926 and 1952. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Citizen Machine Historian Anna McCarthy, associate professor of Cinema Studies at New York University, talks about the political history of television’s early years. Her book The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America, looks at how leaders from business and philanthropy, social reformers and public intellectuals were all concerned with TV’s potential to mold model American citizens. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Online Grind In the world of instant news sites, there is immense pressure on reporters to break the story—even by just seconds. Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs and digital media professor at the Columbia Journalism School and contributing editor to dnainfo.com, joins us along with Helena Andrews, a former Politico reporter adn author of Bitch Is the New Black, and Remy Stern, editor-in-chief of Gawker.com, discuss the pressures on online journalists, and how tools like "hit counters" and ot ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sam Bryan on "Siege" Sam Bryan talks about the film “Siege,” made by his father, American photojournalist Julien Bryan, during the Siege of Warsaw in September 1939. Bryan was the only neutral reporter left in the city after the German invasion of Poland that started World War II, and he shot footage of the massive destruction of Warsaw and its people. “Siege” has just been released on DVD. It's available at amazon.com and at barnesandnoble.com. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marco Amenta's "The Sicilian Girl" Marco Amenta talks about his film “The Sicilian Girl,” based on the true story of Rita Atria, a 17-year-old Sicilian whose father and brother were both Mafia members (and victims). Rita breaks the vow of silence that rules that world. “The Sicilian Girl” is playing at Film Forum August 4–17. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website No More Dirty Looks: Cosmetics and Chemicals Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt explain what kinds of chemicals and toxins are found in beauty products—from self-tanner to shampoo to face cream. In No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products—and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics, they reveal that many of those unpronounceable ingredients are not regulated, and the term “natural” doesn’t mean what you think it does. They also recommend the safest, most effective products on the market and simple ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is Google Over? Michael V. Copeland, senior writer, and Stephanie Mehta, executive editor, of Fortune magazine discuss Google’s transition from a growth company to a cash cow, and how that’s affecting its performance on Wall Street. Google’s projected earnings growth of 18% is a third of what Google averaged over the past five years, which isn’t impressive for technology companies. Their story “Is Google Over” appears in the August 16 issue of Fortune magazine. Michael V. Copeland, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rick Moody's novel, The Four Fingers of Death Rick Moody talks about his ninth book, The Four Fingers of Death. Set in the year 2025, it tells the story of a downtrodden writer who lands himself a job writing a novelization of a 1963 B-movie horror classic. The B-movie, "The Crawling Hand," is about a mission to Mars gone awry. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "12th & Delaware" and the Front Lines of the Abortion Rights Battle Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the HBO documentary “12th & Delaware,” discuss what’s going on the front lines of the abortion rights battle. The film looks at one intersection in Fort Pierce, Florida, where an abortion clinic stand on one corner is across the street from a pro-life outpost dedicated to preventing abortion. At this particular intersection, Ideological trench warfare takes place daily. “12th & Delaware” premieres on HBO Monday, August 2, at 9:00 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bird Mites Lou Sorkin, entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, discusses how bird mites can move from nests into your home, and what to do to prevent, and combat, an infestation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek Academy Award winners Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek discuss their new movie, "Get Low," about a cantankerous recluse who stages his own memorial service while he’s still alive, so he can find out what everyone says about him. The two actors talk about the unexpected parallels of their lives and careers, and about working together for the first time on this film. “Get Low” opens Friday, July 30, at Lincoln Plaza cinemas and the Regal Union Square Theater. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ron Galella and Leon Gast on “Smash His Camera” Legendary paparazzo Ron Galella and Oscar-winning director Leon Gast discuss the documentary “Smash His Camera,” which chronicles Galella’s career as a notorious guerrilla photographer. They’ll talk about Galella’s dogged pursuit of, and infamous battle with, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, among other celebrities. The film examines the nature of fame, the relationship between celebrities and their chroniclers, and the balance between privacy and freedom of the press. "Smash His Camer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Dreams and Nightmares Deirdre Barrett, assistant clinical professor of psychology in Harvard Medical School’s Psychiatry Department, and Rosalind Cartwright, professor Emeritus in the Division of Neuroscience at Rush University Medical Center, discuss how dreams are studied, what they reveal about us, and what therapies can treat nightmares and other disorders. Dr. Barrett's latest book is Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose, and she's the editor of Trauma and Dreams, and t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Animator Danielle Ash Award-winning filmmaker Danielle Ash talks about her work in animation and discusses her recent films: "Pigeon Dance" and “Pickles for Nickels.”  Her films use a variety of techniques involving stop-motion animation, cardboard sets and puppets, which are combined with elements of computer animation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Neil Sheehan on Leaks and Wikileaks Former New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan—the man Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to—discusses Wikileaks' disclosure of the “Afghan War Logs” and how reporters handle sensitive government documents that have been passed their way. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jeffrey Toobin on Chuck Schumer New York senator Chuck Schumer, who sits on both the Finance Committee and the Banking Committee, has a reputation as a principal voice for Wall Street in Washington. New Yorker staff writer Jeffrey Toobin discusses why Mr. Schumer was nearly silent this summer, when his colleagues passed the most comprehensive overhaul of securities legislation in more than a generation. Jeffrey Toobin’s article, “The Senator and the Street” appears in the August 2nd issue of The New Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ashley Judd Actress Ashley Judd talks about her career, growing up in a famous family, and about her latest dramatic role in in the new movie “Helen.” The movie is about a university professor who has a sudden, unexpected breakdown that sends her into severe depression. “Helen” opens July 30th at the Quad Cinema. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ted Mooney’s The Same River Twice Ted Mooney talks about his novel, The Same River Twice. It tells the story of Odile, a French fashion designer who agrees to smuggle some May Day banners out of the former Soviet Union for an American art dealer. The operation, seemingly simple, ends up turning her world upside-down. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website U.S.-Pakistan Relations Much of the reporting around the “Afghan War Logs” that were released earlier this week by the Website Wikileaks has highlighted accusations of double dealing by Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI. Blake Hounshell, managing editor at Foreign Policy and contributor to the magazine’s Passport blog talks about the accusations and what the "Afghan War Logs" publication means for U.S.-Pakistani relations.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ben Zimmer Refudiates Fake Words Ben Zimmer, the On Language columnist for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, discusses recent invented words: from Sarah Palin’s recent use of the word “refudiate,” to words like "ginormous," which have become part of the popular lexicon. We’ll be taking calls! What are some of your favorite—or least favorite—made up words? Tell us by leaving a comment! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Henry Roth For this week’s Underappreciated, New Yorker fiction editor Willing Davidson discusses the life and work of Henry Roth. Roth’s first novel Call it Sleep was first published in 1934 to mixed reviews. However, when it was published again thirty years later, it was a great success: selling over a million copies. Roth didn’t write another novel until the multi-volume Mercy of a Rude Stream came out in the mid-1990s. His final novel An American Type was published posthumously. Davidson ass ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Women Chefs When this year’s James Beard award winners were announced, it was hard to ignore the fact that they were all men. Joining us to talk about why women only hold one-tenth of executive-level chef positions in the United States are: Joyce Goldstein, James Beard award winner and current James Beard award committee member, food journalist Laura Shapiro, author of the book Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century, and Anita Lo, executive chef of the Michelin-starred restau ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Rabe on the Stage and on the Page David Rabe discusses his career as both a novelist and a playwright. His play “A Question of Mercy,” is currently playing at Atlantic State 2. Based on the journal of Dr. Richard Selzer, it tells the story of a doctor trying to help a young man dying of AIDS end his life, rather than suffering alive. Rabe’s latest novel, Girl by the Road at Night, is his first work of fiction set in Vietnam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carl Hiaasen Journalist, columnist, and novelist Carl Hiaasen discusses his latest novel, Star Island, about a 22-year-old pop star about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster, and her “undercover stunt double,” who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by an obsessed paparazzo. He’ll also talk about the weekly column he’s been writing in the Miami Herald and his take on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The EU's Bank Stress Tests Last week the European Union released the results of the stress tests it ran on almost 100 banks. Matthew Saltmarsh, staff reporter for the International Herald Tribune, discusses the results and whether they’ll help restore investor confidence to the troubled Euro-zone. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Death of Climate Change Legislation The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert looks at the political and environmental implications of the comprehensive energy and climate change legislation that died in the U.S. Senate last week. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William Powers on the Digital Age William Powers, former staff writer for The Washington Post, presents a new approach to the digital age by drawing on some of history's most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, showing that digital connectedness is best balanced disconnectedness. Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age is part intellectual journey and part memoir, and it sets out to solve the conundrum of connectedness. How do you deal with constan ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sammo Hung Legendary actor and director Sammo Hung talks about starring in over 75 movies, as well as working as a producer, director, action-choreographer/stuntman in as many as 230 films. He received a Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York Asian Film Festival, and choreographed the action in the film “IP Man,” which will be released on DVD July 27. He’s joined by his wife, action heroine and occasional co-star, Joyce Mina Godenzi, who serves as translator. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gary Shteyngart and his Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart talks about his new novel, Super Sad True Love Story. Set in New York in the near future, when a functionally illiterate America is on the verge of collapse, it tells the story of Lenny Abramov. Lenny loves books, despite the fact that nobody reads anymore, and printed books are viewed as artifacts of a lost world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Otterman on the Human Costs of the War in Iraq Michael Otterman discusses the human costs of the war the United States and its allies have been waging in Iraq, and specific matters that the mainstream media tend to downplay or ignore altogether. Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage, written by co-writers Richard Hil and Paul Wilson, features in-depth interviews with Iraqi refugees in the Middle East and in Western countries to in order to give a comprehensive account of the Iraqi people's struggle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Steven Adler’s Appetite for Destruction Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler shares his story of spinning out of control, enduring twenty-eight ODs, three suicide attempts, two heart attacks, jail stints, and a debilitating stroke. In My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses, he recounts his years with Guns N' Roses, being banished by the band, and diving into nearly 20 years of addiction that eroded his mind and his health until he finally kicked his drug habits. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paul Greenberg’s Four Fish Writer and lifelong fisherman Paul Greenberg looks at the state of salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna. In Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, he follows the path that takes these fish from the ocean to our dinner tables, and shows how we can start to heal the oceans and make sustainable seafood the rule rather than the exception. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Write that Book Already! Those who have wondered “How can I get my book published?" get some answers from publishing insiders Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark. In Write that Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now they lay out plans for how to turn your book idea into a real book. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rubén Blades on "Spoken Word" Actor Rubén Blades discusses the film “Spoken Word,” directed by Victor Nunez.  It tells the story of Cruz, a poetry rock star who returns home when he learns his father is dying, and quickly falls back into his troubled former way of life. “Spoken Word” opens in New York July 23 at Big Cinemas Manhattan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lay the Favorite Beth Raymer tells how she wound up working for one of the biggest professional sports gamblers in Las Vegas. Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling is an account of her years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting and the cast of characters she met. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: How Sun Affects Skin On today’s edition of Please Explain, Dr. Monica Halem, Clinical Associate Professor of Dermatology at Columbia University New York Presbyterian Hospital, discusses what happens to our skin when it’s exposed to too much sun, and how UV rays can cause irreversible damage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr Anthony Doerr discusses his second collection of short stories, Memory Wall. Set on four continents, the stories are all about memory, exploring how they provide meaning and coherence in our lives, and connect us to ourselves and to others. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Edgar M. Bronfman, Jr., and the Future of the Music Industry Fred Goodman discusses what happened when Napster made music available free online, and the music industry found itself turned upside-down and fighting for its life. In Fortune’s Fool: Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warner Music, and an Industry in Crisis, he looks at Edgar M. Bronfman Jr., who took over the Warner Music Group in 2004, and his mission to create a new kind of record executive and bring the music industry fully into the Internet age. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Matisse at MoMA John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting an sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, and Stephanie D’Alessandro, Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, discuss the exhibition “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917.” Between Henri Matisse's return from Morocco in 1913 and his departure for Nice in 1917, he produced some of the most demanding, experimental, and enigmatic works of his career. “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917” i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Top Secret America After the September 11th attacks, the government began rapidly expanding our national security and intelligence operations. Washington Post national security reporter William Arkin, co-author of the three-part series Top Secret America, explains how the system has become so large and so complex that no one really knows if it’s working. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Guatemala's Drug Problem It’s estimated that between 275 and 385 tons of cocaine passes through Guatemala each year. On today’s Underreported: Tim Johnson, Mexico City bureau chief for McClatchy News Service, explains how Mexico’s drug war to the north and Colombia’s drug growers to the south have destabilized Guatemala. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Filmmaker Tamra Davis discusses her film “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,” about the dramatic rise and fall of her late friend, the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a heroin overdose when he was just 25 and at the height of his career. Davis details the mysteries that surround this charismatic, talented painter whose rollercoaster life reflected the downtown scene he seemed to embody. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” opens July 21 at Film Forum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Meat on Drugs The Food and Drug Administration recently called for limiting the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals, over concerns that the practice is leading to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Time magazine staff writer Bryan Walsh and Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, discuss the practice of putting antibiotics in animal feed, the public-health problems it poses, and the challenges the FDA faces in issuing stricter policies for reducing the practice. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Hans Fallada For this year’s first segment of our Underappreciated series, Dennis Johnson discusses the life and literary work of the German writer Hans Fallada. Before WWII, Fallada's novels were international bestsellers, but when he refused to join the Nazi party he was hounded, arrested, and eventually imprisoned in an asylum. There, he wrote three  encrypted books that weren’t deciphered until long after his death. Fallada was freed at the end of the war, and, inspired by the true story of a w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Our Word Maven, Patricia T. O'Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, picks the winners of our Bad Sign Language contest! And she answers your questions about language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave us a question. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sportswriting from The New Yorker New Yorker editor David Remnick and longtime writer Roger Angell discuss the art of sports writing. The Only Game in Town, Sportswriting from the New Yorker is a classic collection of more than eighty years of some of the wisest, funniest, and most moving sports writing around—from reportage and analysis to profiles and tributes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vendela Vida’s Novel, The Lovers Vendela Vida talks about her new novel, The Lovers, about the love between husbands and wives, mothers and children. It tells the story of Now Yvonne, a widow with grown twin children, who returns to the Turkish coastal village where she and he husband honeymooned, hoping to remember a happier time. But her plans for a restorative vacation are quickly complicated. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barry Harris Piano legend Barry Harris discusses his career in jazz and his first album in four years, “Live in Rennes.” It offers a rich view of his improvising expertise and a dose of his well-known charisma. Barry Harris is performing with his working trio—John Webber on bass and Leroy Williams on drums—at the Village Vanguard July 20-25. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Countdown to Zero Writer/director Lucy Walker, producer Lawrence Bender, and former CIA Covert Operations officer Valerie Plame Wilson discuss the documentary, “Countdown to Zero,” which explores the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present-day threats, and features a host of international experts and world leaders who advocate total global disarmament. “Countdown to Zero” opens July 23 at AMC Empire and the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Searching for a New Kidney Daniel Asa Rosediscusses the lengths he and his cousin Larry Feldman went to in order to get a kidney transplant. InLarry’s Kidney, Rose tells the story of helping his black-sheep cousin, who he hadn’t spoken to in 15 years, go to China and secure a kidney transplant, even though Chinese law forbids transplants to Westerners. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Name Is Mary Sutter Robin Oliveiradiscusses her first novel, about a young woman's struggle to become a doctor during the Civil War,My Name Is Mary Sutter.Mary Sutteris a head¬strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine, she goes to Washington, D.C. to help tend the Civil War wounded. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress HistorianWilliam Jelani Cobblooks at the 2008 election of Barack Obama—who won the Democratic nomination even though old-line civil rights leaders—Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Andrew Young—all openly supported Hillary Clinton. InThe Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, Cobb examines America's changing political and social landscape, and a new generation of voters with priorities not shaped by the legacy of Jim Crow. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stieg Larsson’s Trilogy It is unprecedented for a series of posthumous works in translation to reach number one around the world, but that’s what’s happened with Stieg Larsson’s trilogyThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The Girl Who Played with Fire, andThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Stieg Larsson’s editor and publisher in America, andPaul BogaardsExecutive Vice President and Executive Director of Publicity for Knopf ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Talking to Girls About Duran Duran Music journalistRob Sheffielddiscusses coming of age in the 1980s, the years of MTV and John Hughes movies, the era of big dreams and bigger shoulder pads.Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircutis his memoir of stumbling into adulthood. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Lyme Disease Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in North America, and the number of reported cases has been steadily climbing over the last decade. We’re joined by Dr. Brian Fallon, associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Carolyn Britton, associate professor of clinical neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, and chief neurologist for the Lyme research studies con ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Mitchell’s Novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell talks about his latest book, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, a historical novel set in Japan at the turn of the 19th century, when the country was isolated from the West with the exception of a small Dutch outpost called Dejima, in Nagasaki Harbor. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Just Food James McWilliams challenges conventional views about what it means to eat ethically, and cuts through myths and misinformation. In Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, he helps us determine what to eat and how our choices can help save the planet and feed the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roof Gardens in NYC We’ll find out how to build a roof farm for growing food and discuss the viability of urban farming as a means of feeding cities. Annie Novak, founder and director of Growing Chefs and co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, and Lisa Goode, of Goode Green, a green roof design and installation firm, talk about how Rooftop Farms has built a local community in Greenpoint. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Turkey and the Kurds Turkey’s Kurdish region in the country’s southeast has exploded into violence once again. We’ll get the latest from Aliza Marcus, author of the book Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Exploitation of Migrant Tobacco Workers in Kazakhstan According to a new report from Human Rights Watch, migrant tobacco workers in Kazakhstan have been exploited and even trapped on farms that supply Philip Morris’s Kazakhstan operation, and children as young as 10 were working on the farms. Rachel Denber, head of the European Division of Human Rights Watch, explains what conditions on these farms are like and the steps that Philip Morris has agreed to take to protect these workers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Life and Death on K2 Journalist Graham Bowley gives an account of one of the most dramatic tales of death and survival in mountaineering history—the tragic 2008 K2 ascent that claimed the lives of eleven climbers, severely injured two others, and made headlines around the world. His book No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 is based on in-depth interviews with surviving climbers and many Sherpas, porters, and family and friends of the deceased. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "To Age or Not to Age" Robert Kane Pappas, director of the documentary “To Age or Not to Age,” and Dr. Leonard Guarente, featured in the film, talk about how pioneers in the field of anti-aging research are finding ways to postpone and even mitigate diseases tied to aging.  Robert Kane Pappas, director of “To Age or Not to Age,” and Dr. Leonard Guarente, featured in the film, and Dr. Nir Barzilai, Director of the Institute of Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, talk about ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Melanie Sumner’s The Ghost of Milagro Creek Melanie Sumner discusses her novel, The Ghost of Milagro Creek, set in a barrio of Taos, New Mexico, where Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos live together. It’s a tale of star-crossed love, murder, and is a portrait of a troubled community. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stories of War in Ireland Ed Moloney tells the stories of two former Irish paramilitary leaders—one republican, one loyalist—who spoke openly to him with unprecedented frankness about their roles in some of the most appalling violence of the Troubles. Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland, is his ground-breaking piece of historical evidence-gathering, and an account of two men’s lives and of the society in which they grew up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adam Ross's Novel, Mr. Peanut Adam Ross discusses his novel, Mr. Peanut. It’s about a man who’s been in love with his wife since the moment they met in college. After she dies, he’s both deeply distraught and the prime suspect. The story explores the opposing impulses of love and hatred, and if it’s possible to know anyone completely. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Race and America's Future Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, and Manuel Pastor, professor and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California, discuss race and American identity. In Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future, they explore race as both a dynamic facet of American identity and a major cause of American disunity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fiesta with Rick Bayless Rick Bayless, chef and winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters,” talks about the art of entertaining. His latest cookbook, Fiesta at Rick’s: Fabulous Food for Great Times with Friends, includes 150 recipes—from appetizers to desserts—made with his signature Mexican flavors. He also includes tips for planning menus and parties, so the guests and the hosts can relax and have fun. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Living Off the Land Manny Howard talks about turning his yard in Flatbush, Brooklyn, into a farm and his goal of subsisting on what it produced for at least a month. His book My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm is based on his James Beard Foundation Award–winning New York magazine cover story, which began as an assessment of the locavore movement. He didn’t set out to grow his own food to make an environmental or ethical point, but rather to see if it was even possible t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Good Fortune" and Aid in Africa Director Landon Van Soest and producer/editor Jeremy Levine discuss their film “Good Fortune,” a look at how massive international efforts to address poverty in Africa may be undermining the communities they aim to benefit. The film tells the stories of two Kenyans fighting to save their homes from large-scale development, and shows the effects of foreign aid on those it means to help.  “Good Fortune” airs July 13 on PBS, part of the series POV. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Women Transforming the Middle East Isobel Coleman, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses how the rise of a political Islam, which often condemns women’s empowerment as anti-Islamic, Western cultural imperialism, has strengthened the women’s movement. InParadise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Transforming the Middle East, she shows how the growing movement of Islamic feminism has led Muslim women and men to develop progressive interpretations of Islam to support women’s ri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hollywood on the Hudson Film historian Richard Koszarski and Ron Hutchinson, founder of the Vitaphone Project, an organization devoted to hunting down lost film shorts, talk about “Hollywood on the Hudson,” a festival of silent films and early talkies made in New York City. “Hollywood on the Hudson” is screening films Tuesdays, July 13-August 10, at Film Forum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why Translation Matters Acclaimed translator Edith Grossman explains the cultural importance of translation. Her book Why Translation Matters looks at why translation is often ignored or misunderstood. She’ll be joined by Laurence Senelick, who just published translations of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, and The Seagull; and Idra Novey, executive director of Columbia University’s Center for Literary Translation, whose most recent book of poetry is The Next Country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Way We Play: Modern Playground Design Monkey bars and jungle gyms are history—the modern playground, with building blocks and noodles, is all about imagination and manipulation. David Rockwell, founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, and Roger A. Hart, director of the Children's Environments Research Group at CUNY Graduate Center, join us to discuss contemporary playground architecture and its role in child development. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Collaborating with Pilobolus Pilobolus artistic director Michael Tracy discusses the dance theater’s collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman and award-winning musician Dan Zanes for its current season at the Joyce Theater, July 12-August 7. Program 1, Hapless Hooligan in "Still Moving" features Pilobolus dancers interacting live with Spiegelman's drawings. Program 3, Contradance, is a collaboration with Dan Zanes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jane Monheit Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit discusses her new album, “The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me,” and her performance for the Iridium’s Les Paul Monday series. She’s the first headlining vocalist in series, and she’ll pay special tribute to Mary Ford, Les Paul's longtime partner in song.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Venus Fixers Journalist and translator Ilaria Dagnini Brey discusses the commitment to protect Italy’s cultural heritage from destruction during World War II. In The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II she recounts the work of the monuments officers appointed by Allied Forces to ensure that the great masterworks of European art and architecture were not looted, lost, or destroyed in the bombing raids in Italy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Women Want to Buy Paco Underhill discusses the increasing importance of women in today’s marketplace and explains how companies are focusing on making products more appealing to women. In What Women Want: The Global Market Turns Female Friendly, Underhill examines how women’s choices and preferences are changing the commercial world, from the cars we drive to the way we use the Internet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Italy for the Gourmet Traveler Fred Plotkin talks about going beyond the traditional tourist experience to find the best kept secrets of Italy's culinary world. In Italy for the Gourmet Traveler he describes the food, wines, local bakeries, olive oil distilleries, cheeses, markets, and restaurants that make Italy stand out, and tells stories of the people who make the region's world-famous specialties. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Poisonous Plants Leaves of three, let them be! Today’s Please Explain is all about poisonous plants. We're joined by Dr. Michael J. Balick, Vice President for Botanical Science and Director and Philecology Curator at The New York Botanical Garden Institute of Economic Botany, and Dr. Lewis Nelson, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and Director of the Fellowship in Medical Toxicology at New York University School of Medicine and the New York City Poison ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Empires of Food Journalist Andrew Rimas and agricultural researcher Evan Fraser discuss what food has meant to humanity throughout the centuries and how our food supply is at risk. Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations shows how cities, culture, government, and religion are founded on the production and exchange of food. It also looks at what happens when crops fail and soil erodes, leading to poverty, famine, and war. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Perfect Reader Maggie Pouncey discusses her debut novel, Perfect Reader. It tells the story of Flora, who discovers that her recently deceased father, beloved former college president and famous literary critic, was secretly writing love poems to a girlfriend Flora didn’t know he had. Flora must contend with this mystery woman’s own claims on his poetry and his memory. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: BP's Response to 2005 Refinery Blast In 2005, a blast at a British Petroleum refinery in Texas City, Texas, killed 15 people. On today’s Underreported, reporter Ryan Knutson describes the safety violations that led up to the blast, how the oil company responded to the disaster, and the parallels with the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Haiti Update July 12 will mark the six-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Aine Fay, acting country director for Concern Worldwide, gives us an update on efforts to rebuild the city and house the thousands of people who have been homeless since January. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Martina Arroyo Retired opera singer Martina Arroyo discusses her career and The Martina Arroyo Foundation’s summer program for young singers. Ms. Arroyo was a favorite guest of Johnny Carson’s, and appeared on “The Tonight Show” more than 20 times. She’s made more than 50 recordings of major operas and orchestral works with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Karl Böhm, Ricardo Muti, and James Levine. Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to a Performance presents Donizetti’s "Rita," and Pu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Zeroes Randall Lane discusses unwittingly becoming a Wall Street power broker during the decade he calls the Zeroes, when he started a small magazine company that put him near the center of the biggest boom in history. He book The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane is an insider's memoir of a gilded era on Wall Street—and its demise. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 100 Days of Summer Movies Chuck Walton, editor of Fandango.com, talks about his mission this summer to see 100 movies in 100 theaters in 100 days. He’s visited theaters across California--outdoor, indoor, full and completely empty. He’ll talk about his adventure and the enduring appeal of the summer movie. What summer movie are you most looking forward to this year? Leave a comment below! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Audrey Niffenegger’s Novel Her Fearful Symmetry Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, discusses her second novel Her Fearful Symmetry. It tells the story of twin American girls, Julia and Valentina, who inherit a London apartment when their aunt dies of cancer. It’s a tale about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life—even after death. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Larry Ubell and Al Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answers your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions or leave a comment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Russian Espionage and Christian Carion's film "Farewell" Filmmaker Christian Carion and CIA veteran Jack Divine discuss Russian spies and international espionage in the 1980s. Carion’s film “Farewell” is set in Moscow in 1981, and recounts the true story of a disenchanted KGB colonel who gives top-secret documents to a French businessman working in Russia in an effort to end of the Cold War and create a better world for his son. “Farewell” opens in New York July 23 at Lincoln Plaza and Sunshine Cinemas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crime on the New York Waterfront Nathan Ward tells the story of the world of the old New York waterfront—which was as violent and mob-controlled as it appears in Hollywood movies. In Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront, he recounts a web of crime revealed by a New York Sun reporter covering the murder of a West Side boss stevedore, in 1948. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want Garret Keizer takes a look at noise—all the unwanted sounds we’re bombarded by every day, from barking dogs to wailing sirens to thumping music coming from next door. He explores the class issues and political ramifications of noise, from Tanzania to New York, and the environmental sustainability of a quieter world. In The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want, he shows that noise is as much about what we want as about what we’re trying to avoid. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Promised Land in South Africa Yoruba Richen, director of “Promised Land,” talks about her film, an inside look at land reform and racial reconciliation in the new South Africa. It follows the Mekgareng, an impoverished tribe removed from their land 40 years ago that petitioned the government in 1998 to reclaim the land, now owned by white farmers and developers. It also looks at the firestorm ignited in 2006 when the South African government forced a white farmer to give his land back to the descendants of the black ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science of Liberty Timothy Ferris, called "the best popular science writer in the English language today" by the Christian Science Monitor, makes a case for science as the inspiration behind the rise of democracy. In The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Law of Nature, he argues that the Enlightenment values inspired by the scientific revolution have led to the growth of free and democratic societies around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rosalynn Carter on the Mental Health Crisis Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter talks about her 35 years of advocacy work in the field of mental health. She describes a system that continues to fail those in need. In Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis, she gives a powerful account of a subject previously shrouded in stigma and shadow. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's 36 Arguments for the Existence of God Award-winning novelist and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Newberger Goldstein explores the great debate of our day: the clash between faith and reason. Her novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction explores why people refuse to embrace skepticism and continue to embrace faith in God as their source of meaning, purpose, and comfort. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foxy Pam Grier Pam Grier, best known for her roles as Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, Coffy, and Jackie Brown, talks about her life and career. In her memoir Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, she discusses her relationships with famous men like Richard Pryor, her experiences as a backup singer and a blaxploitation star, and her battle with cancer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reckoning at Eagle Creek Cultural historian Jeff Biggers gives an account of how strip-mining has destroyed his family’s nearly 200-year-old hillside homestead in southern Illinois. In Reckoning at Eagle Creek, he chronicles the legacy of coal outside of Appalachia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website John Banville's The Infinities Novelist John Banville talks about latest book, The Infinities. It tells the story of a family that gathers together as the patriarch is dying. But the family is not alone—they’re joined by some mischievous immortals: Zeus, Pan, and Hermes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Love, Food, and Healing in Italy Paula Butturini talks about the healing powers of sharing of food around the family table. After her husband John was shot and nearly killed by sniper fire while reporting on an uprising in Romania, the recovery process was complicated and difficult. She writes about it in Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food, and Healing in Italy . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Susan Clancy on the Trauma Myth Psychologist Dr. Susan Clancy reports on years of research and argues that it’s not sexual abuse itself that causes trauma but rather the narrative that is imposed on the abuse experience. In her controversial new book The Trauma Myth: The Truth about the Sexual Abuse of Children—and Its Aftermath she explains that survivors are often victimized not only by their abusers but also by the industry dedicated to helping them. The Trauma Myth Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Story of Bunker Hill Historian Thomas Fleming discusses the 50th anniversary edition of his book Now We Are Enemies: The Story of Bunker Hill . Hailed as a masterpiece when it was published, it still remains the most complete account of the clash that changed the course of America history—the battle of Bunker Hill. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jimmy Webb Performs Live Grammy award-winner Jimmy Webb will be performing live and he’ll be discussing his new album, “Just Across the River.” Webb is joined on the album by his friends, fans, and recording partners, including Jackson Browne, Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, Billy Joel, Mark Knopfler, Michael McDonald, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, J. D. Souther and Lucinda Williams. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: New Blackwater Contracts Despite its long list of troubles, including federal investigations and indictments, the company formerly known as Blackwater has been awarded millions of dollars in contracts by the Obama Administration. The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, explains why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Whaling Talks Collapse Philip Hoare, author of The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea, discusses why the international talks on lifting the whaling moratorium and proposed reductions on whaling by Norway, Japan, and Iceland have failed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lost History of the Boston Post Road Eric Jaffe tells the history of the 400-plus-year-old Boston Post Road, connecting New York City and Boston. The King’s Best Highway: The Lost History of the Boston Post Road, the Route that Made America, details the road’s essential role in the political, economic, and social development of the United States. Continuously raised, improved, rerouted, and rebuilt, the road influenced the advent of newspapers, stagecoach travel, textiles, mass-produced goods, commuter railroads, and even ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shakespeare in the Park Lily Rabe and Marianne Jean-Baptiste discuss their roles in “The Merchant of Venice,” and “The Winter’s Tale,” part of the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. They are both at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park through August 1. More information and schedule here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" Director Vikram Jayanti talks about his film “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” a portrait of the legendary record producer famous for creating “the wall of sound” that defined some of the greatest pop hits of the 1960s. Today, Spector is serving 19 years-to-life for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson. “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector” opens at Film Forum June 30. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Origins of Kindness Oren Harman discusses 150 years of scientific attempts to explain kindness. In The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness he tells the story of the eccentric American genius George Price, who tried to answer evolution's greatest riddle: why does altruism exist? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Charles Ogletree on Race, Class, and Crime in America Charles Ogletree, one of the country’s foremost experts on civil rights, discusses the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., MacArthur Fellow and Harvard professor, for attempting to break into his own home last July, and explores issues of race, class, and crime. His book The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America is based on his years of research and his own experiences with law enforcement, and it outlines steps we should take to rea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Art of Choosing Sheena Iyengar looks at how and why we make the choices we make. In The Art of Choosing she asks: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? She points out how that our decisions have far-reaching consequences. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Making Ideas Happen Thomas Edison famously said that genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration. Scott Belskytells us how ideas for new businesses, solutions to the world's problems, and artistic breakthroughs are common, but great execution that turns ideas into reality is rare. In Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming Obstacles between Vision and Reality, he explains how to develop the capacity to make ideas happen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Geneticist Harmit Malik on Paleovirology Geneticist Dr. Harmit Malik, Associate Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, and Assistant Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, explains his work in paleovirology. He was awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, which is given to immigrants age 38 or younger. He also won the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering from President Obama. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Stereotypes Affect Us Acclaimed social psychologist Claude Steele describes studies that show that exposing subjects to stereotypes—reminding female math majors about to take a test that women are considered inferior to men at math—impairs their performance. In Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us he sheds new light on a number of American social phenomena, from the racial and gender gaps in standardized test scores to the belief in the superior athletic prowess of black men. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Methland Journalist Nick Reding talks about how crystal methamphetamine has ravaged small towns in the American heartland. He tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa, a depressed town left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry and loss of residents, that is now coping with a meth epidemic. His book Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town is based on four years of reporting in Oelwein. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HIV and the World In the final edition of our five-part series AIDS: Then & Now, we look at HIV around the World, and discuss how the virus has transformed lives all over the globe. Plus we’ll look at places where infection rates are changing: either raising or falling. We're joined by: Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of the HIV Department of the World Health Organization; Dr. Chris Beyrer, Professor, Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Gilles Van Cutse ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website HIV and NYC The latest installment of our five-part series AIDS: Then & Now, Dr. Monica Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control at the NYC Health Department, and Susan M. Chambré, Professor of Sociology, Baruch College, CUNY, and author of Fighting for Our Lives: New York’s AIDS Community and the Politics of Disease, discuss how the demographics of HIV have changed in New York City, and how the virus has changed the city’s cultural and political landsc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Algorithms Algorithms are used to solve problems. They’re used in math, computer programming, and on Wall Street, but we also use algorithms to tie our shoes or to bake a loaf of bread. On this week’s Please Explain, Daniel Bienstock, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, at Columbia University, and Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard, tell us what algorithms are and how they work to solve problems both simple and complex. Harry Lewis is the au ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Frank Loesser Jo Sullivan Loesser, Frank Loesser’s widow, discusses the legendary composer and lyricist on the 100 anniversary of his birth. Loesser wrote over 700 songs and five Broadway musicals, contributed to music and lyrics to dozens of Hollywood films, and was awarded an Oscar, a Grammy, two Tony awards, and a Pulitzer Prize along the way. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lisa Miller Talks about Heaven Lisa Miller, Newsweek’s religion editor, discusses our enduring belief in heaven and the various notions of what “heaven” means. In her book Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife , she offers portraits of famous and ordinary people as well as experts in religious studies about what they believe heaven is and where those notions come from. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Chemical Fingerprinting of Oil Spills The emerging field of environmental forensics may be the best way to determine the impact that the oil spill will have on the gulf coast. Merv Fingas, former Chief of the Emergencies Science Division of Environment Canada, is a leader in the field and will explain what chemical fingerprinting is and how it can help us understand what will happen in the Gulf. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Spot David Means discusses The Spot: Stories, his second collection of short fiction. The stories are at once comically detached and emotionally affecting, expansive and concise, inventive and rooted in tradition, and have earned him comparisons to Flannery O’Connor, Alice Munro, Sherwood Anderson, Anton Chekhov, and Raymond Carver.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Texas Tough Historian Robert Perkinson gives a sweeping history of American imprisonment from the days of slavery to the present, and looks how Texas has influenced criminal justice severity, from executions to supermaxes, from prison privatization to sentencing juveniles as adults. His book Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, shows how a plantation-based penal system became the national standard. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barry Gibbs on His Exoneration and Settlement Barry Gibbs had served 19 years in prison when his conviction was overturned in 2005 after evidence surfaced that he had been framed for murder by a corrupt detective.  He sued New York City in 2006, and the city agreed on June 3, 2010, to pay him $9.9 million, the largest personal settlement in its history. We’ll talk to him about his experience and the settlement.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Under the Radar Oil Spills The attention being paid the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has many residents of Nigeria, Egypt, and Chile scratching their heads. Devastating oil spills in these countries in the past decades have gone relatively unnoticed by the mainstream press. Both Dr. Erich Gundlach, director of E-Tech International, an oil spill clean-up firm, and Richard Steiner, professor of marine conservation at the University of Alaska, have first-hand experience working with oil spills around the world. They ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is Our Sense of Direction Innate? Two recent studies published in Science reveal that baby rats have a basic spatial framework in their brains that help them navigate when they leave the nest for the first time, proving that a sense of direction is innate, not learned. John O'Keefe, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at the University College London, joins us to explain one study and what it can show us about an innate sense of direction in humans. A recent study rev ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peter Martins and the New York City Ballet Peter Martins, New York City Ballet’s Ballet Master in Chief, discusses the NYCB’s new season, and its centerpiece, “Architecture of Dance – New Choreography and Music Festival.” It features scores by Thierry Escaich, Jay Greenberg, and Bruno Moretti, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and new choreography by Melissa Barak, Mauro Bigonzetti, Peter Martins, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Millepied, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon. More information about the 2010 season and tickets here. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Day-to-Day Life with HIV/AIDS Over the past two decades, day-to-day live for HIV-positive individuals has changed dramatically—mostly due to a greater understanding of the virus and a powerful drug cocktail. Dr. David Ho, Scientific Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and one of the developers of the HIV drug cocktail, talks about the science of fighting HIV.  We’ll also speak to Jim Lister, a client of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, who has lived with HIV since 1989 and to Tyrell, a client of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jonathan Weiner Discusses the Science of Immortality Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner talks about the quest for eternal youth and the scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs who believe that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. In Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality, Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the science behind the latest research. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Larry Doyle on Alien Teenagers Former writer for The Simpsons, Larry Doyle, discusses his novel Go, Mutants!, a contemporary satire set in an alternate universe populated by aliens, mutants, and atomic monsters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inside ACORN John Atlas goes beyond the headlines of the last Presidential campaign to describe what really happened in ACORN's massive voter registration drives, why it triggered an unrelenting attack by Fox News and the Republican Party, and how it confronted its internal divisions and scandals. In Seeds of Change:The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group, he tells the history of the organization. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Lipsky’s Road Trip with David Foster Wallace David Lipsky, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, talks about traveling with David Foster Wallace during his Infinite Jest tour, the novel that made him famous.  Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace is a biography told over five days, in which Wallace tells Lipsky remarkable things about his life, how he feels, what he thinks, what terrifies, fascinates, and confounds him. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jere Van Dyk on His Time as a Taliban Prisoner Reporter Jere Van Dyk discussed his many years of experience reporting in Afghanistan, and told the story of being ambushed and kidnapped by the Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where no Westerner had ventured for years. In Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban he tells the gripping story of his 45 days in a Taliban prison. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bret Easton Ellis’s Novel Imperial Bedrooms Bret Easton Ellis discusses his latest novel, Imperial Bedrooms. It tells the story of Clay, a successful screenwriter who has returned from New York to Los Angeles to help cast his new movie, and ends up drifting through his circle of old friends. Then his life careens completely out of control. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Drilling for Natural Gas Josh Fox, director of “Gasland,” discusses the possible hazards of domestic natural gas drilling. When he received an unexpected offer of $100,000 for the natural gas drilling rights to his property in the Delaware River Basin, on the border of New York and Pennsylvania, he resisted the urge to accept.  Instead, he set off on a cross-country journey to investigate the environmental risks of agreeing to the deal. “Gasland” debuts on HBO June 21, at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's “Restrepo” Award-winning journalists Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington discuss their documentary “Restrepo.” It chronicles the deployment of a platoon of American soldiers to one of the most dangerous outposts in Afghanistan, capturing the day-to-day reality of modern warfare. “Restrepo” won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It opens in New York on Friday, June 25, at the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ethical Implications of HIV/AIDS We continue our five part series AIDS: Then & Now with a look at how ethical issues around the virus have and have not changed over the decades. We’ll talk with  Dr. Robert Klitzman, Director of the Ethics and Policy Core of the HIV Center at Columbia University, about why a number of states have statutes criminalizing HIV transmission and the recent court ruling which upholds the ban on gay men donating blood. We continue our five part series on HIV/AIDS with a look at how eth ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Saving Women’s Lives We’ll speak about the high rate of maternal illness and death worldwide, especially in Africa and South Asia. A study published in the Lancet in April 2010 revealed that the number of annual maternal deaths has declined slightly in the last 30 years. Lynn Freedman, director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, and the Law and Policy Project, and professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health; Dr. Grace Kodindo, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Agnes Joui’s “Let It Rain” Agnes Jaoui discusses her latest film, “Let It Rain,” which she wrote, directed, and stars in. It’s a bittersweet comedy about a self-centered feminist writer and workaholic politician who becomes the subject of an amateurish TV documentary on “successful women.” The documentarians’ blunders trigger everyone’s lives to unravel and each character to question their own values.  “Let It Rain,” opens June 18 at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 25+ Years of HIV/AIDS Research In the last quarter century, research into HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—has come a long way, but not far enough. Dr. Jay A. Levy, Director of the Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Robert C. Gallo, Director of the Institute of Human Virology and Division of Basic Science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, discuss the historical scientific breakthroughs, what the latest research is finding, and how far we ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Emily Dickinson’s Family’s Feuds Lyndall Gordon reveals a new side of Emily Dickinson, one of America's most significant literary figures. In Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds, she tells the riveting story of the Dickinson family, and digs deep into the life and work of Emily Dickinson, using letters, diaries, and legal documents, to reveal the secret behind the poet's insistent seclusion. Gordon presents a woman beyond her time who found love, spiritual sustenance, and immortality on her own ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Batteries Batteries help power our world. They’re in everything from watches to iPods to smoke detectors to electric cars. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’ll find out what they’re made of and how they work. We're joined by Jeremy P. Meyers, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering/Materials Science & Engineering, University of Texas at Austin; and M. Stanley Whittingham, Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering, and Director, Institute for Materials Resea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead Frank Meeink tells how he was drawn into America’s Nazi underground and how he ultimately triumphed over drugs and hatred.  In Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead he talks about what made him easy prey for skinhead gang recruiters, how, by 16, he had become one of the most notorious skinhead gang leaders on the East Coast, and how he defected from the white supremacy movement and changed his life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William Dalrymple Discusses Religious Traditions in India William Dalrymple documents traditional forms of religious life in India and discusses how they’re being transformed by the region’s rapid modernization. In Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India he profiles devotional dancers, a Buddhist monk, a Jain nun, among others, who continue ancient religious traditions at risk of being entirely lost in a changing India. Events:William Dalrymple will be reading along with a performance by musicians from India and Pakistan  "Nine Li ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The Violence in Kyrgyzstan The violence that broke out in Kyrgyzstan last week has killed hundreds of people and deepened mistrust of its neighbor Uzbekistan. On today’s Backstory we'll talk with Anna Neistat, senior researcher for the Emergencies Division of Human Rights Watch and with Paul Starobin, a contributor to The Atlantic and staff writer for National Journal explains what’s led to this crisis and gives us an update on the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan. He’s also the author of Five Roads to th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hands of Love David Were and Justus Ongera talk about the film “Hands of Love,” about Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya—where having access to simple facilities like a bathroom can be a matter of life and death—and the efforts to provide security, latrines, and clean-up projects. They’re joined by Jennifer Nedbalsky, coordinator of Human Rights Watch’s Youth Producing Change Program. “Hands of Love,” is being shown as part of Human Rights Watch Film Festival, and is playing at the Walter ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vadim Jean’s “In the Land of the Free” Vadim Jean, director of "In the Land of the Free," along with Robert King , discuss the Angola 3—Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King—who’ve spent a combined century in solitary confinement in Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Targeted by prison officials for being members of the Black Panther Party and for speaking out against prison conditions, they were convicted of the murder of a prison guard, a verdict they continue to challenge and for which new evidence conti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave us a question. Have you noticed signs with misspellings, crazy punctuation, and bad grammar? Enter the Bad Sign Language Contest and tell us about them! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gary Rivlin on How the Working Poor Became Big Business Gary Rivlin describes how the flourishing poverty industry is taking advantage of deregulation to devise high-priced products to sell to the credit-hungry working poor, including the instant tax refund and the payday loan.  In Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. How the Working Poor Became Big Business, he profiles players making money off the working poor and tells the stories of those fighting back against the enterprises that fleece the country's hardworking waitresses, warehous ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love” Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino discuss the film "I Am Love," written, co-produced, and directed by Guadagnino and starring and co-produced by Tilda Swinton. The project took seven years to complete and tells the story of a wealthy Milanese family who live in a beautiful, carefully ordered world. Swinton plays the matriarch of this distinguished family whose long-repressed passions are ignited, sending her on a journey of  awakening. "I Am Love" opens in New York Fri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website American Soldiers and Torture Reporter Joshua Phillips discusses how American veterans have been psychologically scarred by their abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners.  In None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture, he investigates how and why U.S. forces came to use torture. Phillips reveals that the damaging legacy of torture is borne not only by the detainees, but also by American soldiers and the country to which they’ve returned. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Between a Heart and a Rock Place Pat Benatar, one of the most iconic women in rock music with hits like "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," and "Love Is a Battlefield," discusses her memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place. As the first female artist ever to be played on MTV, she speaks candidly about the realities of breaking into the rock and roll boys club when many still believed a woman's only place in pop music was as a girlfriend, a groupie, or a sex symbol. Events: Pat Benatar will be signing booksTuesda ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Quest to Discover the Earth’s Deepest Cave James M. Tabor tells the story of two great scientist-explorers and their risky attempts to find the bottom of the world—the deepest cave on earth. In Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth, he gives an account of American Bill Stone, who is exploring the vast, deadly Cheve Cave in southern Mexico, and Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk who is exploring Krubera, a freezing supercave in the Republic of Georgia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mobile Food Sean Basinski, founder of the Street Vendor Project, joins us along with Kim Ima, owner of Treats Truck, and Vadin Ponorovsky , owner of Frites 'n Meats, to talk about the changing face of street food as well as a proposed new law that would severely penalize food trucks for parking tickets. We’ll talk about the explosion in the number and type of mobile food options available to New Yorkers in the last few years—from the old-school Middle Eastern carts to new “gourmet" fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Aimee Bender’s Novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender  talks about her novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which tells the story of a girl who bites into her mother’s homemade cake and discovers a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions. Event: Aimee Bender will be in conversation with Heidi JulavitsMonday, June 14, at 7:30 pm   Symphony Space/Thalia Book Club2537 Broadway More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Davoud Geramifard, Director of "Iran: Voices of the Unheard" Filmmaker Davoud Geramifard discusses his film “Iran: Voices of the Unheard.” It’s an account of the ongoing political repression in Iran and the struggles of secular Iranians—both private and public. The film profiles three Iranian secularists who have different social, economic and educational backgrounds but who share a love for their motherland and a passion for freedom. “Iran: Voices of the Unheard” is playing at the Walter Reade Cinema at Lincoln Ce ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patrick McEnroe Tells Tales from the Pro Tennis Trenches Patrick McEnroe discusses his two decades in tennis—as a player, coach, and ESPN commentator. In Hardcourt Confidential: Tales from Twenty Years in the Pro Tennis Trenches, he gives an honest look at the sport and the larger-than-life personalities that play it, how and why the game has changed since he first swung a racket, and what the future holds for American tennis. Event: Patrick McEnroe will be speaking and signing booksWednesday, June 16, at 7:00 pmBookends232 East Ridgewood A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Obsession for Cats Pat Thomas, general curator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, discusses the recent discovery that big cats—cheetahs, jaguars and tigers, who are well known for their obsession about scent—love the smell of Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men cologne. The scent is now widely used in zoos and the findings are even changing how large felines are studied in the field.   It’s been known for a while that big cats like cheetahs, jaguars and tigers ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eric Pooley on the Climate War Eric Pooley, deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, introduces us to the players and politics behind the battle over capping global warming pollution. In The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth he looks at the powerful interests fighting the carbon cap and how they’ve succeeded in denying climate change and delaying any possible solutions. Event: Eric Pooley will be speaking and signing booksTuesday, June 15, at 7:00 pmBarnes & Noble, Upp ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Irrational Behavior Dan Ariely uses behavioral economics to explain how human irrationality affects life, business, and public policy. In The Upside of Irrationality, he describes such idiosyncrasies as the IKEA effect and the Baby Jessica effect, and talks about what behavioral patterns can improve how we love, live, work, innovate, manage, and govern.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Another Science Fiction Megan Prelinger discusses aerospace industry ads from the golden age of science fiction—the 1950s and early 1960s—when the farthest reaches of imagination were fed by the technological breakthroughs of the postwar years. Her book Another Science Fiction presents nearly 200 entertaining, intriguing, and inspiring pieces of space-age eye candy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War Don Don Filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen talks about her documentary War Don Don. It tells the story of the sensational trial of Issa Sesay, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.  The filmmaker had unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims and, from behind bars, Sesay himself. War Don Don is showing at the Walter Reade Cinema at Lincoln Center, as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Saturday, June 12, 6:45pm; Sunday, June 13, 2:00 pm; ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Food-Borne Illness and Food Safety Summer brings barbeques, potato salads, and lots of leafy green salads—and the potential for food-borne illness. On this Please Explain, we’ll find out where these bugs come from and how can we avoid getting sick from the foods we eat. We'll also discuss food recalls and new legislation that will increase the FDA’s role in regulating our food supply. Dr. Gregory Hedberg, professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota’s Schoo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Goon Squad Jennifer Egantalks about her latest novel,A Visit From the Goon Squad. It touches on how rebellion ages, influence corrupts, habits turn to addictions, and lifelong friendships fluctuate and turn, and chronicles how and why we change, even as the song stays the same. Event: Actor Malcolm Gets and actress Florencia Lozano will read fromA Visit From The Goon Squad, andsinger/Songwriter Josh Rutt will perform, followed by a discussion and reception with Jennifer EganThursday, June 10, at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Whaling Moratorium Philip Hoare, author ofThe Whale: in Search of the Giants of the Sea, discusses this month’s International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco. On the agenda is a repeal of the 1986 moratorium which outlawed the hunting of great whales. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Theater Geek Mickey Rapkinreveals what Natalie Portman, Robert Downey, Jr., Zach Braff, and Mandy Moore have in common—before they were stars, they were campers at Stagedoor Manor, the premier summer theater camp for children and teenagers.InTheater Geek: The Real Life Drama of a Summer at Stagedoor Manor, Rapkin goes behind the scenes at Stagedoor, tracking a trio of especially talented and determined teen actors through their final session at camp, as they pour their hearts and souls into what m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reset Stephen Kinzerexplains what he thinks the United States can do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East.InReset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future, he argues that Turkey and Iran are America's logical partners in the Middle East today and reiterate's Amerca's need to reshape relations with Israel and Saudi Arabia.Event: Stephen Kinzer will be reading and speakingThursday, June 10, at 7:00 pmBaruch College55 Lexington Avenue, 14th Floor Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Bhopal Sentencing Mark Hertsgaard, a fellow at The Open Society Institute andThe Nation's environment correspondent, talks about the ruling and the environmental legacy of the Bhopal catastrophe.More than 25 years ago, a gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal India killed over 20,000 people. This week, an Indian court found seven former top managers of the new defunct company guilty of criminal negligence in the disaster, but the sentence given to the managers has sparked outrage in India. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions or leave a comment below. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blood Secrets Blood-spatter analyst Rod Englert talks about his methods of finding evidence at crime scenes. In Blood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist, he tells the case histories of famous bloody murders and explains how criminal investigation works. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cornered Harper’s and Financial Times contributor Barry C. Lynn discussing an alarming trend: the widespread consolidation of power in nearly every imaginable sector of the American economy. In Cornered: The New Monopoly of Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction, he reveals the secret world of 21st-century monopolies. He explores how these massive corporations, which would have been illegal thirty years ago, came into being, how they have destroyed their competition, and how they cooperat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Piece of Work Comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers and filmmaker Ricki Stern discuss the documentary Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work. The film exposes the private dramas of Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to keep her American dream alive. It's a funny and brutally honest look at the ruthless entertainment industry, the trappings of success, and the ultimate vulnerability of the first queen of comedy. Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work opens in New York June 11 at  Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, IFC Center, C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reporters Unplug Washington Post Enterprise Editor Marc Fisher and reporter Mike Rosenwald discuss what happened when Fisher asked his reporters to do the unthinkable: unplug. His staff agreed not to use e-mail, Internet or texts for one week. In doing so, they discovered how profoundly the digital world has changed they way they relate not only to sources and co-workers, but also to friends and family. You can read more about the Unplugged series on the Washington Post website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Collected Stories Lydia Davis discusses her latest collection, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. Event: Lydia Davis will be in conversation with David Means Tuesday, June 8, at 7:00 pm Russian Samovar 256 West 52nd Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenue) Tickets: $5 Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What’s Eating Steve Cohen? Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough discusses billionaire Steve Cohen, hedge fund manager and the founder of SAC Capital Advisors. He looks into whether Cohen is the embodiment of what’s wrong with Wall Street or if he’s a brilliant stock forecaster suffering from bad P.R. Bryan Burrogh’s article “What’s Eating Steve Cohen?” appears in the July issue of Vanity Fair. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New Species in New Guinea Ornithologist Bruce M. Beehler , Senior Research Scientist with Conservation International, discusses leading a 2008 expedition to the Foja Mountains in New Guinea that discovered about 30 new species never previously described. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Peregrinations & Pettifoggery of W. C. Fields W. C. Fields' granddaughter, Harriet Fields, and film historian/silent film accompanist Ben Model look back on the life and work of the comic great W. C. Fields. William Claude Dukenfield (later known as W. C. Fields) was a superb physical comic with a successful career in silent film, as well as a great verbal comedian with a radio and sound film career lasting into the 1940s. The exhibition "The Peregrinations & Pettifoggery of W. C. Fields"  is on display through ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Globish In Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language, Robert McCrum looks at how England became the dominant world power of the nineteenth century and how the United States grew into the military and cultural colossus of the twentieth century. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ilustrado Miguel Syjuco talks about his award-winning novel Ilustrado. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Glee's Chris Colfer Fox’s show Glee has been the runaway hit of this television season. We’ll talk to one of the show’s stars, 20-year-old first-time TV actor Chris Colfer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website John Waters's Role Models In Role Models, filmmaker John Waters profiles his favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown—who helped shape his unique worldview. Event: John Waters will be in conversation with Paul Holdengraber, Director of Public Programs at the New York Public LibraryMonday, June 7, at 8:00 pmBryant ParkDirectly behind the New York Public Library, between 40th and 42nd Street and Fifth and Sixth AvenuesMore information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bonobo Handshake In 2005 Vanessa Woods and her fiance settled at a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She soon discovered that many of the inhabitants of the sanctuary- from apes to humans- are refugees from unspeakable violence. She chronicles her experiences in the book Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo.   Events: Vanessa Woods will be part of a panel discussion as part of the World Science FestivalSaturday, June 5 at 3 pmThe NYU Skirball Center 566 LaG ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Christopher Hitchens We talk with Christopher Hitchens about his memoir Hitch-22 and some of his more contrarian ideas. Event: Christopher Hitchens will be in conversation with Paul HoldengraberFriday, June 4 at 7 pmThe Main Branch of the New York Public LibraryFifth Avenue, at 42nd StreetFor more information, visit the NYPL website.   Christopher Hitchens will be in conversation with Salman RushdieTuesday, June 8 at 8 pm1392 Lexington Avenue, at 92nd Street YFor more information, visit the 92nd Street Y ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rue McClanahan Rue McClanahan was a veteran of the stage, but she will always be remembered for her role as Blanche Devereaux, the man-devouring Southern belle in the hit television series, “The Golden Girls.”  She died just recently at the age of 76.  She came to speak with Leonard in 2007 for her autobiography, called “My First Five Husbands… and the Ones Who Got Away.”   She is survived by a sixth husband, Morrow Wilson. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Cake Baking We’ll look into the science of baking the perfect cake on today’s Please Explain! We'll be joined by  John Barricelli , owner of the SoNo Baking Company and author of the SoNo Baking Company Cookbook . We'll also talk with  Nick Malgieri the author of many books including, Perfect Cakes  , he also teaches at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Whiz Kids" The documentary “Whiz Kids” tells the coming of age story of three 17-year old scientists who vie to compete the country’s oldest and most distinguished science competition. We’ll be joined by the film's director Jane C. Wagner, and two of the students profiled, Ana Cisneros and Harmain Khan.   "Whiz Kids" opens today, June 4th, at Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street, New York) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Unusual Spill Solutions: Oil Eating Bacteria Chemical dispersants are already being used to cleanup the Gulf of Mexico, but what about oil-eating bacteria? Richard Snyder is director of the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation at the University of Western Florida. He’ll talk to us about the use of dispersants in the gulf and the potential for oil-eating bacteria on today’s Underreported segment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Unusual Spill Solutions: A Nuclear Bomb Lots of ideas have been suggested to plug BP’s oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but none as incendiary as using a nuclear weapon. And yes, this has actually been tried before in previous petro-calamities. On today’s Backstory segment we’ll talk to NYU Professor and author of Sun in a Bottle, Charles Seife about the Soviet Union’s experience with Project No. 7, which sought to harness the power of nuclear explosions for public works project, including five atomic blas ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website False Memories Remember that time that President Obama shook hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Or what about when Joe Lieberman voted to impeach President Clinton? If you're nodding your head yes, you've got a false memory--neither of these things ever happened, but there is a reason you believe they did. Slate's national affairs correspondent Will Saletan and experimental psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Loftus will join us to explain the science behind memory falsification and its connection ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dear Money In her novel Dear Money, Martha McPhee tells the story of India Palmer, a cash-strapped writer who reinvents herself as a world-class bond trader. Event: Martha McPhee will be reading and signing booksThursday, June 3 at 7 pmBarnes & Noble2289 Broadway, at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Being Wrong When is being wrong right? In Being Wrong, journalist Kathryn Schulz looks at how we behave when we find we have been wrong and how our errors change us—sometimes for the better. Event: Kathryn Schulz will be reading and signing booksTuesday, June 8 at 7 pmBookCourt163 Court StreetBrooklyn  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Publisher Over his long career, Henry Luce launched magazines that became American institutions including Time. Alan Brinkley’s acclaimed biography on Luce is called The Publisher. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Money Makes the World Go Round Since the global financial meltdown began in 2008, governments around the world have tried to find new ways to strengthen market regulations, with varying degrees of success.  Hal S. Scott, Nomura Professor and Director of the Program of International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School, explains why countries like Germany and the United States are developing dramatically different regulations in response to the economic meltdown. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Showing Up For Life Bill Gates has given us Microsoft, but his father Bill Gates Sr. is no slouch either. In Showing Up for Life , the two men talk about their remarkable careers and what they’ve taught each other over the years. Event: Bill Gates and Bill Gates Sr. will be in conversation and take audience questions Wednesday, June 2nd at 8PMThe 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue, at 92nd StreetTickets and more info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Swordfishboat Captain Returns Linda Greenlaw was America’s only female swordfishboat captain. In Seaworthy: A Swordfishboat Captain Returns to the Sea, she chronicles her return to bluewater fishing and a disastrous 52-day expedition. Event: Linda Greenlaw will be speaking and signing booksWednesday, June 2 at 7 pmR.J. Julia Booksellers768 Boston Post RoadMadison, Connecticut Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Director's Cut In Arthur Japin’s new novel, Director’s Cut, a Dutch actor and actress travel to 1970s Rome in hopes of finding their big break. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Legally Dead You may not be able to take the things you owned in life with you when you die, but in United States the dead can still exert control over their property. And, the legal rights of the dead are growing! In Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead, law professor Ray D. Madoff looks at how the deceased in America can exert control over their wealth through things like “dynasty trusts,” perpetual private charitable foundations, and how they control their creati ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website AIA Guide to New York City New York City is full of architectural gems. We’ll talk to architect Fran Leadon, who worked on the fifth edition of the American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City, about the city's changing assortment of architecture, including firehouses, parks, schools, parking garages, churches, bridges, and other landmarks.   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Red" John Logan’s new play “Red” looks at the artistic process of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. We’ll talk to Alfred Molina  (who plays Rothko) and Eddie Redmayne (who plays Rothko’s young assistant) about the show. “Red” is currently running at the John Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street) through June 27th, 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Gabriel" Moira Buffini’s award winning play “Gabriel” is set around the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II- a largely forgotten moment in British history. We’ll talk to Lisa Emery and Zach Grenier, two of the show’s stars. "Gabriel" runs at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th St.) through June 20th. Ticket info here Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Country Driving in China Peter Hessler, longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, talks about his seven-year road trip around China, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming the country. In Country Driving, he describes his trips to the Tibetan plateau, to the small farming village Sancha, and to Lishui, a small southeastern city--all places being changed by new roads, growing traffic, and a more mobile society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beneath the Lion’s Gaze Pushcart Prize nominee Maaza Mengiste discusses her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. It tells the story of a father and two sons living in Addis Abbas in 1974 and a family unraveling in the wake of Ethiopia’s revolution. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Midnight House Bestselling author Alex Berenson, one of the world's best new thriller writers, talks about his latest novel, The Midnight House. It's about the return of his character, CIA agent John Wells, who must find out who is killing CIA agents involved in interrogating terrorists at a secret base in Poland. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Corporate Espionage Eamon Javers discusses the rise of corporate spying, which has stretched into almost every industry in almost every corner of the globe. In Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage he delves into the checkered history of corporate spying, looks at the methods—from setting up fake websites, trailing people, sorting through household and corporate trash, satellite surveillance, and hacking e-mail and secure computer networks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Lying With the recent disclosures that Richard Blumenthal did not serve in Vietnam, Adam Wheeler tricked his way into Harvard, and Columbia's valedictorian plagiarized his commencement speech, this week's Please Explain is all about lying. Learn why we lie and how to spot it. David Livingstone Smith, author of the book Why We Lie, and Jef Nance, a former undercover cop and author of the book Conquering Deception, join us to discuss the evolutionary roots of lying and how to avoid falling prey to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Purge Finnish-Estonian novelist and playwright Sofi Oksanen discusses her novel Purge, an international bestseller that has won Finland’s most prestigious literary awards. Set in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of occupying forces in Estonia, Purge tells the story of two Estonian women from different generations—one that struggled against the Soviet occupation in the 1940s and one trapped by the cruel realities of Europe at the end of the 20th century ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mohamed's Ghosts Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Stephan Salisbury tells the story of Mohamed Ghorab, an imam in Philadelphia who was arrested and detained by federal agents and eventually deported and separated from his family. Members of Ghorab’s congregation were arrested, interrogated and watched, and many would be deported. Salisbury’s book Mohamed’s Ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland is a chronicle the demolition of lives and families, the spread of anti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rachel Weisz Actress Rachel Weisz discusses her career and her latest role, in "Agora," which is set in ancient Egypt under Roman rule. She plays the brilliant and beautiful anstronomer Hypatia, who leads a group of disciples fighting to save the wisdom of the ancient world as violent religious upheaval spills into the streets of Alexandria. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Regulators, Lobbyists and the Gulf As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drags on, two reports have come out this week detailing some of the mismanagement, missteps and incentives that may have contributed to the spill. The first was a damaging report by the Office of the Inspector General on the Minerals Management Service, the agency that regulates offshore oil drilling. The other, from the Los Angeles Times details how oil companies secured tax brakes, earmarks and other benefits for their operati ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SJP Sarah Jessica Parker talks about her career and her latest movie, Sex and the City 2. She explains why she thinks it’s become harder to make it in New York, the enduring popularity of the Sex and the City series, and why we don’t see more smart women in leading roles today. Sex and the City 2 opens Thursday, May 27.  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pres. Obama Press Conference Debrief Washington Post editorial writer and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart analyses President Obama's press conference today on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Merchants of Doubt Naomi Oreskes  discusses the small yet potent subset of the scientific community that leads the world in vehement denial of public health dangers such as DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming.   In Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Oreskes and Erik M. Conway explain how a loose-knit group of scientists and advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New York Accents We’ll take a look at accents unique to the New York metro area, and explore how they developed and why some of them may be changing or disappearing altogether with Kara Becker , assistant professor of linguistics at Reed College. Plus, we’ll take your calls. The phrase "Bother, father bought hot coffee at the car park!" is used by linguists to elicit dialect. We asked people from all over the New York metro area to read the phrase out loud. Hear the results below: Melanie from N ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An Actor and a Gentleman Emmy- and Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. discusses his more than 50 years in the world of entertainment. His book An Actor and a Gentleman describes his experiences working on Broadway with Ruby Dee, Sydney Poitier, and Sammy Davis, Jr., encountering racism in Hollywood, and overcoming his demons. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website State of Education Education historian and former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch talks about the state of the American education system. In her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choices are Undermining Education , she analyzes research and speaks with educators, philanthropists, and business executives about the current direction of education reform. Ravitch reveals how her own opinion on school choice and market-driven accountability has changed ove ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beyond Bullets Documentarian Jon Alpert, former drug dealer Ronald Merritt, and Phyllis Clayburne Watson , who lost her son in a shooting, talk about the Beyond Bullets campaign, which seeks to deter gun violence through moviemaking. Beyond Bullets, a production of DCTV, encourages young filmmakers to make documentaries about how gun violence has affected their communities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird  discusses growing up in America during three major wars and three turbulent decades in the Middle East. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 is his memoir of the years he spent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, in which he provides an original and illuminating perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird  discusses growing up in America during three major wars and three turbulent decades in the Middle East. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 is his memoir of the years he spent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, in which he provides an original and illuminating perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Patrick King Michael Patrick King, director, writer and producer of the “Sex and the City” series on HBO and the movies, discusses the latest movie, Sex and the City 2, which opens May 27. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Patrick King Michael Patrick King, director, writer and producer of the “Sex and the City” series on HBO and the movies, discusses the latest movie, Sex and the City 2, which opens May 27. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play " Mark Wing-Davey, director of “Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play,” and T. Ryder Smith, who plays Queen Elizabeth, Hitler and Ronald Reagan, discuss the play. The play was inspired by the historic festivals that staged the death and resurrection of Christ. It transports audiences to 16th century England, Nazi Germany and Spearfish, South Dakota in 1984. “Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play” is playing at the Irondale Center through June 5. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play " Mark Wing-Davey, director of “Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play,” and T. Ryder Smith, who plays Queen Elizabeth, Hitler and Ronald Reagan, discuss the play. The play was inspired by the historic festivals that staged the death and resurrection of Christ. It transports audiences to 16th century England, Nazi Germany and Spearfish, South Dakota in 1984. “Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play” is playing at the Irondale Center through June 5. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The War Back Home William Finnegan and Sergeant Troy Haley talk about the strains that deployment puts on marriages and families. In his article “Love and War,” in GQ magazine’s June issue, Finnegan speaks with several soldiers (including Sergeant Haley) and looks at how cell phones, satellite phones, e-mail, texting, webcams and Skype give soldiers an open line of communication to their spouses, families and crumbling lives back home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The War Back Home William Finnegan and Sergeant Troy Haley talk about the strains that deployment puts on marriages and families. In his article “Love and War,” in GQ magazine’s June issue, Finnegan speaks with several soldiers (including Sergeant Haley) and looks at how cell phones, satellite phones, e-mail, texting, webcams and Skype give soldiers an open line of communication to their spouses, families and crumbling lives back home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Artifacts at Brooklyn Museum Update We recently spoke with Atlantic writer John Freeman Gill and art dealer Ivan Karp about the disappearance of architectural sculpture in New York and what's happened to the collection at the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Teresa Carbone is sculpture garden curator at the Brooklyn Museum. She responds to their interview. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Artifacts at Brooklyn Museum Update We recently spoke with Atlantic writer John Freeman Gill and art dealer Ivan Karp about the disappearance of architectural sculpture in New York and what's happened to the collection at the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Teresa Carbone is sculpture garden curator at the Brooklyn Museum. She responds to their interview. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain Science writer Barbara Strauch discusses how and why the brain's capacity reaches its peak in middle age. Her book The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind explores the latest research from neuroscien­tists and psychologists that shows that the brain reorganizes, improves in important functions, and reaches its highest level of cognitive expertise in middle age. She also explains how to maintain optimal brain health and function. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain Science writer Barbara Strauch discusses how and why the brain's capacity reaches its peak in middle age. Her book The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind explores the latest research from neuroscien­tists and psychologists that shows that the brain reorganizes, improves in important functions, and reaches its highest level of cognitive expertise in middle age. She also explains how to maintain optimal brain health and function. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Matter, Anti-Matter, and Dark Matter Please Explain is all about matter, anti-matter, and dark matter. Lisa Randall, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Harvard University; Michael Tuts, Professor of Physics at Columbia University and Mordecai Mark Mac-Low, Chair of the Department of Physics at the American Museum of Natural History tell us all about what it is and what it means. Event: Dr. Lisa Randall and Dr. Michael Tuts will be part of a panel discussion moderated by Alan AldaTuesday, May 25 at 6:30The New York Academy of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Matter, Anti-Matter, and Dark Matter Please Explain is all about matter, anti-matter, and dark matter. Lisa Randall, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Harvard University; Michael Tuts, Professor of Physics at Columbia University and Mordecai Mark Mac-Low, Chair of the Department of Physics at the American Museum of Natural History tell us all about what it is and what it means. Event: Dr. Lisa Randall and Dr. Michael Tuts will be part of a panel discussion moderated by Alan AldaTuesday, May 25 at 6:30The New York Academy of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Oil, Ecuador, and Investigative Journalism In his film Crude: The Real Price of Oil, documentarian Joe Berlinger chronicled the story behind a law suit filed by thousands of indigenous Ecuadorians against Chevron for oil pollution in the Amazon river. Earlier this month, a New York judge ordered him to turn over hundreds of hours of outtake footage from the film to Chevron. We’ll talk to Mr. Berlinger about the ruling and what it could mean for journalists. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Oil, Ecuador, and Investigative Journalism In his film Crude: The Real Price of Oil, documentarian Joe Berlinger chronicled the story behind a law suit filed by thousands of indigenous Ecuadorians against Chevron for oil pollution in the Amazon river. Earlier this month, a New York judge ordered him to turn over hundreds of hours of outtake footage from the film to Chevron. We’ll talk to Mr. Berlinger about the ruling and what it could mean for journalists. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shopping in New York New Yorker staff writer Patricia Marx talks about the ins and outs of shopping in New York and around the world. Patricia Marx is a former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” and is the author of several children’s books and humor books, most recently, Him Her Him Again the End of Him. Her article about shopping in Brooklyn, "Borough Haul," appeared in the March 8 issue—see a map of stores from that article here. Her next article, about graduation gifts, will appear in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shopping in New York New Yorker staff writer Patricia Marx talks about the ins and outs of shopping in New York and around the world. Patricia Marx is a former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” and is the author of several children’s books and humor books, most recently, Him Her Him Again the End of Him. Her article about shopping in Brooklyn, "Borough Haul," appeared in the March 8 issue—see a map of stores from that article here. Her next article, about graduation gifts, will appear in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Update on the Newtown Creek Oil Spill Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, gives us an update on the Newtown Creek oil spill. It’s the worst domestic oil spill in United States history and it happened right here in New York City. We’ll find out about efforts to clean up the spill and the environmental impact it’s had on Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Update on the Newtown Creek Oil Spill Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, gives us an update on the Newtown Creek oil spill. It’s the worst domestic oil spill in United States history and it happened right here in New York City. We’ll find out about efforts to clean up the spill and the environmental impact it’s had on Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Art of Italian Food Tony May, owner of SD26, and Louis Di Palo, co-owner of the famed Di Palo Fine Foods on Grand Street, discuss Italian cuisine. They’ll look at why it’s the most popular cuisine in America, whether there’s such a thing as pure Italian cooking in America, and how Italian cuisine has changed over the years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Art of Italian Food Tony May, owner of SD26, and Louis Di Palo, co-owner of the famed Di Palo Fine Foods on Grand Street, discuss Italian cuisine. They’ll look at why it’s the most popular cuisine in America, whether there’s such a thing as pure Italian cooking in America, and how Italian cuisine has changed over the years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gentrification and Its Discontents Benjamin Schwartz looks at the untenable ideal of the authentic urban neighborhood and what it means when gentrification changes the city. His article "Gentrification and Its Discontents" appears in the June issue of the Atlantic. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gentrification and Its Discontents Benjamin Schwartz looks at the untenable ideal of the authentic urban neighborhood and what it means when gentrification changes the city. His article "Gentrification and Its Discontents" appears in the June issue of the Atlantic. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ghosts of New York John Freeman Gill and art dealer and collector Ivan Karp discuss the changing city and the disappearance of the architectural sculpture that once thrived in New York.   All across the city, mostly anonymous immigrant craftsmen created embellishments and ornamentation out of terra cotta and stone of tenements and rowhouses. Remnants of that work have been collected by the Brooklyn Museum, but that collection is about to be dismantled and scattered around the world. The article "Ghosts ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ghosts of New York John Freeman Gill and art dealer and collector Ivan Karp discuss the changing city and the disappearance of the architectural sculpture that once thrived in New York.   All across the city, mostly anonymous immigrant craftsmen created embellishments and ornamentation out of terra cotta and stone of tenements and rowhouses. Remnants of that work have been collected by the Brooklyn Museum, but that collection is about to be dismantled and scattered around the world. The article "Ghosts ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Perfect House Meghan Daumdescribes her obsession with real estate and her fantasies of finding the perfect place for the perfect price.In Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That Houseshe explores the joys and dangers of believing that only a house can make you whole.Event: Meghan Daum will be reading and signing booksWednesday, May 19, at 7:00 pmBorders in Time Warner Center10 Columbus Circle  Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Perfect House Meghan Daum describes her obsession with real estate and her fantasies of finding the perfect place for the perfect price. In  Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House she explores the joys and dangers of believing that only a house can make you whole. Event: Meghan Daum will be reading and signing booksWednesday, May 19, at 7:00 pmBorders in Time Warner Center10 Columbus Circle   Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Walk in My Shoes Andrew Young, a top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of history's most important civil rights leaders, was at Dr. King's side when he was assassinated. Young and his godsonKabir Sehgaltalk about how two generations view civil rights, race, faith, love, and leadership.Together they’ve writtenWalk in My Shoes: Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Walk in My Shoes Andrew Young , a top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of history's most important civil rights leaders, was at Dr. King's side when he was assassinated. Young and his godson Kabir Sehgal talk about how two generations view civil rights, race, faith, love, and leadership. Together they’ve written Walk in My Shoes: Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kashmir Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel, directors of "Project Kashmir," explore the conflict in one of the most beautiful and dangerous places on earth. They’re joined by Aarti Tikoo Singh , a journalist who worked in Jammu and Kashmir for seven years with The Times of India whose family was forced to leave Kashmir in the 1990s. Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel are two American friends from opposite sides of the divide in Kashmir—one is Pakistani Muslim and the other Indian Hindu. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kashmir Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel, directors of "Project Kashmir," explore the conflict in one of the most beautiful and dangerous places on earth. They’re joined by Aarti Tikoo Singh , a journalist who worked in Jammu and Kashmir for seven years with The Times of India whose family was forced to leave Kashmir in the 1990s. Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel are two American friends from opposite sides of the divide in Kashmir—one is Pakistani Muslim and the other Indian Hindu. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Rational Optimist Matt Ridleyexplains how andwhylife is improving around the world. Though the world is far from perfect, food availability, income, and life span are up, while disease, child mortality, and violence are down.InThe Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, Ridley covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, and asserts that the human race’s capacity for innovation and change means that life will get better for more and more people in the 21stcentury.Eve ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Rational Optimist Matt Ridley explains how and why life is improving around the world. Though the world is far from perfect, food availability, income, and life span are up, while disease, child mortality, and violence are down. In The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, Ridley covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, and asserts that the human race’s capacity for innovation and change means that life will get better for more and more people in the 21st cent ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Miranda’s “New Look” The Obama Administration has said it wants to put possible limitations on Miranda rights given to suspected terrorists, including US citizens. We’ll find out what that might mean. Law professors Diane Amann , of UC Davis Law School, and Stephen Schulhofer , of NYU School of Law, discuss about what imposing limitations on Miranda rights might entail and how the administration has broadly approached national security issues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Miranda’s “New Look” The Obama Administration has said it wants to put possible limitations on Miranda rights given to suspected terrorists, including US citizens. We’ll find out what that might mean. Law professors Diane Amann , of UC Davis Law School, and Stephen Schulhofer , of NYU School of Law, discuss about what imposing limitations on Miranda rights might entail and how the administration has broadly approached national security issues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Losing My Cool Thomas Chatterton Williams gives an account of being drawn in to hip-hop culture and how his father drew him out again.  In Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture he explains how, as a teenager, he did whatever he could to fit into the hip-hop culture that surrounded him and how his father wanted a different kind of life for him. Thomas Chatterton Williams will be speaking and signing booksThursday, June 3, at 7:30 pmGreenlight Bookstore686 Ful ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Losing My Cool Thomas Chatterton Williams gives an account of being drawn in to hip-hop culture and how his father drew him out again.  In Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture he explains how, as a teenager, he did whatever he could to fit into the hip-hop culture that surrounded him and how his father wanted a different kind of life for him. Thomas Chatterton Williams will be speaking and signing booksThursday, June 3, at 7:30 pmGreenlight Bookstore686 Ful ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lending a Hand to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos explains what’s happened to the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the fall of 2008, and why they continue to be so troubled. Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced losses for the first quarter of 2010 that totaled $6.7 billion. Now they’re asking for $10.6 billion in government assistance. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lending a Hand to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos explains what’s happened to the government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the fall of 2008, and why they continue to be so troubled. Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced losses for the first quarter of 2010 that totaled $6.7 billion. Now they’re asking for $10.6 billion in government assistance. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The End of the Free Market Ian Bremmer details the growing phenomenon of state capitalism, a trend that he believes threatens America's competitive edge and the conduct of free markets everywhere. State capitalism is a system in which governments drive local economies through ownership of market-dominant companies and large pools of excess capital, using them for political gain. In The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? Bremmer, an expert on the intersection of economics and p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The End of the Free Market Ian Bremmer details the growing phenomenon of state capitalism, a trend that he believes threatens America's competitive edge and the conduct of free markets everywhere. State capitalism is a system in which governments drive local economies through ownership of market-dominant companies and large pools of excess capital, using them for political gain. In The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? Bremmer, an expert on the intersection of economics and p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Billy Childs Two-time Grammy-winning pianist composer Billy Childs performs live and talks about his latest album “Autumn: In Moving Pictures—Jazz Chamber Music Volume 2.” The album, composed for piano, acoustic guitar, sax, flute, harp, bass, drums, string quartet and woodwind quintet, in varying combinations, is a series of musical portraits evoking the colorful leaves of autumn and the season’s multiplicity of sensations. Billy Childs is performing at Iridium Jazz Club May 21- ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Billy Childs Two-time Grammy-winning pianist composer Billy Childs performs live and talks about his latest album “Autumn: In Moving Pictures—Jazz Chamber Music Volume 2.” The album, composed for piano, acoustic guitar, sax, flute, harp, bass, drums, string quartet and woodwind quintet, in varying combinations, is a series of musical portraits evoking the colorful leaves of autumn and the season’s multiplicity of sensations. Billy Childs is performing at Iridium Jazz Club May 21- ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Art Conservation On this week’s Please Explain we’re looking at the art and science of art conservation. We’ll find out what tools and technologies—from spectrometers to Q-tips—are used to clean, repair, and restore works of art, and what ethical considerations conservators face in their work. We’re joined by Michael Duffy, paintings conservator at The Museum of Modern Art, and Margaret Holben Ellis , Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation at the Institute of Fine Ar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Art Conservation On this week’sPlease Explainwe’re looking at the art and science of art conservation.We’ll find out what tools and technologies—from spectrometers to Q-tips—are used to clean, repair, and restore works of art, and what ethical considerations conservators face in their work. We’re joined byMichael Duffy, paintings conservator at The Museum of Modern Art, andMargaret Holben Ellis, Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, Ne ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Twilight Euro Zone? What does the European Union's announcement that it will offer a trillion-dollar bailout aimed at helping Greece, Spain, and other countries with struggling economies mean for the euro and for European politics? We'll find out. Philip Coggan, Capital Markets Editor for the Economist, and Iain Begg, professor at the European Institute at the London School of Economics explain why some are saying that the euro is going through an existential crisis, and look at the political problems that cri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Twilight Euro Zone? What does the European Union's announcement that it will offer a trillion-dollar bailout aimed at helping Greece, Spain, and other countries with struggling economies mean for the euro and for European politics? We'll find out.Philip Coggan, Capital Markets Editor for theEconomist, andIain Begg, professor at the European Institute at the London School of Economics explain why some are saying that the euro is going through an existential crisis, and look at the political problems that crisis ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Heidi Durrow discusses her debut novel, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. It tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., who moves in with her strict African American grandmother in a mostly black community, where she attracts attention. It’s a portrait of a young girl—and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty. The novel won the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. Event: Heidi Durrow will be readi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Heidi Durrowdiscusses her debut novel,The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.It tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., who moves in with her strict African American grandmother in a mostly black community, where she attracts attention. It’s a portrait of a young girl—and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty. The novel won the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.Event: Heidi Durrow will be reading an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shirin Neshat’s “Women Without Men” Iranian artist Shirin Neshat talks about her first feature-length film “Women Without Men.” It’s an adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s magic realist novel of the same name. The story chronicles the intertwining lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953, a cataclysmic moment in Iranian history when an American-led, British-backed coup d’état brought down the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and reinstalled the Shah t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shirin Neshat’s “Women Without Men” Iranian artistShirin Neshattalks about her first feature-length film“Women Without Men.”It’s an adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s magic realist novel of the same name. The story chronicles the intertwining lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953, a cataclysmic moment in Iranian history when an American-led, British-backed coup d’état brought down the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and reinstalled the Shah to pow ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Last Stand Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick tells the tale of two larger-than-life figures: Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer. In The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn , he gives an account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which was, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. Within a few years, all the major tribal leaders would be confined to Indian reservations. It’s the archetypal story of the American We ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Moral Life of Babies Yale professor Paul Bloom has studied the moral life of babies at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center, and he explains describes his research showing that babies are actually capable of understanding morality. His article "The Moral Life of Babies" appears in the May 9 New York Times Magazine. Paul Bloom is also the author of the forthcoming book How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Moral Life of Babies Yale professor Paul Bloom has studied the moral life of babies at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center, and he explains describes his research showing that babies are actually capable of understanding morality. His article "The Moral Life of Babies" appears in the May 9 New York Times Magazine. Paul Bloom is also the author of the forthcoming book How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like . Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Last Stand Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick tells the tale of two larger-than-life figures: Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer. In The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn , he gives an account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which was, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. Within a few years, all the major tribal leaders would be confined to Indian reservations. It’s the archetypal story of the American We ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Viola Davis Academy Award nominee and Tony Award winner Viola Davis discusses playing the role of Rose in the revival of August Wilson’s "Fences." Directed by Kenny Leon and also starring Denzel Washington, the play is both a monumental drama and an intimate family portrait. It tells the story of Troy Maxson, a man torn between the glory of his past and the uncertainty of his future. “Fences” is playing at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street. More information and tickets here ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Viola Davis Academy Award nominee and Tony Award winner Viola Davis discusses playing the role of Rose in the revival of August Wilson’s "Fences." Directed by Kenny Leon and also starring Denzel Washington, the play is both a monumental drama and an intimate family portrait. It tells the story of Troy Maxson, a man torn between the glory of his past and the uncertainty of his future. “Fences” is playing at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street. More information and tickets here ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War at the Wall Street Journal Sarah Ellison tells the story of Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion acquisition of the Wall Street Journal. In War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control and American Business Empire, she delves deep inside the landmark transaction and the rocky transition, and reveals how Murdoch undid much of what the Bancrofts had long protected at the Journal. Event: Sarah Ellison will be reading and signing booksWednesday, May 12, at 7 pmBorders Columbus Circle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War at the Wall Street Journal Sarah Ellison tells the story of Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion acquisition of the Wall Street Journal. In War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control and American Business Empire, she delves deep inside the landmark transaction and the rocky transition, and reveals how Murdoch undid much of what the Bancrofts had long protected at the Journal. Event: Sarah Ellison will be reading and signing booksWednesday, May 12, at 7 pmBorders Columbus Circle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kapitoil Teddy Wayne talks about his novel Kapitoil, about a young financial wizard who creates a computer program called Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company. He soon begins to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, and moves toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm's, and where his loyalties lie. Events:Teddy Wayne will be reading and signing books, as part of Steamboat: A Literary Humor SeriesThursday, May 20, at 7:30 pmGreenlight B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kapitoil Teddy Wayne talks about his novel Kapitoil, about a young financial wizard who creates a computer program called Kapitoil that predicts oil futures and reaps record profits for his company. He soon begins to question the moral implications of Kapitoil, and moves toward a decision that will determine his future, his firm's, and where his loyalties lie. Events:Teddy Wayne will be reading and signing books, as part of Steamboat: A Literary Humor SeriesThursday, May 20, at 7:30 pmGreenlight B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo Michael McCarthy talks about the declining numbers of migratory birds due to environmental changes. In Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo: Migratory Birds and the Impending Ecological Catastrophe, he shows how the loss of these birds would be devastating to the cultural inheritance of us all. Listen to The Art and Science of Birdsong, a Please Explain Segment from 2005. Events:Michael McCarthy will be in discussionWednesday, May 12, at 6:00 pm New York City Audubon Central Park Arsenal, 64th Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo Michael McCarthy talks about the declining numbers of migratory birds due to environmental changes. In Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo: Migratory Birds and the Impending Ecological Catastrophe, he shows how the loss of these birds would be devastating to the cultural inheritance of us all. Listen to The Art and Science of Birdsong, a Please Explain Segment from 2005. Events:Michael McCarthy will be in discussionWednesday, May 12, at 6:00 pm New York City Audubon Central Park Arsenal, 64th Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Uneasy Communion Vivian B. Mann, curator at the Museum of Biblical Art, discusses the artistic collaboration between Christians and Jews in the Middle Ages. The exhibition "Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain" tells the story of this fascinating moment of artistic collaboration, and provides a glimpse into the lives of these communities that lived side by side. It's on view at the Museum of Biblical Art through May 30. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Uneasy Communion Vivian B. Mann, curator at the Museum of Biblical Art, discusses the artistic collaboration between Christians and Jews in the Middle Ages. The exhibition "Uneasy Communion: Jews, Christians, and the Altarpieces of Medieval Spain" tells the story of this fascinating moment of artistic collaboration, and provides a glimpse into the lives of these communities that lived side by side. It's on view at the Museum of Biblical Art through May 30. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Creditors Tom Burke and Owen Teale discuss their roles in the revival of August Strindberg's "Creditors," now playing at BAM. Directed by Alan Rickman, the play is a darkly comic tale of vengeance, jealousy and psychological warfare. Burke plays a young husband anxiously awaiting the return of his new wife, who falls under the sway of a mysterious stranger played by Teale. It's at BAM's Harvey Theater through May 16. Tickets and more information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Creditors Tom Burke and Owen Teale discuss their roles in the revival of August Strindberg's "Creditors," now playing at BAM. Directed by Alan Rickman, the play is a darkly comic tale of vengeance, jealousy and psychological warfare. Burke plays a young husband anxiously awaiting the return of his new wife, who falls under the sway of a mysterious stranger played by Teale. It's at BAM's Harvey Theater through May 16. Tickets and more information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Empires of the Indus Alice Albinia traces the history of the people who lived along the Indus River, one of the largest rivers in the world, that rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. Her book Empires of the Indus is part travel narrative and part geographical and historical account of the sophisticated cities that grew on the river's banks. Event: Alice Alibinia will be reading and signing booksTuesday, May 11 at 7pmKGB Bar85 East 4th Street, between B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Empires of the Indus Alice Albinia traces the history of the people who lived along the Indus River, one of the largest rivers in the world, that rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. Her book Empires of the Indus is part travel narrative and part geographical and historical account of the sophisticated cities that grew on the river's banks. Event: Alice Alibinia will be reading and signing booksTuesday, May 11 at 7pmKGB Bar85 East 4th Street, between B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website For Better Tara Parker-Pope, who writes the "Well" blog for the New York Times, discusses what the top biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists and other scientists can tell us about marriage and divorce. In For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage , she shows the science behind why some marriages work and others don't, the biology behind why some spouses cheat while others remain faithful, and the best diagnostic tools used by cutting-edge psychologists to assess the probability of success in get ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website For Better Tara Parker-Pope, who writes the "Well" blog for the New York Times, discusses what the top biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists and other scientists can tell us about marriage and divorce. In For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage , she shows the science behind why some marriages work and others don't, the biology behind why some spouses cheat while others remain faithful, and the best diagnostic tools used by cutting-edge psychologists to assess the probability of success in get ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sara Moulton’s Family Dinners Professional chef Sara Moulton talks about cooking for family every night, and she shares her favorite family-pleasing, carefully tested recipes. Her new cookbook Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners includes updated kid-friendly recipes, experiments with new cuisines and ingredients, and tips for how to cook smarter, faster, and cleaner. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beetle Queen Jessica Oreck, animal keeper at the American Museum of Natural History, discusses her lifelong love of insects and her new documentary Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Council of Dads Bestselling author Bruce Feiler talks about what happened when he was diagnosed with cancer and began worrying about what his young daughters' lives would be like without him. In The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me, he tells the story of creating a council of dads, made up of six men from the his life who would be present for important passages in his daughters' lives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website America, Whaling & the World Filmmaker Ric Burns tells the story of three centuries of American whaling. His documentary "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World" reveals how whaling helped fuel the expansion of the American economy, pushed tiny backwater ports like Nantucket and New Bedford to the center of the whaling world, and was the first truly global enterprise America ever knew. "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World" Premieres on PBS Monday, May 10, at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Essentially Ellington Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and director of the JLC Orchestra, talks about Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. He’s joined by Carlos Henriquez, who performed in the competition as a student at LaGuardia High School and is now a member of the JLCO and mentor to the LaGuardia band, and Clarence Acox, director of Seattle's Garfield High School Jazz Band, which won the competition last year and performs t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beetle Queen (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 May 2010) Jessica Oreck, animal keeper at the American Museum of Natural History, discusses her lifelong love of insects and her new documentary Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sara Moulton’s Family Dinners (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 May 2010) Professional chef Sara Moulton talks about cooking for family every night, and she shares her favorite family-pleasing, carefully tested recipes. Her new cookbook Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners includes updated kid-friendly recipes, experiments with new cuisines and ingredients, and tips for how to cook smarter, faster, and cleaner. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Essentially Ellington (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 May 2010) Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and director of the JLC Orchestra, talks about Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. He’s joined by Carlos Henriquez, who performed in the competition as a student at LaGuardia High School and is now a member of the JLCO and mentor to the LaGuardia band, and Clarence Acox, director of Seattle's Garfield High School Jazz Band, which won the competition last year and performs t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website America, Whaling & the World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 May 2010) Filmmaker Ric Burns tells the story of three centuries of American whaling. His documentary "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World" reveals how whaling helped fuel the expansion of the American economy, pushed tiny backwater ports like Nantucket and New Bedford to the center of the whaling world, and was the first truly global enterprise America ever knew. "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World" Premieres on PBS Monday, May 10, at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Council of Dads (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 May 2010) Bestselling author Bruce Feiler talks about what happened when he was diagnosed with cancer and began worrying about what his young daughters' lives would be like without him. In The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me, he tells the story of creating a council of dads, made up of six men from the his life who would be present for important passages in his daughters' lives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Fat We’ll find out the difference between brown body fat and white, how fat forms and functions, where its stored, how its burned, and how much is too much. Maudene Nelson, registered dietitian, New York State Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist, and a Certified Diabetes Educator at the Institute of Human Nutrition, joins us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Metropolis" Reconstructed Paula Felix-Didier, director of the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducros Hicken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discusses a new reconstruction of Fritz Lang’s legendary 1927 film “Metropolis.” It includes nearly thirty minutes of long-lost footage discovered recently in Argentina. The new version of “Metropolis” will be playing at Film Forum from May 7 through the 20. Events: Paula Felix-Didier will introduce "Metropolis" Friday, May 7, 7:30 & 8:30 pm screenings Saturday, May 8, 5:30 & 7:30 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pill and America Historian Elaine Tyler May talks about how the pill changed America. In America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation she describes how women saw that the pill was about much more than family planning—it offered women control over their bodies and their lives, and it created a great cultural shift. She uses personal accounts of the early years and testimonies from young women today to illuminate what the pill has—and has not—achieved during its half-century on the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Oath" Filmmaker Laura Poitras discusses her documentary “The Oath,” about the divergent paths of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, Abu Jandal, and driver, Salim Hamdan. Their intertwined personal stories shed light on a world that has confounded the West, and the film offers an unsettling glimpses of the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror and a rare window into the world of Al-Qaeda. “The Oath” opens Friday, May 7, at IFC Center. Events: Laura Poitras will be in appearing perso ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Oath" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 May 2010) Filmmaker Laura Poitras discusses her documentary “The Oath,” about the divergent paths of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, Abu Jandal, and driver, Salim Hamdan. Their intertwined personal stories shed light on a world that has confounded the West, and the film offers an unsettling glimpses of the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror and a rare window into the world of Al-Qaeda. “The Oath” opens Friday, May 7, at IFC Center. Events: Laura Poitras will be in appearing perso ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Metropolis" Reconstructed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 May 2010) Paula Felix-Didier, director of the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducros Hicken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discusses a new reconstruction of Fritz Lang’s legendary 1927 film “Metropolis.” It includes nearly thirty minutes of long-lost footage discovered recently in Argentina. The new version of “Metropolis” will be playing at Film Forum from May 7 through the 20. Events: Paula Felix-Didier will introduce "Metropolis" Friday, May 7, 7:30 & 8:30 pm screenings Saturday, May 8, 5:30 & 7:30 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pill and America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 May 2010) Historian Elaine Tyler May talks about how the pill changed America. In America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation she describes how women saw that the pill was about much more than family planning—it offered women control over their bodies and their lives, and it created a great cultural shift. She uses personal accounts of the early years and testimonies from young women today to illuminate what the pill has—and has not—achieved during its half-century on the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Fat (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 May 2010) We’ll find out the difference between brown body fat and white, how fat forms and functions, where its stored, how its burned, and how much is too much. Maudene Nelson, registered dietitian, New York State Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist, and a Certified Diabetes Educator at the Institute of Human Nutrition, joins us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Willie Nelson Country music legend Willie Nelson talks about his long career in music, what keeps him inspired, and what it was like to work with producer T Bone Burnett and an all-star posse of pickers, including Buddy Miller, Ronnie McCoury, and Riley Baugus on his latest album, "Country Music." He’s performing in concert at Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom on Thursday, May 6. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update: Shaping Iraq's Future NPR’s Baghdad Bureau Chief Quil Lawrence discusses Iraq, the disputed election there, and what lies ahead as the U.S. military prepares to start drawing down troops over the course of the summer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Niger's Food Crisis Erratic weather in Niger has disrupted production of millet, one the country’s staple food crops. Now, upwards of 60 percent of the population there is facing hunger. We’ll talk to Concern Worldwide’s country director in Niger, Niall Tierney about the crisis on today’s first Underreported segment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Damon Wayans Award-winning actor, stand-up comedian, writer, and producer Damon Wayans, talks about becoming famous on his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans's hit show, "In Living Color," his career in television and movies since then, and writing his first novel, Red Hats. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Poker Bride Christopher Corbett discusses his novel, The Poker Bride. It’s based on a little-known legend about Polly, a young Chinese concubine at an Idaho mining camp who was traded in a poker game during the gold rush of 1849. Years later, when the gold rush receded and the Chinese miners returned home, Polly was left behind. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Damon Wayans (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 May 2010) Award-winning actor, stand-up comedian, writer, and producer Damon Wayans, talks about becoming famous on his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans's hit show, "In Living Color," his career in television and movies since then, and writing his first novel, Red Hats. Event: Damon Wayans will be reading and signing books Thursday, May 6 at 7 pm Book Revue 313 New York Avenue Huntington, Long Island Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Willie Nelson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 May 2010) Country music legend Willie Nelson talks about his long career in music, what keeps him inspired, and what it was like to work with producer T Bone Burnett and an all-star posse of pickers, including Buddy Miller, Ronnie McCoury, and Riley Baugus on his latest album, "Country Music." He’s performing in concert at Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom on Thursday, May 6. Event: Willie Nelson will be performing Thursday, May 6 at 8 pm The Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center 311 West 34th Str ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Poker Bride (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 May 2010) Christopher Corbett discusses the Chinese experience in the American west during the Gold Rush. The Poker Bride tells a little-known legend of Polly, a young Chinese concubine at an Idaho mining camp who was traded in a poker game. Years later, when the gold rush receded and the Chinese miners returned home, Polly was left behind. Event: Christopher Corbett will be speaking Thursday, May 6, at 6:30 pm Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) 215 Centre Street, between Howard and Grand Streets ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Niger's Food Crisis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 May 2010) Erratic weather in Niger has disrupted production of millet, one the country’s staple food crops. Now, upwards of 60 percent of the population there is facing hunger. We’ll talk to Concern Worldwide’s country director in Niger, Niall Tierney about the crisis on today’s first Underreported segment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update: Shaping Iraq's Future (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 May 2010) NPR’s Baghdad Bureau Chief Quil Lawrence discusses Iraq, the disputed election there, and what lies ahead as the U.S. military prepares to start drawing down troops over the course of the summer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Innocent Scott Turow talks about the sequel to the genre-defining, landmark bestseller Presumed Innocent. His latest book, Innocent continues the story of Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto who are, twenty years later, pitted against each other in a riveting psychological match after the mysterious death of Rusty's wife. Event: Scott Turow will be reading and signing books Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Other Wes Moore Wes Moore discusses sharing the same name with a man from the same neighborhood he grew up in who went on to have a very different life. In The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, he describes discovering the other Wes Moore, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. At each stage of their lives both had come to similar crossroads, yet each of their choices would lead them to very different destinies. Event: Wes Moore will be reading and signing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lindsay Years Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent for the New York Times, and editor of America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York, and Tom Casciato, director of the documentary "Fun City Revisited: The Lindsay Years," discuss the controversial legacy of John V. Lindsay, who became mayor of New York in 1965 by promising to rid the city of apathy and corruption. "Fun City Revisited: The Lindsay Years" airs on THIRTEEN Thursday, May 6th at 8:00 p.m. An exhibition, "America’s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lindsay Years (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 May 2010) Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent for the New York Times, and editor of America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York, and Tom Casciato, director of the documentary "Fun City Revisited: The Lindsay Years," discuss the controversial legacy of John V. Lindsay, who became mayor of New York in 1965 by promising to rid the city of apathy and corruption. "Fun City Revisited: The Lindsay Years" airs on THIRTEEN Thursday, May 6th at 8:00 p.m. An exhibition, "America’s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Other Wes Moore (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 May 2010) Wes Moore discusses sharing the same name with a man from the same neighborhood he grew up in who went on to have a very different life. In The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, he describes discovering the other Wes Moore, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. At each stage of their lives both had come to similar crossroads, yet each of their choices would lead them to very different destinies. Event: Wes Moore will be reading and signing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Accurate Building Inspectors Web site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Innocent (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 May 2010) Scott Turow talks about the sequel to the genre-defining, landmark bestseller Presumed Innocent. His latest book, Innocent continues the story of Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto who are, twenty years later, pitted against each other in a riveting psychological match after the mysterious death of Rusty's wife. Event: Scott Turow will be reading and signing books Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 May 2010) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dave Barry’s Amazing Tales of Adulthood Humorist Dave Barry talks about the mystifying territory of adulthood—from fatherhood, parenting, self-image, the battle of the sexes, celebrity, technology, certain unmentionable medical procedures, and more. His latest book is I’ll Mature When I’m Dead: Dave Barry’s Amazing Tales of Adulthood. Events: Dave Barry will be reading and signing books Tuesday, May 4, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Private Life Pulitzer Prize–winner Jane Smiley discusses her latest novel, Private Life. It tells the intimate story of one woman’s life, from the 1880s to World War II, and paints a vivid picture of her inner world and her heartbreaking marriage. Event: Jane Smiley will be reading and signing books Wednesday, May 5, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, at Lexington Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Times Square Car Bomb Suspect Update We’ll get the latest on the capture of the Times Square car bomber suspect from WNYC’s Bob Hennelly. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foxy Pam Grier Pam Grier, best known for her roles as Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, Coffy, and Jackie Brown, talks about her life and career. In her memoir Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, she discusses her relationships with famous men like Richard Pryor, her experiences as a backup singer and a blaxploitation star, and her battle with cancer. Event: Pam Grier will be signing books Tuesday, May 4, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street, at Greenwich Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rosalynn Carter on the Mental Health Crisis Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter talks about her 35 years of advocacy work in the field of mental health. She describes a system that continues to fail those in need. In Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis, she gives a powerful account of a subject previously shrouded in stigma and shadow. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dave Barry’s Amazing Tales of Adulthood (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 May 2010) Humorist Dave Barry talks about the mystifying territory of adulthood—from fatherhood, parenting, self-image, the battle of the sexes, celebrity, technology, certain unmentionable medical procedures, and more. His latest book is I’ll Mature When I’m Dead: Dave Barry’s Amazing Tales of Adulthood. Events: Dave Barry will be reading and signing books Tuesday, May 4, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Times Square Car Bomb Suspect Update (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 May 2010) We’ll get the latest on the capture of the Times Square car bomber suspect from WNYC’s Bob Hennelly. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foxy Pam Grier (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 May 2010) Pam Grier, best known for her roles as Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, Coffy, and Jackie Brown, talks about her life and career. In her memoir Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, she discusses her relationships with famous men like Richard Pryor, her experiences as a backup singer and a blaxploitation star, and her battle with cancer. Event: Pam Grier will be signing books Tuesday, May 4, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street, at Greenwich Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rosalynn Carter on the Mental Health Crisis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 May 2010) Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter talks about her 35 years of advocacy work in the field of mental health. She describes a system that continues to fail those in need. In Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis, she gives a powerful account of a subject previously shrouded in stigma and shadow. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Private Life (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 May 2010) Pulitzer Prize–winner Jane Smiley discusses her latest novel, Private Life. It tells the intimate story of one woman’s life, from the 1880s to World War II, and paints a vivid picture of her inner world and her heartbreaking marriage. Event: Jane Smiley will be reading and signing books Wednesday, May 5, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, at Lexington Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Austrian Wines Chef Sommelier at 4-star Le Bernardin in New York City, Aldo Sohm, talks about Austrian Wines and brings along some samples. He won the 2009 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine Service, and has been named the “Best Sommelier in the World” from the Worldwide Sommelier Association, among other accolades. Event: Aldo Sohm is hosting an Austrian wine tasting Wednesday, May 5, 6:00 – 9:00 pm Tribeca Rooftop 2 Desbrosses Street Tickets: $55 in advance and online at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Men Who Would Be King Variety reporter Nicole LaPorte, gives an insider’s account of the creation of Hollywood’s DreamWorks studio. In The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks she reveals Hollywood’s bizarre business rules, describes the clashes between Spielberg’s and Katzenberg’s, the disasters Oscar-winning triumphs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Island Beneath the Sea Isabel Allende talks about her latest novel, Island Beneath the Sea. Spanning four decades, it tells the story of the intertwined lives of Tété, a slave born on the island of Saint-Domingue, and plantation manager Toulouse Valmorain. Event: Isabel Allende will be reading and signing books Monday, May 3, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Casino Jack Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney discusses the inside story of the corruption scandals that brought down lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He’s joined by former Ohio congressman Bob Ney, who was convicted in the prosecution of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and is featured Gibney’s latest film, "Casino Jack and the United States of Money." The film opens May 7 at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the Sunshine Cinema. Event: There will be a Q&A with director Alex Gibney, former OH congressman Bob Ney ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lynn Redgrave The stage and screen actress Lynn Redgrave will forever be recognized for her role as the gawky, winsome Georgy Girl in 1966, which gained her an Academy Award nomination. She was born into a family of over five generations of remarkable actors, including her father Sir Michael Redgrave and her sister, Vanessa and nieces Natasha and Joely Richardson. She had been battling breast cancer since 2003, and just died at 67. You can hear Leonard Lopate’s most recent interview with her from l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Casino Jack (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 May 2010) Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney discusses the inside story of the corruption scandals that brought down lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He’s joined by former Ohio congressman Bob Ney, who was convicted in the prosecution of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and is featured Gibney’s latest film, "Casino Jack and the United States of Money." The film opens May 7 at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the Sunshine Cinema. Event: There will be a Q&A with director Alex Gibney, former OH congressman Bob Ney ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Austrian Wines (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 May 2010) Chef Sommelier at 4-star Le Bernardin in New York City, Aldo Sohm, talks about Austrian Wines and brings along some samples. He won the 2009 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine Service, and has been named the “Best Sommelier in the World” from the Worldwide Sommelier Association, among other accolades. Event: Aldo Sohm is hosting an Austrian wine tasting Wednesday, May 5, 6:00 – 9:00 pm Tribeca Rooftop 2 Desbrosses Street Tickets: $55 in advance and online at www.austr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Island Beneath the Sea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 May 2010) Isabel Allende talks about her latest novel, Island Beneath the Sea. Spanning four decades, it tells the story of the intertwined lives of Tété, a slave born on the island of Saint-Domingue, and plantation manager Toulouse Valmorain. Event: Isabel Allende will be reading and signing books Monday, May 3, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Men Who Would Be King (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 May 2010) Variety reporter Nicole LaPorte, gives an insider’s account of the creation of Hollywood’s DreamWorks studio. In The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks she reveals Hollywood’s bizarre business rules, describes the clashes between Spielberg’s and Katzenberg’s, the disasters Oscar-winning triumphs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 April 2010) Film scholar Juan Salas talks about recently discovering an 18-minute film shot by Henri Cartier-Bresson called "With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain," made 1937-38. He’s be joined by Jeanne Houck, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, which is having a reunion program and reception on May 2 for New York City’s last Spanish Civil War activist. Read an article by Juan Salas on finding the film here. Event: Brigadistas & Activists: A Legacy Without Borders, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Off-Shore Oil Drilling With the recent explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil slick heading toward the shore, on today's Please Explain, we're looking into how offshore drilling is done how much oil might be discovered under the Atlantic now that the Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling. Paul Bommer, Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Petroleum and Geosystems En ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lend Me a Tenor Stanley Tucci, director of "Lend Me A Tenor," and Tony Shalhoub and Jan Maxwell, who star in it, discuss the play— a screwball comedy set in the 1930s. It’s playing at the Music Box Theatre. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Film scholar Juan Salas talks about recently discovering an 18-minute film shot by Henri Cartier-Bresson called "With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain," made 1937-38. He’s be joined by Jeanne Houck, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, which is having a reunion program and reception on May 2 for New York City’s last Spanish Civil War activist. Read an article by Juan Salas on finding the film here. Event: Brigadistas & Activists: A Legacy Without Borders, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trials of the Diaspora Anthony Julius discusses the history of anti-Semitism in England, beginning with the medieval persecution of Jews to he contemporary anti-Semitism that emerged in the late 1960s that dismisses the legitimacy of Zionism and the State of Israel. His book Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England is a ground-breaking look at the distinct forms of English anti-Semitism. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Off-Shore Oil Drilling (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 April 2010) With the recent explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil slick heading toward the shore, on today's Please Explain, we're looking into how offshore drilling is done how much oil might be discovered under the Atlantic now that the Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling. Paul Bommer, Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Petroleum and Geosystems En ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trials of the Diaspora (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 April 2010) Anthony Julius discusses the history of anti-Semitism in England, beginning with the medieval persecution of Jews to he contemporary anti-Semitism that emerged in the late 1960s that dismisses the legitimacy of Zionism and the State of Israel. His book Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England is a ground-breaking look at the distinct forms of English anti-Semitism. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lend Me a Tenor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 April 2010) Stanley Tucci, director of "Lend Me A Tenor," and Tony Shalhoub and Jan Maxwell, who star in it, discuss the play— a screwball comedy set in the 1930s. It’s playing at the Music Box Theatre. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The UK Elections British voters will head to polls next week to decide whether Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be replaced. On this edition of Backstory, Alex Barker, political correspondent for the Financial Times, and John Burns, London bureau chief for the New York Times, explains what the major issues have been in this year’s campaign, what the impact of the first televised debate has been, and why the third-party Liberal Democrats have been making a comeback in the polls. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Post Communist Hungary We’ll take a look at how Hungary has changed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union—and at the fallout from the main Hungarian center right party declaring victory in the recent parliamentary elections. We’ll be joined by Paul Hockenos, a journalist and political analyst based in Germany. Learn about other countries in our post communist states series: Ukraine and Poland. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Post Communist Hungary (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 April 2010) We’ll take a look at how Hungary has changed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union—and at the fallout from the main Hungarian center right party declaring victory in the recent parliamentary elections. We’ll be joined by Paul Hockenos, a journalist and political analyst based in Germany. Learn about other countries in our post communist states series: Ukraine and Poland. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Girl in Translation Jean Kwok discusses her debut novel, Girl in Translation, which tells the story of Kimberly Chang, who emigrates with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn and begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker at night. Events: Jean Kwok will be reading and signing books Thursday, April 29, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War Lovers Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, Evan Thomas, discusses how Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst fabricated evidence of a Spanish attack and pressed President McKinley to start the Spanish-American War. In The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898, he explains how that war would turn into a bloody quagmire that would come at tremendous cost. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hellhound in Memphis Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for His Assassin, and Stephen Ives, director of the documentary "Roads to Memphis," talk about James Earl Ray, the escaped convict who shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King. They recount his escape from prison, his journeys across the country in pursuit of King, and the international search for him after the assassination. "Roads to Memphis" part of PBS’s American Experien ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Girl in Translation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 April 2010) Jean Kwok discusses her debut novel, Girl in Translation, which tells the story of Kimberly Chang, who emigrates with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn and begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker at night. Events: Jean Kwok will be reading and signing books Thursday, April 29, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hellhound in Memphis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 April 2010) Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for His Assassin, and Stephen Ives, director of the documentary "Roads to Memphis," talk about James Earl Ray, the escaped convict who shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King. They recount his escape from prison, his journeys across the country in pursuit of King, and the international search for him after the assassination. "Roads to Memphis" part of PBS’s American Experien ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War Lovers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 April 2010) Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, Evan Thomas, discusses how Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst fabricated evidence of a Spanish attack and pressed President McKinley to start the Spanish-American War. In The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898, he explains how that war would turn into a bloody quagmire that would come at tremendous cost. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The UK Elections (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 April 2010) British voters will head to polls next week to decide whether Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be replaced. On this edition of Backstory, Alex Barker, political correspondent for the Financial Times, and John Burns, London bureau chief for the New York Times, explains what the major issues have been in this year’s campaign, what the impact of the first televised debate has been, and why the third-party Liberal Democrats have been making a comeback in the polls. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Molly Ringwald (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 April 2010) Molly Ringwaldtalks about her career, which took off when she starred in the John Hughes high school classics "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Pretty in Pink," and about turning 40. InGetting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Shade of Lipstick,she shares personal anecdotes and insights about sex and beauty, personal style, travel and entertaining, motherhood, and friendship. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Molly Ringwald Molly Ringwald talks about her career, which took off when she starred in the John Hughes high school classics "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Pretty in Pink," and about turning 40. In Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Shade of Lipstick, she shares personal anecdotes and insights about sex and beauty, personal style, travel and entertaining, motherhood, and friendship. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Life of Lucia Chase Alex C. Ewing, chancellor emeritus of the North Carolina School of the Arts and former general director of the Joffrey Ballet-- and Lucia Chase's son--and Kevin McKenzie, art director of the America Ballet Theater, discuss the legacy of ballet great Lucia Chase. She brought Nureyev, Bujones, Kirkland, and eventually Baryshnikov to ABT, and, under her leadership, the company worked with such legends as Agnes de Mille, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp. Alex C. Ewing’s book Bra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Doctor Zhivago" at 45 May marks the 45th anniversary of “Doctor Zhivago,” David Lean’s romantic epic film, adapted from Boris Pasternak’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Rita Tushingham, who played Lara and Zhivago’s daughter Tonya Komarovskaya, talks about making the film, its legacy, and its state-of-the-art restoration. "Doctor Zhivago" is being screened April 28th at 6:00 pm Chelsea Clearview Cinemas 260 West 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues Omar Sharif, who played Yuri in "Doctor Zhiva ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Days of Fear Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, talks about being kidnapped with his driver in Afghanistan and threatened with death if Italy didn’t remove troops from Afghanistan. When this demand wasn’t met, the driver was decapitated and the video of the murder was circulated worldwide by the Taliban. In Days of Fear: A Firsthand Account of Captivity Under the New Taliban he gives an account of his captivity in Afghanistan and his release. Events: Daniele Mastrogiacomo will be in conversa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Doctor Zhivago" at 45 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 April 2010) May marks the 45th anniversary of “Doctor Zhivago,” David Lean’s romantic epic film, adapted from Boris Pasternak’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.Rita Tushingham,who played Lara and Zhivago’s daughter Tonya Komarovskaya, talks about making the film, its legacy, and its state-of-the-art restoration."Doctor Zhivago" is being screened April 28th at 6:00 pmChelsea Clearview Cinemas260 West 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th AvenuesOmar Sharif,who played Yuri in "Doctor Zhivago," was on t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Days of Fear (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 April 2010) Italian journalistDaniele Mastrogiacomo,talks about being kidnapped with his driver in Afghanistan and threatened with death if Italy didn’t remove troops from Afghanistan. When this demand wasn’t met, the driver was decapitated and the video of the murder was circulated worldwide by the Taliban. InDays of Fear: A Firsthand Account of Captivity Under the New Talibanhe gives an account of his captivity in Afghanistan and his release.Events:Daniele Mastrogiacomo will be in conversation wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Life of Lucia Chase (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 April 2010) Alex C. Ewing,chancellor emeritus of the North Carolina School of the Arts and former general director of the Joffrey Ballet-- and Lucia Chase's son--andKevin McKenzie,art director of the America Ballet Theater, discuss the legacy of ballet great Lucia Chase. She brought Nureyev, Bujones, Kirkland, and eventually Baryshnikov to ABT, and, under her leadership, the company worked with such legends as Agnes de Mille, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp. Alex C. Ewing’s bookBravura ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jules Feiffer Award-winning cartoonist, playwright, and author Jules Feiffer, talks about his life and his rise from a fearful kid with learning problems and a controlling mother, to working under the legendary Will Eisner and creating his subversive graphic novella Munro. His memoir is Backing into Forward. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The “Origin” Then and Now Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is one of the most widely cited books in modern science. David Reznick explains how he made Darwin's masterwork accessible to a wider audience by deconstructing and reorganizing it to clarify its key concepts. His book The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin” of Species shows how many peculiarities of the Origin can be explained by the state of science in 1859, and he reconciles Darwin's concept of species with our current c ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Long Song Andrea Levy discusses her novel The Long Song. It tells the story of slavery in Jamaica, the bloody Baptist war, and the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gringo Nightmare Eric Volz talks about being arrested, imprisoned, and wrongly accused of murder in Nicaragua. He tells the story in Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jules Feiffer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 April 2010) Award-winning cartoonist, playwright, and author Jules Feiffer, talks about his life and his rise from a fearful kid with learning problems and a controlling mother, to working under the legendary Will Eisner and creating his subversive graphic novella Munro. His memoir is Backing into Forward. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gringo Nightmare (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 April 2010) Eric Volz talks about being arrested, imprisoned, and wrongly accused of murder in Nicaragua. He tells the story in Gringo Nightmare: A Young American Framed for Murder in Nicaragua. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Long Song (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 April 2010) Andrea Levy discusses her novel The Long Song. It tells the story of slavery in Jamaica, the bloody Baptist war, and the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The “Origin” Then and Now (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 April 2010) Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is one of the most widely cited books in modern science. David Reznick explains how he made Darwin's masterwork accessible to a wider audience by deconstructing and reorganizing it to clarify its key concepts. His book The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin” of Species shows how many peculiarities of the Origin can be explained by the state of science in 1859, and he reconciles Darwin's concept of species with our current c ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The PEN World Voices Festival Salman Rushdie, and Caro Llewellyn, PEN World Voices Festival and Public Programs Director, discuss this year’s PEN World Voices Festival. It’s the only international literary festival in the United States, and the 2010 festival includes some 150 authors, in New York for a week of conversations, panels, readings, and performance. This year the PEN Festival also will be hosting a series of events in 10 other cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and Pittsburgh. Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The My Lai Massacre Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Barak Goodman discusses his documentary, “My Lai,” about the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities and then bring them to light. “My Lai” airs on PBS’s “American Experience” April 26 at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Operation Babylift Dana Sachs examines "Operation Babylift," the U.S. government’s plan for nearly 3,000 displaced Vietnamese children to be placed with adoptive families overseas. It was launched in April 1975, just before the fall of Saigon. In The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam, Sachs looks at how "Operation Babylift” irrevocably altered thousands of lives, not always for the better. Events: Dana Sachs will be in discussion: Monday, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smoke and Mirrors Nobel Prize-winning scientist Burton Richter, who has served on U.S. and international review committees on climate change and energy issues, discusses the sensible, senseless, and biased proposals for averting the consequences of global warming. In Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century, he provides an overview of what we know about climate change, discusses current energy demand and supply, and the energy options available to cut greenhouse gas emissions ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The PEN World Voices Festival (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 April 2010) Salman Rushdie, and Caro Llewellyn, PEN World Voices Festival and Public Programs Director, discuss this year’s PEN World Voices Festival. It’s the only international literary festival in the United States, and the 2010 festival includes some 150 authors, in New York for a week of conversations, panels, readings, and performance. This year the PEN Festival also will be hosting a series of events in 10 other cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and Pittsburgh. The schedule ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The My Lai Massacre (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 April 2010) Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Barak Goodman discusses his documentary, “My Lai,” about the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities and then bring them to light. “My Lai” airs on PBS’s “American Experience” April 26 at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smoke and Mirrors (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 April 2010) Nobel Prize-winning scientist Burton Richter, who has served on U.S. and international review committees on climate change and energy issues, discusses the sensible, senseless, and biased proposals for averting the consequences of global warming. In Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century, he provides an overview of what we know about climate change, discusses current energy demand and supply, and the energy options available to cut greenhouse gas emissions ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Operation Babylift (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 April 2010) Dana Sachs examines "Operation Babylift," the U.S. government’s plan for nearly 3,000 displaced Vietnamese children to be placed with adoptive families overseas. It was launched in April 1975, just before the fall of Saigon. In The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam, Sachs looks at how "Operation Babylift” irrevocably altered thousands of lives, not always for the better. Events: Dana Sachs will be in discussion: Monday, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Recycling Plastic Our latest Please Explain is all about plastic recycling! Eric Goldstein, senior attorney in the Natural Resource Defense Council's New York office and co-director of NRDC's urban program, joins us to explain what happens after plastic is tossed into the recycling bin and goes through the process of being re-created and reused. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Behind the Burly Q" Filmmaker Leslie Zemeckis discusses her documentary “Behind the Burly Q,” a comprehensive look at burlesque as told by the women performers themselves. April March, one of the dancers featured in the film, also joins us. The documentary focuses on all the performers of the Burlesque era--including male comedians, novelty acts, and musicians--not just strippers. “Behind the Burly Q” opens on April 23 at the Quad Cinema. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anna Halprin Dance pioneer Anna Halprin and filmmaker Ruedi Gerber discuss the documentary “Breath Made Visible.” It's the first feature-length documentary on the life and career of Anna Halprin (who will turn 90 years old in July), who redefined our notions of modern art and the power of dance. The film opens April 23 at Cinema Village. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Planets with Backwards Orbits? Earlier this month a group of European astronomers announced that they have discovered distant planets which orbit their suns the wrong way. The discovery has shattered the way scientists thought planets formed. For more, we'll speak with Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer of the Franklin Institute Science Museum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website “The Glass Menagerie” Gordon Edelstein, director of a new production of “The Glass Menagerie,” by Tennessee Williams, and two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey, who plays matriarch Amanda Wingfield, discuss the classic American drama and this daring new production. It’s playing at the Roundabout Theater Company’s Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre through June 13. Ticket information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Recycling Plastic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 April 2010) Our latest Please Explain is all about plastic recycling! Eric Goldstein, senior attorney in the Natural Resource Defense Council's New York office and co-director of NRDC's urban program, joins us to explain what happens after plastic is tossed into the recycling bin and goes through the process of being re-created and reused. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Planets with Backwards Orbits? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 April 2010) Earlier this month a group of European astronomers announced that they have discovered distant planets which orbit their suns the wrong way. The discovery has shattered the way scientists thought planets formed. For more, we'll speak with Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer of the Franklin Institute Science Museum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anna Halprin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 April 2010) Dance pioneer Anna Halprin and filmmaker Ruedi Gerber discuss the documentary “Breath Made Visible.” It's the first feature-length documentary on the life and career of Anna Halprin (who will turn 90 years old in July), who redefined our notions of modern art and the power of dance. The film opens April 23 at Cinema Village. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Behind the Burly Q" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 April 2010) Filmmaker Leslie Zemeckis discusses her documentary “Behind the Burly Q,” a comprehensive look at burlesque as told by the women performers themselves. April March, one of the dancers featured in the film, also joins us. The documentary focuses on all the performers of the Burlesque era--including male comedians, novelty acts, and musicians--not just strippers. “Behind the Burly Q” opens on April 23 at the Quad Cinema. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website “The Glass Menagerie” (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 April 2010) Gordon Edelstein, director of a new production of “The Glass Menagerie,” by Tennessee Williams, and two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey, who plays matriarch Amanda Wingfield, discuss the classic American drama and this daring new production. It’s playing at the Roundabout Theater Company’s Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre through June 13. Ticket information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: The Democratic Republic of Congo Earlier this month, eight International Red Cross workers were kidnapped and later released in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On this week’s second Underreported, Jon Elliott, Africa Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch describes the situation in the DRC and why violence there continues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Refugees In Pakistan It has been nearly a year since fighting in north-west Pakistan displaced more than 3 million people. Today, there are still an estimated 1.3 million refugees in the country. We’ll get an update on the situation from Michael Young, International Rescue Committee’s Asia Regional Director, who until recently was director of Pakistan programs for the International Rescue Committee. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pearl of China Novelist Anchee Min discusses her latest book, Pearl of China. It takes place at the end of the nineteenth century in China, and tells the story of nine-year-old Willow, the only child of a poor family, and her life-long friendship with Pearl, the eldest daughter of a zealous American missionary. It’s based on the life of Pearl S Buck, the Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning writer and humanitarian activist. Event: Anchee Min will be reading and signing books Thursday, April 22, at 7:00 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Great Textbook War Trey Kay, producer, of the radio documentary “The Great Textbook War,” discusses the controversy that broke out in 1974 in Kanawha County, West Virginia, over newly adopted school textbooks. Supporters thought the textbooks would introduce students to multiculturalism, while opponents felt they undermined traditional American values. “The Great Textbook War” just won a Peabody Award, and it will be airing on WNYC Saturday, April 24, at 2 pm, and Sunday, April 25, at 8 pm on AM820, a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WikiLeaks and Investigative Journalism The video “Collateral Murder,” depicting a missile strike in Baghdad that killed a Reuters driver and photographer in 2007, has been viewed some 6 million times since it was posted early this month by the Web site WikiLeaks. We’ll speak with Clint Hendler, staff writer at Columbia Journalism Review, and Esther Kaplan, editor of the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, about the video and about WikiLeaks, a nonprofit organization that anonymously disseminates undisclosed documen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WikiLeaks and Investigative Journalism (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 April 2010) The video “Collateral Murder,” depicting a missile strike in Baghdad that killed a Reuters driver and photographer in 2007, has been viewed some 6 million times since it was posted early this month by the Web site WikiLeaks. We’ll speak with Clint Hendler, staff writer at Columbia Journalism Review, and Esther Kaplan, editor of the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, about the video and about WikiLeaks, a nonprofit organization that anonymously disseminates undisclosed documen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: The Democratic Republic of Congo (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 April 2010) Earlier this month, eight International Red Cross workers were kidnapped and later released in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On this week’s second Underreported, Jon Elliott, Africa Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch describes the situation in the DRC and why violence there continues. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: Refugees In Pakistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 April 2010) It has been nearly a year since fighting in north-west Pakistan displaced more than 3 million people. Today, there are still an estimated 1.3 million refugees in the country. We’ll get an update on the situation from Michael Young, International Rescue Committee’s Asia Regional Director, who until recently was director of Pakistan programs for the International Rescue Committee. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Great Textbook War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 April 2010) Trey Kay, producer, of the radio documentary “The Great Textbook War,” discusses the controversy that broke out in 1974 in Kanawha County, West Virginia, over newly adopted school textbooks. Supporters thought the textbooks would introduce students to multiculturalism, while opponents felt they undermined traditional American values. “The Great Textbook War” just won a Peabody Award, and it will be airing on WNYC Saturday, April 24, at 2 pm, and Sunday, April 25, at 8 pm on AM820, a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pearl of China (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 April 2010) Novelist Anchee Min discusses her latest book, Pearl of China. It takes place at the end of the nineteenth century in China, and tells the story of nine-year-old Willow, the only child of a poor family, and her life-long friendship with Pearl, the eldest daughter of a zealous American missionary. It’s based on the life of Pearl S Buck, the Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning writer and humanitarian activist. Event: Anchee Min will be reading and signing books Thursday, April 22, at 7:00 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyber War Richard A. Clarke warns us of the havoc a cyber attack would wreak on our national security, and explains what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to a web of cyber criminals. In Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, he traces the rise of the cyber age—from the first cyber crisis meeting in the White House a decade ago to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the electrical tunnels under Manha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Something Red Jennifer Gilmore discusses her second novel Something Red. Set in 1979, it tells the story of life inside the Goldstein home, which is as tumultuous as the shifting landscape of the times. Event: Jennifer Gilmore will be in conversation with the fiction writers Rachel DeWoskin and Shannan Rouss Thursday, April 22, at 7:00 pm NYU's Lillian Vernon Writers House 58 West 10th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Game of Character Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother, talks about the family members and mentors who have shaped his life. His memoir A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond is about his important influences and his journey from the basketball courts of Chicago's Southside to Princeton University to Europe, the business world, and to his position as basketball coach at Oregon State University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Game of Character (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 April 2010) Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother, talks about the family members and mentors who have shaped his life. His memoir A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond is about his important influences and his journey from the basketball courts of Chicago's Southside to Princeton University to Europe, the business world, and to his position as basketball coach at Oregon State University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyber War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 April 2010) Richard A. Clarke warns us of the havoc a cyber attack would wreak on our national security, and explains what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to a web of cyber criminals. In Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, he traces the rise of the cyber age—from the first cyber crisis meeting in the White House a decade ago to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the electrical tunnels under Manhattan ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Something Red (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 April 2010) Jennifer Gilmore discusses her second novel Something Red. Set in 1979, it tells the story of life inside the Goldstein home, which is as tumultuous as the shifting landscape of the times. Event: Jennifer Gilmore will be in conversation with the fiction writers Rachel DeWoskin and Shannan Rouss Thursday, April 22, at 7:00 pm NYU's Lillian Vernon Writers House 58 West 10th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 April 2010) Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Emerald Cities Author and urban planner Joan Fitzgerald, and Dan Miner, chair of Sierra Club NYC, look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, more sustainable forms of economic development, and looks at the role of state and national government policy in helping cities create clean technology growth. In Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, Joan Fitzgerald shows how cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle have taken the le ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Neighborhood Journalist and author Peter Lovenheim talks about his quest to meet his neighbors and find a sense of community on his street suburban Rochester, NY. In In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time, Lovenheim takes readers inside the homes, hearts, and minds of his neighbors and explores the questions: do neighborhoods matter, and is something lost when we live among strangers? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Parrot and Olivier in America Two-time winner of the Booker Prize, Peter Carey, discusses his latest novel, Parrot and Olivier in America. It tells the story of an unlikely friendship between Olivier, the traumatized child of aristocrats who survived the French Revolution, and Parrot, the son of an English printer, who travel to America to explore the experiment of American democracy in the 19th century. Event: Peter Carey will be in conversation with Edmund White and Claire Messud Tuesday, April 20, at 7:00 pm New Yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bounce Matthew Syed, columnist for The Times of London and a commentator for the BBC, explores our competitive nature. He explains why some people thrive under pressure while others choke and considers the value of innate talent versus practice, hard work, and will. His book Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success looks at what the nature of competition reveals about biology and economics, psychology and culture, genetics and race, and sports and politics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bounce (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 April 2010) Matthew Syed, columnist for The Times of London and a commentator for the BBC, explores our competitive nature. He explains why some people thrive under pressure while others choke and considers the value of innate talent versus practice, hard work, and will. His book Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success looks at what the nature of competition reveals about biology and economics, psychology and culture, genetics and race, and sports and politics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Parrot and Olivier in America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 April 2010) Two-time winner of the Booker Prize, Peter Carey, discusses his latest novel, Parrot and Olivier in America. It tells the story of an unlikely friendship between Olivier, the traumatized child of aristocrats who survived the French Revolution, and Parrot, the son of an English printer, who travel to America to explore the experiment of American democracy in the 19th century. Event: Peter Carey will be in conversation with Edmund White and Claire Messud Tuesday, April 20, at 7:00 pm New Yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Neighborhood (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 April 2010) Journalist and author Peter Lovenheim talks about his quest to meet his neighbors and find a sense of community on his street suburban Rochester, NY. In In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time, Lovenheim takes readers inside the homes, hearts, and minds of his neighbors and explores the questions: do neighborhoods matter, and is something lost when we live among strangers? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Emerald Cities (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 April 2010) Author and urban planner Joan Fitzgerald, and Dan Miner, chair of Sierra Club NYC, look at how American cities are leading the way toward greener, cleaner, more sustainable forms of economic development, and looks at the role of state and national government policy in helping cities create clean technology growth. In Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, Joan Fitzgerald shows how cities like Chicago, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle have taken the le ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Contested Will Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him, and examines the history of the controversy, what it means, why it matters, and how it has persisted. In Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? he looks at how the questions of whether Shakespeare wrote his plays are fundamental questions about literary genius and about the relationship between life and art. Event: James Shapiro will be speaking ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Contested Will (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 19 April 2010) Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him, and examines the history of the controversy, what it means, why it matters, and how it has persisted. In Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? he looks at how the questions of whether Shakespeare wrote his plays are fundamental questions about literary genius and about the relationship between life and art. Event: James Shapiro will be speaking ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Persuasion Every day we see hundreds—perhaps thousands—of marketing messages. Terry O’Reilly discusses our marketing-driven world and gives an inside view of a rapidly evolving industry. He’s the author of The Age of Persuasion, written with Mike Tennant, with whom he also co-hosts the radio show “The Age of Persuasion,” on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Radio. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Eastern Stars Mark Kurlansky describes what makes the Dominican Republic sugar mill town of San Pedro a source of some of the best Dominican players in the Major Leagues—Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez. In The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Marcoris, he tells how the history of baseball players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chemical Regulation Monona Rossol, industrial hygienist and founder and president of Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc., discusses the European Union's adopting new labeling and information systems and requirements for industry testing of chemicals before they’re used in consumer products. She'll look at why U.S. manufacturers resist chemical testing and provide such limited safety information. The United States will either have to adopt the EU's policies by 2012 or find our products banned from the Europea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chemical Regulation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 19 April 2010) Monona Rossol, industrial hygienist and founder and president of Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc., discusses the European Union's adopting new labeling and information systems and requirements for industry testing of chemicals before they’re used in consumer products. She'll look at why U.S. manufacturers resist chemical testing and provide such limited safety information. The United States will either have to adopt the EU's policies by 2012 or find our products banned from the Europea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Persuasion (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 19 April 2010) Every day we see hundreds—perhaps thousands—of marketing messages. Terry O’Reilly discusses our marketing-driven world and gives an inside view of a rapidly evolving industry. He’s the author of The Age of Persuasion, written with Mike Tennant, with whom he also co-hosts the radio show “The Age of Persuasion,” on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Radio. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Eastern Stars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 19 April 2010) Mark Kurlansky describes what makes the Dominican Republic sugar mill town of San Pedro a source of some of the best Dominican players in the Major Leagues—Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez. In The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Marcoris, he tells how the history of baseball players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Food Labels Sugary cereals claim to be "heart healthy" and packages that say a food is "all natural" still have a list of mysterious ingredients. On today’s edition of Please Explain, Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University, and author of the blog www.foodpolitics.com, and Urvashi Rangan, Director of Consumer Report's GreenerChoices.org and Consumers Union's Director of Technical Poli ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Translating Celestina Peter Bush discusses his new translation of Celestina, by Fernando Rojas, the lively Spanish tragicomedy considered to be the first European novel. Published in 1499 and became Spain's first-ever bestseller, and Fernando de Rojas's mix of street wit, obscenity, and culture paved the way for Cervantes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010 Whitney Biennial Curator Gary Carrion-Murayari, one of the two organizers of the 2010 Whitney Biennial, and artist Josephine Meckseper discuss this year’s biennial, the museum’s 75th. The Biennial is the Whitney’s panoramic survey of the latest in American art, and it includes well established artists along with emerging artists from all over the country. Their works range from film and video to photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, and architecture. The Biennial is on ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yemen Victoria Clark, former correspondent and Moscow bureau chief for the Observer, discusses Yemen. The poorest state in the Arab world, it’s still dominated by its tribal makeup and, due to its instability, has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements. In Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes, she untangles Yemen’s history and examines the country’s role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2010 Whitney Biennial (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 April 2010) CuratorGary Carrion-Murayari,one of the two organizers of the2010 Whitney Biennial,and artistJosephine Meckseperdiscuss this year’s biennial, the museum’s 75th. The Biennial is the Whitney’s panoramic survey of the latest in American art, and it includes well established artists along with emerging artists from all over the country. Their works range from film and video to photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, and architecture. The Biennial is on view a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yemen (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 April 2010) Victoria Clark,former correspondent and Moscow bureau chief for theObserver,discusses Yemen. The poorest state in the Arab world, it’sstill dominated by its tribal makeup and, due to its instability, has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements. InYemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes,she untangles Yemen’s history and examines the country’s role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Translating Celestina (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 April 2010) Peter Bushdiscusses his new translation ofCelestina,by Fernando Rojas, the lively Spanish tragicomedy considered to be the first European novel. Published in 1499 and became Spain's first-ever bestseller, and Fernando de Rojas's mix of street wit, obscenity, and culture paved the way for Cervantes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Food Labels (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 April 2010) Sugary cereals claim to be "heart healthy" and packages that say a food is "all natural" still have a list of mysterious ingredients. On today’s edition of Please Explain,Marion Nestle,Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University, and author of the blogwww.foodpolitics.com,andUrvashi Rangan,Director ofConsumer Report'sGreenerChoices.organd Consumers Union's Director of Technical Policy, join us ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bill Forsyth Award-winning independent Scottish writer and director Bill Forsyth talks about his career and making his films “Housekeeping,” “Local Hero,” and “Gregory’s Girl,” among others.  Film Forum is screening "Gregory's Girl" and "Local Hero" on April 22. Ticket information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Post Soviet Poland We’ll take a look at how Poland has changed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union—and at the fallout from last week’s tragic plane crash—on today’s Backstory segment. We’ll be joined by Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University and a Poland expert. Mr. Snyder is also the author of The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke. You can hear Leonard’s interview with Prof. Snyder about Post-Soviet Ukraine here. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Undereported: Brazil, Biofuels, and Deforrestation Plant-derived ethanol has long been touted as a green alternative to regular gasoline for cars. Since the 1970s, Brazil has embraced ethanol derived from sugar cane and lavished the sugar industry with government subsidies, making the biofuel cheap and plentiful. Today, 90% of new cars sold in Brazil can run on ethanol, and the country has avoided emitting hundreds of millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. But the explosion of sugar cane production for ethanol threatens the rainfor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Thousand Sisters One afternoon in 2005 Lisa Shannon saw an episode of Oprah on women in Congo and the atrocities happening there, and it changed her life. She describes how she felt called to action, and how she began raising money to sponsor Congolese women and founded a national organization, Run for Congo Women. Her memoir, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey of Hope Into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman chronicles her journey to the Congo to meet the women her run sponsored, and shares their stories. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Have You Heard from Johannesburg Director Connie Field and anti-apartheid activist Adwoa Dunn-Mouton discuss “Have You Heard from Johannesburg,” Field's seven-film documentary on the worldwide movement to abolish South Africa’s racist system of Apartheid. “Have You Heard from Johannesburg” is playing at Film Forum April 14-27. More information, schedule, and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Thousand Sisters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 April 2010) One afternoon in 2005 Lisa Shannon saw an episode of Oprah on women in Congo and the atrocities happening there, and it changed her life. She describes how she felt called to action, and how she began raising money to sponsor Congolese women and founded a national organization, Run for Congo Women. Her memoir, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey of Hope Into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman chronicles her journey to the Congo to meet the women her run sponsored, and shares their stories. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Undereported: Brazil, Biofuels, and Deforrestation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 April 2010) Plant-derived ethanol has long been touted as a green alternative to regular gasoline for cars. Since the 1970s, Brazil has embraced ethanol derived from sugar cane and lavished the sugar industry with government subsidies, making the biofuel cheap and plentiful. Today, 90% of new cars sold in Brazil can run on ethanol, and the country has avoided emitting hundreds of millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. But the explosion of sugar cane production for ethanol threatens the rainfor ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bill Forsyth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 April 2010) Award-winning independent Scottish writer and director Bill Forsyth talks about his career and making his films “Housekeeping,” “Local Hero,” and “Gregory’s Girl,” among others. Film Forum is screening "Gregory's Girl" and "Local Hero" on April 22. Ticket information here. Event: Bill Forsyth will be in conversation with Jim Healy, assistant film curator at George Eastman House in Rochester Thursday, April 15, after the 7:15 pm screening of “Housekeeping” Film Forum 20 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Have You Heard from Johannesburg (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 April 2010) Director Connie Field and anti-apartheid activist Adwoa Dunn-Mouton discuss “Have You Heard from Johannesburg,” Field's seven-film documentary on the worldwide movement to abolish South Africa’s racist system of Apartheid. “Have You Heard from Johannesburg” is playing at Film Forum April 14-27. More information, schedule, and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Post Soviet Poland (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 April 2010) We’ll take a look at how Poland has changed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union—and at the fallout from last week’s tragic plane crash—on today’s Backstory segment. We’ll be joined by Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University and a Poland expert. Mr. Snyder is also the author of The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke. You can hear Leonard’s interview with Prof. Snyder about Post-Soviet Ukraine here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Alex Timbers’s critically acclaimed rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” has returned to The Public after a sold-out run last spring as part of The Public’s Public LAB season. Ben Walker, who plays Andrew Jackson, and Michael Friedman, who wrote the music and lyrics, discuss the play. It's playing through Sunday, May, 9th. Find out more about "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," and see a video of the show, on the WNYC Culture site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Razzle Dazzle Mitzi Gaynor, Golden Globe nominee for the 1958 film “South Pacific” and Emmy Award winner for her many TV variety specials, discusses her career and her upcoming New York debut of “Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins.” She’s performing with a seven piece band in the Feinstein’s at Loews Regency ballroom, 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street, May 18-22 and May 25-29. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Murder City Ciudad Juárez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Once a thriving border town, it now has a murder rate that exceeds that of Baghdad—in 2009 more than 1,986 people were killed in Juarez. Charles Bowden, one of the few journalists who’s spent extended periods of time in Juárez, describes what’s happening in that disintegrating city. In Murder City: Cuidad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields he interweaves stories of Juarez’s residents with a broader med ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Razzle Dazzle (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 April 2010) Mitzi Gaynor, Golden Globe nominee for the 1958 film “South Pacific” and Emmy Award winner for her many TV variety specials, discusses her career and her upcoming New York debut of “Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins.” She’s performing with a seven piece band in the Feinstein’s at Loews Regency ballroom, 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street, May 18-22 and May 25-29. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 April 2010) Alex Timbers’s critically acclaimed rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” has returned to The Public after a sold-out run last spring as part of The Public’s Public LAB season. Ben Walker, who plays Andrew Jackson, and Michael Friedman, who wrote the music and lyrics, discuss the play. It's playing through Sunday, May, 9th. Find out more about "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," and see a video of the show, on the WNYC Culture site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Accurate Building Inspectors Web site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Murder City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 April 2010) Ciudad Juárez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Once a thriving border town, it now has a murder rate that exceeds that of Baghdad—in 2009 more than 1,986 people were killed in Juarez. Charles Bowden, one of the few journalists who’s spent extended periods of time in Juárez, describes what’s happening in that disintegrating city. In Murder City: Cuidad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields he interweaves stories of Juarez’s residents with a broader med ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 April 2010) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pacific (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 April 2010) Hugh Ambrose tells the story of the intertwined lives of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II. His book The Pacific, companion to the HBO miniseries, the real-life stories of men who fought in the Pacific--from Bataan, Midway, and Guadalcanal to Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa to the survivors’ return home. Event: Hugh Ambrose will be reading and signing books Wednesday, April 14, from 12:00-2:00 pm HBO Shop 1100 Avenue of the Americas, at 42nd Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reality Hunger Reality TV has taken over the networks, and YouTube and Facebook dominate the Web. David Shields argues that our culture is obsessed with “reality” because we experience hardly any in our real lives. In Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, he explores the bending of form and genre and the blur of fiction and reality. Event: David Shields will be part of a panel discussion, titled "Nonfiction Under Oath" with Wayne Koestenbaum, Brenda Wineapple, and John D’Agata Tuesday, April 13, at 6:30 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pacific Hugh Ambrose tells the story of the intertwined lives of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II. His book The Pacific, companion to the HBO miniseries, the real-life stories of men who fought in the Pacific--from Bataan, Midway, and Guadalcanal to Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa to the survivors’ return home. Event: Hugh Ambrose will be reading and signing books Wednesday, April 14, from 12:00-2:00 pm HBO Shop 1100 Avenue of the Americas, at 42nd Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Overcoming Speechlessness Alice Walker talks about her trips to Rwanda and the eastern Congo to witness the aftermath of the genocide in Kigali, and to the Gaza Strip. In Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel, she bears witness to cruelty she saw, and presents the stories of suffering from the individuals she encountered. Event: Alice Walker will be in conversation with Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now and she’ll be signing books Tuesday, April 1 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Life on Eaarth Bill McKibben, founder of the environmental organizations Step It Up and 350.org, was one of the first to start issuing warnings about global warming. He discusses why he believes we’ve waited too long to act, and what we can do to adapt to climate change already under way. His book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet is a call to action to change our way of life in order to survive on this new, changed planet. Event: Bill McKibben will be speaking, reading, and signing books T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reality Hunger (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 April 2010) Reality TV has taken over the networks, and YouTube and Facebook dominate the Web. David Shields argues that our culture is obsessed with “reality” because we experience hardly any in our real lives. In Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, he explores the bending of form and genre and the blur of fiction and reality. Event: David Shields will be part of a panel discussion, titled "Nonfiction Under Oath" with Wayne Koestenbaum, Brenda Wineapple, and John D’Agata Tuesday, April 13, at 6:30 p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Life on Eaarth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 April 2010) Bill McKibben, founder of the environmental organizations Step It Up and 350.org, was one of the first to start issuing warnings about global warming. He discusses why he believes we’ve waited too long to act, and what we can do to adapt to climate change already under way. His book Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet is a call to action to change our way of life in order to survive on this new, changed planet. Event: Bill McKibben will be speaking, reading, and signing books T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Overcoming Speechlessness (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 April 2010) Alice Walker talks about her trips to Rwanda and the eastern Congo to witness the aftermath of the genocide in Kigali, and to the Gaza Strip. In Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel, she bears witness to cruelty she saw, and presents the stories of suffering from the individuals she encountered. Event: Alice Walker will be in conversation with Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now and she’ll be signing books Tuesday, April 1 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wisdom Stephen S. Hall explores the history of wisdom and its journey from philosophy to science. He looks at how wisdom became one of our most cherished ideals, and at the efforts of modern science to penetrate the mysterious nature of it. In Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience he reveals how wisdom became the provenance of philosophy and religion, how it has been a catalyst for social change, and how, in the last fifty years, psychologists, economists, and neuroscientists have begun to shed ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Line Novelist Olga Grushin discusses her latest book, The Line, about the universal symbol of scarcity and bureaucracy that exists wherever petty officials abuse their powers. It tells the story of what happens when a line begins to form for tickets to a concert by an exiled composer returning to Moscow. The ticket window stays closed, but the line continues to grow, and people wait day after day after day. Event: Olga Grushin will be reading and signing books Monday, April 12, at 7:00 pm McN ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An Angel from Hell Ryan Conklin enlisted in the Army when he was 17, following 9/11. He served in Tikrit, Iraq, as a turret gunner with the 101st Airborne and was a member of the famed "Rakkasans" regiment—the most decorated regiment in the U.S. Army. When he returned home, he became a cast member on MTV’s “The Real World: Brooklyn” in 2008, and was recalled to duty. He gives an account of his experience in Iraq in An Angel from Hell: Real Life on the Front Lines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Afghanistan Live from Kandahar, Sarah Chayes gives us an update on what’s going on in Afghanistan. She’s been living and working in Kandahar since 2001, when she covered the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio. In 2002 she decided to leave journalism to help rebuild the country, whose fate will help determine the shape of the 21st century. She runs the Arghand cooperative in Kandahar, and is a former special advisor to the command of the international forces in Afghanistan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Afghanistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 April 2010) Live from Kandahar, Sarah Chayes gives us an update on what’s going on in Afghanistan. She’s been living and working in Kandahar since 2001, when she covered the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio. In 2002 she decided to leave journalism to help rebuild the country, whose fate will help determine the shape of the 21st century. She runs the Arghand cooperative in Kandahar, and is a former special advisor to the command of the international forces in Afghanistan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An Angel from Hell (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 April 2010) Ryan Conklin enlisted in the Army when he was 17, following 9/11. He served in Tikrit, Iraq, as a turret gunner with the 101st Airborne and was a member of the famed "Rakkasans" regiment—the most decorated regiment in the U.S. Army. When he returned home, he became a cast member on MTV’s “The Real World: Brooklyn” in 2008, and was recalled to duty. He gives an account of his experience in Iraq in An Angel from Hell: Real Life on the Front Lines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Line (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 April 2010) Novelist Olga Grushin discusses her latest book, The Line, about the universal symbol of scarcity and bureaucracy that exists wherever petty officials abuse their powers. It tells the story of what happens when a line begins to form for tickets to a concert by an exiled composer returning to Moscow. The ticket window stays closed, but the line continues to grow, and people wait day after day after day. Event: Olga Grushin will be reading and signing books Monday, April 12, at 7:00 pm McN ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wisdom (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 April 2010) Stephen S. Hall explores the history of wisdom and its journey from philosophy to science. He looks at how wisdom became one of our most cherished ideals, and at the efforts of modern science to penetrate the mysterious nature of it. In Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience he reveals how wisdom became the provenance of philosophy and religion, how it has been a catalyst for social change, and how, in the last fifty years, psychologists, economists, and neuroscientists have begun to shed ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dixie Carter Dixie Carter may have made her name on the hit television series Designing Women, and she also starred on Broadway in the revival of Pal Joey and in Master Class – but she admitted that she found the most creative satisfaction from her cabaret career (which began only in the 1980s) – “To me, there’s no feeling as gorgeous as the feeling of singing. It’s like flying.” Dixie Carter passed away just recently at the age of 70. She spoke with Leonard on March ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dixie Carter Dixie Carter may have made her name on the hit television series Designing Women, and she also starred on Broadway in the revival of Pal Joey and in Master Class – but she admitted that she found the most creative satisfaction from her cabaret career (which began only in the 1980s) – “To me, there’s no feeling as gorgeous as the feeling of singing. It’s like flying.” Dixie Carter passed away just recently at the age of 70. She spoke with Leonard on March ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Skin Care On this week's Please Explain, we're looking into skin care and skin care products. There are numerous lotions and potions that promise to restore youthful skin, but us there any truth to the claims they make? Dr. Michelle Hanjani, assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center joins us, along with Dr. Jessie Cheung, Associate Director of Cosmetic Dermatology and Assistant Professor of Dermatology, NYU Dermatologic Associates, NYU Langone Medical Center. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jesus of Nazareth Movie director Paul Verhoeven talks about his lifelong fascination with the facts and fictions surrounding the life of Jesus. He’s written a work of scholarship that paints a portrait of Jesus the man and Jesus the radical prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. We'll also talk about his career as a film director. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lee Strasberg Notes Lola Cohen and Anna Strasberg talk about Lee Strasberg’s unique teachings in actor training. Ms. Cohen is editor of The Lee Strasberg Notes, a document of the history and ongoing practice of Strasberg’s Method, based on unpublished transcripts of his classes on acting, directing, and Shakespeare. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The End of Wall Street Roger Lowenstein tells the full story of the end of Wall Street as we knew it. In The End of Wall Street he weaves together a financial, economic, and sociological thriller. He explains the origins of the crisis and looks at the lessons that should be learned from the collapse of 2008. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Skin Care (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 09 April 2010) On this week's Please Explain, we're looking into skin care and skin care products. There are numerous lotions and potions that promise to restore youthful skin, but us there any truth to the claims they make? Dr. Michelle Hanjani, assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center joins us, along with Dr. Jessie Cheung, Associate Director of Cosmetic Dermatology and Assistant Professor of Dermatology, NYU Dermatologic Associates, NYU Langone Medical Center. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jesus of Nazareth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 09 April 2010) Movie director Paul Verhoeven talks about his lifelong fascination with the facts and fictions surrounding the life of Jesus. He’s written a work of scholarship that paints a portrait of Jesus the man and Jesus the radical prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. We'll also talk about his career as a film director. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lee Strasberg Notes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 09 April 2010) Lola Cohen and Anna Strasberg talk about Lee Strasberg’s unique teachings in actor training. Ms. Cohen is editor of The Lee Strasberg Notes, a document of the history and ongoing practice of Strasberg’s Method, based on unpublished transcripts of his classes on acting, directing, and Shakespeare. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The End of Wall Street (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 09 April 2010) Roger Lowenstein tells the full story of the end of Wall Street as we knew it. In The End of Wall Street he weaves together a financial, economic, and sociological thriller. He explains the origins of the crisis and looks at the lessons that should be learned from the collapse of 2008. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dangerous Days at Sea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 April 2010) Richard Phillips, captain of United States-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama, discusses what happened when the ship was boarded last year by Somali pirates and took Captain Phillips hostage. The tense, five-day stand-off ended in a high-seas rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs. In A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, Phillips tells the full story. Event: Captain Richard Phillips will be speaking and signing books Thursday, April 8, at 7:00 pm RJ Julia Bookseller ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mark Twain’s Other Woman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 April 2010) Preeminent Twain scholar Laura Skandera Trombley, talks about what happened during the years after the death of Mark Twain’s wife and how that time affected him personally and professionally. In Mark Twain’s Other Woman, Trombley draws on sixteen years of research, uncovering never-before-read papers and personal letters, to tell the story of Isabel Lyon, the woman who played an important role in Twain’s life during those final years. Event: Laura Skandera Trombley will be speaking ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Company of Angels (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 April 2010) Thomas E. Kennedy discusses his novel In the Company of Angels, about a Chilean exile in Copenhagen who was imprisoned and tortured by Pinochet's henchmen for teaching political poetry and a survivor of domestic abuse who and the two struggle to heal and to forgive those who have harmed them. Event: Thomas Kennedy will be reading and signing books Thursday, April 8, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Massive Obama 2011 Defense Budget (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 April 2010) President Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review was released this week and has been hailed in some arms control circles for its limits on the first-use of nuclear weapons by the United States. But, the Obama Administration’s FY 2011 defense budget—even when adjusted for inflation—is larger than any Pentagon budget since World War II. We’ll talk to Slate’s "War Stories" columnist Fred Kaplan about the Obama defense budget on today’s Underreported segment. Mr. Kaplan is also the autho ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Net Neutrality (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 April 2010) We’ll take a look at just what Net Neutrality is and its uncertain future in the wake of Tuesday’s ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the FCC lacks the authority to make broadband providers treat all Internet traffic equally. University of Michigan Law School Professor Susan Crawford joins us for today’s Backstory segment. Ms. Crawford is also former Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy in the Obama Administration. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Time Together with Carol Burnett (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 April 2010) Carol Burnett discusses becoming one of the pioneering queens of television comedy and describes what went on behind the scenes of "The Carol Burnett Show," which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978. Her book This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection looks back at her friendships and her remarkable career. Events: Carol Burnett will be reading, speaking, and signing books Thursday, April 8, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street "Carol Burnett Laughter + Reflection: Whe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Henri Cartier-Bresson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 April 2010) Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the most original, accomplished, influential, and beloved figures in the history of photography. Martine Franck, photographer and widow of Cartier-Bresson, and Peter Galassi, Chief Curator in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, discuss the photographer’s career and extraordinary body of groundbreaking work. The exhibition "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century" is on view at MoMA April 11-June 28. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Ticket to the Circus (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 April 2010) Norman Mailer’s wife of more than thirty years, Norris Church Mailer, talks about leaving the comforts of small-town Arkansas and meeting and falling in love in with Norman Mailer in one night. Her memoir A Ticket to the Circus, she describes the challenges—and rewards—of life with Norman Mailer, from dealings with his five ex-wives and numerous former girlfriends to raising seven stepchildren to negotiating the world of Mailer’s fame and literary life. Event: Norris Church Mailer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Devil’s Casino (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 April 2010) Vicky Ward tells the story of the four close friends who re-created Lehman Brothers—setting out to prove that ambitious and savvy men with no financial training could take on the Ivy-League-educated white shoe bankers on Wall Street. In The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers she gives an account of how good men lost their way and how Lehman Brothers came apart from within. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Green Kitchen (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 April 2010) Alice Waters, champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement, discusses her essential cooking techniques and recipes for good food. Her latest book, In the Green Kitchen, includes more than 50 recipes and instructions on basics from steaming vegetables to dressing a salad to filleting a fish. Event: Alice Waters will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, April 6, at 7:00 pm Bookcourt 163 Court Street, Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Solar (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 April 2010) Novelist Ian McEwan talks about his latest book Solar, about a Nobel prize–winning physicist faced with fixing his crumbling marriage, reviving his career, and even possibly saving the world from environmental disaster. Event: Ian McEwan will be reading Tuesday, April 6, at 8:00 pm 92nd Street Y Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Tickets $27.00; more information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Bridge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 April 2010) David Remnick, discusses the circumstances and experiences of Barack Obama’s life and explores the ambition behind his rise. His book The Bridge offers the most complete account yet of Obama’s upbringing and the experiences that shaped his greater mission. Events: David Remnick will be in conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor for The Atlantic Tuesday, April 6, at 7:00 pm. New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum Entrance on 42nd Str ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 April 2010) Jerry Weintraub, Hollywood producer and deal maker gives a chronicle of his remarkable career. In When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man Weintraub tells about his great successes with Elvis Presley, Sinatra and the Rat Pack, as a movie producer, and as a counselor and confidante celebrities and politicians. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dead End Gene Pool (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 April 2010) Wendy Burden, talks about growing up the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Her memoir Dead End Gene Pool is a glimpse into one of the wealthiest families in New York that, by the time of her birth, were seen as doomed bluebloods in financial and moral decline. Event: Wendy Burden will be reading and signing books Tuesday, April 6, at 6:00 pm Corner Bookstore 1313 Madison Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Between Two Worlds (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 April 2010) Journalist Roxana Saberi discusses being arrested and imprisoned, accused of espionage, while she was reporting in Iran last year. She was sentenced to eight years in prison, but international pressure led to her released on appeal last May. In Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran, Saberi shares the full account of her ordeal, detailing the methods that Iranian hard-liners are using to intimidate and control the Iranian people. Event: Roxana Saberi will be in conversation wit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Deborah Eisenberg's Collected Stories (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 April 2010) Deborah Eisenberg, discusses her writing career and her latest book, The Collected Stories, which brings together in one volume her story collections. Deborah Eisenberg will be reading and signing books Wednesday, April 14, at 7:00 pm 192 Books 192 10th Avenue at 22nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Terrorism Trials around the World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 April 2010) Kim Lane Scheppele, Yale Law School visiting professor, discusses how terrorism suspects are tried around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The New York Metropolitan Flora Project (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 April 2010) Dr. Gerry Moore, director of science at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and coordinator of the New York Metropolitan Flora project, discusses the first definitive findings that New York is losing native plants and many are being replaced with new plants, many from the South. The New York Metropolitan Flora Project is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of plant biodiversity in the metropolitan New York area. See some examples of native plants on the decline on the Brooklyn Botanic Gar ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Wrong Kind of Green (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 April 2010) Johann Hari talks about how environmental groups might respond to President Obama’s decision to open up offshore drilling, and he’ll discuss his investigation into conservation groups, such as Conservation International, among the most trusted groups in America to protect and defend nature, are actually cashing in on the world's worst polluters and burying science-based environmentalism in return. His article Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Can Animals Be Gay? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 April 2010) Jon Mooallem explores homosexual activity in the animal world—from albatrosses to flamingos, bison, and even warthogs. He looks into what humans perceive as “natural” behavior, and examines how various forms of homosexual activity has been documented in over 450 different species. His article “Can Animals Be Gay?” appears in the New York Times magazine Sunday, April 4. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Sugar (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 April 2010) Please Explain is all about sugar—from how it’s grown to how it’s refined to how its metabolized by the body. Elizabeth Abbott, author of Sugar: A Bittersweet History, describes how the cultivation of sugar is linked with slavery, the Industrial Revolution, and the fast-food industry. And Dr. Wahida Karmally, Director of Nutrition at the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Columbia University, explains how the body processes sugar, how the average amount of sug ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rebuilding Haiti (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 April 2010) Yesterday, international donors pledged $5 billion in aid to help rebuild Haiti and United Nations unveiled a recovery and rebuilding plan that focuses on Port-au-Prince. Alan Manski, currently the head of the International Rescue Committee programs in Haiti and senior coordinator of its emergency response team joins us from Haiti to describe the current challenges that Haitians and aid workers face. John Belle, founder of the architectural firm Beyer, Blinder & Belle, looks at the rebuildi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Untold War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 April 2010) Philosopher, ethicist, and psychoanalyst Nancy Sherman looks at the psychological and moral burdens borne by soldiers serving in war. In The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds and Souls of Our Soldiers, she looks closely at servicemen and women preparing for, experiencing, and returning home from war, probing the psyche of soldiers from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and from Vietnam and World Wars I and II. Event:Nancy Sherman will be speaking and signing books Thursday, Apri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Research Report (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 April 2010) Jeremy Singer-Vine, who writes the Research Report for the Wall Street Journal, talks about the most interesting recent medical research and how it can be used to inform and improve our health. He covers myriad topics—from why some people sneeze when they look at the sun comes out to advances in diabetes, autism, and arthritis research. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adventures in Taxidermy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 April 2010) Journalist Melissa Milgrom explores taxidermy—from the skilled taxidermists at the American Museum of Natural History to the preservers of the animals in Damien Hirst's artworks. In Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy she takes readers into this eccentric, unusual world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Food Fraud (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 April 2010) As much as 7 percent of the nation’s food is mislabeled to fool consumers into paying more. On today’s Underreported, Lyndsey Layton, National Political Reporter for the Washington Post, explains why food fraud is on the rise and why both large corporations and small-scale producers are looking to the FDA to crack down on these ersatz products. Read her latest article here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hunger in America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 31 March 2010) Bill Ayres, who founded WhyHunger in 1975 with Harry Chapin, and Lyn Pentecost, Executive Director and Founder of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, talk the hunger crisis in America and the hunger-obesity paradox. They’ll discuss what their organizations are doing to improve food security and give people better access to nutritious food. The National Hunger Hotline is 866-5-HUNGRY. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Orphan Film Symposium (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 31 March 2010) Director of the Orphan Film Symposium, Dan Streible, associate professor of cinema studies at NYU, and associate director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, discusses the 2010 Orphan Film Symposium, the seventh biennial gathering of archivists, scholars, preservationists, curators, collectors, and media artists devoted to saving, studying, and screening neglected films. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Make It Work! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 31 March 2010) Project Runway’s style mentor Tim Gunn talks about his role on the show, his career, his style guidelines, and about appearing as hero fighting crimes against fashion in Marvel’s comic Models, Inc. He’s the author of Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style, and well known for his advice on how to make it work! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Raquel Welch (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 31 March 2010) Actress Raquel Welch discusses about her career, her unexpected role as a sex symbol, and offers advice for women of all ages on courage, grace, and self-respect. Her new book Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, is part autobiography, part personal philosophy, and part practical guide to life. Events: Raquel Welch will be speaking, reading, and signing books Wednesday, March 31, at 7:00 pm Barnes and Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street She’ll be in conversation with Dr. Gail Saltz from NB ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 13 Bankers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 March 2010) Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, gives an account of recent U.S. financial history and the showdowns between American democracy and Big Finance. In 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, written with James Kwak, he reveals why unregulated financial industry endangers our future. He proposes that the megabanks should be reconfigured to be "small enough to fa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Location Scouting in New York (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 March 2010) New York film location scout Nick Carr has tracked down sites for such films as the remake of “The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3” and “Doubt.” On his blog, ScoutingNY.com he shares his favorite locales around the city and tracks the transformation of the city by comparing scenes from classic movies with how those spots look today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Repeat Until Rich (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 March 2010) Josh Axelrad had a respectable but dull job on Wall Street when he decided to abandon it to enter the world of professional blackjack. His book Repeat Until Rich: A Professional Card Counter’s Chronicle of the Blackjack Wars is a darkly funny account of his experience playing cards, and he reveals the tactics and debunks the myths of professional card counters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dining with Al-Qaeda (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 March 2010) Hugh Pope, an acclaimed former foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, has lived and worked in two dozen countries throughout the Middle East. In Dining with Al-Qaeda, he presents a modern-day exploration of the politics, religion, and aspirations of Muslim peoples to show how the Middle East is much more than a monolithic "Islamic World." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Winning Time (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 March 2010) Director Dan Klores talks about his film “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks,” about the 6'7" Indiana Pacers shooting guard who tortured the Knicks. It focuses on the dramatic seven-game 1995 playoff series between Reggie's Pacers and the Knicks. "Winning Time" is airing the following days and times: Sunday, March 28, at 2:00 am, on ESPN 2 Saturday, April 17, at 1:30 am, on ESPN 2 Friday, May 7, at 11:30 am, on ESPN Classic Friday, May 7, at 10:00 pm, on ESPN Classi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Attack of the Cheneys (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 March 2010) Matthew Duss, national security editor for the blogs Think Progress and The Wonk Room at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, discusses the neoconservative agenda and how Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz has become his most visible and effective advocate and a constant critic of the Obama Administration. His article “Attack of the Cheneys” appears in the April 5 edition of The Nation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Man Who Ate His Boots (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 March 2010) Anthony Brandt tells story of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, a British national obsession. In The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage he gives an account of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginnings early in the age of exploration through the British national obsession to the final sordid, terrible descent into scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism. Event: Anthony Brandt will be reading Monday, March 29, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Insectopedia (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 March 2010) Hugh Raffles talks about the varied, amazing world of insects. In Insectopedia he offers a glimpse into the world of Chinese cricket fighting, the courtship rites of the dance fly, the role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, and what the human desire and disgust for insects inspires. Event: Hugh Raffles will be reading and signing books Tuesday, March 30, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Waking Sleeping Beauty (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 March 2010) Don Hahn and Peter Schneider discuss the years from 1984 to 1994, when a perfect storm of people and circumstances changed the face of animation forever. “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” directed by Hahn and produced by Schneider and Hahn, tells a story of clashing egos, out-of-control budgets, escalating tensions, and one of the most extraordinary creative periods in animation history. “Waking Sleeping Beauty” opens March 26 at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Great American University (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 March 2010) Former provost and dean of faculties and John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, Jonathan R. Cole discusses how it is that while America’s universities are the envy of the world, few understand how and why they’ve earned that reputation. In The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected he traces the history of colleges and universities in America. He also looks at the considerable threats American universi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Eclipse (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 March 2010) Ireland’s star screenwriter and playwright Conor McPherson, director of “The Eclipse,” and actor Ciaran Hinds talk about the film. Hinds plays a widower whose life converges with a beautiful author of supernatural fiction and a pop novelist at an international literary festival. It opens March 26 at the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: The Science of Happiness (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 March 2010) On today's Please Explain, we'll look into how happiness is studied, and what some recent research reveals about what makes people happy, and why it's sometimes not what they'd expect. Sonja Lyubomirsky, Department of Psychology, University of California Riverside joins us to discuss the psychology of happiness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Post Soviet Ukraine (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 March 2010) We’ll talk a look at how Ukraine has changed in the 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union as part of today’s Backstory segment. We’ll be joined by Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University. His article "Gogol Haunts the Ukraine" is in the current issue of The New York Review of Books. Mr. Snyder is also the author of The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Oyster Poaching in Chesapeake Bay (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 March 2010) On today’s Underreported segment, Jeffrey Levinton, distinguished professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, and Ken Paynter, associate professor and director of Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences Program at University of Maryland, discusses the damage oyster poachers are wreaking in Chesapeake Bay and efforts to restore the bivalves to the bay and New York Harbor. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Guards and Artists (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 March 2010) Many of the guards the Metropolitan Museum of Art create art when they aren’t standing in museum galleries guarding the great works. Now they’ve created an art journal titled Sw!pe Magazine and have a show of their works at 25CPW gallery. Jason Eskenazi, Guggenheim Fellow and former Metropolitan Museum guard, Phil Padwe, Metropolitan Museum guard, and Bess Greenberg, Executive Director of 25CPW Gallery, talk about the exhibition and the new art journal. 25CPW Gallery is located at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Letters to Jackie (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 March 2010) Ellen Fitzpatrick talks about all the condolence letters Jackie Kennedy received after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which exceeded 1.5 million letters. Her book Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation is a remarkable record that preserves the grief and soul searching of the nation in a time of crisis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Christopher Walken (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 March 2010) Christopher Walken talks about his career and his role in Martin McDonagh’s black comedy “A Behanding in Spokane.” It’s playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Perestroika (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 March 2010) When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new world of possibilities. Robin Hessman discusses her feature documentary “My Perestroika,” which tells the stories of five Moscow schoolmates who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and entered adulthood just as the world changed around them. “My Perestroika” will be shown as part of the New Directors/New Films at MoMA on Thursday, March 25, and at Lincoln Center on Sunday, March 28. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On the Road (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 March 2010) Ted Conover looks at roads and the crucial role they play in advancing civilization. In The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, he explores six of the world’s key roadways—in Peru, East Africa, the West Bank, India, China, and Nigeria. Events: Ted Conover will be reading, as part of the Sundays at Sunny’s Reading Series Sunday, April 4, at 3:00 pm Sunny’s Bar 253 Conover Street, between Beard and Reed Streets Red Hook, Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New York’s Worst Landlords Roundup (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 March 2010) Ward Harkavy, Senior Editor at the Village Voice talks about the newspaper’s "Ten Worst Landlords" roundup, a two-part profile of the city’s ten worst landlords in New York City, which appears for the first time since 2006. New York's Ten Worst Landlords, Part 1 appeared in the March 17 edition, and Part 2 appears in the March 24 edition of The Village Voice. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Suicides" at Guantanamo Bay (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 March 2010) A new investigation in Harper’s magazine is raising questions about whether the deaths of a number of detainees who were held at Guantanamo Bay Prison should really be classified as homicides. We’ll talk to Scott Horton, Contributing Editor of Harper'sand professor at Columbia Law School. Read the article The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beekeeping in the City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 March 2010) New York City’s board of health voted on March 16 to lift a ban against beekeeping in New York City. Beekeeper Andrew Cote talks about what legalizing bees in the city might mean for burgeoning bee keepers here, and what’s involved with urban beekeeping. Find out more about keeping honeybees in New York: New York City Beekeepers Association. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dancing Across Borders (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 March 2010) Anne Bass, director, and dancer Sokvannara Sar discuss the documentary film “Dancing Across Borders,” which tells the story of Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, who was dancing with a small troupe in Angkor Wat when Anne Bass, a longtime patron of dance in America, saw him perform and arranged for him to come to New York to audition for the prestigious School of the American Ballet. “Dancing Across Borders”opens at the Quad Cinema on March 26. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NY Export: Opus Jazz (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 March 2010) New York City Ballet soloists Ellen Bar and director Jody Lee Lipes discuss “NY Export: Opus Jazz,” a new film adaptation of Jerome Robbins’ “ballet in sneakers,” which became a smash hit in 1958. Set to an evocative jazz score by Robert Prince, the dance told the story of disaffected urban youth through a blending of ballet, jazz, and ballroom dancing with Latin, African, and American rhythms. “NY Export: Opus Jazz” was shot on location around New York City, and it premieres ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Drilling Upstate (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 March 2010) We’ll look into the controversy over drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale in Upstate New York, and discuss the challenges landowners face when deciding whether to lease their land to gas companies, the role of landowners coalitions, and how public officials are managing the drilling already occurring in their towns. We’ll speak with Mark Dunau, organic farmer from Delaware County; Jim Bays, Supervisor of the Town of Smyrna, in Chenango County; and Abby Tamber, steering committee ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Supreme Power (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 March 2010) Jeff Shesol describes FDR’s battle with the Supreme Court. Beginning in 1935, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority made a series of decisions that devastated much of FDR’s agenda. In 1937, Roosevelt struck back with a plan to expand the Court to fifteen justices—and to “pack” the new seats with liberals who shared his belief in a “living” Constitution. His book Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court, gives an account of the ensuing fight that engulfed t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Things They Carried (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 March 2010) Tim O’Brien discusses The Things They Carried on the twentieth anniversary of its publication. The book remains a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. Event: Tim O'Brien will be reading, answering questions, and signing books Monday, March 22, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Health Care Reform (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 March 2010) With last night's passage of the health care bill, Luke Mitchell, Senior Editor of Harper’s Magazine, explains what the next steps are as the legislation becomes law. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Equivocation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 March 2010) Michael Countryman and David Furr discuss their roles in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Bill Cain’s new play "Equivocation." The play begins when King James’ right hand man commissions William Shakespeare to write a new play about the Gunpowder Plot, a recent failed attempt to blow up Parliament and the monarchy. "Equivocation," is playing at MTC at New York City Center through March 28. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cotton and Race (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 March 2010) Gene Dattel explains how the relationship between cotton and the African American experience has been central to the history of the country, and central to America’s legacy of slavery and discrimination. His book Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power describes how the expansion of cotton production was a driving force not only in the antebellum South, but in the American economy at large. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eclipse of the Sunnis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 March 2010) NPR’s Iraq correspondent, Deborah Amos discusses the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims uprooted or exiled by the conflict in Iraq who have spread across the Middle East, unbalancing that sensitive region. Her book Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and the Upheaval in the Middle East explains the impact of that great migration from Amman to Beirut and Damascus, and how this new population of stirs up the historic conflict between Sunni and Shia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Little Bee (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 March 2010) Chris Cleave, columnist for The Guardian newspaper in London, talks about his second novel, Little Bee, which tells the story of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan and a well-off British couple whose lives intertwine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 March 2010) Actress Noomi Rapace and director Niels Arden Oplev discuss their new film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the first feature film based on the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s literary phenomenon “Millennium” trilogy. It opens March 19. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Hypnosis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 March 2010) On today’s Please Explain we’ll look into how hypnosis works, and how it can be effective in treating people who want to stop smoking, lose weight, or calm their nerves before a test. We’re joined by Dr. Roberta Temes, hypnotist, psychologist, and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis; and Dr. Amir Raz, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Psychology, and Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention, at McGill Uni ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Do One Green Thing (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 March 2010) Mindy Pennybacker talks about simple choices we each can make to be kinder to the planet. Her guide Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth through Simple, Everyday Choices is an easily comprehensible source for green living—answering questions about whether its worth it to switch laundry detergents and how much your light bulbs matter. Mindy Pennybacker's website is www.greenerpenny.com. Event: Mindy Pennybacker will be speaking Thursday, March 18, 6:00 – 8:00 pm Green Depot 222 Bowery ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 March 2010) Rebecca Skloot discusses the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. Her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of the Lacks family, the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the what we are made of. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Room and the Chair (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 March 2010) Novelist, critic, and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lorraine Adams discusses her new novel The Room and the Chair, which moves from a newsroom in Washington, D.C., to Afghanistan to a military intelligence office, and is a fast-moving, groundbreaking chronicle of today’s dangerous world. Event: Lorraine Adams is reading and signing books Thursday, March 18, at 7:30 pm Pete’s Candy Store 709 Lorimer Street, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Burma’s Never-Ending War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 March 2010) For today’s Underreported, Mac McClelland talks about the Burmese government’s secret ethnic cleansing campaign, and her experience living with associates of a US-designated terrorist organization battling Burma's. She’s the author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story of Burma’s Never-Ending War. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Freedom for Sale (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 March 2010) John Kampfner describes how emerging middle classes around the world have often been willing to sacrifice certain democratic rights – such as free speech, an open media, and free elections – in exchange for prosperity and security. In Freedom for Sale: Why the World Is Trading Democracy for Security he shows how capitalism and democracy are not as inextricably linked as we once thought. Events: John Kampfner will be speaking Wednesday, March 17, at 7:00 pm Book Culture 536 West 112th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Asian Carp and the Great Lakes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 March 2010) Jennifer Nalbone, director of navigation and invasive species at Great lakes United, explains the threat posed by the Asian carp, which have migrated north up the Mississippi River and are heading toward the Great Lakes. She’ll talk about the plans to prevent them from reaching the Great Lakes, where they would cause massive ecological damage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jimmy Cliff (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 March 2010) Reggae star Jimmy Cliff discusses his recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his career in music, as well as his upcoming tour, his first in five years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 March 2010) Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 March 2010) Helen Simonson discusses her debut novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, which tells the story of Major Ernest Pettigrew, a wry, courtly Englishman who lives a quiet life who strikes up an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Event: Helen Simonson will be reading, speaking, and signing books Tuesday, March 16, at 6:00 pm Corner Bookstore 1313 Madison Avenue, at 93rd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Short (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 March 2010) Michael Lewis gives an account of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. His latest book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, is an insider’s view of the people behind the financial collapse—the villains, a few heroes, and those who look very foolish: high government officials, the watchdogs, and heads of major investment banks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website God of Carnage (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 March 2010) Actors Jeff Daniels and Janet McTeer talk about their roles in Yasmina Reza’s play “God of Carnage,” about two couples who meet to discuss a schoolyard incident between their sons. What starts out amiably turns sour, offering a commentary on modern-day marriage and parenting. "God of Carnage" is playing at Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The History of White People (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 March 2010) Historian Nell Irvin Painter explains how the idea of the white race was invented, and why. In The History of White People she shows how the origins of American identity in the eighteenth century were tied to the elevation of white skin into the embodiment of beauty, power, and intelligence, and how the definitions of who is "white" and who is "American" have evolved over time. Event: Nell Irvin Painter will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, March 16, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble 2289 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Economic Architect (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 March 2010) Joshua Green, Senior Editor of The Atlantic, and John Cassidy, New Yorker staff writer, talk about Timothy Geithner’s role as chief architect of Obama’s plan to fix the economy, and why his plan has made him unpopular. Joshua Green’s article “Inside Man” appears in the April issue of The Atlantic, and John Cassidy’s article “No Credit” is in the March 15th issue of New Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Possessed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 March 2010) Elif Batuman describes literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite Russian authors –from Pushkin to Platonov. In The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them she examines how the great Russian writers lived, worked, and why they continue to influence readers today. Events: Elif Batuman is in conversation with Keith Gessen, novelist, critic, and editor of n+1 Magazine Monday, March 15, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson 52 Prince Street She' ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 March 2010) Paddy Moloney, leader of The Chieftains, discusses the group’s new album “San Patricio,” which was made with Ry Cooder and comes out March 9. It explores the story of the San Patricio battalion, a group of Irish-American conscripts who deserted the American side in the Mexican-American War to fight for Mexico, and it combines elements of traditional Irish and Mexican music to create something altogether original. Event: The Chieftains are performing Wednesday, March 17, at 7:30 pm ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Arctic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 March 2010) Geopolitics expert Charles Emmerson discusses the Arctic, an area long at the margins but which has found its way to the center of global affairs. In The Future History of the Arctic he describes the forces that have shaped the Arctic’s history and introduces the players in politics, business, science and society who will determine its future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Strange and Mysterious Plants (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 March 2010) Today's Please Explain is all about botanical mysteries and wonders—from meat-eating plants to phosphorescence. Jamie Boyer, Director of Children's Education at the New York Botanical Garden, and Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities. Events: Amy Stewart will be speaking about her book Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful Wednesday, June 2, 6:00-7:00 pm New York Botanical Garden Manhattan locatio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Medicine in Translation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 March 2010) Danielle Ofri, an attending physician at New York’s Bellevue Hospital and the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review discusses the patients she has known who have braved language barriers, religious and racial divides, and the emotional and practical difficulties of exile in order to access quality health care. In Medicine in Translation: Journeys with my Patients, she tells their stories. Event: Danielle Ofri will be speaking and reading from her book Saturday, Ma ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Severe Clear (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 March 2010) "Severe Clear" is a first-person account of the Marines who were on the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Mike Scotti, First Lieutenant who shot it on his Mini-DV camera, and director Kristian Fraga, who assembled it, talk about the film and how it portrays life on the battlefield. "Severe Clear" opens on Friday, March 12, at the Angelika. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yours Ever (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 March 2010) Thomas Mallon discusses the fading art of letter writing—the confessions and complaints and revelations sent from battlefields, frontier cabins, and luxury liners, along with travel bulletins, suicide notes, fan letters, and hate mail. In Yours Ever: People and Their Letters, he reveals the human experiences behind some of the best, and most famous, letter writers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Linking Cancer to the Permian Extinction (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 March 2010) For decades women in Xuan Wei, a county in southern China, have suffered from an astronomically high rate of lung cancer and the reason why has remained largely a mystery. Now, researchers think they have solved the case: the coal that is burned in Chinese kitchens is to blame, but this is not just any coal. Over 200 million years ago a particularly toxic kind of coal formed right around the time of the great Permian Extinction and it seems that the toxic chemicals from that event are stil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Iraqi Elections (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 March 2010) New York Times foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid will be assessing the results of Iraq’s parliamentary elections, which took place Sunday, March 7. He’ll talk about what the elections might mean for stability, the political future of the country, and for the plan to pulling out combat troops. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website American Conspiracies (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 March 2010) Former Navy SEAL, former pro wrestler, and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura talks about his political career and his libertarian take on politics. His new book American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us explores the gap he sees between what the American government knows and what it reveals to the American people. Events: Jesse Ventura will be speaking, reading, and signing books Thursday March 11, at 7:00 pm BookEnds Bookstore 232 East Ridge ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lonelyhearts (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 March 2010) Biographer Marion Meade restores Nathaniel West and Eileen McKenney to their rightful places in the cultural history of America between the wars. In Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney, she tells the story of these literary figures. Event: Marion Meade will be reading and signing books Thursday, March 11, at 6:00 pm The Corner Bookstore 1313 Madison Avenue, at 93rd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Accelerated Tree Growth and Climate Change (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 March 2010) Geoffrey Parker, a forest ecologist at the Smithsonian Institution has been measuring the size and rate of growth of tree trunks for 22 years. After looking at his data, he determined that many of the trees he was surveying were growing at rate two to four times faster than expected and climate change may be to blame. We’ll speak to Mr. Parker for our second Underreported segment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Challenging Proposition 8 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 March 2010) Star litigators Ted Olson, partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and David Boies, Chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, are best known for opposing each other in the case Bush v. Gore. But last year they teamed up to challenge California’s Proposition 8 in court. The trial, which rested in January, is a high-profile challenge to state constitution gay marriage bans, and whatever the outcome in this round, the case is widely expect to go all the way to the Supreme Court. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Shaking Woman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 March 2010) Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down in 2006, and the seizures happened again and again. She talks about searching for a diagnosis to her disorder. Her memoir The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves is an account of her search, and how it brought up some fundamental questions: What is the relationship between brain and mind? How do we remember? What is the self? Event: Siri Hustvedt will be in conversation with Rita Charon, director of Columbia University’s Na ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website So Much for That (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 March 2010) Lionel Shriver discusses her most recent novel, So Much for That, about a man whose plan to retire to an idyllic Third World locale where his nest egg can last forever is derailed when his wife is diagnosed with a serious illness and needs his health insurance. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 March 2010) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William Kentridge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 March 2010) Artists William Kentridge discusses his career and the exhibition “Five Themes,” on view at the Museum of Modern Art, a survey of nearly 30 years of his work, which combines the political and the poetic. The exhibition also includes works related to the artist’s staging and design of Dmitri Shostakovich’s "The Nose," which premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera March 5th. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website No One Would Listen (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 March 2010) Harry Markopolos talks about his years spent investigating Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. While much has been written about Madoff's scam, few know how Markopolos and his team uncovered it years before it unraveled. In No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, Markopolos details how the SEC missed red flags, how Madoff was able to pull off his scam, and what impact investigators will have on financial markets and financial regulation for decades to come. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Surrendered (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 March 2010) Chang-Rae Lee discusses his latest novel The Surrendered. Lee weaves together a story of three people in the aftermath of the Korean War, and he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Event: Chang-Rae Lee will be reading and signing books Tuesday, March 9, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Age of Wonder (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 March 2010) Richard Holmes tells the history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the 18th century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science. In The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, he looks at the great scientific discoveries of the age of exploration, and how it extended to great writers and poets as well as scientists. Event: Richard Holmes will be in conversation with Paul Holdengraber Wednesday, March 10, at 7 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beauty and the Brain (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 March 2010) Neeraja Balachander, of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind-Brain Institute at The Johns Hopkins University, and Gary Vikow, director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and curator of the exhibition “Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics,” talk about that exhibition, which is an experiment on how art affects the human brain, and why we’re attracted to certain works of art. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Our Town (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 March 2010) Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew, discusses the enduring appeal of "Our Town," and David Cromer’s award-winning staging of "Our Town," the longest-running production of the play in its 71-year history; its record-breaking 337th performance was on December 16th. The production just passed its one-year anniversary on February 26. "Our Town" is playing at the Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow Street. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Victor Fleming (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 March 2010) Michael Sragow talks about the life and career of Victor Fleming, who made films across range of genres, from westerns, to screwball comedies to romances. He’s best remembered for “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz,” as well as other classics. Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master tells the story of the most sought-after director from Hollywood’s golden age. A series of Victor Fleming’s films are playing at Film Forum March 5-18. Events: Molly Haskell will be int ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Slow Death by Rubber Duck (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 March 2010) Pollution is not just caused by industrial smokestacks; it’s also caused by commonplace items in our homes and workplaces. Bruce Lourie discusses pollution in our modern world. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things, written with Rick Smith, looks into the corporate manufacturers of toxins, government regulations, and pollution’s effects on human health around the world. Event: Bruce Lourie will be speaking, reading, and signing books Tuesday, March 9, at 7:00 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patty Duke Remembers Anne Bancroft (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 March 2010) Actress Patty Duke stops by to discuss her career, and the career of her fellow actress, Anne Bancroft. Both Bancroft and Duke originated the roles of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker” on Broadway, then went on to do the film which brought them both Academy Awards and solidified their movie careers. “Fierce and Fabulous: Anne Bancroft” is an 11-film salute to the actress, playing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, March 8 – 11. Eve ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Soundcheck on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 March 2010) John Schaefer and the staff of Soundcheck, congratulate Leonard on his 25 years at WNYC. Find out more about Leonard's 25th anniversary here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WNYC Staff Members on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 March 2010) Brian Lehrer, Bob Hennelly, and Karen Frillman congratulate Leonard on his 25 years at the station. Find out more about Leonard's 25th anniversary here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Leonard Lopate: 25 Live on WNYC! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 March 2010) We’ll celebrate Leonard Lopate’s 25 years on WNYC by revisiting some of the show’s most memorable moments. On the Media’s Brooke Gladstone takes us through interviews with Henry Kissinger, Barack Obama, Carol Channing, and many more (including one with the inventor of the female condom). Plus, a James Beard Award-winning segment that featured an on-air "smell" experiment with Ruth Reichl and Daniel Boulud. Find out more about Leonard’s 25th anniversary on WNYC, and the celebratio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Dust (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 March 2010) Dust is everywhere: under our beds, on our computer screens, in cracks in the sidewalk, and on our skin. Particles from the Sahara can be found as far away as the Caribbean, and dust from melting glaciers can impact the Earth’s climate. On this week’s edition of Please Explain, Hannah Holmes, author of The Secret Life of Dust, and Paul Lioy, Professor and Deputy Director of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-University of Medicine and D ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Zimbabwe's Blood Diamonds (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 March 2010) Despite international bans, Zimbabwe continues to mine “blood diamonds” from fields in Marange. On today’s secondUnderreported,Rona Peligal,the deputy director of the Africa division forHuman Rights Watch,describes the human rights abuses there and why they continue.You can read the HRW's report on Zimbabwe's Marange minehere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jeffrey Toobin on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 March 2010) Jeffrey Toobintalks about why he likes listening to--and being a guest on--the Leonard Lopate Show, and talks about what it's like to fill in as a guest host. Find out more about Leonard's 25th anniversaryhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mark Bittman on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 March 2010) Food writerMark Bittmantalks about why he appreciates Leonard's interest in food, and recalls his favorite time being on the show. Find out more about Leonard's 25th anniversaryhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The UN Response to Zimbabwe's 2008 Cholera Outbreak (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 March 2010) In 2008, up to 100,000 Zimbabweans got cholera. On today’s firstUnderreported,Foreign Policy’s Assistant Managing EditorElizabeth Dickinsonexplains why one former United Nations official is now criticizing the organization’s response to the outbreak, and what it says about the UN’s relationship with authoritarian President Robert Mugabe. Read Elizabeth Dickinson’s articlehere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Animal Factory (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 March 2010) Investigative journalistDavid Kirbydiscusses the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms, and tracks the far-reaching contamination they cause on our air, land, water, and food. InAnimal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environmenthe shows the role of industrial farming in the American food system, and tells the story of people who are fighting to restore sustainable farming practices and protect our ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Electric Cars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 March 2010) More electric cars are on their way to New York metro area, which means the city is going to have to make some major infrastructure changes. We’ll examine the advantages and disadvantages of more electric autos in the city, with Neal Parikh, Senior Policy Advisor to the Mayor’s office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. We’ll also be joined by Tom Turrentine, an anthropologist and Director of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center at UC Davis, and Joseph P. Oates is ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paul Goldberger on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 March 2010) New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger congratulates Leonard on 25 years on the air at WNYC. Find out more about celebrating Leonard's 25th here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 March 2010) Sociologist Sharon Zukin traces the economic and social evolution of six archetypal New York areas—Williamsburg, Harlem, the East Village, Union Square, Red Hook, and the city's community gardens. Her book Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places, looks at how the demand for urban "authenticity" helps to drive out the immigrants, the working class, and artists who give a neighborhood an authentic aura. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Alan Alda on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 March 2010) Alan Alda talks about what he likes about being a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show. Find out more about celebrating Leonard's 25th here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patricia T. O'Conner on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 March 2010) Our regular guest, word mavenPatricia T. O'Conner,shares one of her most memorable moments in all her visits to the Leonard Lopate Show. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Harlan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 March 2010) Felix Moeller,director of the film "Harlan - In the Shadow of Jew Süss," discusses the life, work, and legacy of Veit Harlan, one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious filmmakers, whose film anti-Semitic propaganda film "Jew Süss" was required viewing for all SS members. He’s joined byJessica Jacoby,Veit Harlan’s granddaughter. "Harlan - In the Shadow of Jew Süss," is playing atFilm ForumMarch 3-16.Events:Jessica Jacoby and Felix Moeller will be answering questionsWednesday, March 3, an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Pollan on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 March 2010) AuthorMichael Pollantalks about his favorite thing about sitting down for an interview with Leonard, and his favorite moment on the show. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rock&Roll Jihad (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 March 2010) Salman Ahmadtells the story of his groundbreaking career in music, bringing Western-style rock and pop to Pakistani teenagers for the first time. His bookRock&Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolutionexplains how his band Junoon became the U2 of Asia at a time when mullahs and oppressive dictators wanted to ban all music in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.Event:Salman Ahmad will be performing, reading, and signing booksWednesday, March 10, 6:30-11:00 pmM2 Ultralounge530 West 28th Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Molto Gusto with Mario Batali (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 March 2010) Bestselling author and chefMario Batalidiscusses his latest cookbookMolto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking,which includes recipes for Italian favorites, from pizza, pasta, and antipasti to gelati and sorbetti. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bill T. Jones on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) Choreographer Bill T. Jones talks about what he appreciates about the Leonard Lopate Show. Find out how you can take part in Leonard's 25th anniversary here! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Genius on the Edge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) Surgeon Dr. Gerald Imber talks about the doctor who invented modern surgery in the nineteenth century, the brilliant but haunted William Stewart Halsted. Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted is a biography of the man who took surgery from a dangerous practice to what is now a lifesaving art, despite being addicted to both cocaine and morphine for forty years of his life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Forty Rules of Love (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) Turkish author Elif Shafak discusses her new novel The Forty Rules of Love. It includes two parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when the Persian poet and mystic Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together bring to life the poet’s timeless message of love. Event: Elif Shafak will be speaking, reading, and signing books Monday, March 1, at 7:00 pm Barned & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Stree ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sir Harold Evans on Leonard's 25th Anniversary at WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) Author Harold Evans wishes Leonard a happy 25th anniversary and explains what its like to be interviewed by Leonard. Find out how you can take part in Leonard's 25th anniversary here! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Death and Life of American Journalism (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) With daily newspapers closing across America, Washington bureaus and international bureaus being shuttered, Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols investigate the crisis in news and talk about the future of journalism. In The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again, they propose a bold strategy for saving journalism and saving democracy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Suicide Rate among Veterans (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 March 2010) Todd Bowers, the Deputy Policy Director for Government Affairs for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), discusses the rising rate of suicides among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Bowers is a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps Reserves and has served two tours in Iraq. IAVA is the country’s first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: 3D Technology and 3D Vision (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 February 2010) Today’s Please Explain is about 3D technology—from the movies to the future of television. Lawrence Cormack, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, and Phil McNally, Global Stereoscopic Supervisor for Dreamworks Animation join us to explain how it works. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pride (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 February 2010) British actors Hugh Dancy, Andrea Riseborough, and Ben Whishaw discuss their roles in the American premier of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play “The Pride.” Oliver, Philip, and Sylvia are caught in a kind of erotic time warp. Their complex love triangle jumps from 1958 to the present and back in a storm of fantasy, repression, and rebellion. It is performed at the MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street through March 20. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: U.S. Announce $1.25 Billion Settlement with Black Farmers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 February 2010) Last week, the Obama Administration announced at a $1.25 billion settlement in a case brought by thousands of black farmers who were discriminated against in federal farm loan programs. On today’s secondUnderreported,segment,Krissah Thompson,Washington PostNational Reporter, explains why it took 10 years to reach this settlement. You can read her storyhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Death of American Virtue (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 February 2010) Ten years after one of the most polarizing political scandals in American history,Ken Gormleydiscusses his analysis of the events leading up to the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton.The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starrchronicles the political feeding frenzyfrom Ken Starr’s initial Whitewater investigation through the Monica Lewinsky affair. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Farm Foreclosures (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 February 2010) We’ve heard a lot about the home foreclosure rate over the last two years, but what aboutfarmforeclosures? On this week’s firstUnderreported,Michael Boehlje,Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University, explains why we don’t hear that much about them and why economists are predicting that farm foreclosures will rise in 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website This Book is Overdue! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 February 2010) Marilyn Johnson explains how librarians can help us manage the myriad sources of information available to us —from paper and discs, books, e-books, and thumb drives. Her book This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All smashes the stereotypes of librarians and shows how they’re pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and free speech. Events: Marilyn Johnson will be reading and signing books Wednesday, Febr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China’s Unnatural Disaster (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 February 2010) Filmmaker Jon Alpert discuss his investigation into the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that destroyed many poorly constructed schools, killing an estimated 10,000 children. His documentary "China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province" follows parents who seek answers and are ignored and intimidated by the Chinese government, which attempted to censor and suppress any inquiry into the tragedy. “China’s Unnatural Disaster” has been nominated for an Oscar, and it is showing at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Infinities (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 February 2010) Novelist John Banville talks about latest book, The Infinities. It tells the story of a family that gathers together as the patriarch is dying. But the family is not alone—they’re joined by some mischievous immortals: Zeus, Pan, and Hermes. Event: John Banville will be reading with Colum McCann Wednesday, February 24, at 8:00 pm The Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue, at 92nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reckoning at Eagle Creek (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 February 2010) Cultural historian Jeff Biggers gives an account of how strip-mining has destroyed his family’s nearly 200-year-old hillside homestead in southern Illinois. In Reckoning at Eagle Creek, he chronicles the legacy of coal outside of Appalachia. Event: Jeff Biggers will reading, performing, and signing books as part of “Black Diamonds, Black Lives & the Coal Roots of Black History Month: The Historical Legacy of Black Slavery and Coal Mining” Friday, February 26, at 8:00 pm Harlem Arts ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Drawings of Bronzino (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 February 2010) Carmen C. Bambach, curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Janet Cox-Rearick, professor of Art History at CUNY, discuss the exhibition “The Drawings of Bronzino.” It brings together nearly all of the 61 known drawings by, or attributed to, the great Florentine court artist of the Medici. It’s on view at the Metropolitan through April 18. More information is available about public programs related to this exhibition and a special concer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Trial (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 February 2010) New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer discusses Attorney General Eric Holder and the battle over the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Her article "The Trial" appeared in the February 15 & 22 issue of The New Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 36 Arguments for the Existence of God (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 February 2010) Award-winning novelist and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Newberger Goldstein explores the great debate of our day: the clash between faith and reason. Her novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God explores why people refuse to embrace skepticism and continue to embrace faith in God as their source of meaning, purpose, and comfort. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science of Liberty (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 February 2010) Timothy Ferris, called "the best popular science writer in the English language today" by the Christian Science Monitor, makes a case for science as the inspiration behind the rise of democracy. In The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Law of Nature, he argues that the Enlightenment values inspired by the scientific revolution have led to the growth of free and democratic societies around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Lie of the Mind (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 February 2010) DirectorEthan Hawkeand actorsMarin IrelandandAlessandro Nivoladiscuss the revival of Sam Shepard’s play"A Lie of the Mind."It tells the story of two families torn by violence and resentments. "A Lie of the Mind" is playing through March 20 at The Acorn at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street. More information and ticketshere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lar Lubovitch (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 February 2010) Prolific choreographerLar Lubovitchdiscusses his long career and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company’s season atThe Joyce,February 23-March 7. The company celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Three Weissmans of Westport (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 February 2010) Novelist Cathleen Schine talks about her latest book, The Three Weissmans of Westport, a modern-day homage to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. It’s about two sisters dealing with their parents’ divorce, and who move in with their mother in a run-down beach cottage in Westport, Connecticut. Events: Cathleen Schine is reading and signing books Monday, February 22, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street She's also reading and signing books Wednesday, February 24, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Taking Care of Aging Parents (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 February 2010) Dealing with aging parents is hard enough, but when siblings disagree over what to do, it can become even more difficult. Francine Russo talks about how siblings can work together to take care take care of parents. In They’re Your Parents Too! How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents' Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy, she discusses the decision-making process, division of property and responsibility, and how to avoid anger and angst. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Chiropractic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 February 2010) On today's Please Explain we’ll look into chiropractic, used to treat back pain with spinal manipulation and adjustment. We’ll also discuss why it’s controversial, and new research into how it works and how it could be used to treat TMJ, headaches, even high blood pressure. We’re joined by Christine Goertz, D.C., Ph.D, Vice Chancellor for Research and Health Policy at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, and James N. Dillard, M.D., D.C., C.Ac., former assistant clinica ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Genius of the Beast (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 February 2010) Howard Bloom ponders the questions raised by the Great Crash of 2009: Is global capitalism on its last legs? Is the era of American leadership over? Has the West begun a decline into a new Dark Age? Does American civilization deserve to survive? In The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism he insists that global society has only begun to realize its full potential, and he describes the crisis as an opportunity for the whole human race. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fela! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 February 2010) Director and choreographer Bill T. Jones and Sahr Ngaujah, the star of "Fela!" discuss the hit Broadway musical. The show uses Afrobeat music to tell the story of Fela Kuti’s controversial life as artist, political activist, and revolutionary musician. It’s at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, 230 W 49th Street. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mark Morris at BAM (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 February 2010) Mark Morris discusses the Mark Morris Dance Group’s return to BAM in a program featuring the world premiere of "Socrates," the NY premiere of "Looky," and an acclaimed repertory work, "Behemoth." This will be the Mark Morris Dance Group’s 22nd engagement at BAM. More tickets and information a, here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Iraq's Ongoing Refugee Crisis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 February 2010) A new report by the International Rescue Committee has found that many Iraqi refugees have yet to return home, even as the war enters its seventh year. Many are scattered inside Iraq, but also in Jordan and Syria. For today’s Underreported segment, we’ll speak with Bob Carey, IRC’s Vice President of migration and resettlement policy about the situation confronting Iraqi refugees. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Haiti Update: Preparing for the Rainy Season (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 February 2010) Last week, heavy rains complicated aid efforts in Haiti. Dominic MacSorley, the Emergency Operations Director for Concern Worldwide, joins us from Port-au-Prince to explain how aid organizations there are preparing for rainy season that’s just a few months away. We’ll also get an update on how aid efforts there are evolving. A list of relief organizations is available here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Keeping the Feast (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 February 2010) Paula Butturini talks about the healing powers of sharing of food around the family table. After her husband John was shot and nearly killed by sniper fire while reporting on an uprising in Romania, the recovery process was complicated and difficult. She writes about it in Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food, and Healing in Italy. Events: Paula Butturini is reading and signing books Friday, February 19, at 7:00 pm R.J. Julia Booksellers 768 Boston Post Road Madison, Conn ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Man from Beijing (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 February 2010) Henning Mankell discusses his new global thriller, The Man from Beijing. The novel tells the story of a massacre in the Swedish hamlet of Hesjövallen, and the investigation that leads to Beijing, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, as well back 150 years into the history of the slave trade between China and the United States. Events: Henning Mankell will be reading and signing books Thursday, February 18, at 7:00 pm The Strand BookStore 828 Broadway at 12th Street He’ll also be reading and sig ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Trauma Myth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 February 2010) Psychologist Susan Clancy reports on years of research and argues that it’s not sexual abuse itself that causes trauma but rather the narrative that is imposed on the abuse experience. In her controversial new book The Trauma Myth: The Truth about the Sexual Abuse of Children—and Its Aftermath she explains that survivors are often victimized not only by their abusers but also by the industry dedicated to helping them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Life with the Taliban (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 February 2010) My Life with the Taliban is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, a former senior member of Afghanistan's Taliban. Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, foreign researchers and writers based in Kandahar, translated Zaeef's story from Pashto, and they discuss his account of joining the jihad against the Soviets, then banning together with former mujahidin to form the Taliban, which assumed power in 1994. The book is rare look at the communities that built the Taliban and at what moti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Wine Trials (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 February 2010) Robin Goldstein talks about this year’s best wines under $15. He’s co-author of The Wine Trials 2010, a bestselling guide to inexpensive wines tested by a double-blind panel of wine experts and consumers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Union Atlantic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 February 2010) Adam Haslett, author of the critically acclaimed collection of stories You Are Not a Stranger Here, discusses his debut novel, Union Atlantic. It’s the story of an ambitious young banker, money, and a property dispute with an eccentric retired school teacher. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 February 2010) Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Working in the Shadows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 February 2010) Gabriel Thompson talks about what it's like to do physical labor for minimum wage. In Working in the Shadows: A Year Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do, he gives an account of the year he spent working alongside immigrants-- picking lettuce in Arizona, working the graveyard shift at a chicken slaughterhouse in Alabama, and delivering food for an upscale Manhattan restaurant. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Denis Matsuev (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 February 2010) Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, one of the rising stars on the international concert stage, discusses his return to Carnegie Hall. He’s performing works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Mussorgsky on Sunday, February 21. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Our Lot (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 February 2010) Alyssa Katz explains how economic anxieties and realities of ordinary Americans, combined with greed and delusion on Wall Street and in Washington, inflated the real estate bubble. In Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us, she looks into how our entire nation got swept up in real estate mania, and connects the collapse of the mortgage markets and its impact on the global economy with the U .S. government’s push to make home ownership possible for those who hadn’t been able to attain i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Healing Hearts (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 February 2010) Dr. Kathy Magliato is one of the few female heart surgeons practicing in the world today, and she is also a member of an even more exclusive group-surgeons specially trained to perform heart transplants. In Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon she describes working in an intense, male-dominated field and explains the day-to-day realities of her life, juggling family her demanding work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Checklist Manifesto (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 February 2010) Atul Gawande, general surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, staff writer for The New Yorker, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, explains how more training and advanced technologies don’t seem to prevent experts from making costly mistakes, but a simple checklist can. His new book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right looks at how innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On Thin Ice (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 February 2010) Science writer Richard Ellis talks about how the polar bear has become a symbol of how climate change threatens life on the planet. In On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear, he looks at why the world population of polar bears has shrunk by half in the last 20 years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Privileges (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 February 2010) Jonathan Dee talks about his novel The Privileges, about a couple who have always believed in a privileged life for themselves and their children, but that life isn’t arriving fast enough to suit them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Griffin Dunne on Dominick Dunne (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 February 2010) Griffin Dunne, son of the late Dominick Dunne, discusses his father’s life and last novel, Too Much Money. Dominick Dunne was an author, film producer, and special correspondent for Vanity Fair for 25 years, covering the lives and trials of celebrities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Invasive Species (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 February 2010) Growing global trade means more bugs and plants end up where they don’t belong, causing widespread environmental damage. On today’sPlease Explain,we’ll learn how invasive species—from Asian purple loosestrife to the Colorado potato beetle—can wreak havoc when they’re accidentally imported to a new environment. We’re joined byRobert F. C. Naczi,Curator of North American Botany at the New York Botanical Garden;Jessica Arcate Schuler,Manager of the Forest, at the New York Botanic ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Manufacturing Depression (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 February 2010) More and more people have begun to ask themselves if they are happy, and if their unhappiness is a disease that can—and should—be treated by medication.Gary Greenbergdiscusses depression, drawing on medical scholarship, his 25 years as a psychotherapist, and his own experience with depression to show how it has been marketed as a widespread chronic disease, packaged by scientists, doctors, and marketing experts. InManufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern DiseaseGreenberg ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Venus in Fur (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 February 2010) PlaywrightDavid Ivesand actressNina Ariandatalk about Classic Stage Company's critically acclaimed comedy,“Venus in Fur.”It’s playing at Classic Stage Company, at 136 E. 13th Street, through March 7. More information and ticketshere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Remember Me (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 February 2010) ChoreographerDavid Parsonstalks about his internationally acclaimed company Parsons Dance, celebrating its 25th year, and the show“Remember Me,”is its longest run yet at The Joyce Theatre. Performances continuing through February 21. More tickets and informationhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: On Thin Iceland (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 February 2010) On today’s secondUnderreported,segment we’ll take a look at Iceland’s repeated attempts to dig itself out of financial ruin, and efforts by the country to repay the United Kingdom and the Netherlands money those countries lost in a failed Icelandic bank. We’ll talk toLandon Thomas Jr.,financial correspondent for theNew York Timesbased in London. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website As You Like It (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 February 2010) Thomas Sadoski, Christian Camargo,andJuliet Rylancetalk about starring in Shakespeare’s“As You Like It,”directed by Sam Mendes. The play is part of the second year of Bridge Project at BAM, and is playing at BAM Harvey Theater through March 13. More information and ticketshere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Voodoo Histories (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 February 2010) Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy—from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, from the Kennedy assassination to the death of Princess Diana.David Aaronovitchdiscusses why they are so persistent and why they’ve been around for so long. InVoodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History,he probes and explodes the major conspiracy theories. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Things We Didn’t See Coming (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 February 2010) Steven Amsterdamdescribes his debut collection of stories,Things We Didn’t See Coming.The darkly comic stories follow the narrator over three decades as he tries to survive in a world that’s becoming increasingly savage after a series of cataclysmic events.Event:Steven Amsterdam will be reading and signing booksThursday, February 11, at 7:00 pmThree Lives154 West 10th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: How Goldman Sachs Helped the Greek Government Paper Over Its Debt (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 February 2010) On today’s firstUnderreported,Stacy-Marie Ishmaelof theFinancial Timesexplains how Goldman Sachs used a derivatives deal to help Greece’s government hide how serious their debt was. Plus, an update on the negotiations in Europe to bail out Greece.We discussed Greece's public debt in December. You can listen to that interviewhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bread Revolution (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 February 2010) Jim Lahey, founder of New York’s Sullivan Street Bakery, discusses his no-knead technique for making bread. His new book My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method, he explains the science and technique behind his method. It includes recipes for his basic dough as well as recipes for homemade pizza, ciabatta, foccacia and rye, and more. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The God of Love (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 February 2010) Amy Bloom describes her latest collection of interconnected stories, Where the God of Love Hangs Out. It looks at the mysteries of passion, family, and friendship, and explores the changes that love and loss create. Due to weather, Amy Bloom's reading tonight is cancelled. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Space Is the Place (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 February 2010) The Obama Administration’s NASA budget was released this month and some critics claim its proposals have shifted the space program toward a more commercial footing. We’ll talk with Dr. Henry Hertzfeld, of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, former astronaut Scott Horowitz, and with Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, about the proposals and the latest happenings in the vacuum of space. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 February 2010) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Secret World of Corporate Espionage (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 February 2010) Eamon Javers discusses the rise of corporate spying, which has stretched into almost every industry in almost every corner of the globe. In Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage, he delves into the checkered history of corporate spying, looks at the methods—from setting up fake websites, trailing people, sorting through household and corporate trash, satellite surveillance, and hacking e-mail and secure computer networks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Midnight House (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 February 2010) Bestselling author Alex Berenson, one of the world's best new thriller writers, talks about his latest novel, The Midnight House, about his return character CIA agent John Wells, who must find out who is killing CIA agents involved in interrogating terrorists at a secret base in Poland. Event: Alex Berenson will be reading and signing books Monday, February 22, at 7:00 pm Borders 461 Park Avenue at 57th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 February 2010) Pushcart Prize nominee Maaza Mengiste discusses her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. It tells the story of a father and two sons living in Addis Abbas in 1974, and of a family unraveling in the wake of Ethiopia’s revolution. Event: Maaza Mengiste will be speaking February 12, at 5:00 pm NYU Creative Writing Program Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House 58 West 10th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Country Driving (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 February 2010) Peter Hessler, longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, talks about his seven-year road trip around China, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming the country. In Country Driving, he describes his trips to the Tibetan plateau, to the small farming village Sancha, and to Lishui, a small southeastern city--all places being changed by new roads, growing traffic, and a more mobile society. Event: Peter Hessler will be speaking Tuesday, February 9, at at 6: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Only Everything (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 February 2010) Saxophonist David Sanborn discusses his new CD, “Only Everything.” He’ll be performing at The Blue Note February 9 through February 14. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eye on Iraq (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 February 2010) Thomas E. Ricks, senior fellow, Center for a New American Security, contributing editor for Foreign Policy magazine, special military correspondent for the Washington Post, and author of Fiasco and The Gamble, gives us an update on Iraq, looking at how stable the country is, what to expect from the upcoming elections, and the plans for military withdrawal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chasing Miracles (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 February 2010) When John Crowley and his wife Aileen learned that their two youngest children had a rare genetic disorder called Pompe disease, he left his corporate job to help co-found a start-up biotech company focused exclusively on developing a treatment for the disease. His book Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Love, Strength, Hope, and Joy tells the family’s story, which inspired the new film “Extraordinary Measures.” Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Flying Cheap (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 February 2010) Frontline correspondent Miles O’Brien talks about the crash of Continental Flight 3407 outside Buffalo last February. While it was identified as a Continental flight, it was actually operated by Colgan Air, a regional carrier. Miles O'Brien investigates major airlines' outsourcing to regional carriers to cut costs in the Frontline documentary “Flying Cheap.” It airs Tuesday, February 9, at 9:00 pm on PBS. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Oscar’s Machinations (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 February 2010) It's Oscar season again, and we're taking a look behind the scenes, at the campaigns behind the Academy Awards. Here to give us some perspective are three men in the know:Mark Harris, who wrote the cover story forNew York magazine,called, “The Red Carpet Campaign,” which will be on newsstands Monday, and he's the author ofPictures at a Revolution.Richard Brodyis a staff writer forThe New Yorkerand the author ofEverything is Cinema. AndDaniel Eaganis the author ofAmerica’s Film Legacy ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Toyota Safety (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 February 2010) Bill Vlasic,Detroit bureau chief forThe New York Times,discusses the possibility that the electronic system that controls the throttle and engine speed in Toyotas has been malfunctioning. His article looking at lawsuits filed about faulty computer systems appeared in today'sNew York Times,and you can read ithere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: BPA (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 February 2010) Bisphenol-A, known as BPA, is an important building block of several plastics and plastic additives. Concern about the use of BPA in consumer products has been growing, and questions about itssafety and its effect of human health have led some retailers to remove products made of it from their shelves; some states, cities, and even countries have even banned its use altogether. On today’s edition ofPlease Explain,we’ll look into what the studies of BPA show, why the scientific communit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Workin’ It with RuPaul (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 February 2010) RuPaulgives helpful and provocative tips on fashion, beauty, style, and confidence for girls and boys, straight and gay—and everyone in between!Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Styleprovides insights into makeup, clothing choices, and the illusion of drag. The book picks up where the new season of"RuPaul’s Drag Race"leaves off, and is part style guide part confidence manifesto.Event:RuPaul will be signing booksFriday, February 5, at 7:00 pmBorders Time ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website El Turista (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 February 2010) Josh Rousetalks about what it¹s like to be a Nebraskan living in Spain, and how a pre-Castro Cuban cabaret legend influenced his new sound on his latest album, "El Turista."Event:Josh Rouse will be performingFriday, February 5, at 7:00 pmLe Poisson Rouge158 Bleecker StreetTickets: $25More information and tickets athere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Happy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 February 2010) Alex Lemon talks about the debilitating strokes that interrupted his hard-partying college days. In Happy: A Memoir, he recounts coping with strokes, brain bleeds, and depression by sinking deeper into drug and alcohol abuse, and how his mother nursed him back to health after brain surgery. Events: Alex Lemon will be speaking and signing books Thursday, February 4, at 7:00 pm Book Court 163 Court Street Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Haiti's Children (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 February 2010) Before last month’s earthquake, Haiti’s children were at risk of indentured servitude and sex trafficking. On this week’s Underreported, Caryl M. Stern, president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and Manuel Fontaine, a UNICEF Representative in Algeria and child protection expert who is currently on mission with UNICEF in Haiti, join us for a look at why Haiti’s children were vulnerable before last month’s earthquake and what kind of efforts are underway to protect them as the country ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website America's Secret Afghan Prisons (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 February 2010) Anand Gopal discusses America's secret prisons in Afghanistan. His article "America's Secret Afghan Prisons" was published collaboratively by TomDispatch.com and The Nation, and supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Anand Gopal has reported in Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal. His dispatches can be read at anandgopal.com. He is working on a book about the war in Afghanistan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Extreme Fear (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 February 2010) Science journalist Jeff Wise explains the latest research about how the brain reacts to fear, and describes his hands-on approach to his reporting. His book Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger reveals how the simple "fight or flight" model has been replaced by a more complex understanding of our body and brain’s response to fear. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: The Corporation as a "Person" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 February 2010) The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission has been criticized as granting corporations the same freedom of speech as human beings. We’ll explore the history of this idea with Doug Kendal of the Constitutional Accountability Center. We’ll also be joined by Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, who will talk about the specifics of the Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and what it means for camp ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Autobiography of an Execution (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 February 2010) David Dow has represented over 100 death row cases in Texas. In The Autobiography of an Execution he takes readers inside the issue of the death penalty—from the inner-workings of the criminal justice system to prisons and execution chambers—and reveals the challenges of working on these cases. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ajami (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 February 2010) Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti, Israeli and Palestinian co-directors of "Ajami," discuss collaborating on their debut film. Set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, home to Jews, Muslims and Christians, the film has won prizes at festivals worldwide. "Ajami" opens February 3 at Film Forum and February 5 at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eliot Spitzer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 February 2010) Former New York State Attorney General and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer discusses the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the current state of Wall Street, and what regulations might prevent banks from taking the kind of dangerous risks that caused the crisis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ralph Ellison's Unfinished Novel (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 February 2010) Editors John F. Callahan and Adam Bradley talk about Ralph Ellison’s legacy and his massive unfinished final work, Three Days Before the Shooting, which he had spent nearly 40 years writing. The manuscript has been gathered in one volume for the first time. Event: Adam Bradley and John F. Callahan will be speaking with Michael Mooney, Former President of Lewis & Clark Wednesday, February 3, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website After Empire (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 February 2010) Dilip Hiro looks at the new century’s emerging power politics and considers how they might rearrange our world order. In After Empire: The Birth of a Multipolar World, he looks at the historic shifts that have undermined America’s position as the world’s sole superpower and have created a new global order where America’s moral, economic, and military leadership will be challenged. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paris Under Water (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 February 2010) On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the 1910 Paris flood, Jeffrey H. Jackson discusses what happened when torrential rainfall swelled the Seine and saturated the soil, and faulty engineering caused drowned streets, homes, businesses, and museums. His book Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 tells the story of how Parisians came together to confront the crisis. Event: Jeffrey Jackson will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, February 2, at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Film Forum at 40 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 February 2010) Founded in 1970 with 50 folding chairs and one 16mm projector, Film Forum is now one of the city’s homes for independent films. Karen Cooper, director of Film Forum, talks about its 40th anniversary. MoMA is celebrating the anniversary with a documentary film series, "Karen Cooper Carte Blanche: 40 Years of Documentary Premieres at Film Forum," February 3-20. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital Nation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 February 2010) Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from how we learn and work to how we communicate and even conduct war. Frontline correspondent Douglas Rushkoff and producer Rachel Dretzin discuss Frontline’s documentary "Digital Nation," which investigates whether technology is moving faster than we can adapt to it. "Digital Nation" airs on PBS tonight at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Culinary Careers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 February 2010) Dorothy Cann Hamilton and chef Tom Colicchio discuss how to prepare for, and find, careers of all kinds in the culinary world. Hamilton’s book Love What You Do: Building a Career in the Culinary Industry outlines how to discover your passions, strengths and weaknesses, and how to decide what kind of career path is right for you and what kind of training you’ll need. Event: Chef Tom Colicchio will be part of a panel discussion moderated by Dorothy Cann Hamilton Wednesday, February 3 at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bomb Power (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 February 2010) Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills reveals how the atomic bomb transformed American democracy, increasing the power of the presidency and redefining the government as a national security state. In Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, he draws a line from the Manhattan Project to the Cold War to the war on terror, fostering a state of war for sixty-eight years and counting. Event: Garry Wills will be in conversation with Paul Holdengraber, Director of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reading Jesus (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 February 2010) Although she’s a lifelong Christian, Mary Gordon wondered about how well she really understood who Jesus was, so she decided to read the Gospels as literature and to study Jesus as a character. In Reading Jesus, she looks at all the fundamental stories, rediscovering and reinterpreting teachings that are both familiar and elusive. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Honorable Survivor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 February 2010) Emmy award-winning journalist Lynne Joiner chronicles the experiences of John S. Service, a U.S. Foreign Service officer in wartime China. Her biography Honorable Survivor tells how Service predicted Mao Tse-tung's revolution long before anyone else even knew the Chinese Communists were a potent force, and how it lead to Senator Joseph McCarthy attacking him. Event: Lynne Joiner will be speaking Tuesday, February 2, at 12 pm 92nd Street Y Tribeca 200 Hudson Street Tickets: $16.00 More inf ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website James Patterson, Inc. (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 January 2010) Even if you’ve never read one of James Patterson’s best-selling thrillers, you may have seen ads for his books on the subway or even on television. Sarah Crichton, Little, Brown’s publisher from 1996 to 2001, and now publisher of Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Jonathan Mahler, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, and author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning and The Challenge, discuss how Patterson has changed the book ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Indian Classical Music (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 January 2010) Hindustani music, a classical musical tradition of northern and central India, can be traced back to Vedic times, around 1000 BC. On today’s edition of Please Explain we’ll take a look at India’s rich culture of music and its trademark instruments. Tabla player Dibyarka Chatterjee, and sitar player K. V. Mahabala join us to talk about the history and traditions of Indian classical music, and to perform. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robert Bonfiglio, Harmonica Virtuoso (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 January 2010) Harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio, plays for us, and discusses his performance with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. He’ll be performing the “Concerto for Harmonica” written by Henry Cowell, who is often called the father of American classical music, in a program devoted exclusively to the composer. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wild Child (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 January 2010) T. C. Boyle talks about his new collection of stories, Wild Child and Other Stories. The title story is an original retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic France, and many other stories explore the force of nature. Event: T. C. Boyle is speaking, reading, and signing books Friday, January 29, at 7:00 pm PowerHouse Arena 37 Main Street, at Water Street DUMBO, Brooklyn RSVP: wildchild@powerhousearena.com Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Tropical Diseases and Poor Countries (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 January 2010) Today, nearly all of the 1.4 billion people who live below the World Bank’s poverty line are infected with hookworms or related parasites. We’ll look at the impact neglected tropical diseases, such as hookworm, has had on the world poorest countries with Dr. Peter J. Hotez. He is President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Tropical Medicine at George Washington University. He recently wrote the article "Gandhi’s Hookworms" in the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Is Out (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 January 2010) “Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives” is the first feature-length documentary about lesbian and gay identity made by gay filmmakers. When it was released in 1978, it made a huge impact and became an icon of the emerging gay rights movement of the 1970s. Veronica Selver, one of the film’s directors, and David Gillon, who’s featured in it, are joined by Michelangelo Signorile, to talk about how life has changed for gays and lesbians in the three decades since “Word Is Out” w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fatal System Error (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 January 2010) Joseph Menn describes the underground world of computer hackers. In Fatal System Error, he describes the evolution of cybercrime from small-time thieving to sophisticated, organized gangs who steal financial data from consumers and defense secrets from governments. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Mexican Drug War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 January 2010) Mexico’s war against drugs has accelerated in recent years—with deadly results. For today’s second Underreported segment, we’ll speak with Ken Ellingwood, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Mexico City and author of the book Hard Line: Life and Death on the U.S.-Mexico Border. You can read the LA Times's complete coverage of the Mexican drug war here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Hidden Brain (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 January 2010) Shankar Vedantam, author of the Washington Post’s "Department of Human Behavior" column, explains the brain functions, emotional responses, and cognitive processes that happen without conscious awareness, but that control our behavior. In The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives, he looks at how me make all of our most complex and important decisions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Government Girl (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 January 2010) Stacy Parker Aab tells her story of being an idealistic young woman in the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Her memoir Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House reveals how a once charmed life, with nurturing mentors and superstar politicos, changed radically with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Event: Stacy Parker Aab will be reading adn signing books Wednesday, January 27, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Tribeca 97 Warren Street at Greenwich Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The State of the Economy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 January 2010) In tonight’s State of the Union address, the state of the economy is expected to be President Obama’s main focus. We’ll speak with Leo Hindery, Jr., Chairman of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation, managing partner of InterMedia Partners, LP, and former economic advisor to President Obama, and Hendrik Hertzberg, staff writer for The New Yorker, and author of ¡OBÁMANOS!: The Rise of a New Political Era about the proposed middle-class initiatives and spend ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Sea to Shining Sea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 January 2010) Robert Merry, president and publisher of Congressional Quarterly, discusses the pivotal presidency of James K. Polk. When he left office, the country had grown by more than a third, stretching across the continent to the Pacific. A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent, illuminates these crucial years in U.S. history, and the mounting tensions that would lead to the Civil War. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Megadisasters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 January 2010) Florin Diacu, author of Megadisasters: The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe, and Lee Clarke, a Rutgers professor and expert on dealing with disasters, take us through some of the epic upheavals of the past, and whether we’ve ever figured out how to effectively deal with disaster. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Inheritance (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 January 2010) David E. Sanger,chief Washington correspondent forNew York Times,author ofThe Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power,discusses the foreign policy issues President Obama has faced in his first year in office. He outlines the critical choices the president faces, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Iran and North Korea, and looks at what his decisions so far have meant for repairing alliances and expanding American influence. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Playing House (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 January 2010) Elvis expert, journalist, and Country Music Association Media Achievement Award-winnerAlanna Nash,discusses Elvis’s complex relationships with women. Her bookBaby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Himfeatures exclusive interviews and never-before-seen photos, and reveals important early girlfriends, the women who turned him down, and the women who taught him his signature dance moves.Event:Alanna Nash will be readingTuesday, January 26, at 7:00 pmOcean County Lib ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Glee (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 January 2010) On Sunday the Fox Television show"Glee"won a Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble cast, following its Golden Globe win. The show’s pianist, musical director, and composer,Brad Ellis,joins us from Los Angeles to talk about the show and its music. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Couch Potatoes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 January 2010) A recent Australianstudylinks time spent watching television with an increased rate of death. According to the study, people who said they watched TV for more than four hours a day were 80% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those who reported watching less than two hours of television a day. ProfessorMarc Hamilton,who studies Inactivity Physiology at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, explains how a sedentary lifestyle takes a toll on your heal ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Invisible (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 January 2010) Filmmaker and painterHugues de Montalembertwas blinded in an attack in his home in New York in 1978. His memoirInvisible,is a meditation on what it means to see and be seen. In it he reveals his approach to life, and how he learned to navigate the streets of Manhattan and, soon after, Bali and Greenland, with confidence.Event:Hugues de Montalembert will be speaking and signing books, and his film "Black Sun" will be screenedThursday, January 28, at 6:30 pmAlliance Francaise55 East 59th Stre ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Walking with Giants (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 January 2010) Composer of more than 100 jazz pieces, three-time Grammy nominee, and performer on more than 125 albums, saxophonist Jimmy Heath talks about his long career. In I Walked with Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath, he talks about knowing jazz giants such as Charlie Parker and playing with innovators such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. His memoir recounts his childhood in South Philadelphia and memories of playing with his equally legendary brothers Percy and Albert (a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Favorite Child (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 January 2010) Clinical psychologist Ellen Weber Libby delves into the "favorite child complex," which can lead to great advantages as well as emotional handicaps. In The Favorite Child, she explores why parents, consciously or not, choose a favorite child, and looks at the long-term effects of being the favorite son or daughter. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In Her Wake (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 January 2010) When Nancy Rappaport was just 4 years old, her mother committed suicide after a bitter divorce and custody battle. In In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother’s Suicide, Dr. Rappaport, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, uncovers the story of her mother’s suicide, and describes her own struggle to come to terms with it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Small Wars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 January 2010) Sadie Jones discusses her novel Small Wars. It’s an unflinching look at a marriage in crisis, and how lives are irrevocably changed by one of history's "small wars"—the British conflict in Cyprus in 1956. Event: Sadie Jones will be reading and signing books Monday, January 25, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Bookstore 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: The Soil (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 January 2010) On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’ll look at what’s in the earth beneath our feet. Chris Smith National Leader for Technical Soil Services, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Michael A. Wilson, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Survey Research and Laboratory, describe what soil is made of, how and why it differs from place to place, and why rich dirt is crucial to healthy growth. Find out more about the twelve soil orders ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Creation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 January 2010) Director Jon Amiel and Randal Keynes, Charles Darwin’s great-great-grandson, talk about the film "Creation," based Keynes’s book Creation,. It depicts Darwin as a brilliant man sure of his scientific skills but tormented by his daughter Annie’s death and by the realization that he has lost his faith. "Creation" opens in New York January 22 at Landmark Sunshine Cinema and Clearview Cinemas at First Avenue and 62nd Street. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Other Brain (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 January 2010) Neuroscientist Douglas Field, explains how glia, which make up approximately 85 percent of the cells in the brain, work. In The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science, he explains recent discoveries in glia research and looks at what breakthroughs in brain science and medicine are likely to come. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Museum of Complaint (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 January 2010) Matthew Bakkom culled New York City’s municipal archives to create New York City: Museum of Complaint, a collection of 122 letters to mayors of New York—from Edward Holland in the 1750s to John Lindsay in the late 1960s. The book reproduces the original letters, from those carefully handwritten with pen and ink to scrawled notes to typewritten pages that portray the voices and complaints of New Yorkers past. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Everything Flows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 January 2010) TranslatorRobert ChandlerdiscussesEverything Flows,Russian writer Vasily Grossman’s final novel. It tells the story of Ivan Grigoryevich, who, after he’s released from serving 30 years in the Soviet camps, struggles to find a place for himself in an unfamiliar world.Event:Robert Chandler will be readingThursday, January 21, at 7:00 pmIdlewild Books12 West 19th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues2nd Floor Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Orphans' Home Cycle (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 January 2010) DirectorMichael Wilson,andHallie Foote,playwright Horton Foote’s daughter, talk about staging"The Orphans' Home Cycle,"a nine-play family saga that chronicles the childhood, coming of age, and adulthood of Horace Robedaux, a character based heavily on Horton Foote’s father. "The Orphans' Home Cycle" is presented in three parts at The Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street. More information and ticketshere.You can listen to Leonard's 1999 interview with Horton Foote, and his 2008 inter ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Haiti (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 January 2010) Timemagazine’sJay Newton-Smalljoins us from Port-au-Prince to describe what she’s seen since she arrived on Friday. AndGillian Dunn,who is heading upInternational Rescue Committee’s Emergency Response Teamon the ground in Haiti, will discuss how yesterday’s 6.1 magnitude aftershock has affected aid efforts there. ReadTime’s completeHaiti coverage.Read Jay Newton-Small’sTwitter feed.How You Can Help: The Takeaway’s List of Relief OrganizationsLast week we spoke withLeonardo See ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Limbo States (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21January 2010) Places like Iraqi Kurdistan, Somaliland, and The Republic of Abkhazian may not have a seat at the UN or show up on many maps, but they still act like quasi-countries in the hopes of one day becoming independent. On today’sUnderreportedsegment we’ll look at some of these places withGraeme Wood,a staff editor forThe Atlantic.His article"Limbo World"appears in the Jan/Feb issue ofForeign Policy Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website James Spader (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 January 2010) Emmy Award-winning actorJames Spaderdiscusses his Broadway debut in David Mamet’s new play"Race,"about three lawyers at a successful firm who are called on to represent a white client who has been accused of raping a black woman. "Race" playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 43 West 47th Street. More information and ticketshere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Footnotes in Gaza (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 January 2010) Cartoonist-reporter Joe Sacco, presents a sweeping, original investigation of a forgotten crime in Rafah, a town in the Gaza Strip that has been a notorious flashpoint for conflicts. His book Footnotes in Gaza, is a graphic of a 1956 incident that left 111 Palestinians dead, shot by Israeli soldiers—seen from different perspectives. Event: Joe Sacco will be reading and signing books Wednesday, January 20, at 7:00 pm McNally Robinson Booksellers 52 Prince Street He'll also be reading an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Political Fix (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 January 2010) Political insider Douglas E. Schoen, one of America’s foremost political pollsters, dissects the failures of modern politics and shows how the electoral system can be fixed. In The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grass Roots to the White House he unveils presents citizen-centered solutions—from unmoderated debates to a rotating primary schedule to changing the rules for political donors—to get politicians to serve citizens instead of special interests ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Unreported Immigrant Deaths (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 January 2010) New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein discusses deaths in immigration jails, which for years have gone uncounted and unnamed in the public record. She looks into why so little is reported by officials about who these people were and how they died. You can read Nina Bernstein's article "Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail" here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 January 2010) Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Matters to Mark Bittman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 January 2010) Bestselling author of How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman, discusses how to eat responsibly and calls attention to the ways government policy, corporations, marketing, and global economics influence the food we eat. His latest book, Food Matters, has just been released in paperback. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Unnamed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 January 2010) Joshua Ferris talks about his latest novel The Unnamed, about Tim Farnsworth, a handsome, healthy man, who loves his wife, his family, his work, his home, but who one day stands up and walks out…and keeps walking. It’s a story about marriage and family and the invisible forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. Event: Joshua Ferris will be reading and signing books Tuesday, January 19, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Upper West Side 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website School Lunches (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 January 2010) Chef Jorge Collazo, the Executive Chef for New York Public Schools, and Chef Bill Telepan, owner of Telepan restaurant, who volunteers as a cook in public school cafeterias, how to create fresher, healthier meals for young students. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Just Kids (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 January 2010) Poet and performer Patti Smith discusses her long friendship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, which began with a chance meeting in Brooklyn in 1967. Her book Just Kids: From Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel, a Life of Art and Friendship. is an account life in New York in the late 1960s and 1970s, and a portrait of the passion to create that fueled the rise of two young artists. Events: Patti Smith will be speaking with journalist Katherine Lanpher and will read from her new memoir ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Martin Luther King Day Gospel Hour (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 January 2010) Leonard Lopate DJs his annual Martin Luther King Day gospel show. Playlist "We Shall Overcome," Marion Williams (Through Many Dangers) "Rock My Soul," Roberta Martin & The Roberta Martin Singers (Nuggets of the Golden Age of Gospel 1945-1958) "I Won’t Mind," Norsalus McKissick & The Roberta Martin Singers (All God’s Sons and Daughters) "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," J. Robert Bradley (All God’s Sons and Daughters) "Lord Hold My Hand," Jess Whitaker with Pilgrim Travelers ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Freefall (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 January 2010) Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz discusses the current financial crisis—and the coming global economic order. In Freefall: America, World Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, he draws on his academic expertise, his years shaping policy in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank, and his role as head of a UN commission charged with reforming the global financial system to outline a way forward. Event: Joseph Stiglitz will be speaking with Matthew Bishop Tuesday, Janu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Andrew Ross Sorkin's Economic Questions (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 January 2010) New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of Too Big to Fail, talks about the Financial Crisis Commission should ask about the causes of the current financial crisis. You can read his column "What the Financial Crisis Commission Should Ask" here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish Tank (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 January 2010) Director Andrea Arnold and actor Michael Fassbender talk about their new film "Fish Tank," a coming-of-age story set in a British housing complex. It opens today, January 15, at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 January 2010) Declan Kiely, Robert H. Taylor Curator, and Clara Drummond, Assistant Curator, Morgan Library and Museum, discuss the exhibition "A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy." The exhibition showcases Jane Austen's (1775–1817) distinctive voice and explores why she and her writing continue to enthrall and inspire us nearly two hundred years after her death. "A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy." is on view at Morgan Library and Museum through March 14. There's a slidesh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Television Technology (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 January 2010) Nick Bilton, Design Integration Editor for The New York Times and the User Interface Specialist & Researcher for The New York Times Research & Development Lab, and Joe Brown, Associate Editor for Wired Magazine, discusses current trends in television technology--from HDTV to plasma screens to the upcoming 3D TV--and the many ways to watch TV without using a television. Read Nick Bilton's recent article on his "cable-free" home media system here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Postpartum Depression and Perinatal Psychiatry (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 January 2010) On today's Please Explain, we'll look into the causes and symptoms of postpartum depression, and the field of perinatal psychiatry, the evaluation and treatment of psychiatric disorders associated with female reproductive function. We're joined by Dr. Catherine Monk, Irving Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Shari Lusskin, Director of Reproductive Psychiatry, at NYU Langone Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Freud and Fiction (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 January 2010) In 1909, Sigmund Freud made his one and only trip to the United States of America. A century later, however, he continues to reappear in American literature. Novelists Selden Edwards (The Little Book) and Brenda Webster (Vienna Triangle) explain the enduring fascination with the father of psychotherapy and his impact on their own writing. Event: Selden Edwards and Brenda Webster will be in conversation with other novelists, as part of "Freud as Fictional Character," at the Austrian Cultur ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Geoengineering in New York Harbor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 January 2010) Geoengineering projects aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change are gaining traction following the failure of the Copenhagen Climate talks last year. A new paper released by a team of Columbia scientists proposes injecting and storing carbon-dioxide emissions into basalt rock formations under the sea, including the area right off the coast of New York City. On today’s first Underreported segment David Goldberg, Senior Scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Obser ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: UN Cutting Back on Fraud Investigations (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 January 2010) In 2006, the United Nations established an anticorruption task force. During its brief existence the unit uncovered at least 20 major schemes affecting more than $1 billion in foreign aid and UN contracts. The UN shuttered the unit in 2009 and transferred its responsibilities to another part of the organization. Now the number of new fraud cases has plummeted and existing investigations have languished. On today’s second Underreported segment, we’ll talk with Associated Press writer Joh ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lost World of Old Europe (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 January 2010) Jennifer Chi, Associate Director for Exhibitions and Public Programs at Institute of the Study of the Ancient World, and David Anthony, Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at Hartwick College, discuss the exhibition "The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000–3500 BC," on view at NYU’s Institute of the Study of the Ancient World through April 25. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Not a Gadget (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 January 2010) Jaron Lanier has been a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s. He talks about the ways the World Wide has changed commerce and culture in good ways and bad. In his book You Are Not a Gadget, he looks at the Web’s creation and structure and the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poor digital design. Events: Jaron Lanier will be in conversation with Robert Krulwich and signing books Thursday, January 14, at 8:00 pm 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue, at 92nd Street T ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War on Kids (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 January 2010) Cevin Soling, director of the documentary "The War on Kids," describes the high-security state of American public schools. He's joined by researcher Dan Losen, Senior Education Law and Policy Associate at The Civil Rights Project, UCLA. He's the co-author of the forthcoming book The School to Prison Pipeline, from NYU Press. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Caused the Earthquake in Haiti? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 January 2010) The estimated 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti yesterday was the worst in more than 200 years. We’ll speak with Leonardo Seeber, a seismologist and senior researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. U.S. State Department hotline for contacting relatives in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747. More Haiti Resources: Twitter List from NPR | Twitter List from NYTimes | How You Can Help: The Takeaway’s List of Relief Organizations Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mindfield (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 January 2010) Lone Frank explains what she learned by volunteering for experiments in brain research, enduring brain scans and even wearing a God Helmet. In Mindfield: How Brain Science is Changing Our World is an insider's guide to the outermost boundaries of brain science. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Mountain of Crumbs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 January 2010) Elena Gorokhova describes what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union of the 1960s. In her memoir A Mountain of Crumbs, she recounts her love of the English language, her family's daily deprivations and small joys, and tells the story of Russia in the second half of the twentieth century. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 January 2010) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Song Continues (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 January 2010) Legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne discusses her career in music and her return to Carnegie Hall. Her acclaimed vocal festival "The Song Continues..." takes place January 19–22, and includes master classes with renowned artists, including Ms. Horne, conductor James Levine, and pianist Warren Jones, and recitals by Marilyn Horne Foundation artists and special guests. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Makes a Great Teacher (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 January 2010) Amanda Ripley, a contributor to The Atlantic, looks into how Teach for America has drawn on two decades of observation and research to determine what makes a great teacher. Her article "What Makes a Great Teacher?" appears in the January/February issue of The Atlantic. Call in or leave a comment and tell us about your favorite teacher — and if you are a teacher, let us know what your classroom secrets are! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Good Talk (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 January 2010) Good conversation remains deeply important, but it seems to be increasingly endangered by e-mail and texting and cell phones. Daniel Menaker explains what elements create quality conversation—from subtext to structure to subliminal signals. His book A Good Talk: The Story of Skill and Conversation is a celebration of the human art of conversation. Events: Daniel Menaker will be reading and signing books Thursday, January 14, at 7:00 pm powerHouse Arena 37 Main Street Dumbo, Brooklyn He' ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ruth Reichl after Gourmet (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 January 2010) Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief of Gourmet discusses the magazine’s sudden closing and the future of food magazines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Makes Us Human (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 January 2010) Alan Alda, talks about hosting—and participating in experiments for—the three-part PBS series "The Human Spark." It looks into the question "what makes us human," from anthropological, social, and scientific viewpoints. In addition to serving as the host, Alda also participates in experiments, including one on his brain. "The Human Spark" is airing on PBS January 6, 13, and 20, at 8:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sandhogs Under New York (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 January 2010) Photographer Gina LeVay geologist-Sandhog Scott Chessman talk about Sandhogs, the miners who work 800 feet below the streets of Manhattan, tunneling through bedrock to build the largest unified infrastructure project in New York City history—the 60-mile-long City Water Tunnel #3. LeVay’s book Sandhogs is a portrait of the hidden characters and systems of underground New York. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China's Megatrends (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 January 2010) John Naisbitt, a long-time China observer, and Doris Naisbitt, director of the Naisbitt China Institute in Tianjin and a professor at Yunnan University, talk about the transformation of China′s economic, social, and political systems. Their book China's Megatrends: The 8 Pillars of a New Society argues that China is creating a new social and economic model that fits Chinese history and society just as America created a model fitting its history and society more than 200 years ago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Medea Hypothesis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 January 2010) Renowned paleontologist Peter Ward argues that life might be its own worst enemy. He proposes a provocative vision of life's relationship with the Earth's biosphere in The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? Ward’s proposes that all but one of the mass extinctions on Earth were caused by life itself, and reveals that there is an alarming decline of diversity and biomass on Earth, caused by life's own "biocidal" tendencies. Event: Peter Ward is speaking Monda ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Circle Mirror Transformation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 January 2010) Actresses Tracee Chimo and Dierdre O’Connell and playwright Annie Baker talk about the new hit play "Circle Mirror Transformation." It tells the story of four lost New Englanders who enroll in a community center drama class, where hearts are broken and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. It’s playing at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater through January 31. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crash Course (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 January 2010) Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Ingrassia describes the state of America’s auto industry and reveals the reasons for President Barack Obama’s decision to save Chrysler despite the opposition of many of his advisors. His book Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry’s Road from Glory to Disaster takes us from factory floors to dealerships, and from Detroit's boardrooms to the White House, and tells a story of hubris, denial, missed opportunities, and self-inflicted damage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Garbage Dreams (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 January 2010) Filmmaker Mai Iskander, discusses her documentary "Garbage Dreams," which follows three teenage boys growing up in the world’s largest garbage village on the outskirts of Cairo. It opens at IFC Center January 6. Events: Mai Iskander will appear in person at the 6:30 pm screenings of "Garbage Dreams" Wednesday, January 6, through Sunday, January 10 IFC Center 323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: My Cable Bill (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 January 2010) On today’s Please Explain, Joel Kelsey, Associate Policy Analyst for Consumers Union, tells us about how cable television works, how fees are assessed, and explains the recent fights between cable networks and providers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bold, Cautious, True (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 January 2010) Neil Watson, Executive Director of the Katonah Museum of Art, and Kevin Sharp, Executive Director of the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, discuss the exhibition "Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era," at the Katonah Museum of Art through January 24. The exhibition features the work of some of the most important American artists of the mid-19th century, including Frederic E. Church, Sanford Gifford, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, John Frederick Kensett, and Worth ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ordinary Lives in North Korea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 January 2010) Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick examines what life is like under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—North Korea. Her book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—through the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Event: Barbara Demick will be speaking and signing books Thursday, January 7, at 6:00 pm ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Enemy of the People (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 January 2010) Award-winning former NPR and ABC News correspondent Kati Marton writes about her family history—during both the Nazi and the Communist periods in Hungary. Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America exposes the cruel mechanics of the Communist Terror State. She pored through the secret police files on her journalist parents that uncover how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends, colleagues, and even their children's babysitter. Event: Kati Marton will be reading an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Changes to Credit Card Rules (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 January 2010) New federal regulations for credit cards are on their way, but card companies are rushing to sign customers up and change their contracts before the rules go into full effect in February. On today’s first Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Trial of Syed Fahad Hashmi (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 January 2010) A 28-year-old Queens man named Syed Fahad Hashmi was arrested in London in 2006 on charges or providing material support to al-Qaeda. He has been held in solitary confinement in Manhattan since 2007. We’ll speak with Emily Berman, Counsel in the Liberty and National Security Project with the Brennan Center for Justice, about the basics of Hashmi’s case, questions surrounding his detention, and why his trial has been postponed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sweetgrass (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 January 2010) Husband and wife filmmakers/anthropologists Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash describe spending three summers high in the Rockies living among sheep herders. Their documentary "Sweetgrass" captures the journey of modern cowboys as they wrangle thousands of sheep across Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains. The film opens at Film Forum January 6. Events: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash will be holding Q&As Friday, January 8, and Saturday, January 9, at the 7:50 pm ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Unganda’s Anti-Gay Legislation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 January 2010) Political leaders in Uganda are threatening to pass a so-called "anti-homosexuality bill" that would mandate life in prison or even death to the country’s gays and lesbians. We'll talk to Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Division, Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family, and Amnesty International USA's Uganda specialist, Dr. Msia Clark about the proposed legislation and the role American evangelicals have had in creating an anti-gay climate in Uganda. You can read the Ugand ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Secret ICE Castles (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 January 2010) Jacqueline Stevens, contributor to The Nation, talks about how and why immigration agents are holding United States residents in unlisted and unmarked subfield offices. Her most recent articles in The Nation are "America’s Secret ICE Castles," and "ICE Agents’ Ruse Operations." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Journey to the End of Islam (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 January 2010) Michael Muhammad Knight, called the Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson of American Islam, discusses visiting holy sites in the Middle East in search of a personal relationship to Islam. In his book Journey to the End of Islam, he describes struggling to separate the spiritual from the political Islam in the United States and around the world. Event: Michael Muhammed Knight will be reading and signing books, followed by a very special performance by The Kominas, as part of Muslim Punk Nig ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Rules (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 January 2010) Michael Pollan,author ofThe Omnivore's DilemmaandIn Defense of Food,talks about his new pocket-sized guide for eaters.FoodRules: An Eater’s Manual,presents rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions.Event:Michael Pollan will be speaking, answering questions, and signing booksTuesday, January 5, at 7:00 pmBarnes&Noble Tribeca97 Warren Street, at Greenwich Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Map that Gave America Its Name (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 January 2010) In 2003, the Library of Congress paid $10 million for the only existing copy of the 1507 map that was the first to show the New World and call it America.Toby Lestertells the story of its creation inThe Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Fossil Hunter (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 January 2010) Tracy ChevalierandShelley Emlingdiscusses the life and pioneering work of Mary Anning, a world-renowned paleontologist whose finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Tracy Chevalier’s new novelRemarkable Creatures,is a fictionalized version of Mary Anning's life story. Shelley Emling’s bookThe Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World,is a nonfiction account of Anning’s life.Event:Tracy Chevalier will be r ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brief Encounter (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 January 2010) Emma Rice,director, andAnnette McLaughlin,who plays Myrtle, talks about Noel Coward’s play"Brief Encounter."It’s playing atSt. Ann’s Warehouse,at 38 Water Street, in DUMBO, Brooklyn, through January 17. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Checklist Manifesto (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 January 2010) Atul Gawande, general surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, staff writer for The New Yorker, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, explains how more training and advanced technologies don’t seem to prevent experts from making costly mistakes, but a simple checklist can. His new book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right looks at how innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On Thin Ice (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 January 2010) Science writer Richard Ellis talks about how the polar bear has become a symbol of how climate change threatens life on the planet. In On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear, he looks at why the world population of polar bears has shrunk by half in the last 20 years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Privileged Lives (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 January 2010) Jonathan Dee talks about his novel The Privileges, about a couple who have always believed in a privileged life for themselves and their children, but that life isn’t arriving fast enough to suit them. Event: Jonathan Dee will be reading along with Rich Benjamin and Colum McCann, with musical guest Jim White, as part of the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series Wednesday, January 6, 7:00 pm Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Griffin Dunne on Dominick Dunne (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 January 2010) Griffin Dunne, son of the late Dominick Dunne, discusses his father’s life and last novel, Too Much Money. Dominick Dunne was an author, film producer, and special correspondent for Vanity Fair for 25 years, covering the lives and trials of celebrities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Man of Constant Sorrow (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 01 January 2010) Ralph Stanley looks back on his long career as the patriarch of old-time mountain music. In Man of Constant Sorrow, he tells the story of how music now popular around the world was created by two brothers from a dying southern mountain culture. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Fine Romance (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 01 January 2010) Poet, editor, and cultural critic David Lehman looks at the origins of the American songbook—jazz standards, iconic love songs, and famous movie sound tracks. In his book A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, explores the fact that the majority of this music was written exclusively by Jews. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Burnt Shadows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 01 January 2010) Kamila Shamsie talks about her novel Burnt Shadows, an epic narrative of love and betrayal that spans more than half a century, from the bombing of Nagazaki, the partition of India, to the days after 9/11 in the United States and Afghanistan, and tells the story of two intertwined families. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Paper Chase (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 01 January 2010) Sir Harold Evans recounts the tale of his life as a newspaperman, from his very first job, to becoming editor of the Sunday Times and The Times of London, and then his move into book publishing, becoming president and publisher of Random House. In My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times he discusses his crusading reporting style, his belief that journalism should improve the lives of those less fortunate, and his feuds with politicians, government, the court, and Rupert Murdoch. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Heart of a Patriot (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 31 December 2009) Max Cleland talks about his government career and his tough reelection campaign. His memoir Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove is about the joy he gained serving his country, no matter the cost, and how he recovered from the wounds of war and politics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rowing the Atlantic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 31 December 2009) Roz Savage discusses leaving her corporate career to take up a life of adventure. She was the first solo woman ever to enter the 3,000-mile Atlantic Rowing Race. In Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, she describes the harrowing journey and how it led her to discover a kind of happiness she was searching for. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dancing Plague (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 31 December 2009) John Waller describes a bizarre dancing epidemic that struck Europe in the 1500s. In The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness, he looks into the strange capabilities of the human mind and examines on our susceptibility to mass hysteria. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Uranium Wars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 31 December 2009) Science writer Amir Aczel examines the scientific discovery of nuclear power. Uranium Wars: The Scientific Rivalry that Created the Nuclear Age tells the story of the scientists who first uncovered the potential of uranium, and the complex and ongoing story of uranium itself, an element that both provides abundant energy and holds incredible destructive power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Come On, Get Happy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 December 2009) A new study published in the journal Science has found that residents of New York State are the unhappiest in the country. Connecticut and New Jersey also ranked near the bottom. We'll speak to Professor Stephen Wu of Hamilton College, one of the co-authors of a study. He’s joined by Derek Bok, author of the forthcoming book The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being Call in to share what makes you happy or unhappy about living in New York, an ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eat Fresh Food (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 December 2009) Chef Rozanne Gold discusses how to get kids and teenagers to love to cook and love to eat good food. Her latest cookbook, Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs, includes more that 80 recipes for snacks, smoothies, school lunches, burgers, pizza, and desserts, and each is made with the freshest healthiest ingredients you can find. Rozanne Gold was on the Lopate Show August 28, 2008, for our 3-Ingredient Challenge. That segment won a James Beard Award! You can listen to it here. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tom Valenti's Diabetic Cookbook (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 December 2009) There are some 23.6 million people living with diabetes in America, and now there’s a cookbook for diabetic food lovers who don’t want to sacrifice taste. Tom Valenti, called one of America's Ten Best Chefs by Food & Wine, has written You Don’t Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook: 250 Amazing Dishes for People with Diabetes and Their Families and Friends, with innovative recipes that never resorting to imitation products. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Year and Decade in Review (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 December 2009) Humorist Andy Borowitz, of the borowitzreport.com, and Hugo Lindgren, editorial director of New York magazine, look at the highs and lows the year 2009 and at the decade as a whole. Event: Andy Borowitz reviews President Obama's first year in office with Calvin Trillin, Jeffrey Toobin, and Janeane Garofalo January 27, at 8:00 pm 92nd Street Y Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Tickets: $12.00 More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website True Believers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 29 December 2009) What if you are really convinced that these are the End Times? How do you live your life? That's one of the themes explored in the new film "Waiting for Armageddon." We'll speak to two of the filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, who discovered that many of the people they interviewed don't just believe in the Armageddon, but are actively trying to bring it about. The film is playing at Cinema Village January 8-14. We'll also speak with Michelle Goldberg author of Kingdom Coming: Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Six-Word Resolutions (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 29 December 2009) Can you tell us all of your plans, hopes, dreams, motivations, and mistakes you hope not to repeat in 2010 in just six words? Editors of Smith Magazine and the bestseller Six-Word Memoir book series, Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, pick the winners of our Six-Word Resolution Contest. Call in to share your six-word resolution! Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser's book It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure will be published in January. Event: La ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website End Times (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 29 December 2009) From films like "2012" to the Left Behind book series, thoughts about the so-called End Times are everywhere. But why are we so excited to see our own demise? We'll explore this theme—and what real social, political, economic, or psychological problems our fascination with The End might indicate—with Professor Lee Clarke, author of Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination and with Professor Max Page, author of The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website It Could Happen Here (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 December 2009) Many believe that America’s politics are too stable to allow a second revolution, but Bruce Judson, Yale School of Management senior faculty fellow, explains why he thinks the unprecedented 30-year rise of inequality here has made revolution is a real possibility. His book It Could Happen Here shows how this level of disparity has almost always led to political upheaval throughout history. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Winemaker Michel Chapoutier (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 December 2009) The name Chapoutier has been present in the Rhône Valley since 1808. Winemaker Michel Chapoutier discusses how he’s succeeded in bucking long-standing traditions with daring and creativity in winemaking by applying biodynamic growing techniques. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Street Level (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 December 2009) New York photographer Sue Kwon talks about her 20 years of taking documentary and commercial photographs in the city. Street Level: New York Photographs 1987-2007 is the first complete monograph to survey her work. It includes pictures of the Beastie Boys, Biggie Smalls, and the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as portraits and New York street scenes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Boulevard of Dreams (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 December 2009) Constance Rosenblum, the longtime editor of the New York Times’ City section, discusses the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, known simply as the Grand Concourse, a four-mile stretch of road through the center of the West Bronx. Her book Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope Along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx describes how the Grand Concourse has been a witness to the changing face of the Bronx, and New York City, for a century. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Christmas Gospel (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 December 2009) Leonard celebrates an hour of his favorite classic Christmas gospel songs! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why Architecture Matters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 December 2009) Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger, who writes for The New Yorker, discusses the world of architecture. In Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, he looks at skyscrapers, museums, airports, monuments, suburban shopping malls, and white-brick apartment houses. His book Why Architecture Matters looks at how architecture affects us emotionally and intellectually. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Superfusion (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 December 2009) Zachary Karabell explains how the Chinese and U.S. economies have become intertwined. Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It, looks at how China has taken advantage of the support of American companies, how the United States has benefited from China’s growth, and how and it has become deeply in debt to China over the last two decades. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Momofuku (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 December 2009) Chef David Chang, owner of award-winning New York restaurants Momofuku Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, and Milk Bar, discusses his new cookbook. Momofuku tells the story behind the cuisine that has altered New York’s culinary landscape and shares recipes (including his famous pork buns). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How I Became a Famous Novelist (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 December 2009) Steve Hely's novel How I Became A Famous Novelist tells the story of Pete Tarslaw, an unlikely literary legend, and how his "pile of garbage" became the most talked about, blogged about, praised, and panned novel in America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New York City Thrillers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 December 2009) Reggie Nadelson, author of Londongrad; Lee Child, author of Gone Tomorrow; and George Dawes Green, author of Ravens talk to us about writing crime thrillers set in New York City. From picking a setting to characters and story development. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 December 2009) ActressBryce Dallas Howardand directorJodie Markelldiscuss the film "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," a new drama based on a recently rediscovered original screenplay by Tennessee Williams. Chris Evans, Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, Academy Award-nominee Ann-Margret, Mamie Gummer, and Will Patton co-star in the film. "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," opens December 30 at theQuad Cinemaand the Clearview Cinema on First Avenue at 62nd Street. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Aid Trap (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 December 2009) Dean of Columbia Business School and the Russell L. Carson Professor of Economics and Finance,Glenn Hubbard,discusses how the same energy and money we devote to charity can be devoted to local business tohelp end poverty in developing nations.The Aid Trap: Hard Truths about Ending Poverty,written with William Duggan, shows how supporting the local business sector of poor countries would let citizens take charge of growing their own economies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gahan Wilson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 December 2009) Gahan Wilsonis among the most popular and widely read cartoonists in the history of the medium. His work has been published inPlayboy, The New Yorker, Punch, The National Lampoon,among other magazines. He talks about his career and the new three-volumeGahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gore Vidal (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 December 2009) Gore Vidaldiscusses his life and career. His visual memoirGore Vidal: Snapshots in History’s Glareincludes photographs, letters, manuscripts, and other selections from his vast personal archives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Governor David Paterson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 December 2009) WNYC's political reporter Bob Hennelly, discusses New York Governor David Paterson. He gives a behind-the-scenes account of how Gov. Patterson’s administration functions, and looks into his accomplishments and his battles, and how effective he’s been in leading the state. Listen to Bob Hennelley's report "A Day in the Life of Gov. David Paterson here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Twelfth Night (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 December 2009) Dan Messe (piano, glockenspiel, celeste, harmony vocals) and Steve Curtis (guitar, mandolin, harmony vocals), members of the Brooklyn-based band Hem, talk about their newest album, "Twelfth Night," featuring music from the Shakespeare in the Park production of Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robber Barons (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 December 2009) We’ll have a panel discussion on the robber-barons of yesteryear. We’ll speak with T. J. Stiles, author of the First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, David Nasaw, author of Andrew Carnegie, and David Cannadine, author of Mellon: An American Life about how these men made, and spent, their fortunes, and at whose expense. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kent Tritle and the "Messiah" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 December 2009) Conductor Kent Tritle is central to many New Yorkers’ Messiah experience. In December, he’s conducting a total of three performances of Handel’s Messiah: with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, with Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall, and playing the organ with the Philharmonic in five more. Event: Kent Tritle will be conducting Musica Sacra's performance of the Messiah Tuesday, December 22, at 8:00 pm Carnegie Hall 57th Street at 7th Avenue More information and tickets ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Heavenly Cakes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 December 2009) Rose Levy Beranbaum, who revolutionized baking with The Cake Bible, one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, talks about her new baking book, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. It includes over 100 foolproof recipes for cakes for every occasion—from butter cakes, sponge cakes, and cheesecakes to elegant wedding cakes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Painting Below Zero (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 December 2009) Painter James Rosenquist discusses his life as an artist and his work. His memoir, Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art, recounts his childhood in the Midwest, his move to New York in 1955, his time as a sign painter for movie and theater billboards, the art dealers that helped shape his career, and the community of artists he was inspired by. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Greatest Trade Ever (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 December 2009) Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman describes how one man foresaw the financial crisis and outwitted Wall Street's titans to make financial history. The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History gives an account of how our economy became so precarious, and how huge financial deals were struck to make--and loose--billions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gerard Lordahl Answers Your Winter Gardening Questions (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 December 2009) Gerard Lordahl, Director of the Open Space Greening Program of the Council on the Environment of New York City, discusses eco-friendly gardening, winter gardening, and botanical vocabulary. He also answers listener questions! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Waterbirds (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 December 2009) Photographer Ted Cross discusses tracking down birds from the tundra of eastern Siberia to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. His book Waterbirdsis a collection of photographs, field notes, and fascinating accounts birds’ habits and habitat. You can visit Ted Cross's website, Birders United, by clicking here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Understudy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 December 2009) Tony Award-winning actress Julie White and actor Justin Kirk talk about their roles in Theresa Rebeck’s new comedy "The Understudy," which takes a look at the most thankless job in theatre. The Roundabout Theater Company’s production of "The Understudy" is playing at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 West 46th Street, through, January 17, 2010. Ticket information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website America’s Film Legacy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 December 2009) Daniel Eagan has compiled a comprehensive guide to the 500 most significant films ever made in the United States, from big-budget blockbusters to experimental shorts. America’s Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry presents the films that make up the backbone of American cinema—from the well-known, such as "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" to the obscure "Blacksmithing Scene," and "Free Radicals." Visit Daniel Eagan's Web site here. Ev ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Hibernation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 December 2009) Our latest Please Explain looks into why and how animals hibernate. We’re joined by Dr. Matthew Andrews, Professor and Head of Biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and Dr. Hannah Carey, Professor, Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The New Golden Age of Television (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 December 2009) We all know "I Love Lucy," "The Honeymooners," and "The Andy Griffith Show" from the Golden Age of Television, but are "The Wire," "30 Rock," and "Mad Men" part of anewGolden Age of Television?Emily Nussbaum,Culture Editor ofNew Yorkmagazine, andAlan Sepinwall,TV Critic for theStar-Ledger,give us their takes on the decade’s best television. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Contractors in Afghanistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 December 2009) Earlier this month President Obama announced the United States would increase its military presence in Afghanistan. But more than just extra troops are going to the country—they will likely be accompanied by an additional surge of private contractors in support roles. What’s more, the government has contracted with an additional outside firm to help track all the contractors already in the country. We’ll speak withJeremy Scahill,he's a correspondent forThe Nationand author of the book ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 50 Million Chemicals (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 December 2009) On September 7, 2009, scientists working for the Chemical Abstract Service (which assigns identification numbers to all new chemicals) entered the 50-millionth chemical substance into their Registry. Chemist and industrial hygienistMonona Rossol,President and Founder of Arts, Crafts&Theater Safety, takes a look at what all these new substances are, where they are coming from, and how they affect our health. And she'll take listener calls! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Golden Age of Television (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 December 2009) Ron Simon,curator of television and radio atThe Paley Center for Media,discusses the Criterion Collection DVD"The Golden Age of Television,"a series organized for PBS in the early 1980s that focused on the hugely popular live American television plays of the 1950s. These shows were thoughtfully choreographed, brilliantly acted, socially progressive, and brought Broadway-quality drama into homes across the country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Greece's Debt Crisis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 December 2009) Is Greece the new Dubai? On this week’s first Underreported,Stacy-Marie IshmaelofThe Financial Times,explains what’s behind Greece’s ballooning debt and how the government is trying to address the budget crisis. Plus, we’ll find out how the European Central Bank is reacting to Greece’s troubles and whether the euro will be affected. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 December 2009) Curator Barbara Haskell discusses the exhibition "Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction," on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through January 17. The show includes more than 125 paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures as well as selections from Alfred Stieglitz’s photographic portrait series of O’Keeffe. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Healthcare Reform Update (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 December 2009) Luke Mitchell, senior editor for Harper's Magazine, gives us an update on healthcare reform. His recent articles "Understanding Obamacare," and "Sick in the Head: Why America Won't Get the Health-Care System It Needs," look at why the United States has arguably the worst healthcare system in the developed world, why we pay twice the Western average to maintain that system, and why it is such a struggle to fundamentally change it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Master of Shadows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 December 2009) Mark Lamster tells the true story of how the famous European painter Peter Paul Rubens doubled as a secret agent and negotiated a peace between superpowers in the 17th century. In Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens, he explains how Rubens’s reputation among monarchs and political leaders across Europe gave him perfect cover for the clandestine activities that shaped European politics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 December 2009) Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Sisters Antipodes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 December 2009) NovelistJane Alisondiscusses her memoir about her parents switching partners with another couple.The Sisters Antipodestells the story of what happened when her parents divorced and remarried, throwing Jane and her sister-- and their two stepsisters--into a competition for the affections of their absent fathers, a contest that would prove tragic. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Great Recession (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 December 2009) PlaywrightsAdam RappandWill Enodiscuss being commissioned by the Flea Theater to write short plays about the recession. Adam Rapp’s short play “Classic Kitchen Timer” and Will Eno's “UNUM,” are both part of “The Great Recession.”“The Great Recession”opens December 10 at theFlea Theater,at 41 White Street (between Broadway and Church Street). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 40 Minutes with Morley Safer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 December 2009) JournalistMorley Safer,winner of 12 Emmy awards, discusses his work on “60 Minutes” and long broadcasting career.Event:Morley Safer will be in conversation with NY1’s Budd MishkinThursday, December 17, at 8:15 pm92nd Street YLexington Avenue at 92nd StreetTickets: $27; more information and ticketshere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Making the Grades (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 December 2009) Todd Farleytalks about his experience working for the standardized testing industry. His memoirMaking the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industryraises serious questions about the validity of many large-scale standardized tests, which have become a central focus in our education system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 December 2009) Lidia Bastianich inspires new respect for food and for the people who produce it in the little-known parts of Italy. Her newest cookbook, Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes, includes recipes from all over Italy, translated for home kitchens. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Surviving Holiday Cooking Disasters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 December 2009) We’ve been collecting holiday cooking horror stories from listeners, and Christopher Kimball—of the PBS show "America’s Test Kitchen," and founder of Cook's Illustrated—joins us to offer tips for avoiding and surviving kitchen calamities and preparing hassle-free holiday feasts. The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook includes advice from 10 years of the show, and more than 650 well-tested, fool-proof recipes. Call in with your cooking questions or leave a comment! ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crazy Heart (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 December 2009) Actor Jeff Bridges discusses his new film "Crazy Heart." He stars as the romantic anti-hero Bad Blake, a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who is helped by a journalist, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. "Crazy Heart" opens December 16 at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website I Know How to Cook (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 December 2009) The bible of French home cooking, Je Sais Cuisiner, by Ginette Mathiot, has sold over 6 million copies since it was first published in 1932. It's now available for the first time in English as I Know How to Cook, edited by Parisian food writer Clotilde Dusoulier. It includes more than 1,400 easy-to-follow recipes of every classic French dish, from croque monsieur to cassoulet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food & Climate Summit (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 December 2009) Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President; Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health; and Anna Lappé, author of the forthcoming book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It discuss the NYU Food & Climate Summit, taking place on December 12th. The event is organized by the Borough President's office and Just Food. Read the New York City Food Pledge and Charter here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Digestion (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 December 2009) After all this talk of food, we’ll learn how it’s processed by the body for this week’s edition of Please Explain. Dr. Ira Breite, Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the NYU Langone Medical Center, joins us, along with Dr. David Seres, nutrition specialist in the Division of Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Columbia University Medical Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website WWOOFing (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 December 2009) We take a look at WWOOFing — World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms — an international movement that started in the UK in 1971 that connects volunteers with organic farmers around the world. In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodations, and opportunities to learn about organic farming. Sarah Potenza, Incoming Board President of WWOOF USA, joins us, along with Amanda Provencher, who, with her husband, hosts several WWOOFers every summer at their farm, and Jonat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Death of Sergei Magnitsky (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 December 2009) In November, a 37-year-old tax lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky died in a Russian jail cell. Before he passed away, Magnitsky drafted a series of letters and petitions describing the squalid conditions in Russia’s prisons. Now, those documents have leaked and have created an unusual firestorm of criticism in a country where millions once perished in the Soviet Gulag. We’ll speak with Washington Post foreign correspondent Philip P. Pan, who just returned from Russia and has written about th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Alaska's Melting Permafrost (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 December 2009) It’s estimated that the world’s permafrost contains 1,600 billion tons of carbon. As global temperatures rise, there are growing concerns about that all that permafrost could melt, releasing those gasses into the atmosphere. On today’s second Underreported Vladimir Romanovsky, a geophysics professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks explains what happens when permafrost melts and what’s happened to villages in Alaska that have already been affected by the effects of melting p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Finian's Rainbow (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 December 2009) Jim Norton and Kate Baldwin talk about their roles in the first Broadway revival of the classic musical, "Finian’s Rainbow" in nearly 50 years. It’s one of the first of the socially conscious postwar musicals--it deals in a satirical way with issues of class, race, and economics. "Finian’s Rainbow" is playing at St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street. Event: Kate Baldwin is performing songs from her debut album, "Let’s See What Happens" Sunday, December 13 at 8:30 pm Feinstein's ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Right Relationship (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 December 2009) Peter G. Brown explains how the core Quaker principle of "right relationship"—respecting the integrity, resilience, and beauty of human and natural communities—can serve as the foundation for a new economic model. In Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy, he and co-author Geoffrey Garver propose new economic policies that combine ecological awareness with a focus on fairness toward all peoples. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A New Standard (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 December 2009) Acclaimed vocalist Steve Tyrell has returned to the Café Carlyle to perform standards from the American songbook, holiday favorites, and selections from his recordings. This year marks the 10th anniversary of his 1999 debut "A New Standard." He’s performing through December 31. More information and reservations here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Philanthrocapitalism (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 December 2009) For philanthropists of the past, charity was often a matter of simply giving money away, but the new generation of billionaires who are reshaping the way they give see charity as more like business.Matthew Bishopexplains how philanthrocapitalism works and what it means for philanthropy. InPhilanthrocapitalism,written with Michael Green, he speaks with Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bono, and other wealthy people motivated to change the world.Read Matthew Bishop's b ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Talented Miss Highsmith (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 December 2009) Fiction writer Patricia Highsmith had a life as dark and compelling as that of her favorite character, the talented Tom Ripley. BiographerJoan Schenkardescribes Highsmith’s secretive life and how it influenced her writing, including her popular novelsStrangers on a TrainandThe Talented Mr. Ripley.Her book isThe Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith.Event:Joan Schenkar will be speaking and signing books, and actress Kathleen Chalfant will be reading ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 December 2009) Alvin and Larry Ubell,the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call212-433-9692with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Brother/Sister Plays (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 December 2009) DirectorRobert O’Haraand actorsBrian Tyree HenryandAndre Hollanddiscuss"The Brother/Sister Plays,"Terrell Alvin McCraney’s trilogy of modern-day stories about an extended family and community in the Bayou. "The Brother/Sister Plays" are playing at thePublic Theaterthrough December 20. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website International Mine Ban Treaty (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 December 2009) Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams talks about the Obama Administration's mixed messages on whether the United States will sign the International Mine Ban Treaty, which 156 nations are party to. She’ll also discuss the work of her organization, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website U.N. Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 December 2009) As the UN Climate Change conference enters its second day in Copenhagen, Time staff writer Bryan Walsh describes what we can expect over the next two weeks, what the 15,000 delegates are talking about, and whether yesterday’s announcement that the EPA has determined that greenhouse gasses must be regulated will help the US come to an agreement in Denmark. Here are some of Bryan Walsh's recent articles about the Copenhagen conference: 5 Things to Watch for at the Copenhagen Climate-Change ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Viking in the Wheat Field (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 December 2009) Susan Dworkin discusses the work of Danish scientist Bent Skovmand, who amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties and was instrumental in creating the world’s seed banks. Her book The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist's Struggle to Protect the World's Wheat Harvest examines the often overlooked topic of how crucial the world’s dependence on wheat seeds is, and how these "genetic resources" should be saved and protected, especially as climate change is creatin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Jazz Loft Project (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 December 2009) W. Eugene Smith’s Jazz Loft Project has been legendary in the worlds of art, photography, and music for more than 40 years. Sam Stephenson, writer and instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, tells about his seven-year project to catalog, archive, select, and edit Smith’s jazz loft photographs and tapes for his book, The Jazz Loft Project. It includes photographs of some of the biggest names in jazz—Charles Mingus, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pluto Was a Planet (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 December 2009) Astrophysicist and director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson looks at the fate of Pluto, which was long considered the ninth planet in our solar system until it was demoted to a "dwarf planet" in 2006. In The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, he reconstructs Pluto’s origins, place in pop culture, and why its place in the pantheon of planets was revoked. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Harry Benson's Photographs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 December 2009) World-renowned photojournalist Harry Benson talks about his remarkable career. His latest book, Harry Benson: Photographs, is a celebration of his career, and includes his photographs of presidents, Robert F. Kennedy on the night he was assassinated, and the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrities, and historic moments—the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the IRA hunger strikes, the Freedom March through Mississippi, 9/11, and conflicts around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mentors, Muses, and Monsters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 December 2009) Writers Elizabeth Benedict, Sigrid Nunez, and Lily Tuck discuss the people who most influenced them. Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives was edited by and includes an essay by Elizabeth Benedict. Sigrid Nunez writes about what it was like to be Susan Sontag's protégé, and Lily Tuck writes about having Gordon Lish as a teacher. Event: Elizabeth Benedict, Sigrid Nunez, and Lily Tuck will be speaking and signing books Monday, December 7, at 7:00 pm B ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dissection (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 December 2009) Author James Edmonson, Chief Curator of the Dittrick Medical Center and Museum at Case Western Reserve University, explains why, in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, medical students took pictures of themselves with the cadavers they dissected. His book Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine includes 138 rare, historic photographs that reveal a strange piece of American medical history. Event: James Edmonson will be giving a talk Monday, De ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Texas Politics (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 December 2009) Robert Draper, contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, discusses Texas Governor Rick Perry, who’s in the fight of his political life against popular Republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who has the key players of the Bush administration behind her. His article "It’s Just a Texas-Governor Thing," is in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Young Farmers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 December 2009) Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s second annual Young Farmers Conference is December 3-4. Fred Kirschenmann, Stone Barns Center’s Board President and Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, discusses his advocacy of a new "50 year Farm Bill" in Washington, and about his work helping to energize the burgeoning young farmers movement in the United States. He’s joined by Zach Wolfe and Emma Hoyt, two young farmers. Resources for young farmers: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nightingale (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 December 2009) Actress Lynn Redgrave stars in a play she wrote herself, inspired by the life of her maternal grandmother, a woman she barely knew. "Nightingale" is playing through December 13 at New York City Center, Stage 1, 131 West 55th Street. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cleaving (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 December 2009) Julie Powell talks about learning the art of butchering and traveling from Argentina to Ukraine to Japan to learn about meat. Her new memoir is Cleaving: A Memoir of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession. Event: Julie Powell will be reading and signing books Friday, December 4, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway, 66th Street She'll also be reading and signing books Thursday, January 7, 7:00 pm Housing Works 126 Crosby Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Epigenetics (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 December 2009) The new science of epigenetics is changing our understanding of heredity, identity, and disease. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’ll find out how environmental factors can change the way our genes function, and how the epigenome—which can be seen as the software that tells our DNA how to function—works. We’re joined by Dr. Dana Dolinoy, Searle Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan; and Dr. Ra ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Prosecution of a Right Wing Radio Host Turned FBI Informant (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 December 2009) For years Hal Turner hosted a right-wing internet radio show from northern New Jersey that catered to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. For most of that time Turner also received thousands of dollars from the FBI for acting as an informant who spied on the same groups he was broadcasting to. Now he’s on trial in Brooklyn for posting death threats against three federal appeals court judges on his blog. On today’s second Underreported, we’ll speak with Mike Kelly, a columnist for The Re ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website If We Can Put a Man on the Moon (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 December 2009) William Eggers and John O'Leary discusses how we can renew our trust in our government and renew its legacy of competence. In If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government, they remind American people who might be frustrated with the government, the war in Iraq, and the financial meltdown that our nation has a long history of great achievements. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Don’t Touch Me (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 December 2009) Comedian and host of "Deal or No Deal" Howie Mandel describes his ongoing struggle to overcome Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and ADHD, and how has it shaped his life and career. His book Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me is a frank, funny account of his effort to find comic inspiration in his darkest, most vulnerable places. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Late Christopher Bean (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 December 2009) Director Jenn Thompson and actress Mary Bacon discuss the "The Late Christopher Bean," a comedy rarely seen in New York since its Broadway premiere in 1932. It tells the story of a country doctor who learns that the paintings a poor former tenant gave him instead of rent are suddenly valuable and sought after by a New York art collector. "The Late Christopher Bean" is playing at the Beckett Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, through December 12. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Swine Flu and Ukraine's Presidential Election (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 December 2009) Ukraine will hold its presidential election in January, but in recent weeks swine flu has threatened to delay the vote. On this week’s first Underreported: Julia Ioffe of Foreign Policy explains how fears about swine flu have been politicized and why next year’s election is so important to the future of Ukraine. You can read Julia Ioffe’s article here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Snitching (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 02 December 2009) Alexandra Natapoff, Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, argues that the consequences of snitching—police and prosecutors offering deals to criminal offenders in exchange for information—aren’t always positive. Her book Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice is a comprehensive analysis of this common practice, and looks at how it affects the legal system, policing, and communities. Event: Alexandra Natapoff will be speaking Wednesday, Dec ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Antarctica (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 02 December 2009) Award-winning photographer Michael Poliza talks about venturing to the polar regions with his camera. His book Antarctic: A Tribute to Life in the Polar Regions captures images of these frozen paradises threatened by global warming. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website FDR's Shadow (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 02 December 2009) In 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just lost an election as vice president, was left paralyzed from the waist down by polio, and his marriage was on the rocks. Julie Fenster describes how his friend and advisor, Louis Howe, was instrumental in FDR’s resurgence and for shaping Eleanor Roosevelt’s role. In FDR’s Shadow: Louis Howe, the Force that Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, she gives a behind-the-scenes account of this influential friendship. Event: Julie M. Fenster wil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stones Into Schools (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 02 December 2009) Picking up where his bestseller Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, Greg Mortenson recounts his efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake; and the ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders. In Stones Into Schools, he shares his vision to promote peace through education and literacy and weaves together personal stories of those who have been involved in his humanita ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website U Is for Undertow (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 December 2009) Sue Grafton talks about her twenty-first thriller about her sharp-tongued heroine Kinsey Millhone. U Is for Undertow, tells the story of Michael Sutton, a twenty-seven-year-old college dropout who asks for Kinsey’s help to uncover a kidnapping and murder of a child over 20 years earlier. But can she trust him or was he a boy who cried wolf? Events: Sue Grafton will be reading and signing books Tuesday, December 1, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, between L ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jeffrey Toobin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 December 2009) Jeffrey Toobin, CNN senior analyst and New Yorker staff writer, discusses the upcoming Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial, and how the appointment of Justice Sonya Sotomayor will affect the Supreme Court. He's the author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nigella Christmas (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 December 2009) Popular British cook Nigella Lawson tells us how to have a happy holiday in her latest book, Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities. It’s filled with inspirational ideas, practical tips for making the most of the season, and reliable, easy-to-follow recipes and advice about planning, cooking, and entertaining. Events: Nigella Lawson will be speaking and signing books Wednesday, December 2, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, between Lexington ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thank Heaven (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 December 2009) Leslie Caron made her film debut with Gene Kelly in the classic MGM musical "An American in Paris," created one of the most enduring roles in American musicals as "Gigi," danced with Fred Astaire in "Daddy Long Legs," and starred with Cary Grant in "Father Goose." She discusses her remarkable career and reminisces about MGM at the end of its Golden Era and about the great stars she worked with. Her memoir is titled Thank Heaven. Event: Leslie Caron will be speaking and signing books Tuesda ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Twyla Tharp's Collaborative Habit (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 30 November 2009) Throughout her 40-year career, choreographer Twyla Tharp has collaborated with musicians, designers, thousands of dancers, and almost a hundred companies. In The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together, she explains why collaboration is important to her, how to collaborate successfully in your own life, and the lessons she learned in her successful collaborations Billy Joel, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, David Byrne, Richard Avedon, Milos Fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Loot (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 30 November 2009) Producer-director Darius Marder talks about his new documentary "Loot." It follows Lance Larson, a treasure hunter who is determined to help a couple of World War II veterans get a hold of their buried treasures. "Loot" opens in New York Friday, December 4, at IFC Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Running in the Shadows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 30 November 2009) Ian Urbina, national correspondent for the New York Times, discusses the recent surge of runaway teens around the country. His series of articles about the lives of runaways has drawn attention from Capitol Hill. You can read the articles here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website One and the Same (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 30 November 2009) Abigail Pogrebin, an identical twin, looks at the phenomenon of twinship. She investigates how identical pairs regard their doubleness and what experts are learning about how DNA impacts our sense of identity and shapes our lives. In One and the Same: My Life as an Identical Twin and What I’ve Learned about Everyone’s Struggle to be Singular, Pogrebin combines science reporting and personal memoir and the revealing stories of other twins, such football stars Tiki and Ronde Barber, who a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Clinton Tapes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 27 November 2009) Taylor Branch discusses his book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, a record of the conversations he had with President Bill Clinton during his eight years in office. President Clinton revealed what he thought and felt, but couldn’t say in public about the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the failure of health care reform, and his political struggles from Whitewater to the impeachment trial. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kandinksy at the Guggenheim (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 27 November 2009) Tracey Bashkoff, curator of collections and exhibitions, and Karole Vail, assistant curator, discuss "Kandinsky," a full-scale retrospective of the artist who was a seminal figure in the history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Karole Vail is the editor and one of the authors of The Museum of Non-Objective Painting, about the history of the Guggenheim Museum. "Kandinsky," is organized to celebrate the Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary, and is on view through January 13, 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Madeleine Albright (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 27 November 2009) Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tells how Saddam Hussein’s poet-in-residence inspired her to use her pins and brooches make diplomatic statements in her meetings with world leaders. Her book Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box is part memoir, part social history, and looks at Secretary Albright's experience with global politics. An exhibition of Madeleine Albright's jewlery, "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection," is on view through January 31, 20 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Connected (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 27 November 2009) Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler share surprising revelations of how -- and how much -- we influence one another. In Connected, they explain how social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics and more. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Vanishing Youth Nutrient (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 26 November 2009) Susan Allport, author of The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them, looks into why the disappearance of omega-3s from our diet may be responsible for the high rates of obesity, heart disease, cancer. Her article "The Vanishing Youth Nutrient" appears in the September issue of Prevention Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wallace Shawn (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 26 November 2009) Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn discusses how he finds pathos in the political and personal challenges of everyday life. His book Essays challenges us to look at our own behavior in an honest light. He also talks about "My Dinner with Andre," which he co-wrote with Andre Gregory, being released on DVD by the Criterion Collection. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why This World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 26 November 2009) Benjamin Moser examines the life of Clarice Lispector, who looked like Marlene Dietrich, wrote like Virginia Woolf, and was one of the most popular but least understood Latin American writers. His book Why This World tells how Lispector, a precocious Ukrainian girl matured into a great writer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Cooking Made Us Human (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 26 November 2009) Renowned Harvard University primatologist Richard Wrangham argues that cooking is the major factor in human evolution. In Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, he shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lunch with M. (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 25 November 2009) New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto gives us an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the rating process of the Michelin Guide. For the first time in its history, the company allowed a journalist to accompany one of its anonymous inspectors on a visit to a Michelin-rated restaurant. The article, "Lunch with M.," is in the November 23, 2009, issue of The New Yorker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Triumph of the Conservative Underground (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 25 November 2009) Thomas Frank, journalist and author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, explores the conservative counter-culture movement in America, and its unlikely leader, Glenn Beck. His article "The Triumph of the Conservative Underground," in the December issue of Playboy magazine, traces the rise of Glenn Beck from his early days as a comedian to his place as the conservative voice in America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sisters of Sinai (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 25 November 2009) Janet Soskice describes a quintessentially Victorian adventure with of Agnes and Margaret Smith, identical twin sisters from Scotland who made one of one of most important scriptural discoveries of modern times. The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels is an account of how two ladies in middle age and without university degrees uncovered and translated this text, bringing a great biblical treasure to world attention. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patricia T. O’Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 25 November 2009) Our Word Maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Grammarphobia Website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Me and Orson Welles (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 24 November 2009) Filmmaker Richard Linklater discusses his new movie "Me and Orson Welles." It’s based in real theatrical history, and is a romantic coming-of-age story about an actor who lands a role in "Julius Caesar," which is being re-imagined by a young, brilliant director named Orson Welles. "Me and Orson Welles" opens in New York Wednesday, November 25, at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Road (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 24 November 2009) Actor Viggo Mortensen talks about his career and his role in the film "The Road," based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel about a father and son struggling for survival in a desperate, post-apocalyptic America. "The Road" opens nationwide Wednesday, November 25. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Looting of America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 24 November 2009) Les Leopold, director of the Labor Institute and the Public Health Institute, seeks to correct the myths that blame the financial meltdown on low-income home buyers who got in over their heads, people who ran up too much credit-card debt, and government interference with free markets. In The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do About It, he looks into how Wall Street undermined the economy by turnin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hollowing Out the Middle (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 24 November 2009) Recent articles and books have celebrated the migration of highly productive and creative workers to key cities. Sociologists Patrick J. Carr describes what happens to the towns that they desert, and to the people who are left behind. In Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America, written with Maria J. Kefalas, they describe what they learned by moving to a small Iowa town whose young people are leaving in droves. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sweet Thunder (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 23 November 2009) Wil Haygood, staff writer for The Washington Post and biographer, discusses the life of one of the most iconic boxers of the 20th century, Sugar Ray Robinson. His book Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson, is a an account of the famous fighter’s life and legacy. Event: Wil Haygood will be speaking, reading, and signing books Monday, November 23, at 6:00 pm Hue-Man Bookstore 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd., at 124th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Denialism (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 23 November 2009) New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter examines how and why Americans have come to mistrust institutions, especially the institution of science. For centuries, the general view of science was that it is neither good nor bad, but it merely supplies information. In Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, he looks into why science has come to be viewed as a political constituency that’s not always in our best interest. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ad Hoc at Home (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 23 November 2009) Chef Thomas Keller, whose restaurants The French Laundry in Yountville, California, and Per Se in New York have revolutionized American haute cuisine, turns his attention to simple food for the home cook. His cookbook Ad Hoc at Home is inspired by the menu of his casual restaurant, Ad Hoc in Yountville. It includes more than 200 recipes for family-style meals, such as flaky biscuits, chicken pot pies, New England clam bakes, and cherry pies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Card Game (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 23 November 2009) Frontline correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the future of the massive consumer loan industry and its impact on a fragile national economy. In "The Card Game," a joint project with the New York Times, Bergman talk to industry insiders, lobbyists, politicians and consumer advocates as they square off over attempts to reform the way the industry has done business for decades. "The Card Game" airs Tuesday, November 24, at 9:00 pm on PBS. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Strokes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 20 November 2009) On today’s Please Explain, we take a close look at strokes—the causes, effects, and therapeutic and medical advances that help people recover. We're joined by Dr. Randolph S. Marshall, chief of the Division of Stroke, Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Jay P. Mohr, Daniel Sciarra Professor of Clinical Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Toxic Waters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 20 November 2009) New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg discusses his series "Toxic Waters," about the state of drinking water in the United States, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s negligence in enforcing the Clean Water Act. You can read the series "Toxic Waters" here. You can find information about water pollution by state and by zip code here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bad Lieutenant (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 20 November 2009) Director Werner Herzog latest film, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," a re-imagining of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film “Bad Lieutenant.” It stars Nicolas Cage as Terence McDonagh, a drug-addled detective investigating the murder of five African immigrants. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,"opens in New York Friday, November 20, at Empire 25; Lincoln Plaza; Cinema 1, 2, 3; Chelsea 9; and Angelika Film Center. Another film by Werner Herzog, "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Do ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sonata Mulattica (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 20 November 2009) Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and musician, discusses Sonata Mulattica: Poems. It tells the story of the 19th-century virtuoso violinist, George Polgreen Bridgetower, who was friends with Ludwig van Beethoven until a rivalry for the same woman drove them apart. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Yemen's Civil War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 19 November 2009) On today’s secondUnderreportedwe’ll look at the civil war in Yemen and accusations that Iran is waging a proxy against Saudi Arabia by supporting the rebels. We’ll be joined by freelance journalistGinny Hill. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Let It Bleed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 19 November 2009) Author and photographerEthan Russelltells about his experience as one of only sixteen people--including the band itself--who made up the 1969 Rolling Stones tour, which ended with a stabbing death at Altamont, bringing the idealistic 1960s to a close. His bookLet It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixtiesincludes interviews with the band and crew and more than 220 photographs.An exhibition of photographs fromLet It Bleedare on view through December 31 at Morrison Hot ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Arabs: A History (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 19 November 2009) HistorianEugene Rogantraces five centuries of Arab history, from the Ottoman conquests through the British and French colonial periods and up to the present age.The Arabs: A History,seeks to change our understanding of the past, present, and future of one of the world’s most tumultuous regions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Acid Test (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 19 November 2009) Sigourney WeaverandLisa Suatoni,senior scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council’s oceans program, discuss the documentary "Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification." The film, produced by the NRDC, is narrated by and includes commentary by Sigourney Weaver and looks at how carbon dioxide pollution is making ocean water more acidic, threatening marine life and the entire ocean food web. "Acid Test," airs on Planet Green November 21 and November 25. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: China's Gulag Prison System (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 19 November 2009) President Obama was in China this week and he did speak out on the country’s human rights record. On today’s firstUnderreportedsegment, we’re taking a look at China’s expansive prison system, formerly called Laogai. We’ll examine how it was modeled after the Soviet gulag system and the accusations that forced labor is used in the camps. We’ll speak withHarry Wu,founder of theLaogai Research FoundationandNicole Kempton,who edited the foundation’s bookLaogai: The Machinery of Re ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Henry Selick and His Animated Films (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 18 November 2009) Henry Selick, director of the animated features "Coraline," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and "James and the Giant Peach," and creator of the animated sequences in Wes Anderson’s "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," gives us a rare look at his creative process. Events: The Museum of the Moving Image presents "An Evening with Henry Selick" Henry Selick will discuss his career and show clips from his films Wednesday, November 18, at 7:00 pm The Crosby Street Hotel 79 Crosby Street ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Elvis Costello (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 18 November 2009) Elvis Costello performs live! He’ll also talk about his long career in music and about hosting the second season of the critically acclaimed music/talk show "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..." on the Sundance Channel. The season premieres Wednesday, December 9, and includes one-on-one interviews, pairings, group discussions, and performances. Guests for the seven-part season include: Bono, The Edge, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Neko Case, Jesse Wi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The End (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 18 November 2009) Salvatore Scibona discusses his debut novel The End, which was nominated for a National Book Award. It tells the story of a deeply hidden secret in an Italian immigrant enclave in northern Ohio. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 18 November 2009) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Sellout (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 17 November 2009) Investigative journalist and CNBC contributor Charles Gasparino examines the most volatile, anxiety-ridden era in our nation's recent socioeconomic history. The Sellout traces the implosion of the financial services business back to its roots in the late 1970s, when Wall Street embraced a new business model predicated on taking enormous risks. Event: Charles Gasparino will be in conversation with Stephen Friedman, president of Pace University, and will sign books Tuesday, November 17, at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why Architecture Matters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 17 November 2009) Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger, who writes for The New Yorker, discusses the world of architecture. In Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, he looks at skyscrapers, museums, airports, monuments, suburban shopping malls, and white-brick apartment houses. His book Why Architecture Matters looks at how architecture affects us emotionally and intellectually. Events: Paul Goldberger will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, November 17, at 6: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Far North (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 17 November 2009) Marcel Theroux talks about his latest novel Far North. It is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist, and tells the story of one man’s quest through an arctic landscape, from humanity’s origins to its possible end. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arts Education and Graduation Rates (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 17 November 2009) A new study by the Center for Arts Education has found that schools that have increased access to arts education programs also have higher graduation rates. We’ll talk with Richard Kessler, CAE's Executive Director, and Doug Israel, Director of Research and Policy. Read the report here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website ¡OBÁMANOS! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 16 November 2009) Political analyst for The New Yorker Hendrik Hertzberg gives an account of the events that culminated in the victory of Barack Obama in last year’s presidential election. His book ¡OBÁMANOS! The Rise of a New Political Era, is adapted from his articles in The New Yorker’s "The Talk of the Town" section and in the blog he kept on the magazine's Web site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Clean Energy, Common Sense (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 16 November 2009) Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, discusses her book Clean Energy, Common Sense: An American Call to Action on Global Climate Change, which challenges Americans to embrace clean and sustainable energy. Find out more about the book here. Event: Frances Beinecke will speaking and will be introducing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tuesday, November 17th, at 8:00 pm Town Hall 23 West 43rd Street Register for this event here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Original of Laura (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 16 November 2009) Vladimir Nabokov’s biographer Brian Boyd and graphic designer Chip Kidd, describe turning Nabokov’s 138 hand-written index cards for his last, unfinished novel into book form. That book, The Original of Laura, has now been published, 30 years after it was written. Event: Brian Boyd and Chipp Kidd, along with Martin Amis, will be discussing Nabokov, and reading from The Original of Laura, its first-ever public reading, as part of "A Celebration of Vladimir Nabokov." A selection of Nab ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 16 November 2009) Rebecca Miller talks about adapting her novel The Private Lives of Pippa Lee for the screen. The film, which she also directed, stars Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Blake Lively, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Julianne Moore, among others. It tells the story of Pippa Lee, who is only fifty when her older husband decides that they should move to a retirement community in Connecticut, which prompts her to have a kind of quiet midlife crisis. The film "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" opens in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Southern Italian Table (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 13 November 2009) Arthur Schwartz, author of five award-winning cookbooks, talks about his latest: The Southern Italian Table. It includes 130 recipes that celebrate local ingredients and simple flavor combinations found in authentic Southern Italian cuisine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Murder in the Name of Honor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 13 November 2009) Jordanian journalist and human rights activist Rana Husseini talks about honor killings. Her book Murder in the Name of Honor investigates honor crimes against women and the cultures that support and condone them around the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Markets Fail (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 13 November 2009) John Cassidy explains that behind the headlines about job losses, bank bailouts, and corporate greed lies a little-known story of bad ideas. How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities, looks at what happens when markets don’t work—when they lead to stock market bubbles, extreme inequality, real estate crashes, and credit crunches, and why many economic theories for navigating good and bad times don't work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Eco-Labels (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 13 November 2009) Your broccoli, shampoo, and air conditioner might bear labels declaring them to be organic, cruelty-free, or energy efficient, but what do those labels mean and are they true? On today’s edition of Please Explain, Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Project Director for Consumer Reports' GreenerChoices.org and Consumers Union’s Senior Scientist for Policy Initiatives, and Dara O'Rourke, founder and CEO of GoodGuide.com, will take a look at what eco-labels indicate, how standards are set, and what they ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Terrible (and Real) Ideas from the Cold War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 12 November 2009) The Cold War may have ended 20 years ago, but the constant threat of nuclear annihilation and the unlimited scientific potential of the atom led to some truly "out there" thinking, and we’re not just talking about Edward Teller’s idea to detonate an atomic bomb on the moon. The Kennedy Administration considered using nuclear explosions to widen the Panama Canal, the U.S. Postal Service wrote a 300-page plan detailing how to deliver the mail in the event of an atomic apocalypse, and the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: India's Maoist Insurgency (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 12 November 2009) A group of Maoist rebels—also known as the Naxalite insurgency—has taken a violent foothold in 20 of India’s provinces. The group has burned schools, killed more than 900 security officers, and, in at least one province, detonated more than 1,000 improvised explosive devices over the past five years. The Indian government is preparing to send thousands of soldiers into the Maoists strongholds, which also happen to be some of the most impoverished and economically underdeveloped parts ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Philippe de Montebello (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 12 November 2009) Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Fiske Kimball Professor in the History of Culture and Museums, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, discusses his years as director of the Metropolitan and the cultural importance of museums. He is speaking at the Metropolitan Museum about Antoine Watteau’s painting Mezzetin and reading poems by writers inspired by Watteau on November 19, in conjunction with the exhibition "Watteau, Music, and Theat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Tyranny of E-mail (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 12 November 2009) The average corporate worker receives upwards of two hundred e-mails per day. It’s predicted that by 2011, there will be 3.2 billion e-mail users. John Freeman, one of America's preeminent literary critics and editor of Granta, talks about the nature of correspondence through the ages and looks at the constant flurry of messages that’s currently pursuing us. In The Tyranny of E-mail, he advocates for more personal, nuanced, and sociable communication. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blame (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 12 November 2009) Michelle Huneven discusses her novel Blame, a story of guilt and love, family and shame, sobriety and addiction, and life’s moral ambiguities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Would Susie Say (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 11 November 2009) Comedienne Susie Essman talks about her journey from struggling stand-up comic to her role as Susie Greene on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing one of the funniest women on television. Her book, What Would Susie Say: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy takes us behind the scenes of a life in comedy, and provides wisdom on a range of topics that she admits she's not qualified to be an authority on, including men, sports, and being a stepmother. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Andre Agassi (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 11 November 2009) Tennis great Andre Agassi discusses his life on and off the court. During his 20-year career, he won eight Grand Slam singles championships and is the only man to win a career "Golden Slam"—all four Grand Slam singles titles plus the Olympic gold medal. His new memoir, Open, gives a personal account of the challenges, trials, and rewards of his life in tennis. Event: Andre Agassi will be signing books Thursday, November 12, at 12:30 pm Barnes & Noble 555 Fifth Avenue at 46th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Museum of Innocence (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 11 November 2009) Orhan Pamuk talks about his latest novel, The Museum of Innocence, his first since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. It tells the story of a man who collects objects that hold memories of a lost love, and is a sweeping tale of Turkey’s conflicted identity—tradition versus Western modernism, the clash of class and culture. Event: Orhan Pamuk will be speaking and signing books Wednesday, November 18, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Defend the Realm (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 11 November 2009) Christopher Andrew, United Kingdom intelligence historian takes a look at the history of the UK’s MI5, one of the world's biggest intelligence organizations He was hand picked by the agency, and had unprecedented access to MI5's files, to write Defend the Realm: An authorized history of MI5, a look at the history of the organization and a window into recent history, including its present roles in counterespionage and counterterrorism. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Man of Constant Sorrow (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 10 November 2009) Ralph Stanley looks back on his long career as the patriarch of old-time mountain music. In Man of Constant Sorrow, he tells the story of how music now popular around the world was created by two brothers from a dying southern mountain culture. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Fine Romance (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 10 November 2009) Poet, editor, and cultural critic David Lehman looks at the origins of the American songbook—jazz standards, iconic love songs, and famous movie sound tracks. In his book A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, explores the fact that the majority of this music was written exclusively by Jews. Event: David Lehman will be speaking and he’ll be joined by pianist Jonathan Breit and vocalists Thomas Dolan, Hannah Oberman-Breindel, and Megan Stern Tuesday, November 10th, at 8:15 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Burnt Shadows (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 10 November 2009) Kamila Shamsie talks about her novel Burnt Shadows, an epic narrative of love and betrayal that spans more than half a century, from the bombing of Nagazaki, the partition of India, to the days after 9/11 in the United States and Afghanistan, and tells the story of two intertwined families. Event: Kamila Shamsie will be in discussion with Hari Kunzru, moderated by Robert Polito Tuesday, November 10, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17 Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Paper Chase (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 10 November 2009) Sir Harold Evans recounts the tale of his life as a newspaperman, from his very first job, to becoming editor of the Sunday Times and The Times of London, and then his move into book publishing, becoming president and publisher of Random House. In My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times he discusses his crusading reporting style, his belief that journalism should improve the lives of those less fortunate, and his feuds with politicians, government, the court, and Rupert Murdoch. E ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thomas Hampson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 09 November 2009) Baritone Thomas Hampson is an artist, educator, communicator, and music advocate. He discusses being the New York Philharmonic's first Artist-in-Residence, and the Hampsong Foundation, which is devoted to using the art of the song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. Event: Thomas Hampson is performing Mozart's Prague Symphony with the New York Philharmonic Tuesday, November 10, at 7:30 pm Avery Fischer Hall 10 Lincoln Center Plaza More information about this and other p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ray Davies (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 09 November 2009) Ray Davies, of The Kinks, talks about his solo career and his album "The Kinks Choral Collection." He will be performing at Town Hall November 19 and 20 with the Dessoff Chamber Choir. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When the Wall Came Down (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 09 November 2009) The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago today. We’ll discuss the events that led to that historic event and how the former Soviet Bloc has changed since the Iron Curtain was lifted. We’re joined by Stephen Kotkin, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and of International Affairs at Princeton University, whose most recent book (written with Jan T. Gross) is Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, and Stephen F. Cohen, Professor of Russian Studies at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Restored Red Shoes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 09 November 2009) Thelma Schoonmaker, the widow of Michael Powell, and Martin Scorsese’s longtime editor, discusses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece "The Red Shoes." For the film, they created an original ballet from scratch and cast an actual ballerina in the lead. A new 35mm print of "The Red Shoes" is playing at Film Forum November 6-19. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carole King (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 06 November 2009) Legendary singer-songwriter Carole King discusses her environmental activism and her work on behalf of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). She’ll also talk about her career in music. Find out more about her projects here, and more about NREPA here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Alcohol (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 06 November 2009) Our latest Please Explain is all about alcohol--what it is, how it works and the ways it affects our bodies. We'll be joined by Dr. Rueben Gonzales, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Texas and by Dr. Henry R. Kranzler, Professor of Psychiatry and Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Royal Family on Broadway (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 06 November 2009) Jan Maxwell and Rosemary Harris discuss their roles in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s "The Royal Family." It’s playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, through November 29. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hafez Nazeri (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 06 November 2009) Thirty-year-old Iranian musician Hafez Nazeri, called Iran's most influential young composer, talks about his career and "The Rumi Symphony Project," the first Iranian headline concert at Carnegie Hall. Hafez Nazeri is performing in "The Rumi Symphony Project," November 14, at 8:00 pm at Carnegie Hall. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Googled (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 05 November 2009) New Yorker columnist Ken Auletta tells the story of the digital media giant Google. In Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, he looks into the company’s rise, and how it is changing traditional media, from newspapers to television to advertising to telephones. Event: Ken Auletta will be in conversation with David Remnick Sunday, November 8, at 7:30 pm 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue Call 212-415-5500 for ticket information. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Foreign Countries and Lobbying (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 05 November 2009) Countries such as Honduras and Sudan have come under fire recently for hiring PR and lobbying firms to make the case for them to American lawmakers. We’ll speak with Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor for Harper’s magazine about how foreign governments use lobbying firms in Washington D.C. to advance their agenda. You can read Ken's article "Their Men in Washington" from 2007 here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ayn Rand (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 05 November 2009) Anne C. Heller, discusses Ayn Rand, author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and passionate advocate of laissez-faire capitalism and individual rights. Heller’s book Ayn Rand and the World She Made is a portrait of Ayn Rand’s life, from her childhood in Russia to her years as a Hollywood screenwriter to the publication of her bestselling novels, and a look into the legacy she’s left. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Joe Papp and the Public (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 05 November 2009) Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan tells the story of how Joe Papp made American theatrical and cultural history. Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told is the oral history of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater, two landmarks of American theater. Event: Bill Goldstein, of nytimes.com, will be moderating a discussion with Kenneth Turan, Gail Papp, Bernie Gersten, and Oskar Eustis, followed by a book signing Thursda ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Voting on Gay Marriage (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 05 November 2009) Alan Van Capelle, Executive Director of Empire State Pride Agenda, explains how Tuesday’s results from Maine and Washington State will shape the debate on gay marriage both here in New York and around the country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wilderness in New York City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 04 November 2009) Photographer Joel Meyerowitz tells us where hidden pockets of wilderness exist within New York City. Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City’s Parks, written by Phillip Lopate, shows a collection of Meyerowitz'a photographs of the city’s parks, shorelines, and forests. The book accompanies the exhibition Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City’s Parks at the Museum of the City of New York, on view through March 21, 2010. Event: Joel Meyerowitz will be ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website La Danse (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 04 November 2009) Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman talks about, "La Danse: the Paris Opera Ballet," a portrait of the legendary dance troupe. The film is playing at Film Forum November 4-17. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Audacity to Win (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 04 November 2009) David Plouffe, the architect of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, discusses the campaign’s strategies and how they changed the face of politics. His book The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory tells the inside story of the campaign and reveals how digital technology and grassroots organization created a new kind of campaign. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Ascent of Money (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 04 November 2009) Renowned historian Niall Ferguson looks into the history of money and how it makes the world turn. In The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, he tells the human story behind the evolution of the world’s financial system, from its origins in Mesopotamia to the latest economic upheavals. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lit (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 03 November 2009) Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club, about her hardscrabble Texas childhood, and Cherry, her account of her adolescence new memoir, discusses her new memoir, Lit, a frank account of her descent into addiction and her struggles to overcome alcoholism and depression. Event: Mary Karr will be reading, speaking, and signing books Tuesday, November 3, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway at 66th Street Mary Karr will be also be reading and signing books Wednesday, December ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Willem Dafoe (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 03 November 2009) Actor Willem Dafoe discusses starring with Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier’s film "Antichrist," and about his role in Richard Foreman’s surrealist play "Idiot Savant," now playing at the Public Theater. More information and tickets here. "Antichrist" is playing at IFC Center and BAM Rose Cinemas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sarah from Alaska (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 03 November 2009) Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, reporters covering Sarah Palin’s vice presidential campaign, give us an account of the popular Alaska governor’s meteoric rise when she was named John McCain’s running mate and the complicated aftermath of that campaign. Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar is a portrait of Sarah Palin and of the American political process. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wishful Drinking (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 03 November 2009) Carrie Fisher tells us about adapting her book "Wishful Drinking" for the stage. Her one-woman show "Wishful Drinking" is playing at the Roundabout theater’s Studio 54 through January 3, 2010. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Momofuku (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 02 November 2009) Chef David Chang, owner of award-winning New York restaurants Momofuku Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, and Milk Bar, discusses his new cookbook. Momofuku tells the story behind the cuisine that has altered New York’s culinary landscape and shares recipes (including his famous pork buns). Events: David Chang will be in conversation with co-author Peter Meehan and Anthony Bourdain Monday, November 23, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street David Chang will be in conver ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Superfusion (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 02 November 2009) Zachary Karabell explains how the Chinese and U.S. economies have become intertwined. Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It, looks at how China has taken advantage of the support of American companies, how the United States has benefited from China’s growth, and how and it has become deeply in debt to China over the last two decades. Event: Zachary Karabell will be speaking and signing books, as part of the National Committee ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website You Cannot Start Without Me (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 02 November 2009) Academy Award-winning director Allan Miller’s new documentary, "You Cannot Start Without Me, Valery Gergiev Maestro," shows a year in the life of the acclaimed conductor Valery Gergiev. The film is playing at Symphony Space November 2–22. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Upstarts (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 02 November 2009) Inc. magazine writer Donna Fenn interviewed more than 150 young CEOs to learn what makes them tick and what the keys are to their success. She’s joined by Darren Paul and Shazi Vizram, two CEOs profiled in her book Upstarts! How Gen Y Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Electricity (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 October 2009) How does electricity get from its source into your home and to your cell phone charger, television, or microwave? We’ll find out on today’s Please Explain. Michael Caramanis, Boston University Professor of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, joins us, along with Dr. Robert Thomas, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Are You Running? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 October 2009) We’re taking calls and comments from listeners who are running the marathon on November 1st about your motivations for running. Leave a comment below to tell us why you’re running this year. Call us at at 212-433-9692 to tell us why you are running, how you've prepared, and what the marathon experience is like. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Genius of Unspeakable Evil (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 October 2009) Emmy-winning co-executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Josh Lieb, talks about his new young-adult novel. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil is about a twelve-year-old Omaha middle schooler who plots to win the school election to impress his dad. Visit Josh Lieb’s Web site: www.sheldrakeindustries.com. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Deadly Dinner Party (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 30 October 2009) Jonathan Edlow, M.D. presents fifteen real-life medical detective stories. His book The Deadly Dinner Party and Other Medical Mysteries tells show how doctors decipher the clues and puzzling symptoms to diagnose mysterious illnesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Algae as a Weapon of Mass Extinction (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 October 2009) Over the past decade many species of algae have expanded their range toward the poles and into areas where they previously have not been found and many speculate that global warming is to blame. New research into the fossil record is linking the toxins produced by algal blooms to numerous mass extinctions in our planet’s history. On today’s first Underreported we’ll speak to Professor Jim Castle and Professor John Rodgers, both of Clemson University, authors of a paper on mass extinct ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website George Steel (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 October 2009) George Steel, general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera, talks about the company and what's in store for the 2009-2010 season. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Till Fellner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 October 2009) Acclaimed pianist Till Fellner continues his three-season traversal of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2009-2010, the second year of the cycle, he performs three programs featuring the "Pastorale," "Moonlight," "Pathétique," and "Les Adieux" sonatas. Event: Till Fellner will be performing Beethoven Piano Sonatas Friday, October 30, at 7:00 pm The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium 1000 Fifth Avenue Tickets: $45; more ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Last Night in Twisted River (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 October 2009) John Irving discusses his twelfth novel, Last Night in Twisted River. It tells the story of an anxious twelve-year-old boy on the run with his father. Event: John Irving will be reading and answering questions Thursday, October 29, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Algae's Biofuel Potential (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 29 October 2009) Many scientists are hoping that algae could provide the basis of a biofuel. On today’s second Underreported, Dr. Anastasios Melis, Professor of Biology at University of California, Berkeley, explains why algae have so much potential for becoming a source of biofuel and the hurdles that remain for making it a viable alternative. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Children’s Book (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 October 2009) A. S. Byatt discusses her new novel, The Children’s Book. The story spans the Victorian era through World War I, and tells the story of a famous children's book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that surround her. Events: A. S. Byatt will be reading and signing books Wednesday, October 28, at 7:00 pm The Strand 828 Broadway at 12th Street A. S. Byatt will be speaking Thursday, October 29, at 8:00 pm 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Avenue For ticket information, visit the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Keynes: The Return of the Master (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 October 2009) Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, discusses the life and career of John Maynard Keynes. His book Keynes: The Return of the Master, describes how Keynes's mixture of pragmatism and realism, which set him apart from the Chicago school of economics, is especially pertinent in today’s economic climate. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lang Lang (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 October 2009) Pianist Lang Lang talks about his career as a musical prodigy. On November 10 at Carnegie Hall he’ll be performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2, along with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, as part of the series "Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture," a tribute to China’s culture and its influence around the world. More information about the series and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 28 October 2009) Our Word Maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has just been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Grammarphobia website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 October 2009) Paul Shaffertalks about how he went from small-town Canada to Broadway to being the musical director of "Saturday Night Live" to leading a band every night on "The Late Show" withDave Letterman. His memoir of his career is titledWe’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Show-Biz Saga.Event:Paul Shaffer will be in conversation with actress Glenn CloseTuesday, November 10, at 8:00 pm92nd Street YLexington Avenue at 92nd StreetTickets are $27. More informationhere. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website War Dances (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 October 2009) National Book Award-winnerSherman Alexiediscusses his new book,War Dances,a collection of stories exploring the precarious balance between self-preservation and responsibility to family, art, and the world.Event:Sherman Alexie will be reading and signing booksTuesday, October 27, at 7:00 pmBarnes&Noble, Union Square33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eating the Dinosaur (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 October 2009) Chuck Klosterman, columnist forEsquire, has chronicled rock music, film and sports for almost 15 years. His latest book,Eating the Dinosaur, is a collection of essays exploring the relationship between expectation, reality and living history.Event:Chuck Klosterman is reading and signing booksTuesday, November 10, at 7:00 pmBorders Columbus Circle10 Columbus Circle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Glimmer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 27 October 2009) Warren Berger,shares the principles of design that can improve the way we think, work, and live. His bookGlimmer: How You Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the Worldshows how we can all apply the skills designers use to solve problems and spur innovation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Thanhouser Company at 100 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 October 2009) Ned Thanhouser, grandson of the founder of the Thanhouser Company, discusses the film company's 100th anniversary. The Thanhouser Company was an independent film studio that operated from 1909 to 1918 in New Rochelle, New York. It produced a variety of films in the decade before most of the industry migrated permanently to California. The company is marking the anniversary with the release of volumes 10, 11, and 12 of "The Thanouser Collection" DVDs (available now at www.thanhouser.org), ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The United States v. Cioffi & Tannin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 October 2009) The trial of former Bear Sterns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin is the first to come from the subprime mortgage crisis. It began earlier this month in federal court. William D. Cohan gives us an update on the trial and its implications for other possible prosecutions stemming from the financial meltdown. You can listen to William D. Cohan discuss Cioffi and Tannin’s role in the collapse of Bear Sterns here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website U.S. Aid to Pakistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 October 2009) Last week, the United States tripled non-military aid to Pakistan. But some in Pakistan see the new aid package as a direct threat to their sovereignty. Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy, explains what drove the United States' decision and how the $7.5 billion will be spent over the next five years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Year of the Flood (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 October 2009) Margaret Atwood talks about her latest novel, The Year of the Flood, which returns to the post-apocalyptic world of her previous book, Oryx and Crake. Event: Margaret Atwood will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, October 27, at 8:00 pm Symphony Space 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Too Big to Fail (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 26 October 2009) New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin gives a behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression grew into a global economic crisis. His book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves tells the story of the most tumultuous period in American financial history. Events: Andrew Ross Sorkin will be speaking Wednesday, October 28, 8:00–9:15 am Carnegie C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Door-to-Door Essay Contest Winners (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 October 2009) NovelistJohn Wray,author ofLowboy, set largely on the New York subway, stops by to talk about our Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Sleep (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 23 October 2009) Sleeping is something all of us do every day, but exactly what happens to us when we sleep isn’t completely understood. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’re looking into why we sleep, why we sometimes can’t sleep, and why many of us aren’t sleeping enough.Dr. Allan Pack, Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, andDr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, Co-Director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Oleanna (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 October 2009) Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles discuss their roles in a new production of David Mamet’s play "Oleanna." Bill Pullman plays a male college professor who is accused of sexual harassment by a female student, played by Julia Stiles. The show is being produced for the first time on Broadway. It’s playing at the Golden Theater, 252 West 45th Street. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Gene Patenting (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 22 October 2009) Twenty percent of the human genome has been patented by biotechnology companies, universities, and research institutions. The patenting of two genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer is also the subject of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation against Myriad Genetics, a company that offers diagnostic tests for the genes. On today’s Underreported segment we’ll look at the controversial practice of gene patenting and the serious ethical, medical, and public ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website SuperFreakonomics (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 October 2009) Steven D. LevittandStephen J. Dubnerask unexpected questions to challenge the way we think by looking at the hidden sides of things. Their new bookSuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, is a follow-up to their first book,Freakonomics. Read theFreakonomics blogin theNew York Timeswebsite.Event:Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner will be speakingWednesday, October 21, at 7:30 pmSymphony Space2537 Broadway at 95th StreetT ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When Everything Changed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 21 October 2009) New York TimescolumnistGail Collinstalks about the progress women have made in the past 50 years. Her latest book,When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of Women from 1960 to the Present, covers the strides women have made and the minor setbacks they’ve experienced in the quest for equality. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website You Were Always Mom’s Favorite (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 October 2009) Deborah Tannen discusses the perplexing relationships between sisters. Her latest book, You Were Always Mom’s Favorite: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives, shares insights and anecdotes from interviews with over a hundred women, and looks at the closeness and competition that exists between sisters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 20 October 2009) Malcolm Gladwell discusses his latest book, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Appetite City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 October 2009) William Grimes, former restaurant critic for the New York Times, discusses the history of New York’s dining culture. His book Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, takes us from the days of simple chophouses to the Automat to the city’s huge array of multicultural offerings of today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Regional Accents (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 16 October 2009) You can tell a lot about someone from the way they speak. On today’s edition of Please Explain we’ll look at the different accents found around the United States and find out where they come from and why they persist. Joining us are Natalie Schilling-Estes, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University, and Kara Becker, of the Department of Linguistics at New York University. Clips of the New Jersey, Outer Banks, Boston, and Midwest accents are from the International Di ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Censored 2010 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 October 2009) On this week’s Underreported, we look at 25 important stories you’ve never heard of – including articles about nuclear waste pools in North Carolina and Ecuador becoming the first country to grant human rights to nature. Mickey Huff, the co-editor of Censored 2010, tells us about this year’s best underreported stories. Find out more about Project Censored here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Highest Duty (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 15 October 2009) Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who landed a failing US Airways jet on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all of the passengers and crew aboard, discusses that remarkable emergency landing and what made it possible. In Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, he describes the life experiences that have helped make him who he is today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bright-Sided (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 October 2009) Barbara Ehrenreich talks about why she thinks America’s love affair with positive thinking has a negative side. Her new book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America traces the origins of our sunny outlook and looks at how relentless positive thinking has led to an era of what Ehrenreich calls irrational optimism. Event: Barbara Ehrenreich will be reading and signing books Wednesday October 14, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side 228 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chronic City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 October 2009) Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, discusses his new novel, Chronic City, a story about Manhattanites wrapped in their own world. Events: Jonathan Lethem will be reading and answering questions with Colson Whitehead, as part of the New Yorker Festival Friday, October 16, at 9:30 pm Directors Guild Theater 110 West 57th Street Tickets are required. More New Yorker Festival information and tickets here. Jonathan Lethem will be reading and signing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 October 2009) Jennifer Scoggin, known as Mrs. Mimi, talks about her experiences as a second grade teacher. Her book It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade, is based on her popular blog. Event: Jennifer Scoggin will be reading and signing books Friday, October 16, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, at Lexington Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 14 October 2009) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website D-Day (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 October 2009) Historian Anthony Beevor discusses what happened in France between June 6, 1944, and the liberation of Paris on August 25. His book D-Day: The Battle for Normandy gives an account of the invasion and describes the experiences of the American, British, Canadian and German soldiers, as well as the French civilians caught up in the fighting. Event: Anthony Beevor is speaking and signing books Wednesday, October 14, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble 150 East 86th Street, at Second Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Case for God (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 October 2009) Karen Armstrong discusses the great lengths humans have gone through in order to experience God, and looks into the changing views of religion and faith in our current age. Her book The Case for God focuses especially on Christianity, but also looks at Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Chinese spirituality. Event: Karen Armstrong will be in conversation with Rabbi Jen Krause Tuesday, October 13, at 8:15 pm 92nd Street Y Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Tickets: $27 More information and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Trump Card (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 October 2009) Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald and Ivana Trump, shares the life lessons and insights that have made her a rising star in the business world. In her book The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, she discusses her career and her upbringing. Events: Ivanka Trump will be reading and signing books Wednesday, October 14, at 12:30pm Barnes & Noble 555 Fifth Avenue, at 46th Street She’ll also be reading and signing books Thursday, October 15, at 7:00 pm Borders Books & Music 461 Pa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Metropolitan Opera's New Season (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 13 October 2009) Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, talks about the 2009-10 season, the first planned entirely by Mr. Gelb and James Levine, which opened with a new production of Puccini’s Tosca. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cheating Death (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 October 2009) Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent for CNN, talks about incredible medical advances that have made it possible for doctors to save patients’ lives. His latest book, Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles that are Saving Lives Against All Odds, draws on real-life stories, the latest medical research, and the work of pioneering physicians. A companion documentary, "Another Day: Cheating Death," will debut on CNN on Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, Oct ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Meaning of Matthew Shepard (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 12 October 2009) Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard’s mother, shares her story about her son's death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist. Her book The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed looks at the historical significance and complicated civil rights issues surrounding Matthew Shepard’s life and death, and describes a mother’s struggle to cope with the loss of her son. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Prions (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 09 October 2009) On today’s Please Explain we're looking at prions and how they can cause infectious diseases such as Mad Cow disease and the Chronic Wasting disease that’s been affecting deer, elk, and moose herds in the West and Midwest. Dr. David Westaway, Professor of Neurology and Director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta; and Walker Jackson, postdoctoral associate in the Lindquist Laboratory at MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research joi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Politicians and their PAC Money (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 October 2009) Political Action Committees were established to enable politicians to raise money for their colleagues and support their campaigns. On this week’s Underreported, ProPublica reporter Marcus Stern explains how several law makers are now using their PAC money – from golf outings to casinos to commissioning portraits – and why the rules for PAC money aren’t tighter. You can read his article that appeared in the Washington Post here. Read the ProPublica article here. You can look up in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Myth of the Rational Market (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 October 2009) Journalist and columnist Justin Fox discusses the rise and fall of the efficient market theory. In his book The Myth of the Rational Market, he looks at the history of the efficient market theory, how it's evolved into a powerful myth, and why the theory is weakening. Event: Justin Fox is participating in a discussion on "The Recession, Obama and the Future – where do we go from here?" Monday, November 9, 7:00 - 8:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle Broadway at 66th Street It is free, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Moses and the American Story (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 October 2009) Bruce Feiler traces the influence of the biblical prophet Moses on American history — from the Mayflower to the founding fathers, from Martin Luther King to today’s leaders. In America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story, he looks into how Moses has shaped the nation's character. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Manhood for Amateurs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 October 2009) Michael Chabon talks about what it means to be a man today. His collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, is Chabon’s first long work of personal writing, and in it he offers reflections, regrets and reexaminations of his life. Event: Michael Chabon is reading, answering questions, and signing books Thursday, October 8, at 7pm Brooklyn Public Library 10 Grand Army Plaza More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Golden Bubble? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 08 October 2009) The price of gold has been reaching record highs this week. On today’s second Underreported, Fortune’s Scott Cendrowski explains why investors are turning to gold and what that says about the global financial markets. You can read his article on gold here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Green Intelligence (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 October 2009) Yale University professor John Wargo discusses the impact of chemical exposures on women and children, and how, although people are growing more environmentally aware, there are still more than 80,000 synthetic compounds whose effects on human health haven’t been sufficiently studied. In his book, Green Intelligence: Creating Environments that Protect Human Health, he explains our misunderstanding of everyday chemical hazards and offers a plan for improving our awareness. Event: John War ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Films of Guru Dutt (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 October 2009) Arun Dutt, son of filmmaker Guru Dutt, discusses his father’s life and work. As part of the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is showing the first American retrospective of the Hindi director's time behind the camera, "NYFF Masterworks: A Heart as Big as the World: The Films of Guru Dutt," October 7-11. It features six films spanning his career as a director, two as an actor and producer, and a documentary on Dutt. Most films have never screened in the U.S. More i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Prison, My Home (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 October 2009) Haleh Esfandiari, the founding director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle East Program and former deputy secretary general of the Women's Organization of Iran, tells the story of how she was interrogated and imprisoned in Iran when the country's Intelligence Ministry believed she was part of an American conspiracy for "regime change." She recounts her ordeal in My Prison, My Home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eight Years in Afghanistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 07 October 2009) Today marks the eight-year anniversary of our intervention in Afghanistan. Gordon Goldstein, author of Lessons in Disaster, discusses the conflict and the parallels between Afghanistan and Vietnam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Heart of a Patriot (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 October 2009) Max Cleland talks about his government career and his tough reelection campaign. His memoir Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove is about the joy he gained serving his country, no matter the cost, and how he recovered from the wounds of war and politics. Event: Max Cleland will be speaking Wednesday, October 7, at 6:45pm Hudson Union Society at the Princeton Club 15 West 43rd Street Tickets: $65 for non-members. More information and ti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rowing the Atlantic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 October 2009) Roz Savage discusses leaving her corporate career to take up a life of adventure. She was the first solo woman ever to enter the 3,000-mile Atlantic Rowing Race. In Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, she describes the harrowing journey and how it led her to discover a kind of happiness she was searching for. Event: Roz Savage will be reading and signing books Tuesday, October 6, at 7pm Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Half Broke Horses (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 October 2009) Jeannette Walls talks about her novel Half Broke Horses, based on the true-life story of her no-nonsense, hard-working grandmother. Events: Jeanette Walls will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, October 6, at 7pm RJ Julia at the Study at Yale New Haven, CT Jeannette Walls will be speaking and signing books Wednesday, October 7, at 7pm At the theatre at Raritan Valley Community College Somerville, NJ She'll also be reading and signing books Thursday, October 8, at 7pm ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Future of Philanthropy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 06 October 2009) Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, discusses the state and future of philanthropy, and why it’s so critical during our economic crisis, when both private and public funding is being cut. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barack Like Me (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 October 2009) Comic actor David Alan Grier muses on politics, culture and tells stories from his life -- from being rejected by the Black Panthers to working on "In Living Color" to his recent stint on "Dancing with the Stars." In his new book Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth, Grier looks at how he and the country have changed for the better -- and have gotten funnier. Event: David Alan Grier will be reading and signing books Tuesday, October 6th, at 7:00 pm Bookends 232 E. Ridgewood Avenue ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Boy and His Soul (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 October 2009) Colman Domingo discusses his one-man play "A Boy and His Soul," which he wrote and performs in. It’s about the life experiences of a young African-American man in 1970s and '80s Philadelphia, and is moved by classic soul, R&B and disco. Domingo won rave reviews for his performance in "Passing Strange." "A Boy and His Soul" has been extended through November 1 at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15th St.). More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Crazy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 05 October 2009) Have you ever wondered how a word finds its way into the dictionary? Or who decides how a word is defined? Judy Pearsall, a former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and word nut Ammon Shea, who has written two books on obscure words and is also the author of Reading the OED, will explain lexicography and how words are defined and used. They'll be answering questions from the audience and from listeners! Ammon Shea visited the Leonard Lopate Show on September 3. You can listen to tha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Itzhak and Toby Perlman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 October 2009) Itzhak Perlman and his wife Toby Perlman discuss his upcoming performance of chamber music at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with members of the Perlman Music Program, founded and guided by Toby. Itzhak Perlman has been associated with the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series for over four decades. Event: Itzhak Perlman is playing chamber music with members of the Perlman Music Program Saturday, October 3rd, at 7:00 pm The Metropolitan Museum of Art For tickets, call 212-570-3949 or visit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fifty Years of "The Twilight Zone" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 October 2009) October 2nd marks the 50th anniversary of the TV premiere of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone." Arlen Schumer, illustrator, author, and Twilight Zone scholar, and George Clayton Johnson, the science writer who co-wrote the novel Logan’s Run and screenwriter for "The Twilight Zone," discuss what made the series so special and what its impact on pop culture today has been. Event: Arlen Schumer will be holding a discussion and debate on the impact The Twilight Zone has had on pop-culture, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ordinary Injustice (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 October 2009) Lawyer and journalist Amy Bach talks about the failures and systematic problems of the American criminal justice system. In her book Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court, she argues that because the people affected tend to be poor or minorities, they are often overlooked, and because problems are so pervasive they’ve become invisible to defenders, prosecutors, and judges. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Animal Migration (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 02 October 2009) The days are growing shorter and colder, and birds, butterflies, and other animals are starting to head to warmer climates for the winter. These journeys are often thousand of miles—monarch butterflies can fly as far as 3,000 miles to winter in Mexico. On today’s Please Explain, we’ll find out how these animals know when and where to go. We’ll also talk about how climate change is affecting animal migration. We’re joined by Leon Kreitzman, co-author with Russell Foster of Rhythms ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Araya (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 October 2009) Margot Benacerraf discusses the restoration and distribution of her brilliant 1959 tone poem "Araya," in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the film's first showing at the Cannes Film Festival. Rarely shown, the film was largely forgotten by the film world, but this year it is being released worldwide by Milestone. Dennis Doros, co-founder and Vice President of Milestone, describes the restoration of the film. "Araya" is playing at the IFC Center October 7-20. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Placebo Effect (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 October 2009) "The placebo effect" has been known to scientists for a very long time. But for some reason, the placebo effect is getting stronger and researchers don’t know why. In fact, an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills in clinical trials. Steve Silberman, is a senior writer for Wired magazine and wrote about this subject in the August issue. You can read his article here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2009 Lasker Awards (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 October 2009) Brian J. Druker, of Oregon Health & Science University, Nicholas B. Lydon, formerly of Novartis, and Charles L. Sawyers, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, recipients of the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for groundbreaking work on the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, talk about their research. The Lasker Awards, the most prestigious medical research awards in the United States today, recognize outstanding accomplishments in basic and clinical medical rese ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Coal Ash Sites (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 October 2009) There are almost 600 coal ash sites throughout the United States. On today’s first Underreported, Lisa Evans, Senior Administrative Counsel for Earthjustice, explains why these toxic leftovers are so dangerous, how they’re disposed of, and what the Environmental Protection Agency proposes to do about coal ash sites. You can read Earthjustice's report on Coal Ash sites here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anne Frank's Diary (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 01 October 2009) Francine Prose discusses Anne Frank's diary, and argues that it is as much a deliberate work of art as a historical record and memoir. In Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife she examines the book's meaning and impact. Events: Francine Prose will be reading and signing books Thursday, October 1st, at 6:30 pm The Jewish Museum 1190 Fifth Avenue Francine Prose will be reading and signing books Wednesday, October 14th, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle 1872 Broadway at 6 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Connected (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 September 2009) Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler share surprising revelations of how -- and how much -- we influence one another. In Connected, they explain how social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics and more. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kandinsky (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 September 2009) Tracey Bashkoff, curator of collections and exhibitions, and Karole Vail, assistant curator, discuss "Kandinsky," a full-scale retrospective of the artist who was a seminal figure in the history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Karole Vail is the editor and one of the authors of The Museum of Non-Objective Painting, about the history of the Guggenheim Museum. "Kandinsky," is organized to celebrate the Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary, and is on view now through January 13, 2010. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Madeleine Albright (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 September 2009) Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tells how Saddam Hussein’s poet-in-residence inspired her to make diplomatic statements in her meetings with world leaders. Her book Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box is part memoir, part social history, and looks at Secretary Albright's experience with global politics. An exhibition of Madeleine Albright's jewlery, "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection," is on view today through January 31, 2010, at the Museum of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Clinton Tapes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 30 September 2009) Taylor Branch discusses his book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, a record of the conversations he had with President Bill Clinton during his eight years in office. President Clinton revealed what he thought and felt, but couldn’t say in public about the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the failure of health care reform, and his political struggles from Whitewater to the impeachment trial. Event: Taylor Branch will be reading and signing books Wednesday, September 30th, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Little Bird of Heaven (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 29 September 2009) Bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates on her latest novel, Little Bird of Heaven, a dark, romantic, tale, set in the Great Lakes region of upstate New York, the same setting of her previous novels We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter. Event: Joyce Carol Oates will be reading and signing books Tuesday, September 29th, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Triangle 1972 Broadway at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website AIG’s Private Firefighters (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 September 2009) Journalist McKenzie Funk reports on AIG’s use of private firefighters who fight only the fires that menace AIG-insured houses. More severe wildfire seasons have made it possible for insurance companies to hedge, dilute, distribute, and disperse additional risk, allowing companies like AIG to expand rapidly. His article, "Too Big to Burn" appears in the October issue of Harper's Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Juliet, Naked (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 September 2009) Bestselling author Nick Hornby talks about his latest novel, Juliet, Naked. It's about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one's promise. Event: Nick Hornby will be reading and signing books Tuesday, September 29th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Results from the German Elections (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 September 2009) We'll look at the results of yesterday’s federal elections in Germany with John Peet, European editor for the Economist. Find out what the major issues in the campaign were, what role the economy played in the campaign, and who ran to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel. Plus, a look at what Merkel said at last week’s United Nations General Assembly and the G20 summit – just days before the elections. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crude World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 28 September 2009) Peter Maass, a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, explains the consequences of our addiction to oil. In Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil, he presents the problems oil has created around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Venezuela to Guatemala and Nigeria. Events: Peter Maass will be reading Monday, September 28th, 7:00 pm The Half King 505 West 23rd Street at Tenth Avenue Peter Maass will be reading and signing books Thursday, October 1st, at 7:00 pm Barnes & No ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Sharks (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 September 2009) There are some 440 species of sharks, and the fish have been swimming in the oceans for 420 million years, before dinosaurs existed. On today's Please Explain we'll find out about sharks, from hammerheads to great whites, and look at how they are becoming threatened. We're joined by Melanie L. J. Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator of Fishes, Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History; and John Maisey Curator and Axelrod Research Chair, Division of Paleontology, Amer ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Age of Empathy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 September 2009) Do humans have an instinct for compassion, or do we only serve our own survival and interests? Renowned primatologist Frans de Waal describes his studies of social behaviors and how they reveal that animals–and humans–are naturally empathic in his book The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Betrayed: Escape from Iraq (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 September 2009) Latifa Ali talks about being betrayed by her mother and kept prisoner by her father in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, facing a forced marriage. She tells her story in Betrayed: Escape from Iraq, written with Richard Shears. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Audrey Tautou (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 25 September 2009) The French actress Audrey Tautou discusses her role in the film "Coco Before Chanel," about the life of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who began her life as an orphan, and became the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman. "Coco Before Chanel" opens in New York Friday, September 25th, at the Paris, Angelika Film Center, and Chelsea Cinemas 9. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stanley Tucci (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 September 2009) Actor Stanley Tucci discusses directing and starring in "Blind Date," an English-language remake of Theo Van Gogh's award-winning 1996 Dutch film. He’s also directing the Broadway revival of "Lend Me a Tenor," and stars in the movie "The Lovely Bones," to be released in December. "Blind Date" opens Friday, September 25th, at Cinema Village. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Paradise Built in Hell (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 September 2009) Rebecca Solnit investigates why in the aftermath of a disaster people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave. In A Paradise Built in Hell, she looks at the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco to 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, among other crises, and describes how disasters can bring about social possibilities rather than leading to social break-down. Event: Rebecca Solnit will be in conversation with Peter Coyote and will be answering audience questions Thursday, September 24th, at 7: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An Imperfect Offering (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 September 2009) Dr. James Orbinski, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, helped establish the Canadian chapter of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders/MSF). He served as Chef de Mission for MSF in Kigali in 1994, as Rwanda descended into civil war and genocide. In An Imperfect Offering, Orbinski writes about the effects of witnessing that conflict, and he explores the nature of humanitarian action in the twenty-first century. Event: Dr. James Orbinski will be speaking Thursday, Sept ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: None Dare Call it Conspiracy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 24 September 2009) An investigative report by Scott Anderson that looked into the roots of terrorist acts in Russia a decade ago appeared in the September issue of GQ magazine. But, unless you picked up the magazine and thumbed through its 300-plus pages, you probably didn’t know that because Condé Nast, which publishes GQ, buried the article, banning any publicity of it in Russia and prohibiting it from being published on GQ’s own Website. On today's Underreported we’ll find out why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Speech-Less (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 September 2009) Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter to President George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, gives a behind-the-scenes account of his years working on Capitol Hill. His book about his experience is Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Classical Legacy of Benny Goodman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 September 2009) Benny Goodman is known predominantly as a jazz musician and bandleader of the Swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, but he was also deeply involved in the commissioning, performing, and recording of classical works by some of the 20th century's greatest composers. David Shifrin, artistic director of Yale in New York, discusses "The Classical Legacy of Benny Goodman," a concert of music commissioned and premiered by Benny Goodman. The concert is part of the Yale School of Music’s week-long cen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dancing Plague (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 September 2009) John Waller describes a bizarre dancing epidemic that struck Europe in the 1500s. In The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness, he looks into the strange capabilities of the human mind and examines on our susceptibility to mass hysteria. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Uranium Wars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 23 September 2009) Science writer Amir Aczel examines the scientific discovery of nuclear power. Uranium Wars: The Scientific Rivalry that Created the Nuclear Age tells the story of the scientists who first uncovered the potential of uranium, and the complex and ongoing story of uranium itself, an element that both provides abundant energy and holds incredible destructive power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homer & Langley (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 September 2009) E. L. Doctorow talks about his latest novel, Homer & Langley, a sweeping narrative about the Homer and Langley Collyer, infamous New York recluses who lived in a grand mansion on Fifth Avenue. Event: E. L. Doctorow will be reading and signing books Tuesday, September 22nd, at 7:00 pm Bookcourt 163 Court Street, Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Death of Conservatism (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 September 2009) Sam Tanenhaus looks at the history of the American conservative movement and how it has split into two factions: consensus-driven "realists" and "revanchists" who distrust government and society. In The Death of Conservatism, he examines these two groups and argues that the true role of conservatism is to engage in dialogue and to promote and uphold stability, not to advance a narrow ideological agenda. Events: Sam Tanenhaus will be interviewed by Joseph Berger for the series "Breaki ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Geoff Muldaur & The Texas Sheiks (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 22 September 2009) Folk and American music luminary Geoff Muldaur, discusses the album, Geoff Muldaur & The Texas Sheiks, a memorial for Texas guitarist/songwriter Stephen Bruton. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The National Parks: America's Best Idea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 September 2009) Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns discusses his latest PBS series, "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea." He’s joined by Dayton Duncan, co-producer of the series, and Shelton Johnson, a park ranger in Yosemite National Park to discuss how these special places became preserved as parks, the role of individual citizens in creating them, and the powerful stories of people's emotional connection to them. There's also an accompanying book, The National Parks: America's Best Idea. The seri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Gate at the Stairs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 September 2009) Lorrie Moore discusses her first novel in 15 years, A Gate at the Stairs, a post-9/11 coming of age story set in a Midwestern college town. Event: Lorrie Moore will be reading and answering questions Monday, September 21, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Green Porno (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 September 2009) Isabella Rossellini talks about Green Porno, wonderfully odd, funny short films about the strange acts of love that happen in the depths of the ocean, rarely seen by the human eye. The videos are on DVD for the first time, with an accompanying book, Green Porno: A Book and Short Films by Isabella Rossellini. Events: Isabella Rossellini will be holding a Q&A Monday, September 21st, at 5:00 pm Apple Store in SoHo 103 Prince Street, at Greene Street Isabella Rossellini will also be signing b ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Diplomatic Week Ahead Part I: The United Nations General Assembly (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 September 2009) This week will be a busy one for the world’s leaders. First, they’ll gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Neil MacFarquhar, UN Bureau Chief for the New York Times, joins us for a preview of the meeting and the issues that will be on the agenda – from the disputed Afghan elections to humanitarian missions in Darfur. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Diplomatic Week Ahead Part II: The G20 Summit in Pittsburgh (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 21 September 2009) After addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the leaders of the world’s largest economies will head to Pittsburgh later this week for the G20 summit. John Authers, Investment Editor for the Financial Times, explains which issues they’ll talk about. And we’ll find out how President Obama’s decision to impose a tariff on Chinese-made tires will affect the atmosphere of the summit. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Week of the Collapse: The Bailout (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 September 2009) All this week we're telling the stories behind the unraveling of our financial system in two minutes or less. A year ago today talk began of a government bailout for the financial industry in the form of a sweeping 3-page memo that covered a $700 billon proposal. This segment contains excerpts from an interview we conducted in October of last year with New York Times reporter Leslie Wayne. You can hear the full interview here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vermeer's The Milkmaid (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 September 2009) Walter Liedtke, Curator in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of European Paintings, discusses the exhibition "Vermeer’s Masterpiece The Milkmaid." For 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage to Manhattan from Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum has sent "The Milkmaid," one of the most admired painting by Johannes Vermeer, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In celebration of this extraordinary loan, the museum has organized an exhibition of Vermeer paintings from its collection, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Art and the Subway (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 18 September 2009) WNYC culture is exploring how New York commutes. Visit WNYC's Door to Door project where you can watch some video profiles of commuters and listen to other WNYC segments in the series. Tracy Fitzpatrick explains how New York City’s subway has captured the imaginations for people around the world. In Art and the Subway: New York Underground, she explores the paintings, photographs, performance art, graffiti, and public art by artists such as Walker Evans, Bruce Davidson, Keith Haring, Jac ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website I Shudder (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) Humor writer Paul Rudnick takes a close look at all manner of subjects: from living in a series of increasingly bizarre apartments in New York City to cavorting with his artist friends to dealing with showbiz personalities to the finer points of coping with one's family. His new book of essays is I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The New French GDP (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) Earlier this week French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his country would now be taking happiness and well-being into account when it calculates its Gross Domestic Product. Ben Hall Paris correspondent for the Financial Times explains how this change will affect France’s GDP and why the country is urging other nations to adopt its new formula. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Strength in What Remains (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder tells the story of Deo, an immigrant from Burundi who came to America with nothing in search of a new life and eventually became a doctor. Kidder’s book Strength in What Remains is about one man’s remarkable American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him. Event: Tracy Kidder will be reading, speaking, and signing books Thursday, September 17th, at 7:30 Barnes & Noble Lincoln Square 1972 Broadway, at 66th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Week of the Collapse: Credit Freeze (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) All this week we’re telling the stories behind the unraveling of our financial system in two minutes or less. Today, we look at the credit freeze. This segment contains excerpts from an interviews we conducted with Margaret Atwood and The New Yorker’s John Cassidy. You can hear the full interviews with Atwood here and Cassidy here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Underbanking (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) Over 100 million Americans are “underbanked”—meaning they either cannot access or choose not to use traditional financial services offered by mainstream banks. Instead, they turn to alternatives like check cashing services, prepaid cards, and payday loans. On today’s first Underreported Melissa Koide, deputy director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, explains this shadow banking system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adland (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 17 September 2009) James P. Othmer, an award-winning creative director and copywriter for more than twenty years, takes a look at advertising and its influence on our lives in Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet. Event: James Othmer will be participating in an Adweek panel discussion "The Modern Day Mad Men and Women of Mad Ave" Thursday, September 24th, at 10:00 am Paley Center for Media 25 West 52nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 September 2009) Our Word Maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has just been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave a question below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner's Grammarphobia website. Event: Patricia T. O'Conner will be speaking and signing books at the Author @ the Library program "It Ain't Necessarily So: Setting the Record Straight About English" Wednesday, September 30, at 6:30 pm Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mom and Pop Store (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 September 2009) Business journalist Robert Spector grew up working in his family’s butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, an experience that taught him about the independent retail business and about life. In The Mom and Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving, he tells the history of small, independent retail and how renewed community support for local businesses is helping mom and pop stores across the country. Event: Robert Spector will be part of a panel ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Week of the Collapse: AIG (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 September 2009) All this week we're telling the stories behind the unraveling of our financial system in two minutes or less. Today, we look at the one year anniversary of the government bailout of insurance giant AIG. This segment contains excerpts from an interview we conducted in October of last year with financial reporter Jessie Eisginer. You can hear the full interview here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The View from the Bridge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 September 2009) Writer and director Nicholas Meyer shares his account of the making of three classic "Star Trek" films, including "STII: The Wrath of Khan." In his book The View from the Bridge, he explains that he’d never been interested in "Star Trek" until he was brought on board to save the film series, and tells some old Hollywood tales. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The American Classical Orchestra (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 16 September 2009) Pianist Vladimir Feltsman and Tom Crawford, the founder and Music Director of the American Classical Orchestra, a period instrument ensemble, explain the difference between playing period instruments and modern instruments. The American Classical Orchestra is kicking off their 25th Anniversary season at Tully Hall on September 17th. More information about performances and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Week of the Collapse: Lehman Brothers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 September 2009) All this week we're telling the stories behind the unraveling of our financial system in two minutes or less. Today, we look at the one year anniversary of investment giant Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy. This segment contains excerpts from an interview we conducted in July of this year with Lawrence McDonald, a former Lehman Vice President. You can hear the full interview here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Informant (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 September 2009) Former New York Times investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald tells the true story of Mark Whitacre, a high-ranking executive at agribusiness giant Archer Daniel Midland (ADM), who blew the whistle on that company’s illegal price-fixing practices in the early 1990s and became an FBI informant. A major motion picture starring Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh based on The Informant will soon be released. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bright Star (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 September 2009) Academy Award-winning director Jane Campion talks about her new movie "Bright Star," which tells the story of Romantic poet John Keats, who wrote the love poem "Bright Star" for his 18 year-old next door neighbor Fanny Brawne. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Most Dangerous Man in America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 September 2009) Daniel Ellsberg and Patricia Ellsberg discuss Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers, and why he risked life in prison to bring a stop to the Vietnam war, which he had helped plan. They are joined by filmmaker Rick Goldsmith, a producer and director of the documentary "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers." The film opens September 16 at Film Forum. Tickets and schedule here. Event: The Open Society Institute is hosting Nixon-era whistleblowers ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website For Grace Received (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 15 September 2009) Valeria Parrella discusses her book For Grace Received, made up of four novellas that paint a portrait of the vibrant, volatile, and complex Italian port city of Naples. Event: Valeria Parella will be reading, speaking, and signing books, with A. M. Homes Wednesday, September 16th, at 7:00 pm Idlewild Books 12 West 19th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Geraldo Rivera (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 September 2009) Award-winning journalist Geraldo Rivera details the evolving role of Hispanics in shaping America's future. The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity features interviews with prominent Hispanics, including Ken Salazar, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Jennifer Lopez , and looks at the growing impact Hispanics are making on the social, economic, and political climate of the United States. Event: Geraldo Rivera will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, Se ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Governor Rod Blagojevich (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 September 2009) Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich offers an account of his arrest and the subsequent media storm that engulfed him after he was caught up in a political scandal this year. In his book The Governor, he describes his view of politics and government. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lighting Their Fires (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 September 2009) Rafe Esquith explains how parents and teachers can instill values that serve children in school and for the rest of their lives. His book Lighting Their Fires explains not just how to make our children great students, but how to make them thoughtful and honorable people. Event: Rafe Esquith will be speaking and signing books Monday, September 14th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street, at Lexington Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Anthologist (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 14 September 2009) Nicholas Baker discusses his new novel, The Anthologist, a love story about poetry and how important it is to our lives. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roy Andersson (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 September 2009) Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson discusses his career. The film series "Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Anderson" is playing at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, September 10-18. For more information and screening schedule, visit www.moma.org. Events: Roy Andersson with be introducing his films at the screenings Friday, September 11th, at 4:00 and at 8:00 pm Saturday, September 12, at 4:00, 6:30, and 8:00 pm The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Typography (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 September 2009) Our latest Please Explain is all about typefaces and typography. Typeface designer Jonathan Hoefler, type designer and president of Hoefler & Frere-Jones and Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts and author of the VISUALS column for the New York Times Book Review, will explain how typefaces are created and why typography is important to communication and design. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Ground Truth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 September 2009) John Farmer, 9/11 Commission senior counsel, explains how the truth of 9/11 was obfuscated by a false version of events that the government presented to Congress, the 9/11 Commission, and the media. Drawing on newly released records, Farmer gives a comprehensive account of the events of that day in The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of an America Under Attack on 9/11. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brooklyn Book Festival (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 11 September 2009) Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Johnnie Temple, Chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council, stop by to talk about this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival. The festival takes place Sunday, September 13th, 10:00-6:00 pm, at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street. More information and a full schedule of events is available here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Classic Children’s Comics (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 September 2009) Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly have collected a volume of tales from the golden age of the comic book. The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics includes 60 complete stories from classic master comic book writers and artists from the 1930s through the 1960s, such as Carl Barks, John Stanley, Basil Wolverton, George Carlson, and more. Event: Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly will be speaking, showing slides, and signing books Thursday, September 10th, at 7:00 pm The Strand ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website God Sleeps in Rwanda (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 September 2009) Joseph Sebarenzi, discusses the legacy of the Rwandan genocide. His parents, seven siblings, and countless other family members were among 800,000 Tutsi brutally murdered over the course of 90 days in 1994 by extremist Rwandan Hutu. He was sent away to school in Congo when he was a teenager, and Sebarenzi returned to Rwanda after the genocide and was elected speaker of parliament. His book God Sleeps in Rwanda examines the lessons of Rwanda and how we can prevent future tragedies from happ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Pirates vs. Private Security Firms (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 September 2009) Private security firms are increasingly being used in the fight against pirates who operate off the coast of Africa. One company, Eos Risk Management, says it has fended off at least 15 attacks from Somali pirates since January. The practice of using security contractors to provide maritime defense "in appropriate circumstances" has even been endorsed by the US State Department. We’ll be joined by Jonathan Ledgard, the East Africa correspondent for the Economist magazine. His article "Pir ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Moveable Feast (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 September 2009) Sean Hemingway, Earnest Hemingway’s grandson, has re-edited A Moveable Feast, restoring it to the way Hemingway delivered it to his editors in 1959, adding 40 pages of never-before published sketches of Hemingway’s time in Paris. His version is A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition. Event: Sean Hemingway will be speaking and signing books Thursday, September 10th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side 2289 Broadway at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Representative Anthony Weiner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 10 September 2009) Representative Anthony Weiner talks about where attempts in Congress to overhaul the healthcare system stand now that the summer recess is over. We’ll also get reaction to last night’s speech by President Obama. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Juliette Binoche (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 September 2009) Academy Award-winner Juliette Binoche discusses "In-I & Jubilations," a month-long series of artistic events in New York. She’s performing with the choreographer Akram Khan in "In-I," which the two created together, at BAM, as part of the New Wave Festival. She has an exhibition of her portraits and poetry at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, "In-Eyes." She also stars in "Paris," a cinematic love letter to the city, directed by Cédric Klapisch. Juliette Binoche and Akram Kha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peter Sellars and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 September 2009) Director Peter Sellars and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Iago, discuss Shakespeare’s "Othello," playing at the Public Theater September 12th through October 4th. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 09 September 2009) Alvin and Larry Ubell, the Gurus of How-To, answer your questions about home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. The Ubells' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In Cheap We Trust (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 September 2009) Lauren Weber explores the boundary between thrift and miserliness, and looks at whether thrift is a virtue or a vice during a recession. In her book In Cheap We Trust, she offers a colorful history of frugality in the United States and looks into the many meanings of "cheapness." Events: Lauren Weber will be reading, and there will be a clothing swap, with special guest appearance by Lauren’s dad Thursday, September 17th, at 7:30 pm Word Bookstore 126 Franklin Street, in Greenpoint, Bro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My River Chronicles (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 September 2009) Jessica DuLong explains why she abandoned her desk job at a dot com to become a fireboat engineer on a rusty antique fireboat, the John J. Harvey, in the Hudson River. In My River Chronicles: Rediscovering America on the Hudson she brings to life New York City's bygone working waterfront and contemplates what America is losing in our shift away from hands-on, physical labor. www.jessicadulong.com Events: Jessica DuLong will be giving free tugboat rides in Kingston, NY, at Rondout Creek, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crude (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 September 2009) Steven Donziger, a lawyer who represented indigenous Ecuadorian tribes in their lawsuit against the American oil company Chevron, and filmmaker Joe Berlinger discuss the documentary "Crude," about the lawsuit brought by the tribes, who alleged that their land, water and culture had been damaged by the policies of Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001. "Crude" opens Wednesday, September 9th, at Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Traveling with Pomegranates (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 08 September 2009) Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, discuss writing a dual memoir, Traveling with Pomegranates. The book offers the distinct perspectives of two women, mother and daughter, one in her 50s and one in her 20s, as they travel together in Greece and France. Event: Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kid Taylor will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, September 8th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cheap (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 September 2009) Ellen Ruppel Shell traces our national obsession with the bargain from the Industrial Revolution to the modern assembly line, and from chain stores to big-box retailers who value convenience and low-prices over quality. In her book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, she examines our desire for cheap goods and how it has spurred globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dancing to the Precipice (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 September 2009) Historian and biographer Caroline Moorehead looks at Madam de la Tour du Pin, who was groomed as a lady in waiting to Marie Antoinette and who kept a vivid account of the collapse of the French Old Regime in her diaries. Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin combines these diaries with the first full-length biography of Madam de la Tour du Pin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Maya Lin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 07 September 2009) The artist and architect Maya Lin talks about her career, from designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., to her latest earth sculpture, Storm King Wavefield, her design for the new Museum of Chinese in America, and other projects. Find out more about Maya Lin and her work here. Maya Lin: Bodies of Water is on view at Storm King Art Center, in Mountainville, NY, through November 15. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arianna Huffington (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 September 2009) Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, talks about how corporate corruption and greed have led to the economic crisis. She wrote Pigs at the Trough in 2003, and now, six years later, she’s updated it. The book is a harsh indictment of corporate corruption and Wall Street greed—from AIG to Citigroup to Lehman Brothers to Bernie Madoff—and the harm it is doing this country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What I Thought I Knew (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 September 2009) Alice Eve Cohen on her memoir What I Thought I Knew, about her unexpected pregnancy, at 44, that was originally diagnosed as an abdominal tumor. She recounts the shock of the pregnancy, the complications and risks it brought on, and the difficult decisions she faced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Let The Great World Spin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 September 2009) On an August morning in 1974 a mysterious tightrope walker suspended himself between the Twin Towers. That event has become the backdrop for Colum McCann's latest novel Let the Great World Spin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Master of War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 04 September 2009) Suzanne Simons takes us on a first-ever inside look at Blackwater USA, the world's largest private military contractor, and takes a close look at its founder, Erik Prince. Her book Master of War: Blackwater USA’s Erik Prince and the Business of War reveals that Blackwater USA, now called Xe, is just one of Erik Prince's private security contracting businesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Changes in Detainee Policy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 September 2009) When the CIA Inspector General's report on interrogation practices was released last week the Obama administration also announced that it would make two important changes to detainee policy: that it would revive the practice of "extraordinary rendition" and also that it would create a new "High Value Interrogation Group." Darius Rejali, professor of political science at Reed College, joins us to talk about all three developments. He’s also the author of the book Torture and Democracy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Poseidon's Steed (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 03 September 2009) Helen Scales explains how the illusive seahorse has mesmerized scientists, artists, and storytellers throughout history. In Poseidon's Steed, she travels from Indonesia's sea grass meadows and coral reefs to the back streets of Hong Kong, where there’s a thriving black market trade in seahorses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why This World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 02 September 2009) Benjamin Moser examines the life of Clarice Lispector, who looked like Marlene Dietrich, wrote like Virginia Woolf, and was one of the most popular but least understood Latin American writers. His book Why This World tells how Lispector, a precocious Ukrainian girl matured into a great writer. Event: Benjamin Moser will be reading and signing books Wednesday, September 2nd, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Booksellers 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Born Round (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 September 2009) New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni explains how he learned to develop a healthy love of food after decades of wrestling with his weight. His memoir Born Round, he gives an account of his tumultuous lifelong struggle with his weight and how he learned to embrace food without being undone by it. Events: Frank Bruni will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, September 22nd, at 7:30 pm Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center 1972 Broadway at 66th Street Frank Bruni will be speaking and ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lies My Mother Never Told Me (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 September 2009) In her memoir Lies My Mother Never Told Me, Kaylie Jones, acclaimed author and the daughter of James Jones, who wrote From Here to Eternity, tells the story of her relationship with her famous, hard-drinking father and her alcoholic mother. Event: Kaylie Jones will be reading and signing books Tuesday, September 22, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side 150 East 86th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Avec Eric (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 01 September 2009) Internationally recognized chef and owner of New York's famed Le Bernardin restaurant, Eric Ripert, discusses his first TV series "Avec Eric," on PBS. It takes viewers beyond just how to cook, and instead delves into why we cook. "Avec Eric" premiers on Sunday, September 6th, at 4:30 pm, on PBS. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nurtureshock (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 31 August 2009) Po Bronson argues that when it comes to raising children, we've mistaken good intentions for good ideas. Nurtureshock: New Thinking about Children, written with Ashley Merryman, describes why that many of modern society's methods for nurturing children aren’t working. Events: Po Bronson will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, September 1st, at 12:00 pm Wilton Library 137 Old Ridgefield Road Wilton, CT Tuesday, September 1st, at 7:00 pm RJ Julia Bookstore 768 Boston Post Road Madiso ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Road to Financial Reformation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 31 August 2009) Henry Kaufman, economist and former Solomon Brothers President, explains what got us into our current financial debacle, what the consequences of it will be, and how to put our economy back on track. In The Road to Financial Reformation: Warnings, Consequences, Reforms he talks about why we should have seen the financial crisis coming and how we can keep another from happening. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Sheppard Lee (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 31 August 2009) In our latest Underappreciated segment, UCLA English professor Christopher Looby discusses Robert Montgomery Bird’s novel, Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself about an unrepentant deadbeat discovers the ability to project his souls into dying men’s bodies, a form of antebellum identity theft. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Indie Films and the Recession (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 31 August 2009) Amy Heller, president and co-founder of Milestone Film & Video, David Fenkel, partner/co-founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories, and Emily Russo, co-founder and co-president of Zeitgeist Films, discuss the future of indie film distribution and offer some strategies for survival in the current economic climate. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 28 August 2009) Iconic filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, known as the "godfather of independent film and modern black cinema," directed and stars in his new film "Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha," which is based on his own graphic novel of the same name. He tells a comic tale of adventure that is first and foremost a love story. The film is playing at Cinema Village. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Still Walking (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 28 August 2009) Hirokazu Kore-Eda, one of Japan's most accomplished directors, discusses his latest film, "Still Walking," a moving drama about how death has affected members of a family. "Still Walking" opens Friday, August 28, at Angelika Film Center, at 18 West Houston Street, and at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, at 1886 Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The High Price of Cheap Food (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 28 August 2009) Bryan Walsh, who wrote the cover story for the August 31st issue of Time magazine, "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food," tells us about the high cost of cheap food. Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed tightly with other swine. He’s dosed with antibiotics and fed American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. The pig waste on the factory farm goes into manure lagoons that create air ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Else But Home (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 27 August 2009) When Michael Rosen’s seven-year-old son Ripton decided to join a pick-up game of baseball with some older kids in the park and ended up inviting them into his family's life. In his book What Else But Home, Rosen tells how, over time, five of the boys—all black and Hispanic, from the impoverished neighborhood across the park—became a fixture in the Rosens’ home. Event: Michael Rosen will be speaking and signing books Thursday, September 17th, at 8:00 pm National Arts Club 15 Gramerc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Elections in Gabon (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 27 August 2009) President Omar Bongo of Gabon died this past June after four decades in office. Elections in the tiny African nation are slated for August 30th, but the vote is already mired in controversy. For our second Underreported, we’ll talk to Professor Douglas Yates, assistant professor of political science at the American University of Paris and a Gabon expert. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Turks & Caicos (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 27 August 2009) Earlier this month, Britain imposed direct rule on the Caribbean islands of Turks & Caicos. On this week’s first Underreported, Mark Wilson, a correspondent for The Economist, explains what led to the unusual decision and why Britain decided that removing the prime minister, dissolving the parliament, and suspending the constitution was necessary to address the problems on the island. You can read Mike Wilson’s article about Turks & Caicos here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website We Live in Public (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 27 August 2009) Award-winning director Ondi Timoner and Josh Harris discuss the new documentary "We Live in Public." It tells the story of the effect the Web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of Harris, called "the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of." The film is playing at the IFC Center in New York, at 323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street. Event: Ondi Timoner and Josh Harris will be doing Q&As Friday, August 28th, after the 7:45 and 9:55 screenings IFC Center 323 Six ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mad Ones (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 27 August 2009) Tom Folsom tells the complete story of the rise and fall of the Gallo brothers—Crazy Joe, Kid Blast, and Larry Gallo—three reckless young gangsters who revolted against New York City's Mafia. His book The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld, chronicles a dramatic crime saga that ends with Crazy Joe's murder in Little Italy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Last Days of Disco on DVD (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 26 August 2009) Director Whit Stillman talks about his film "The Last Days of Disco," starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, now being issued on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection. The film is showing Thursday, August 27th, at 7:30 pm at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. Event: Whit Stillman will be at the screening Thursday, August 27th, at 7:30 pm Walter Reade Theater 165 W. 65th Street Tickets and information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Few Seconds of Panic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 26 August 2009) Stefan Fatsis, who has covered sports for the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, talks about his time training as a place kicker with the Denver Broncos. He recounts his experience to become not an NFL player but a credible kicker in his book A Few Seconds of Panic: A Sportswriter Plays in the NFL. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The State of Air Travel (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 26 August 2009) So far this year, there have been 12 major plane crashes, according to airsafe.com, and there have been a number of small plane accidents in the New York area. We’ll take a look at the safety of air travel, air traffic control problems, and what the FAA is doing to make flying safer. We're joined by Bill Waldock, Professor of Safety Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Linda Marsa, contributing editor of Discover Magazine, who wrote about the state of air traffic control i ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bloggers on the Bus (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 26 August 2009) Award-winning journalist and senior fellow at Media Matters for America Eric Boehlert introduces the new generation of political muckrakers who took the 2008 presidential campaign-and old guard media-by storm. In Bloggers on the Bus, Boehlert examines the American left's grand reawakening on the World Wide Web. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Amateur Barbarians (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 25 August 2009) Robert Cohen describes his latest novel, Amateur Barbarians, about two middle-aged men whose paths intersect and diverge, taking them from New York City to New England to East Africa. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Playing the Villain (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 25 August 2009) Christoph Waltz, who stars in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," tells us about playing such a glorious villain. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Leading the Charge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 25 August 2009) General Tony Zinni looks at the trends that have reshaped our world and have created the need for new kinds of leaders. His book Leading the Charge looks at how leaders and organizations can effectively respond to our changing world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Immigrant Detainee Deaths (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 25 August 2009) According to the Obama administration, in the last six years, at least one in 10 deaths in immigration detention have been overlooked and have gone unreported by officials. New York Times immigration reporter Nina Bernstein will be joined by Amy Fettig, staff attorney with the ACLU Prison Project, to discuss why immigrant detainee deaths are occurring and why they have been omitted from official reports. You can read Nina Bernstein's latest article in the New York Times here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Which Way Home (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 24 August 2009) Director Rebecca Cammisa discusses her feature-length documentary "Which Way Home," which follows three unaccompanied children as they leave their homes in Latin America and travel through Mexico to the U.S. border in order to reunite with their parents who’ve made the trip before them. "Which Way Home" premieres on HBO Monday, August 24th, at 9:00 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Climate Change Legislation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 24 August 2009) Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains why this is a critical year, both domestically and internationally, for addressing climate change. Find out more about the Tck Tck Tck campaign at http://tcktcktck.org. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Election in Afghanistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 24 August 2009) Last Thursday, Afghanistan's voters headed to the polls amid increasing levels of violence. President Hamid Karzai and one of his challengers, Abdullah Abdullah, have both claimed victory. Sarah Chayes, former NPR correspondent who lives and works in Kandahar, and Bobby Ghosh, senior editor for Time magazine, give us an update on what's going in Afghanistan as the votes continue to be tallied. Read Bobby Ghosh's latest story, "Afghan Mission Creep: Back to Nation-Building," here. Sarah Ch ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mixed Messages on Healthcare Reform (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 24 August 2009) Every policy maker seems to have something different to say about health care reform. We talk to Anne Kornblut, White House correspondent for the Washington Post, and Craig Gordon, White House editor for Politico, about why we're getting so many different messages and what they'll mean when Congress returns in September. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 24 August 2009) On our latest Underappreciated segment, Burton Pike, editor and translator of Robert Musil’s titanic though unfinished novel, The Man Without Qualities, discusses the philosophical and aesthetic ideas circulating in pre-war Viennese society as depicted in the novel. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Home Girl (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 21 August 2009) Judith Matloff explains why, after 20 years as a foreign correspondent, she decided to put down roots in New York by buying a dilapidated brownstone on a rough block in West Harlem. She tells the story of building a home, starting a family, and learning to feel at home in an unusual place, in her book Home Girl. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Neurofeedback (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 21 August 2009) Neurofeedback is a method of training the brain by monitoring brain activity with sensors. Individuals can see their brain activity on a screen in real time and learn to regulate it themselves, in order to "train" their brain to perform specific tasks more efficiently. We’ll hear about how it works with Dr. Sarah H. Lisanby, Director of the Division of Brain Stimulation & Therapeutic Modulation, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 21 August 2009) Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon appear together for the first time since they starred in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." They’ll discusses their experiences making the film as well as their separate careers. They’ll be at the Film Society of Lincoln Center for two screenings of in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," part of "Yesterday’s Angel: Natalie Wood," which runs through August 25th. Events: Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon will be appearing at the screenings of "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kaleidoscope Quilts (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 20 August 2009) Quilter Paula Nadelstern talks about the exhibition of her work, "Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Art of Paula Nadelstern." The exhibition is on view through September 13 at the American Folk Art Museum, at 45 West 53rd Street. More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Facebook Empire (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 20 August 2009) Last week, Facebook quietly bought FriendFeed, a platform that keeps track of just about everything you do online. On this week’s second Underreported, Chadwick Matlin, staff reporter for Slate’s TheBigMoney.com, explains what the social networking site hopes to gain by buying FriendFeed. Read Chadwick Matlin's article about the purchase of FriendFeed here, and his article on Facebook's new collaboration with the Huffington Post here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Blue Tattoo (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 20 August 2009) Margot Mifflin tells the life story of Olive Oatman, who, when she was 13 years old, was adopted and raised by the Mohave tribe after Indians attacked her Mormon family on its journey west. In The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman Mifflin seeks to correct the myths about Oatman, her assimilation into the tribe, and her reintroduction to mainstream society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Provenance (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 19 August 2009) Laney Salisbury, co-author of Provenance, tells the true story of a struggling artist and flamboyant con man who pull off one of the most elaborate scams in the history of art forgery. Not only is the art fake, but so is the documentation supporting it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Final Days of Merill Lynch (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 19 August 2009) Last September, as panic hit and Wall Street began to crumble, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis agreed to swallow Merrill Lynch and its spiraling losses. In "The Final Days of Merill Lynch," in the September issue of The Atlantic, William D. Cohan reveals the coercive role played by the Fed and the Treasury: What exactly happened in the weeks leading up to the merger? Did the deal save us all from economic apocalypse? And what do the government’s unprecedented actions portend for the future ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Red to Black (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 19 August 2009) Journalist Alex Dryden watched the statues of Lenin fall across the former Soviet Union after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Since then he has charted the transformation of the Russian state. He draws on his years of reporting on Putin's power plays and the new Russia in his new novel Red to Black. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O’Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 19 August 2009) Our word maven Patricia T. O’Conner answers questions about the English language and grammar. Call us at 212-433-9692, or leave a comment below. Her latest book is Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner’s Grammarphobia website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Black Magic" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 18 August 2009) In his documentary "Black Magic", filmmaker Dan Klores looks at how African-American players and coaches changed the game of basketball. The film won a Peabody and has just been released on DVD. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Reset" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 18 August 2009) According to Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen the economic crisis might have an upside. His latest book is called Reset. Studio 360 airs on WNYC Saturday at 10am on 93.9 FM and Sunday at 7pm on AM 820. Event: Kurt Andersen will be in conversation with Regina Spektor and Katherine Lanpher Tuesday, August 18, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Projections: Journalism on Film (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 18 August 2009) We take a look at how journalism and reporters have been depicted on film over the decades with Professor Joe Saltzman, director of the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Project, and New York Times film critic Dave Kehr. The four films we'll be discussing are "His Girl Friday," "Ace in the Hole," "Network," and "Good Night, and Good Luck." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Newspapers from Coast to Coast (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 18 August 2009) Philadelphia may soon be without a single daily newspaper, but the last paper standing in Seattle finally posted a profit following the death of its main competitor. We’ll talk about the state of the American newspaper with executive editor of the Seattle Times David Boardman and with Michael Sokolove, contributing writer for the New York Times Sunday Magazine. You can read Michael's story "What's a Big City Without a Newspaper" here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wisdom of the Last Farmer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 17 August 2009) In Wisdom of the Last Farmer David Masumoto talks about farming knowledge that is quickly disappearing and how he came to see his family farm differently after his father suffered a stroke. Event David Masumoto will be part of a panel discussion of multi-generational farming Tuesday, August 18 at 12 pm The 92Y Tribeca, at 200 Hudson Street and Canal Street For more information and tickets, visit the 92nd Street Y website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Miracle (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 17 August 2009) In his book The Miracle Time magazine’s business correspondent Michael Schuman looks at how the economies of Asian countries like China, Indonesia and India have transformed themselves into powerhouses of growth. Event Michael Schuman will be speaking and signing books Wednesday August 19 at 12 pm The Korea Society 950 Third Avenue, at 57th Street, 8th Floor Registration is required. For more information, visit the Korea Society website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Restaurateurs and Entrepreneurs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 17 August 2009) It’s hard to open a successful restaurant in New York City in boom times— but some restaurateurs are daring enough to start up in the depths of the Great Recession. We’ll speak with chef/owner Daniel Boulud, who just opened DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Sosie Hublitz, the owner of Watty & Meg, and Pamela Parseghian, the executive food editor of Nation’s Restaurant News about how many restaurants are adapting to the economic crisis. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Paul von Heyse (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 17 August 2009) German writer Paul von Heyse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1910. A translation of Von Heyse’s most famous book Children of the World: A Novel, Volume 1 has just been printed. We’ll be joined by John T. Hamilton, who will be teaching comparative literature at Harvard this fall. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Finding Oz (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 14 August 2009) In his book Finding Oz Evan Schwartz investigates the origins and meaning of L. Frank Baum's 1900 book that became the basis for the film "The Wizard of Oz." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Spices (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 14 August 2009) Most spices are delicious, some have medical value and a good amount of them have changed the course of human history. On this week's Please Explain we'll learn all about spices, from Anise to Vanilla. We'll be joined by Dr. John E. Hayes, Assistant Professor of Food Science at Penn State University and by chef Michael Krondl. Michael is also the author of numerous books, including The Taste of Conquest. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website But What do May, June, July and August Showers Bring? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 14 August 2009) Horticulturalist and Director of the Open Space Greening Program Gerard Lordahl answers your questions about gardening and talks about how this wet summer is affecting plants. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Burn the Floor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 14 August 2009) The new dance production "Burn the Floor," features an updated blend of Latin and Ballroom dance. We'll talk with Jason Gilkison, the director/choreographer, and dancers Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff. "Burn the Floor" is in performances at the Longacre Theatre through October 18th. Ticket info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 20 Minute Meals with Mark Bittman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 13 August 2009) New York Times columnist and blogger Mark Bittman stops by to talk about his latest cook book Kitchen Express: 404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less. You can view some of Bittman's recipies from the book here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 40 Years After Woodstock (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 13 August 2009) Woodstock turns 40 this year. We'll talk to the festival's founder and promoter Michael Lang and Woodstock's official photographer Henry Diltz. Michael is also one of the co-authors of the book Woodstock Experience. Event: Michael Lang and Henry Diltz will host a celebration of Woodstock on August 13th at 7pm in the Morrison Hotel Gallery. More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Geo-Engineering and Global Warming (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 13 August 2009) As the threat of Global Warming grows more urgent, some scientists are looking at ways to change the climate through geo-engineering. Proposals include everything from sulfur-dioxide spewing zeppelins to simply blocking out the sun. The only catch is that most of these technologies come with dangerous and extremely undesirable side effects. Graeme Wood wrote about geo-engineering for the July/August issue of the Atlantic Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Afghan Treasures (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 13 August 2009) A collect of Afghan art and jewelry that many had long considered destroyed is on view at the Metropolitan Museum. It’s called "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul" and we’ll speak with the exhibition’s organizer Fred Hiebert. It runs through September 20th. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Amanpour on the Future of the Muslim World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 13 August 2009) CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us for a preview of the Afghan elections and to talk about her new documentary Generation Islam, where she looks the broader consequences of little access to education and childhood poverty in the Muslim world. The documentary will debut on Thursday, August 13 at 9 p.m. ET on CNN Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New Jersey and Political Corruption (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 12 August 2009) The Garden State has a long history of political corruption— we’ll try to cover the last three decades of it in forty minutes with journalists Bob Ingle. His book The Soprano State covers the scandals that have made New Jersey famous; from Jimmy Hoffa to the recent headline grabbing stories involving money-laundering rabbis, bribed mayors and black-market organ selling. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Up With People (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 12 August 2009) In her new documentary "Smile 'Til It Hurts" filmmaker Lee Storey looks at the secret history of the motivational group Up With People from its genesis as a religious cult onward. "Smile 'Til It Hurts" is playing through August 13th at the IFC Center. Screening and ticket info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 12 August 2009) Al & Larry Ubell answer your questions on home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Earth Days" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 11 August 2009) In his new film "Earth Days," director Robert Stone examines the early days of the environmental movement--from rustlings in the 1950's to the first Earth Day in 1970 through the intense activism that followed. "Earth Days" opens August 14th at The Quad Cinema. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Climate Change and Evolution (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 11 August 2009) Increasing temperatures on the planet might mean catastrophe for some species -- including humans -- but it might present new opportunities for others. Science writer Carl Zimmer explains why researchers believe that some species are already adapting to a warmer world. You can read his article here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Old Cape Magic (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 11 August 2009) Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo joins us to talk about his latest novel That Old Cape Magic. Event: Richard Russo and Pat Conroy will be in conversation with Bill Goldstein of the New York Times Tuesday, August 11 at 7 pm The Union Square Barnes and Noble 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Baader-Meinhof Group (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 11 August 2009) The Baader-Meinhof-Group were a violent urban guerilla organization which terrorized Germany in the 1970’s and 80’s. Stefan Aust gives a comprehensive history of the German terror group in his book Baader-Meinhof, the Inside Story of the RAF , which is the basis for the new film, "The Baader Meinhof Complex," which opens on August 21 at the Angelika and City Cinemas 1, 2, 3. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Legislative Leftovers: Cap and Trade (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 11 August 2009) Our two-part series, Legislative Leftovers continues today with a look at what remains to be done on the cap and trade climate change bill now that Congress in recess for the rest of August. We'll be joined by New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert and the Washington Post's environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin. They’ll explain how cap and trade works, whether it would help to reduce carbon emissions contributing to climate change, and the status of the current bill. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Legislative Leftovers: Healthcare (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 August 2009) With Congress in recess for the rest of August, we'll take the next two days to look at some of the legislation that's still on the table. Today, we find out where the health care debate stands in both the House and the Senate. Ezra Klein, who blogs for the Washington Post, and Luke Mitchell, a senior editor at Harper's, explain how the battle for public opinion this summer is likely to influence the political debate in the fall. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Yusuf Idris (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 August 2009) Yusuf Idris is an Egyptian writer best known for his short stories. On today's underappreciated we’ll discuss Idris’s book The Cheapest Nights with Roger Allen, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. He'll explain why Idris is considered one of the most important writers of the Arabic-speaking world in the 20th century. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How I Became a Famous Novelist (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 August 2009) Steve Hely's novel How I Became A Famous Novelist tells the story of Pete Tarslaw, an unlikely literary legend, and how his "pile of garbage" became the most talked about, blogged about, praised, and panned novel in America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New York City Thrillers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 10 August 2009) Reggie Nadelson, author of Londongrad; Lee Child, author of Gone Tomorrow; and George Dawes Green, author of Ravens talk to us about writing crime thrillers set in New York City. From picking a setting to characters and story development. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mossberg, Moby, and Music (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 August 2009) Moby and Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal "Personal Technologies" columnist, discuss the ways technology has changed how music is created and how fans acquire and discover music. Event: Moby and Walter Mossberg will be in conversation Monday, August 10th, at 7:30 pm Lincoln Center's Rose Building 165 West 65th Street, 10th Floor Ticket price: $25 More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wrestling with Moses (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 August 2009) Anthony Flint gives an account of how Jane Jacobs stood up to developer Robert Moses in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s, and what that confrontation has meant for urban planning in this country. His book is Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Endangered Languages (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 07 August 2009) More than half of the world's nearly 7,000 languages are at risk of dying out in the next century. On this week's Please Explain, we take a look at what causes languages to disappear and the efforts to document and revive endangered languages around the world. Gregory Anderson, Director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and Anthony Woodbury, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas, join us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Counterfeiting in Korea (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 August 2009) Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose investigates North Korea's Office 39, a secret department within North Korea’s government. Office 39 manages Kim Jong Il's multi-billion-dollar personal bank accounts; it also allegedly produces counterfeit currency, cigarettes, and pharmaceuticals, and organizes the sale of heroin, crystal methamphetamine, and other drugs. David Rose's Vanity Fair article, "North Korea's Dollar Store" is available here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Future of Guantanamo Bay (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 August 2009) Jonathan Mahler, author of The Challenge, about the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which ruled that detainees have the right to a federal trial, and Chisun Lee, a lawyer and a reporter for ProPublica, discuss the future of Guantanamo and President Obama's plans for the prison. They’ll also look at how judges have been forced to create detainee law one case at a time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nora Ephron (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 August 2009) Screenwriter and director Nora Ephron discusses her new movie "Julie & Julia," based on the blog and book by Julie Powell, which chronicles her year cooking every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child's seminal cook book. The film tells Julie's story alongside the story of how Julia Child learned to cook while she and her husband Paul were living in Paris during the 1940s and 1950s. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Slippery Year (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 August 2009) Melanie Gideon's memoir The Slippery Year is an exuberant meditation on life at middle age, when thing haven’t turned out as you might have expected. It chronicles a year in which Gideon confronts the fantasies of her fading youth as well and the realities of life with a husband, child, and dog. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Iraq (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 06 August 2009) In early July, U.S. combat troops withdrew from the urban areas in Iraq. Thomas E. Ricks, author of The Gamble and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, joins us for a look at whether the situation in Iraq’s cities has changed much since U.S.-led forces pulled back. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Street Soccer USA (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 August 2009) Lawrence Cann, founder and CEO of Street Soccer USA and Director of Advocacy HELP USA, founded the first street soccer team, Art Works Football Club, in 2004. It became Street Soccer USA, and has grown to include teams in 18 cities across the United States. He’s joined by Juan Delvalle, a player on the New York team, to talk about the league and the National U.S. team that will go to Milan in September to compete in the 48-nation homeless soccer world cup. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Waxman Report (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 August 2009) Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) is Chairman of the House Energy and Government Reform Committee. He has also chaired the House Oversight and Reform Committee and is a leading liberal in Congress. He was called "The Scariest Man in Washington" by Time in 2006. Waxman provides a new look into how legislation is passed in The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works. Based on his 33 years in Congress, it reveals how difficult it is for Congress to work, but how it ultimately gets things don ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The State of Iran (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 August 2009) Iranian-American journalist Hooman Majd looks at the current state of Iranian politics after the disputed reelection of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, who is being inaugurated today. Hooman Majd was on the Leonard Lopate Show September 29, 2008, discussing his book The Ayatolla Begs to Differ. You can listen to that interview here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paul Giamatti (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 05 August 2009) Paul Giamatti and director Sophie Barthes talk about the movie "Cold Souls," a surreal comedy. Paul Giamatti plays himself, an actor paralyzed by anxiety, agonizing over his interpretation of "Uncle Vanya." When he reads an article in the New Yorker about a high-tech company that promises to alleviate suffering by extracting souls, he decides to get his soul extracted, and discovers that it’s the size and shape of a chickpea. "Cold Souls" opens in New York Friday, August 7th, at Lincoln P ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 August 2009) Nicholas Bakalar, the "Vital Signs" columnist for The New York Times, reveals surprising things you never realized you want to know about your body and your health. The Medicine Cabinet of Curiosities is a collection of trivia about the wonders of medicine, from rare but horrifying diseases to unexpected remedies. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Neue Galerie Exhibitions (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 August 2009) Renee Price, Director of the Neue Galerie Museum for Austrian and German Art, discusses the two current exhibitions at the museum. "Focus: Oskar Kokoschka," featuring portraits and a selection of drawings by Kokoschka, a key figure in the history of Expressionism. "Selections from the Permanent Collection." features works that have particular relevance to present-day social and economic conditions, from George Grosz drawings of corrupt plutocrats to Otto Dix etchings of impoverished beggars ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shadow War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 August 2009) Arif Jamal, a contributing writer to The New York Times and a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, interviewed nearly a thousand militants in war-torn Kashmir, and he presents an account of Pakistan's secret battles with India over the region. His book Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir reveals much, the from the early 1980s, when the Kashmiri conflict hung in the background of the CIA's proxy war in Afghanistan, to the eruption of insurgent ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Battle for America 2008 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 04 August 2009) Dan Balz, lead political reporter for the Washington Post, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Haynes Johnson followed the 2008 presidential campaign from the candidates’ first stump speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire to the historic victory by Barack Obama on election night. Their book The Battle for America 2008 shows how that election, which took place against a backdrop of war, economic collapse, and deep anxiety about the future, marked the start of a new era in American politics and w ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Liar in Your Life (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 August 2009) Psychology professor Robert Feldman, one of the world's leading authorities on deception, offers insights into how and why we lie, and how our culture has become increasingly tolerant of deception. In his new book, The Liar in Your Life: The Way to Truthful Relationships, he examines marital infidelity, little white lies, resumé lies, self-deception, and how children learn to lie. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Subway and the City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 August 2009) Cassim Shepard, member of Urban Omnibus, an online project of the Architectural League, and filmmaker Manny Kirchheimer discuss New York's train system and how it has shaped the city over the last century. A conversation at the Brecht Forum, co-sponsored by Red Channels, on August 3 includes short films that show the changing nature of the city and its transportation system. Event: Cassim Shepard and Manny Kirchheimer are taking part in a discussion, "Bridges and Tunnels: Art and Efficiency ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Petersburg by Andrei Bely (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 August 2009) Our second Underappreciated segment of the summer is on Andrei Bely's Symbolist novel Petersburg, which Vladimir Nabokov ranked as one of the top four novels of the 20th century, along with Franz Kafa's Metamorphosis, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and James Joyce's Ulysses, to which it is often compared. John Elsworth, Professor Emeritus in the Russian Studies Department at the University of Manchester, is the translator of the most recent edition (2009) of the novel. He'll explai ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Chaos Scenario (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 August 2009) Bob Garfield, Advertising Age editor-at-large and co-host of On the Media, documents how the digital revolution has separated the 350-year connection between mass media and mass marketing, and prescribes a new way for business and institutions to go forward in the changing media landscape. His book The Chaos Scenario looks at what happens when the traditional media world order collapses and there's nothing in place to replace it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website American Radical (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 03 August 2009) D. D. Guttenplan looks at the life of I. F. Stone, America's most celebrated investigative reporter. In American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone, he shows that Stone's achievements throughout his career grew out of the passion of his political beliefs and the radical faith he had in American democracy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Goldman Sachs and the Vampire Squid (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 31 July 2009) Goldman Sachs posted records profits in the second quarter of this year. Matt Taibbi, political reporter for Rolling Stone argues in "The Great American Bubble Machine" that the investment bank has been involved in every major market shift going back to the Great Depression. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lorna's Silence (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 31 July 2009) Filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne discuss their new film, "Lorna's Silence." It tells the story of Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, who hopes to open a snack bar with her boyfriend and goes to great, and dangerous, lengths to get her citizenship papers. "Lorna's Silence" opens in New York Friday, July 31, at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Cinema Village. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Urban Park Rangers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 31 July 2009) Sarah Aucoin, Director of the Urban Park Rangers, part of New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation, talks about the unexpectedly diverse wildlife in New York and how improving and expanding parks and green space has affected the wildlife here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Obesity (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 31 July 2009) According to recent studies, about 1/3 of Americans are obese, and between 1998 and 2006, the obesity rate rose 37% in this country. Obesity-related illnesses accounted for an estimated $147 billion in 2008, nearly 10 percent of all U.S. medical spending, according to the Centers for Disease Control. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we're looking into the causes of the dramatic rise in obesity and the health risks that come with it. We're joined by Dr. Louis Aronne, Clinical Professo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 30 July 2009) Christopher Caldwell, senior editor at The Weekly Standard and columnist for the Financial Times, looks at how immigration is changing modern Europe in Reflections on the Revolution in Europe. With an influx of Muslim immigrants since World War II, Islam has challenged the European culture and way of life, and the West is being permanently reshaped by Muslim immigration. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dreaming in Hindi (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 30 July 2009) Katherine Russell Rich was an unlikely candidate for a study-abroad program in India, but when she accepted a writing assignment there, she found herself drawn to the Hindi language and set out to master it. Her memoir of her experience moving to Udaipur, an ancient city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, and studying Hindi, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language, describes the transformative power of learning a new language. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Camus, A Romance (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 30 July 2009) Elizabeth Hawes’s passionate pursuit of Camus began with her college thesis. Her new biography-memoir, Camus, a Romance looks at Camus the man, and chronicles his life alongside the author's own experience following in his footsteps, meeting his friends and family, and attempting to enter his solitude. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Trying to Thaw Iceland's Economy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 30 July 2009) Iceland's economy came to a screeching halt in the fall of 2008 when its banking sector collapsed. On today’s first Underreported, we look at how the International Monetary Fund is trying to jump start the economy by refinancing the national debt. Landon Thomas, Jr., a financial correspondent for the New York Times, describes the political debate that’s emerged on how to pay off the country's creditors. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Baghdad's Underground Railroad (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 30 July 2009) On today’s second Underreported, we find out about Baghdad’s Underground Railroad that helps women who have been victims of sexual assault. Anna Badkhen describes the network of safe houses in her article, "Baghdad Underground," which appears in the Summer issue of Ms. Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pigs at the Trough (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 29 July 2009) Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, talks about how corporate corruption and greed have led to the economic crisis. She wrote Pigs at the Trough in 2003, and now, six years later, she’s updated it. The book is a harsh indictment of corporate corruption and Wall Street greed—from AIG to Citigroup to Lehman Brothers to Bernie Madoff—and the harm it is doing this country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barcoding Plant DNA (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 29 July 2009) Dr. Damon Little, Assistant Curator of Bioinformatics at the New York Botanical Garden, explains how plant DNA will be bar coded, and what that means for research and conservation efforts worldwide. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New York City's Contaminated Fish (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 29 July 2009) Profesor Catherine O'Neill, a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform and Associate Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, was a consultant for the report "Fish Consumption and Environmental Justice" by the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She'll discuss the dangers of the catching and eating contaminated fish in New York City. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What I Thought I Knew (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 29 July 2009) Alice Eve Cohen on her memoir What I Thought I Knew, about her unexpected pregnancy, at 44, that was originally diagnosed as an abdominal tumor. She recounts the shock of the pregnancy, the complications and risks it brought on, and the difficult decisions she faced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Green Ratings (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 29 July 2009) Wall Street Journal editor Jeff Ball talks about "green" ratings and "green" labels, what they mean, who sets green standards, and how Wal-Mart's decision to use green labels will affect the marketplace. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China Safari (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 28 July 2009) Journalist Serge Michel and award-wining photojournalist Paolo Woods traveled from Beijing to Khartoum and from Algiers to Brazzaville investigating China's economic ventures in Africa. The book China Safari tells the dramatic and largely unknown story of the rise of China's economic empire in Africa, and how it will transform geopolitics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Cove (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 28 July 2009) Filmmaker Louie Psihoyos and Ric O'Barry, a longtime activist who was a dolphin trainer for the1960s TV show "Flipper" discuss the documentary "The Cove." In a secluded lagoon in the small Japanese town of Taiji, thousands of dolphins are brutally slaughtered every year, and the film follows a group of activists who try to infiltrate the cove and to actually film what goes on there. "The Cove" opens in New York Friday, July 31st, at the Beekman Theater and the Angelika Film Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Happy Marriage (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 27 July 2009) Rafael Yglesias discusses his latest novel, A Happy Marriage. The story alternates between describing the romantic misadventures of the first weeks of the courtship of Enrique and Margaret and the final months of Margaret's life as she says good-bye to her family, friends, children, and her husband, Enrique, after 30 years of marriage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underappreciated: Alamut (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 27 July 2009) On our first Underappreciated segment of the summer, we look at the Slovenian novel Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol, a story that takes place in 11th-century Persia. It was originally published in 1938 and was widely translated, but wasn’t published in English until 2004. Michael Biggins, the translator of the English edition and head of the Slavic and East European Section of the University of Washington Libraries, and Tjasa Koprivec, an editor at the Slovenian publisher Sanje, which publish ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Microtrends (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 27 July 2009) Burson-Marsteller CEO, and campaign advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton, Mark Penn, discusses the ever-splintering subsets that Americans identify with, and what they mean. In Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes, Penn draws lessons from small but influential groups such as "soccer moms" and "Nascar dads," and looks at how they affect business, culture, technology, diet, politics, and education in this country. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kurdish Election Results (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 27 July 2009) Elections were held in Kurdistan this past weekend. We'll parse the results with former Boston Globe international correspondent Aliza Marcus, who recently returned from south Kurdistan. Her book is called Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Art of Drug Design (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 27 July 2009) Maria Contel, Roberto Sanchez-Delgado, and Richard Magliozzo, professors from Brooklyn College who are working on pharmaceutical research, talk about the complexities of their work, and how to strike a balance among the human, technical, and financial resources available to them without compromising their findings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Colossal Failure of Common Sense (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 24 July 2009) Lawrence McDonald, former Lehman Brothers vice president, explains what happened at Lehman Brothers and why the financial services firm was allowed to fail. In A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, he reveals the ruthless, arrogant Wall Street culture and unspoken rules of the game, and gives us an insider's view of the participants in the Lehman collapse, especially those who saw it coming. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Pheromones (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 24 July 2009) Our latest Please Explain is all about pheromones, chemicals released by animals that influence physiology or behavior, from how we communicate to how we choose mates. We'll be joined by Dr. Stuart Firestein, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, and Dr. Tristram Wyatt, of the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, and author of Pheromones and Animal Behavior. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The English Surgeon (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 24 July 2009) Award-winning filmmaker Geoffrey Smith discusses his new documentary "The English Surgeon," along with its subject, Dr. Henry Marsh. The film follows Dr. Marsh, one of London’s foremost brain surgeons, as he travels to Ukraine to treat patients with no access to modern medical facilities. "The English Surgeon" opens Friday, July 24, at Cinema Village. More information and screening times here. Events: Dr. Henry Marsh and Geoffrey Smith will be holding Q&As Friday, July 24th, after the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Loop (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 24 July 2009) Armando Iannucci on his new film "In the Loop," a wicked, fast-talking political satire about what happens when a bumbling British government minister makes a verbal gaffe during a television interview and inadvertently comes out in support of a U.S. war in the Middle East. "In the Loop" is playing at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cheap (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 23 July 2009) Ellen Ruppel Shell traces our national obsession with the bargain from the Industrial Revolution to the modern assembly line, and from chain stores to big-box retailers who value convenience and low-prices over quality. In her book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, she examines our desire for cheap goods and how it has spurred globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability, all of which have had tremendous impact on the global economy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Big Rewind (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 23 July 2009) Nathan Rabin, head writer for A.V. Club, The Onion’s entertainment section, explains how pop culture offered an escape from his troubled childhood and adolescence in his memoir, The Big Rewind. Event: Nathan Rabin will be reading and signing books Thursday, July 23, at 7:00 pm Borders 10 Columbus Circle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Senator Pedro Espada's Early Political Career (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 23 July 2009) Before he was one of the most powerful people in the New York State Senate, Pedro Espada started his political career with a fringe political group called the New Alliance Party. The NAP has long since disbanded but many of its members are now part of the active New York Independence Party. On today’s Backstory we’ll talk to City Hall reporter Sal Gentile about Senator Espada's early days campaigning in the Bronx. Hear last week's Underreported segment on the New York Independence Par ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Failed States Index (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 23 July 2009) Many nations that were already on the brink in good times are sliding closer and closer to becoming failed states as the global economic slump continues. Foreign Policy magazine, in conjunction with The Fund for Peace, has compiled a list of the world’s top failed states using 12 indicators ranging from "external intervention" to "uneven development." We’ll speak with Elizabeth Dickinson, Assistant Editor at Foreign Policy Magazine who helped compile the report. You can read the Failed ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marcus Roberts Trio (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 22 July 2009) Jazz pianist Marcus Roberts performs with the Marcus Roberts Trio and talks about their new critically acclaimed album, "New Orleans Meets Harlem, volume 1." They are performing at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, July 21-26. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dancing to the Precipice (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 23 July 2009) Historian and biographer Caroline Moorehead looks at Madam de la Tour du Pin, who was groomed as a lady in waiting to Marie Antoinette and who kept a vivid account of the tumultuous collapse of the French Old Regime in her diaries. Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin combines these diaries with the first full-length biography of her. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Daddy Shift (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 22 July 2009) Jeremy Adam Smith looks at stay-at-home dads. His book The Daddy Shift delves into how staying at home affects a father's relationships with his partner, kids, friends, and relatives, and it looks into how it affects society at large and the changing roles of men and women in our culture. Events: Jeremy Adam Smith will be speaking Wednesday, July 22nd, at 6:30 pm 92nd Street Y/Tribeca 200 Hudson Street He'll also be speaking Thursday, July 23rd, at 7:00 pm Brooklyn Society for Ethical ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Meeting Jimmy Rodgers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 22 July 2009) Barry Mazor investigates the life of Jimmie Rodgers, a vaudevillian and railroad worker from Mississippi whose brief career over 80 years ago has had an enormous impact on American music, from country to rock and roll, jazz, blues, bluegrass, and folk. Meeting Jimmy Rodgers is the first book to explore the legacy of the "Singing Brakeman" who has inspired many singer-songwriters, including Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Elvis, and Beck. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Google Book Project (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 22 July 2009) Tim Barton, President, Oxford University Press, Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard Libraries, and Adam Smith, Director of Product Management at Google, discuss Google’s "book project," and the class-action settlement that would give Google control over the digitizing of almost all books covered by copyright in the United States, which has raised copyright and ownership issues for publishers and libraries. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tin Pan Alley Rag (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 21 July 2009) Michael Boatman who plays Scott Joplin, and Michael Patrick Walker the Musical Director, talk about their roles in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Off-Broadway production of the new musical "The Tin Pan Alley Rag," about an imagined meeting of two of America’s greatest musicians--composer Scott Joplin and songwriter Irving Berlin. "Tin an Alley Rag" is playing at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 West 46th Street. More information and tic ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Snakehead (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 21 July 2009) In 1993, a boat carrying 300 near-starving illegal immigrants from China ran aground off the coast of New York, an event that led to a criminal investigation that uncovered an international human smuggling ring run by an unlikely crime boss—a middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping. Patrick Radden Keefe’s true-crime thriller The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream reveals this secret world of gang violence, underground crime, and human smuggli ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jericho's Fall (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 21 July 2009) Bestselling author Stephen Carter on his latest novel, Jericho’s Fall, which tells the story of Jericho Ainsley, former head of the CIA and a Wall Street titan, a man who spent his life uncovering and keeping secrets, who may be now be losing his mind. Event: Stephen Carter will be reading, answering questions, and signing books Tuesday, July 21st, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble 2289 Broadway, at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Projections: Women in the Workplace (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 21 July 2009) We take a look at how women in the workplace have been portrayed on film in our latest installment of our Projections series. We’ll be joined by film critic and historian Molly Haskell and by author and academic Barbara Ehrenreich. The three films we'll be discussing are: "Woman of the Year" (1942) "Babyface" (1933) "9 to 5" (1980) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smallpox: The Death of a Disease (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 20 July 2009) Dr. D. A. Henderson tells his personal story of leading the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate smallpox, which has been called one of the greatest scientific and humanitarian feats of the twentieth century. The disease that killed over two million people per year was eliminated in just over ten years, and the last known case of smallpox occurred in 1976. Smallpox: The Death of a Disease is an account of the disease and the efforts to eradicate it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Malachy McCourt Remembers his Brother (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 20 July 2009) Pulitzer-Prize winning author Frank McCourt passed away this weekend. Malachy McCourt joins us to talk about his older brother’s life and accomplishments. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Graveyard of Empires (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 20 July 2009) RAND Corporation political scientist Seth Jones discusses the reinvigorated insurgency in Afghanistan and considers its threat to the country's future and American interests in the region. He revisits Afghan history with his book, In the Graveyard of Empires, specifically looking at the British invasions in the mid- and late-19th century and the Russian invasion in the late-20th, and how little the U.S. has learned from these two previous wars, and he looks at the influence of Pakistan in t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rocket Men (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 20 July 2009) Everyone old enough to remember can tell you where they were on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon. Craig Nelson gives an account of that first moon landing. Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon is the story of the most remarkable adventure of the twentieth century, and a look at the politics, technology, and incredible risk it involved. We're also joined by Ewen Whitaker, retired University of Arizona researcher who conducted the ph ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Drawing (but not Quartering) in the Middle Ages (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 17 July 2009) Artists in the Middle Ages explored the medium of drawing with some surprising results. We’ll speak with Melanie Holcomb, Associate Curator of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about the exhibition "Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages". It's on view through through August 23rd. Event: Melanie Holcomb will be introducing Edward Tufte, a leading authority on Information Design, at a free lecture Sunday, July 19th, 3:00-4:00 pm The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 5 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website This World & Nearer Ones (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 17 July 2009) Mark Beasley, curator, and artist Anthony McCall talk about "PLOT09: This World & Nearer Ones," a Creative Time art exhibition this summer on Governors Island. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Mosquitoes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 17 July 2009) Mosquitoes are one of the downsides of summer, and they are expected to be especially bad this year due to all the rain this spring. We’ll find out why mosquitoes buzz and bite, how they transmit dangerous diseases, and some ways to get rid of them. Joseph M. Conlon, a retired U.S. Navy entomologist and the Technical Advisor for the American Mosquito Control Association, and Thomas W. Scott, Director of the UC Davis Mosquito Research Laboratory and Professor of Entomology, join us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Let’s Go Swimming! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 17 July 2009) According to the Centers for Disease Control, bacterial, viral, and parasitic organisms found in recreational water in the United States sicken thousands of people every year, and even result in deaths. We’ll speak with chemist and industrial hygienist Monona Rossol about the protozoa, amoebas and other things that love to go swimming with us. Monona is also founder and President of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Farm City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 16 July 2009) Novella Carpenter on her experience moving to a ramshackle house in Oakland, California, and turning a weed-choked, garbage-strewn lot next door into a small farm, complete with egg-laying chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, rabbits, and two three-hundred-pound pigs. Her memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer is both a cautionary tale and a call to action. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Sharks under Threat (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 16 July 2009) One-third of the world's open ocean shark species are threatened with extinction. On today’s second Underreported we'll speak with Merry Camhi, a member of the Shark Specialist Group with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and lead editor of the book Sharks of the Open Ocean. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Billie Holiday (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 16 July 2009) Noted jazz historian Dan Morgenstern, director of Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies, on the life, music, and legacy of Billie Holiday, who died 50 years ago tomorrow at the age of 44. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The New York Independence Party and Its Benefactors (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 16 July 2009) On today's first Underreported segment, we take a look at the long and twisted history of the New York Independence Party and how they’ve become intertwined both with Mayor Bloomberg’s reelection campaign and Judge Sotomayor's confirmation process, with Errol Louis, New York Daily News columnist. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scoring "Public Enemies" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 15 July 2009) Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal joins us to talk about writing numerous film scores, including music for the new film about John Dillinger, "Public Enemies." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gangs in Garden City (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 15 July 2009) In her book Gangs of Garden City, journalist Sarah Garland follows the migration of two Central American gangs (Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street) from El Salvador to Los Angeles and finally to suburbs of Hempstead, Long Island. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dillinger's Wild Ride (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 15 July 2009) Elliot Gorn examines the significance of Dillinger's fame and the endurance of his legacy. In Dillinger’s Wild Ride: The Year that Made America's Public Enemy Number One, he explains that Dillinger's story reveals an American fascination with outlaws, violence, and crime, and shows how America was transformed by the Great Depression. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 15 July 2009) Patricia T. O'Conner answers questions about the English language and grammar. Today she's focusing on words that have come back from the dead. Call us at 212-433-9692, or leave a comment below. Her new book is Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner’s Grammarphobia website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chop Suey (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 14 July 2009) Andrew Coe explains the history of America's infatuation with Chinese food in his book Chop Suey. His story takes us from China to the 1848 Gold Rush in the American West to the New York, where "Bohemians" discovered chop suey, to President Nixon’s trip to China. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Michael Lomonaco Picks a Winner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 14 July 2009) For the final part of our Food in the City series, chef Michael Lomonaco, is here to announce the winner and runners up of our recipe contest. We’ll speak with them about cooking in the city, and about how they've adapted and reinterpreted recipes to make them their own. The winning recipe and the runners up are here! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fatal Journey (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 14 July 2009) Historian and biographer Peter C. Mancall describes Henry Hudson's failed final voyage in the winter of 1610. His book Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson narrates the undoing of the great explorer, not by the ocean, but at the hands of his own men. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spinal Cord Injury and Paralysis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 14 July 2009) Dr. Steve Williams, Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, and Alexandra Reeve Givens, Christopher Reeve's daughter and Board Member of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, discuss spinal cord injuries, living with paralysis, and advances in medicine that may lead to better treatment and quality of life for those paralyzed by spinal cord injury. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Phillip Lopate's Essays (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 13 July 2009) Phillip Lopate, Leonard's brother, discusses brotherhood and his essay in the anthology Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry. He'll also discuss his series of essays on the achievements and limitations of Susan Sontag, looking at her significance to him personally and to the culture at large, in his book Notes on Sontag. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Baseball Talmud (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 13 July 2009) Howard Megdal gives a historical narration of Major League Jewish Baseball in America, with all the stats, facts, stories, and glory. He also uses modern sabermetrics to determine the greatest Jewish players at each position, who would be on an all-time Jewish All-Star Team, and how that team would rate against the greatest teams in baseball history in his book The Baseball Talmud. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Liberate and Leave (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 13 July 2009) Don Eberly, who was a senior official at USAID during the lead-up to the Iraq invasion and then served on a post-war civil administration team for two years, gives an insider’s account of what happened in Iraq following the invasion. His book is Liberate and Leave: Fatal Flaws in the Early Strategy for Postwar Iraq. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Branch Rickey (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 13 July 2009) Branch Rickey was not much of a player or manager, but he ended up revolutionizing baseball: He created the farm system, allowing small-market clubs to compete with the rich and powerful, then, he signed Jackie Robinson and other black players to the Brooklyn Dodgers, bringing baseball to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Lee Lowenfish gives a detailed portrait of a man who influenced American business, sport, and society in Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hazel Dukes and the NAACP (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 10 July 2009) Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP New York State Conference, discusses the one hundredth anniversary of the NAACP, the organization’s history and future, and its centennial convention to be held in New York, July 11-16. You can read WNYC's news blog on the NAACP centennial here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Plastic Surgery (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 10 July 2009) On today's Please Explain, we’ll look at plastic surgery, from liposuction to Botox to rhinoplasty, and what happens when someone goes under the knife to improve his or her appearance. We'll be joined by Dr. Robert Grant, Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital and by Dr. Reza Jarrahy Assistant Professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCLA. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 10 July 2009) Before "The Cosby Show," "Good Times," or even "I Love Lucy," there was "The Goldbergs." From 1929 until 1955, it was one of the most popular shows on radio and television. Aviva Kempner, director of the documentary "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg," looks at the show's star, Gertrude Berg, the American Jewish heroine who emerged during the most difficult years for American Jews. She's joined by Adam Berg, Gertrude Berg's grandson. "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg" is playing in New York at Lincoln Plaza C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Relationship Obits (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 10 July 2009) Kathleen Horan founded relationshipobit.com when a big breakup was followed two weeks later by the death of her father. Her new book, Relationship Obits: The Final resting Place for Love Gone Wrong is a collection of obituaries of love affairs that have died. Share a relationship obituary in the comments section below. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shrek the Musical (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the book and lyrics, and Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the music for "Shrek the Musical," talk about the Broadway production, based on the story and characters from William Steig's book Shrek!, as well as the DreamWorks Animation film "Shrek," the first of the "Shrek" movie series. "Shrek the Musical" is playing at the Broadway Theatre. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website G8 Expectations (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) The leaders of the world's richest economies have gathered in L'Aquila, Italy to discuss problems they all face, including the economic slump and climate change. John Peet, European editor of the Economist, joins us to look at what’s come out of the G8 meeting so far and what we can expect on the summit's final day. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Russia with Love (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) Before President Obama went to Italy, he headed to Russia. We look at what came out of Obama's visit and what the meeting means for both countries with Steven Cohen, contributing editor to the Nation and author of Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the Cold War. Plus, we'll find out the role that Russia is playing the ongoing G8 summit. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website King of Vodka (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) Linda Himelstein depicts Russia's golden age through the eyes of the former serf-turned vodka entrepreneur, Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov. Her book King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire tells his story, from his early days as a small-time liquor peddler to one of Russia's richest men. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Pakistan's Humanitarian Crisis (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) The Pakistani government's campaign against Taliban insurgents has created over 2 million internally displaced refugees in Pakistan. On today's Underreported we'll speak with Dominic MacSorley, who recently returned from Mardan District in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. He is Director of Operations of Concern Worldwide USA. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Backstory: Coups in Central America (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 09 July 2009) Though the recent coup in Honduras is the first to take place in Central America since the end of the Cold War, the incident is part of a long history of political upheaval and military-sponsored coups in the region. On today's Backstory we'll put the turmoil in Honduras into historical and political context with Stephen Schlesinger. He’s an adjunct fellow at the Century Foundation and the former Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Border Songs (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 08 July 2009) Jim Lynch's new novel Border Songs examines the strange culture of a US-Canada border town through the character Brandon Vanderkool, a dyslexic six-foot-eight border agent who is unusually adept at spotting drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. Event: Jim Lynch will be reading and signing books Wednesday, July 8, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Books 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website French New Wave Cinema at 50 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 08 July 2009) The Museum of Arts and Design and Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Unhealthy Truth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 08 July 2009) In her book The Unhealthy Truth, Robyn O'Brien argues that deregulation of the American food industry has allowed major corporations to put inexpensive- but harmful- chemicals and additives into our food which adversely affect our health. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 08 July 2009) Al & Larry Ubell answer your questions on home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below.The Ubells' Accurate Building Inspectors website Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Maya Lin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 07 July 2009) The artist and architect Maya Lin talks about her career, from designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., to her latest earth sculpture, Storm King Wavefield, her design for the new Museum of Chinese in America, and other projects. Find out more about Maya Lin and her work here. Maya Lin: Bodies of Water is on view at Storm King Art Center, in Mountainville, NY, through November 15. Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes is on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Honduras (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 07 July 2009) We'll speak with Miami Herald foreign correspondent Frances Robles, who is in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, about the ongoing turmoil in Honduras after a coup removed President Manuel Zelaya from power. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Goat Song (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 07 July 2009) Novelist Brad Kessler talks about leaving New York City for a life raising dairy goats. In Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese, he describes how he learned to be a cheese maker, what it's like to raise animals, and how he adapted to farm life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Toward a New Understanding of Animals (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 07 July 2009) Charles Siebert explores how humans can inflict mental disorders on animals, particularly great apes. In his book The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals, he looks at how the approximately 3,000 chimps in this country, including performers and research laboratory subjects, are likely to be severely traumatized by their captivity and treatment. He visits Center for Great Apes near Wauchula, Florida, a state-of-the-art sanctuary, where he meets Roger, a chimp who seem ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Charlie Savage on Presidential Power (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 07 July 2009) In recent weeks President Obama has come under fire from civil libertarians for reports that his administration is drafting plans to detail terrorism suspects indefinitely. Charlie Savage of the New York Times takes a look at how much power the President claims he has and how that compares to his predecessor. Mr. Savage is the author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website It Came from Wasilla (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 06 July 2009) Vanity Fair national editor Todd Purdum on how the John McCain–Sarah Palin campaign, a match that seemed so right, ended up going so wrong. His article "It Came from Wasilla" is in the August issue of Vanity Fair. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Art of Making Money (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 06 July 2009) Jason Kersten discusses Art Williams, a counterfeiter who managed to defeat the security features of the 1996 hundred dollar bill, the most secure bill ever made, creating at a bill so perfect that even law enforcement had difficulty distinguishing it from the real thing. In his book, The Art of Making Money, Kersten describes the centuries-old art of counterfeiting, how Williams mastered it, and what led to his undoing. Event: Jason Kersten will be reading and signing books Tuesday, Augus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tears in the Darkness (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 06 July 2009) Michael Norman, a former New York Times reporter, and Elizabeth Norman, author of Women at War, give a gripping account of the 1942 battle for the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines, the surrender of 76,000 Americans and Filipinos to the Japanese, and the infamous Bataan Death March. Their book Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath focuses on American POW Ben Steele, whose sketches are included in the book. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jim Lehrer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 03 July 2009) You may know Jim Lehrer as a PBS news anchor, but did you also know that he is a prolific novelist? His latest work of fiction mixes baseball, World War Two and romance. It’s called Oh, Johnny. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tall World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) Six-foot-three-inch tall Arianne Cohen takes us on a tour of Tall World. In The Tall Book, she travels from endocrinologists' offices to the annual European Tall Club Convention, and meets the tallest couple in the world to unlock the mysteries about tallness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Honduran Coup and the Media (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) In the aftermath of last Sunday's coup in Honduras, there has been a massive media crackdown on reporters and organizations that are not seen as favorable to the new government. We’ll get the latest from Miami Herald foreign correspondent Frances Robles who is in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. You can read Frances's article on press censorhip in Honduras here Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Latest on Honduras (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) Honduras is still in turmoil four days after a coup removed President Manuel Zelaya from power. We'll get the latest on the situation from Americas editor for the Economist magazine Mike Reid from London and New York Times Mexico City Bureau Chief Marc Lacey from Honduras. You can read Marc's latest article for the Times here Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: GE Benefits from Bank Bailout (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) On this week’s Underreported, find out how GE, the world’s largest industrial company, has used a loophole to benefit from a government rescue program that's aimed at helping banks. ProPublica senior reporter Jeff Gerth explains how the loophole has helped GE get the money while avoiding many of the program’s restrictions. Read the Washington Post article co-written by Jeff Gerth here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Unquenchable (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) Robert Glennon reports on our looming water-supply crisis. His book Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It, documents present and future water crises being caused by the massive water consumption for agriculture, power generation, industry, and homes has led to reduction of groundwater and is threatening rivers and many of the nation's lakes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Satchel Paige (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 02 July 2009) Boston Globe reporter Larry Tye offers the first biography on Satchel Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues, and one of the finest pitchers ever, who finally was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend covers Paige’s hardscrabble upbringing in Jim Crow Alabama to his time with the Monarchs, one of the powerhouses black teams in segregated baseball. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Watching Iran (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 01 July 2009) What is it like to watch your country go up in flames from afar, torn apart by political dissension? Roya Hakakian, an Iranian who lives in political asylum here in the United States and is the author of Journey from the Land of No, and Azar Nafisi, author of Things I’ve Been Silent About and Reading Lolita in Tehran, join us to offer their perspectives on what's happening in Iran. Azar Nafisi was on teh Leonard Lopate Show in January to discuss Things I've Been Silent About. You ca ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crossing Heaven's Border (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 01 July 2009) Aaron Brown, anchor of Wide Angle, the international documentary series on PBS, discusses "Crossing Heaven's Border," a documentary examining the plight of North Korean refugees who attempt to escape Kim Jong Il's repressive regime. "Crossing Heaven’s Border" airs Wednesday, July 1, at 10:00 pm on PBS. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Hurt Locker (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 01 July 2009) Screenwriter Mark Boal and director/producer Kathryn Bigelow discuss "The Hurt Locker," a suspenseful portrait of the military’s bomb squad technicians. This heart-pounding look at the effects of combat and danger on the human psyche is based on the first-hand observations of Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq. "The Hurt Locker" is playing in New York at Landmark Sunshine and AMC Lincoln Square. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spinning Between the Towers (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 June 2009) On an August morning in 1974 a mysterious tightrope walker suspended himself between the Twin Towers. That event has become the backdrop for Colum McCann's latest novel Let the Great World Spin. Events: Colum McCann will be reading and signing books Tuesday, June 30, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Union Square 33 East 17th Street Colum Mc Cann will be reading and signing books Thursday, July 2 at 7:00 pm BookCourt 163 Court Street Brooklyn Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cooking with What You Have on Hand with Julie Powell (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 June 2009) Hold off on that take-out tonight. You can cook a delicious meal with ingredients you already have in your kitchen. Part four of our Food in the City series continues with Julie Powell. She's the author of Julie and Julia, which is set to be released as a major motion picture. Julie will offer tips on how to cook cheap and easy meals using what you already have on hand. Julie's adapted recipe for Spanish Tortilla with Peppers and Chipotle Mayo 4 eggs 2 potatoes 1 Anaheim chile 1/2onion 3 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Master of War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 June 2009) Suzanne Simons takes us on a first-ever inside look at Blackwater USA, the world's largest private military contractor, and takes a close look at its founder, Erik Prince. Her book Master of War: Blackwater USA’s Erik Prince and the Business of War reveals that Blackwater USA, now called Xe, is just one of Erik Prince's private security contracting businesses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Watching What We Eat (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 30 June 2009) Chefs have been on TV long before the Food Network. Kathleen Collins traces the history of food television shows and the rise of celebrity chefs in her book Watching What We Eat. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Who Moved My Soap? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 June 2009) Bernie Madoff will be sentenced for a jail term of up to 150 years for his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The time for legal advice is over. Award-winning comedian and creator of the Borowitz Report, Andy Borowitz offers Madoff another kind of advice in Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition. Event: Andy Borowitz will be performing stand-up and signing books Thursday, July 2nd, at 9:00 pm "Comedy Below Canal" 92nd St. Y in Tribeca 200 Hudson Stre ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When the Time Comes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 June 2009) There are currently 45 million Americans caring for family members, and as the 77 million boomers continue to age, this number will only go up. Journalist Paula Span shares the stories of several families who’ve had to deal with older family members to frail to live alone but to healthy for a nursing home. She’s joined by Debbie Drelich, President of the Greater New York Chapter of Professional Geriatric Managers, and Ilze Earner, who has had personal experience caring for an aging pare ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Public Art for Public Schools (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 June 2009) Michele Cohen gives a comprehensive account of the history and future of public art projects in New York City’s public schools, where more than 1,500 artworks have been assembled over the last 150 years, ranging from stained glass by Tiffany Studios to vast mural cycles commissioned by the WPA to modern and contemporary works by Hans Hofmann, Ben Shahn, Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, and Vito Acconci. Her book Public Art for Public Schools is illustrated with archival images from the Dep ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where Art and Science Intersect (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 29 June 2009) Daniel Kohn, artist-in-residence at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Damian Young, a synthetic organic chemist at the Broad Institute and project leader of its Chemical Biology Program, discuss the intersection of science and art, and how those shared qualities relate to their own work. Daniel Kohn's artwork from his time at the Institute are on view at the Cynthia-Reeves Gallery in New York. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thoughts on Stonewall at 40: David Sedaris (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) The last time David Sedaris was on the Lopate Show one of our producers grabbed a few minutes with him to talk about the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the current state of the gay rights movement. Stonewall at 40 Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Dry Cleaning (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) Today’s Please Explain is all about dry cleaning--how it works, what chemicals are used, and how it is becoming more environmentally friendly. We'll be joined by Wayne Edelman, President and CEO of Meurice Garment Care and past President of the National Cleaners Association. He is also the doctor of "Ask The Clothes Doctor" on Garmentcare.com. And Kim Kostka, Professor and Acting Dean of the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin Rock County. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thoughts on Stonewall at 40: Isaac Mizrahi (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) Famed fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi spoke with one of our producers about what the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots means to him. Mizrahi also offers his thoughts on what it means to be gay today and reminisces about life before it was ok to be gay. Stonewall at 40 Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Afghan Star (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) Director Havana Marking on her new film, "Afghan Star," about a wildly popular American Idol-style TV series in Afghanistan. Millions watch it, and the contest is open to everyone across the country despite gender, ethnicity or age. Two thousand people audition, including three extremely brave women. When viewers vote for their favorites via cell phone, for many, it is their first encounter with the democratic process. The film won the Directing and Audience Awards at Sundance's 2009 World ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Conquest of the Useless (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) Filmmaker Werner Herzog shares the diaries he compiled during the production of his 1982 film "Fitzcarraldo." His book, Conquest of the Useless, vividly recounts the emotional, physical and psychological toll exacted by moving a 320-ton steamship over a hill in the Peruvian jungle without the use of any special effects. Event: Werner Herzog will be at McNally Jackson Bookstore 52 Prince Street Friday, June 26, at 7:00 pm Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Enough (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 26 June 2009) As many as 25,000 people a day and nearly six million children a year die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases. Veteran reporters Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman expose how powerful lobbies, interest groups, and the general public's negligence and ignorance have left the worl's poorest hungry. Their book Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty constitutes both a stern indictment to bad policy and an optimistic proscription for practical solutions that could allev ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Secret Policemen’s Film Festival (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 June 2009) Martin Lewis, series co-creator and co-producer, and Terry Jones, of Monty Python, talk about the "The Secret Policemen's Film Festival," at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The festival showcases the best of the Amnesty International groundbreaking comedy/rock benefits, starring the Monty Python players and other greats in British comedy and laid the groundwork for other benefit shows, such as Live Aid, Farm Aid, and Comic Relief. "The Secret Policemen's Film Festival," is playing at t ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Francis Bacon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 June 2009) Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Chairman of the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art, discusses "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective," the first major New York exhibition in 20 years devoted to the modern British painter. It’s on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through August 16. For more information about the exhibition, visit www.metmuseum.org. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website By His Own Rules (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 June 2009) Bradley Graham, longtime Washington Post reporter who closely covered Donald Rumsfeld's tenure at the Pentagon, offers a layered and revealing portrait of the former Secretary of Defense's complex personality and troubled legacy. His book is By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Political Corruption in Kenya (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 25 June 2009) On today's Underreported, Michaela Wrong, author of It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower, discusses John Githongo, a pillar of the Kenyan establishment turned whistle-blower, becoming simultaneously one of the most hated and admired men in Kenya. She also explores the factors that continue to blight Africa—ethnic favoritism, government corruption, and the smug complacency of Western donor nations—probing the very roots of the continent's predicament. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Twelfth Night (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 June 2009) Anne Hathaway and Raul Esparza talk about their roles in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of "Twelfth Night," a comedy following the romantic adventures of Viola and her twin Sebastian, both shipwrecked in the enchanted dukedom of Illyria. It's playing through July 12 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. More information about the schedule and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In the Valley of Mist (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 June 2009) Justine Hardy, a writer, filmmaker, and aid worker who has lived and worked in Kashmir for 20 years, describes the region’s unique culture that's been shattered by the impact of insurgency, repression, and Islamic extremism. Her book In the Valley of Mist is a portrait of the Dar family, a welcoming group of houseboat owners and carpet sellers, who have inhabited the Kashmir Valley for generations. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 1959 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 June 2009) Slate columnist Fred Kaplan argues that it was in 1959 that the country shifted from its pre-WWII traditions to the individualistic, question-authority world of today. In 1959: The Year Everything Changed, he discusses three key events served as catalysts for vast changes that ushered in the modern world: the pharmaceutical company Searle sought FDA approval for the birth control pill, the first American soldiers were killed in Vietnam, and the microchip was introduced. Event: Fred Kaplan ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Education of an American Dreamer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 24 June 2009) Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of The Blackstone Group, shares his insights about the current economic crisis. He also describes his remarkable life story--from his Nebraska roots to his time as Secretary of Commerce in Nixon's White House, and through the founding of The Blackstone Group, one of the great financial enterprises in recent times, to his creation of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. His book is The Education of an American Dreamer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Magnificent Desolation (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 June 2009) Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first humans to set foot on the moon. The flight of Apollo 11 made Aldrin one of the most famous men on Earth, yet few people know the rest of his story. In Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, he gives a harrowing account of the lunar landing, describes his life as one of the superstars of America’s space program, and opens up about his more personal trials–with depression and alcoholism. Events: Buzz A ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 June 2009) Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, directors of "Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter," tell the story of a Malian mother’s fight for asylum in the United States to protect her two-year-old from female genital cutting. "Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter" is playing as part of the 20th International Human Rights Watch Film Festival, at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. Information about screening times and tickets here. Event: Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater will be answering questions following ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Deeply Rooted (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 June 2009) A century of industrialization has created a food system riddled with problems, yet we look to nutritionists and government agencies, scientists and chefs for solutions, instead of looking to the people who grow our food. Lisa M. Hamilton profiles three unconventional farmers in her book Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness. She will also be joined by Teresa Podoll, one of the independent farmers she spoke with in her book. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Square One (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 23 June 2009) More than 50 million Americans do crossword puzzles on a regular basis. Dean Olsher explores the cultural history, psychology, and even metaphysics of crosswords. In From Square One he looks into the origins and traditions of crossword puzzles, and why so many people make doing them a habit. Event: Dean Olsher will be reading and signing books Tuesday, June 23rd, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble West 82nd Street and Broadway Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Maestro Lorin Maazel (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 June 2009) Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, discusses stepping down from that position, his musical career, and his new venture—the Castleton Festival - a three-week music festival in rural Castleton, Virginia, which features 120 young musicians staging, performing, conducting, and putting on four Britten chamber operas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cooking in a Small Kitchen with Melissa Clark (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 June 2009) For Part III of our Food in the City series, we’ll be discussing the tricks of cooking in a small kitchen, with food writer Melissa Clark, a frequent contributor to the Wednesday food section of The New York Times and NYTimes.com. Watch a video of Melissa cooking in a tiny kitchen here. A Recipe from Melissa Clark Garlicky Shrimp with Feta and Lemon Time: 10 minutes 3/4 cup couscous 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, mi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Look into My Eyes (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 June 2009) Filmmaker Naftaly Gliksberg sets out to investigate what anti-Semitism looks like today, crossing two continents to see how people react to direct questions about their attitudes toward Jews, Israel, and the notion that there is such a thing as anti-Semitism. "Look into My Eyes" is a personal journey of painful discoveries as he explores representations and impressions of Jews and Israelis around the world. The film is showing as part of the 20th International Human Rights Film Festival, at ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website And Then There's This (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 22 June 2009) Bill Wasik, senior editor at Harper's magazine, argues that digital technology is leading to entirely new ways of thinking, organizing, and communicating. In And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture, he explains that as the Internet expands its reach, a new kind of viral culture has begun to replace narratives supplied by newspapers, books, and television. Event: Bill Wasik will be speaking and signing books Tuesday, June 23rd, at 7 pm Barnes & Noble Tribeca 97 War ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: The Atmosphere (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 June 2009) On today's edition of Please Explain, we’ll look at the Earth’s atmosphere—what it's made of, how it makes life on the planet possible, determines weather patterns, and how human activity is changing it. We'll be joined by Dr. Joel S. Levine, Senior Research Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, and Dr. Richard Somerville, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and author of The Fo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Under Our Skin (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 June 2009) Andy Abrahams Wilson directed the documentary "Under Our Skin," which sheds light on the science and politics of Lyme disease. He’s joined by Mandy Hughes, who tells her personal story of living with the disease. "Under Our Skin" is playing at IFC center June 19-June 25. Screening schedule and tickets here. Events: Director Andy Abrahams Wilson and subject Mandy Hughes will be answering questions Friday, June 19th at the 9:40 pm screening Saturday, June 20th at the 5:05, 7:25, 9:40 pm s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Whatever Works (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 June 2009) Actresses Patricia Clarkson and Evan Rachel Wood discuss their roles in Woody Allen's new film, "Whatever Works," about an eccentric New Yorker who abandons his upper-class life to lead a more bohemian existence. "Whatever Works" opens Friday, June 19 in New York, at Angelika Film Center; City Cinemas 1, 2, 3; and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hanging Noodles On Your Ears (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 19 June 2009) Jag Bhalla takes a look at idioms, the amusing, often hilarious phrases that reveal how different cultures perceive and describe the world. In I’m Not Hanging Noodles On Your Ears, he looks at the way idioms embody cultural traditions and attitudes, capture linguistic nuance, and sheds light on "the whole ball of wax." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Eco-Barriers in Brazil (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Walls are going up around the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government is calling them "eco-barriers," designed to prevent Rio’s shantytowns from spilling into the city’s heavily forested hillsides, but opponents of the walls see them as a form of "geographic discrimination" that imprisons the residents. On today’s second Underreported we’ll talk to Antonio Regalado, The Wall Street Journal’s correspondent in Brazil about the walls and the controversy surrounding them. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Middle Eastern Reaction to Iranian Turmoil (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Iraq, like Iran, is one of the few the countries in the world with a Shi'ite Muslim majority. And though the two countries were long rivals, many of today's Iraqi leaders — especially Shi'ites — spent the Saddam Hussein years as guests of the mullahs in Tehran. On today’s first Underreported we’ll look at how the controversy over Iran’s elections is playing in Iraq with Time magazine senior editor Bobby Ghosh and New York Times UN Bureau Chief Neil MacFarquhar. You can read Bobby ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hollywood's Greatest Year (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Robert Osborne, author of 80 Years of the Oscar and on-air host of Turner Classic Movies, provides insight into what made 1939 such an incredible year for film. He's hosting the Academy’s summer screening series "Hollywood's Greatest Year: The Best Picture Nominees of 1939." The 10-film event, which includes Monday night screenings and Saturday afternoon double features, kicks off Saturday, June 20th with "Gone with the Wind," at 12:30 pm All screenings will be held at the Academy Theater ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vanessa and Virginia (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Susan Sellers on her first novel, Vanessa and Virginia. Written from the perspective of Vanessa Bell to her sister Virginia Woolf, this novel plumbs the relationships between the women, their family, and their bohemian Bloomsbury set. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Slave Next Door (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter expose the disturbing phenomenon of human trafficking and slavery currently going on in the United States, and look at how it can be stopped. The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today weaves together accounts from slaves, slaveholders, and traffickers, as well as from experts, counselors, law enforcement officers, and rescue and support groups. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Update on Iran (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 18 June 2009) Kevin Sullivan, foreign editor of the Washington Post, gives us an update on what’s going on Iran, including today’s protest in support of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Down Around Midnight (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 June 2009) Robert Sabbag survived the crash of Air New England flight 248, which went down on Cape Cod on June 17, 1979. Down Around Midnight: A Memoir of Crash and Survival is his account of what happened that night and the lasting emotional repercussions of the crash for him and his fellow passengers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Attachment (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 June 2009) Isabel Fonseca on her first novel, Attachment, a story that reaches from the Indian Ocean to London to New York. About a woman's midlife crisis on an island in the Indian Ocean, the book is an unflinching depiction of desire, of the responsibility that comes with age and family, and of the nature of love. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Prisoner of the State (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 June 2009) Political commentator and veteran human rights activist Bao Pu tells the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, a man tried to bring liberal change to China and who tried to prevent the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. He was disgraced and spent the last sixteen years of his life under house arrest. It turns out that during that time Zhao produced a memoir by recording his thoughts and recollections on tape, then smuggling those tapes out of China. Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Prem ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Word Maven Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 17 June 2009) Word maven Patricia T. O'Conner answers your questions about the English language. Today she's focusing on the language of the news media and the new AP style book. Call us at 212-433-9692, or leave a comment below. Visit Patricia T. O'Conner’s Grammarphobia website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food in the City: At the Farmer's Market with Peter Hoffman (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 June 2009) Peter Hoffman, chef of Savoy and Back Forty, joins us for Part II of our Food in the City series. He’ll be explaining how to create meals from what you buy at the farmer’s market and how to talk to farmers and choose the best produce. We want your "New York" recipes! Share your recipes – from your New York. They can be recipes you brought with you from somewhere else and adapted to your new home here in the city or just personal touches you’ve added to classic recipes over the yea ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Slow Food for Less Money (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 June 2009) Is it really possible that families in America can no longer cook their own meals for under $10? That is what fast food companies like KFC would have you believe, but Josh Viertel, the new president of Slow Food USA, is out to prove them wrong. He and Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, explain how healthy meals can also be affordable. Read a Q&A with Josh Viertel from Gourmet magazine here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Projections: LGBT Community on Film (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 16 June 2009) June marks the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall. We're commemorating the occasion by talking about representations of LGBT life and politics on film as part of our Projections series. Film critic Nathan Lee, professor of Cinema Studies at CUNY David Gerstner, and by filmmaker Cheryl Dunye join us to discuss the following films: "The Boys in the Band" (1970) "Parting Glances" (1986) "The Watermelon Woman" (1996) "Milk" (2008) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Big Apple Barbeque (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 June 2009) We celebrate the 7th annual Big Apple Barbeque Block Party by speaking with Kenny Callaghan, pitmaster and executive chef of Blue Smoke, and Patrick Martin, a pitmaster from Nolensville, Tennessee, including an on-air sampling of different styles of barbeque. The Big Apple Barbeque Block Party is June 13-14, 11:00 am-7:00 pm, in Madison Square Park. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website BAMcinemaFEST. (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 June 2009) We get a sneak preview of the upcoming BAM CinemaFEST, June 17-July 2, with Program Director Florence Almozini. We’ll also be joined by Sarah and Emily Kunstler to talk about their unconventional and personal portrait of prominent civil rights lawyer, "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe," which is playing as part of BAMcinemaFEST on Saturday, June 20, at 12:30 pm, and Thursday, June 25, at 9:00 pm. More information and tickets here. Event: There will be a Q&A with directors Sa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tetro (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 June 2009) Director Francis Ford Coppola discusses his latest film, "Tetro," his first original screenplay since "The Conversation." It is his most personal film to date, arising from memories and emotions from his early life, and it tells the story of two brothers and the secrets and conflicts within an Argentine-Italian family. "Tetro" is playing in New York at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blood and Politics (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 June 2009) Leonard Zeskind looks at the white supremacist movement over the last 30-plus years, and the politics of the disparate groups that make up the movement--from neo-Nazi skinheads and Holocaust deniers to Christian Identity churches and David Duke. His book is Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kissinger, 1973 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 15 June 2009) The year 1973 should have been Henry Kissinger's time of triumph. But it wasn’t. Fist came defeat in Vietnam, then Watergate and the president's resignation, war in the Middle East, and an economic collapse caused by the Arab oil embargo. Instead of progressing, as he had expected, Kissinger would confront some of the most critical policy challenges of his career. In Kissinger: 1973, The Crucial Year, Alistair Horne paints a portrait of a man, a country, and a presidency at a critical poi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Blast! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 June 2009) Filmmaker Paul Devlin and his brother Mark Devlin discuss Paul's film "BLAST!" It follows Mark, a cosmologist, as he leads a team of scientists launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon, with the hopes of figuring out how all the galaxies were formed. "BLAST!" opens at Cinema Village June 12. More information about screening times and tickets here. Events: Director Paul Devlin and atrophysicist Mark Devlin will hold a Q&A Friday, June 12 After the 7:00 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Iranian Election (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 June 2009) Elections are being held today in Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been locked in a neck-and-neck race with reform-minded former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and in recent days the campaign has become particularly heated. We’ll talk to CNN’s Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour from Iran. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Avian Einsteins (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 June 2009) Leading bird scientists Erich Jarvis and Irene Pepperberg explore how striking parallels between bird and human brains are providing new insights into how we acquire language and links between hearing and movement. Neurobiologist Erich Jarvis leads a Duke University team that studies how songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds learn and pass along new sounds. Irene Pepperberg is adjunct associate professor at Brandeis University and research associate and lecturer at Harvard, and the author of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Bees (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 12 June 2009) The honeybees is just one species of bee, and they often get the most attention, but there are an estimated 20,000 different species of bees in the world. Bees play an important role in pollinating plants, and many have highly developed methods of socialization and communication. We'll learn all about bees, and the latest on Colony Collapse Disorder, with Bryan Danforth, professor of entomology at Cornell University, and Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate in the Department of Entom ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Book of Dads (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 June 2009) Ben George, editor of The Book of Dads: Essays on the Joys, Perils, and Humiliations of Fatherhood, and contributors Jim Shepard and Darin Strauss on the seminal fatherhood experiences that have helped them figure out what it means to be a good dad. Event: Ben George and other contributors will be giving a reading, taking questions, and signing books Thursday, June 11, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Books 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food in the City: Reinterpreting Recipes with Michael Lomonaco (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 June 2009) Let's face it: life in the city can be difficult, but one of the things that makes it better is food! And we're not just talking about comfort food - there’s street food, farmers markets, fancy food, and the food you cook in your own kitchen (no matter how small!). In our new series, Food in the City, we'll explore all the many different ways that food makes us New Yorkers. On our first installment, we’ll talk with chef Michael Lomonaco. He may have learned how to do brisket in Texas ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported Update: White-Nose Syndrome (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 June 2009) Bat populations across North America have been decimated by White-Nose Syndrome, caused by a relatively unknown fungus that grows on the bats' faces and noses. We last told you about the disease on Underreported in October, but now that the hibernation season for most North American bats is over, we thought get an update on how bats are faring this year. We’ll be joined by Mylea Bayless, a conservation biologist with Bat Conservation International. A map showing the spread of White-Nose S ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Increasing Violence Against the Roma (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 11 June 2009) On this week’s first Underreported, we look at why the economic downturn has resulted in an increase in violence against Europe’s Roma, particularly in Italy, where the government has passed more restrictive policies regarding the Roma. Joining us to describe the violence against Roma communities are Isabela Minalache, senior program manager for Roma Initiatives at the Open Society Institute, and James Goldston, an expert on Roma issues and the executive director of the Open Society Jus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Reckoning (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 June 2009) Pamela Yates’s documentary "The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court" follows International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and his team for three years, across four continents, as he issues arrest warrants against perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. "The Reckoning" is playing as part of the 20th International Human Rights Watch Film Festival, co-presented by the Film Society at Lincoln Center, June 11-25. Schedule and tick ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Bolter (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 June 2009) Frances Osborne tells the tale of her great-grandmother, Idina Sackville, a notorious British flapper who some say was "The Bolter" of Nancy Mitford’s novel The Pursuit of Love. The Bolter is about Sackville’s scandalous life—she had parade of lovers, a murdered husband, and seemed to sow chaos everywhere she went. Event: Frances Osborne will be in conversation with Tina Brown of The Daily Beast Thursday, June 11, at 7:00 pm Strand Bookstore 828 Broadway, at 12th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 10 June 2009) Al & Larry Ubell answer your questions on home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below. Visit the Ubells' Accurate Building Inspectors website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 50 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 June 2009) Judith Jamison, Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, talks about the company's 50th anniversary celebration at BAM. Performances of "Best Of" and "Classic Ailey" programs run June 9-14. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Botom of the Ninth (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 09 June 2009) Michael Shapiro goes inside baseball’s watershed moment in the 1950s. His book Bottom of the Ninth covers the schemes of Branch Rickey and Casey Stengel to save baseball. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Did the Madoff Sons Know? (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 June 2009) The question from everyone connected to Bernie Madoff's sons is: how could not have known what their father was doing? Both Mark, 45, and Andrew, 43, worked for Bernie Madoff for their entire careers, yet maintain they knew nothing about the $65 billion fraud he was perpetrating. Vanity Fair contributing editor David Margolick explores the brothers' relationship with their strict, secretive father, their reactions to the scandal, and a possible explanation for the ignorance they claim. Did ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 June 2009) Andrew Rice and Duncan Laki talk about the murder of Laki's father, a Ugandan chief, in 1972, by Idi Amin's men, a crime that went unsolved for more than 30 years. Andrew Rice's book The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget investigating Amin’s legacy as well as the limits of reconciliation in Uganda. Event: Andrew Rice will be reading Monday, June 8th, at 7:00 pm Half King 505 West 23rd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Travel as a Political Act (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 08 June 2009) Rick Steves reveals how a life devoted to travel has profoundly shaped his personal view of the world...and his politics. His latest book, Travel as a Political Act, is also a guide to how thoughtful travel can broaden every person's perspective, challenge outdated assumptions, and create a force for peace in the world. Event: Rick Steves will be reading and signing books Monday, June 8th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble Upper West Side 2289 Broadway, at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Strain (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 June 2009) Guillermo Del Toro, creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth on his epic novel, The Strain, about a battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It's the first book of a trilogy written by Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Away We Go" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 June 2009) Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes on his new film, "Away We Go." From the first original screenplay by novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, the film tells the story of a longtime couple expecting a baby who set out on a journey to visit friends and family and to evaluate different cities in order to decide where they should put down roots to start their family. "Away We Go" opens Friday, June 5th, at the Regal Union Square and AMC Lincoln Square in New York. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Hearing (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 05 June 2009) We'll look at the mechanics and physiology of hearing, and what happens when our hearing begins to fail. We're joined by Anil Kumar Lalwani, Mendik Foundation Professor of Otolaryngology and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology; Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience and Pediatrics, and Dr. Ellen Lafargue, audiologist at the Center for Hearing and Communication. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Outsourcing Agriculture (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 June 2009) It’s estimated that China will send 1 million farm workers to Africa this year. It’s part of a growing trend of countries outsourcing their food production. On this week’s Underreported, John Parker, Globalization Correspondent for the Economist and Dr. Joachim von Braun, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, look at the impact on the countries where the food is grown, and on the countries where that food is eaten. John Parker's article Outsourcing's Th ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Fray (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 04 June 2009) Lisa H. Weasel, a molecular biologist, looks at the debate over genetically modified food, exploring the safety of the technology, as well as the real-life experiences of farmers, scientists, policymakers, and grassroots activists involved. She takes us to the front lines of this controversy in Food Fray: Inside the Controversy Over Genetically Modified Food. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A New Face (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 June 2009) Dr. Maria Siemionow made history in December 2008 by leading the team that performed this first near-total face transplant in the United States. She recounts her 30 year journey to the forefront of American medicine and reveals the complex process behind transplants in her book Face to Face: My Quest to Perform the First Face Transplant. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Herb & Dorothy" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 June 2009) Director Megumi Sasaki and Herbert and Dorothy Vogel join us to talk about the award-winning documentary "Herb & Dorothy," about how the couple was able to amass one of the most important collections of contemporary art in history on two modest salaries. "Herb & Dorothy" opens June 5 at Cinema Village and at the Beekman Theater. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Outcasts United (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 03 June 2009) Fugees is a soccer program for boys outside of Atlanta who are refugees from war-torn countries in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. Warren St. John tells the story of the program and the problems facing immigrant kids living with memories of tragedy in Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town. Event: Warren St. John will be reading and signing books Monday, June 8th, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Bookstore 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smile Pinki (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 June 2009) Around 35,000 children are born with cleft palates in India each year. While it is one of the most common birth defects, it is also one of the most curable. We talk with director Megan Mylan about her Academy Award-winning documentary "Smile Pinki," which follows two of the hundreds of families that journey to the holy city of Banaras and the hospital that provides free surgery for children with cleft palates. "Smile Pinki" airs on HBO on Wednesday, June 3 at 7 pm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website David Sedaris (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 June 2009) David Sedaris on his collection of 22 essays on his favored topics: death, compulsion, unwanted sexual advances and corporal decay. It's called When You Are Engulfed in Flames. Event: David Sedaris will be reading and signing books Tuesday, June 2 at 6 pm The Strand Bookstore 828 Broadway, at 12th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Ramen King and I (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 02 June 2009) As he approached 40, Andy Raskin decided he needed help figuring out why he was incapable of being faithful in romantic relationships. The solution he discovered to his romance troubles? Ramen. In his book The Ramen King and I Raskin explains how traveling to Japan to meet Momofuku Ando, the creator of instant ramen noodles, helped fix his love life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Debbie Reynolds (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 June 2009) Academy Award-winning actress Debbie Reynolds stops by to talk about her debut solo show at Café Carlyle, "An Evening of Music and Comedy." It’s four week engagement starts June 2nd. Ticket info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kindle Me This (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 June 2009) Amazon's Kindle is going to change everything about the book industry, from how big publishing houses work all the way down to how we read-- unless it doesn't. We'll talk about the pros and cons of the Kindle and other portable e-readers with Slate.com technology writer Farhad Manjoo. We’ll also be joined by Molly Barton, Associate Publisher at Penguin’s ebook division and by Marion Maneker former publisher of HarperCollins’s business imprint and author of The Kindle Chronicles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fatherhood: A Guide (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 01 June 2009) Michael Lewis has three children. When each was born he found that he was expected to feel things he didn’t feel and do things he couldn’t see the point of doing. In Home Game: An Accidential Guide to Fatherhood he humorously chronicles his reckoning with becoming a parent. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Waiting for Godot" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 May 2009) The Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," stars Bill Irwin as Vladimir and John Goodman as Pozzo. "Waiting for Godot" is playing at Studio 54 (254 West 54th Street) through July 12. Ticket information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Migraine (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 29 May 2009) More than 300 million people are plagued with migraines. They can be difficult to treat and understand, and they often go undiagnosed. Joining us to to explain what migraines are, what causes them, and how they can be treated are Dr. David Dodick, neurologist at the Mayo Clinic and president-elect of the American Headache Society, and Andrew Levy, author of A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Makes Us Happy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 May 2009) For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been following 268 men who started college in the late 1930s through war, marriage, fatherhood, their careers, divorces, sickness, health, and old age. Joshua Wolf Shenk has examined the records and archives of this study, one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. It offers insight into the human condition—and into the mind of its longtime director, George Vaillant. The article "What Makes Us Happy," appears in the June issue ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Defense Contracts, Afghanistan, and Fraud (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 May 2009) The cost of defense contracting surged to $400 billion annually in 2008, while prosecutions by the Justice Department of defense contracting fraud fell by 76% during the years President Bush was in office. And until last year there was no independent oversight of where money for defense contractors in Afghanistan was going. If the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan increases, it will need the support of military contractors—many of whom have operated with little oversight. We’ll talk ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Recession's Impact on Human Rights (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 28 May 2009) The economic crisis has radically changed many of the ways in which the world functions, but one of the great recessions most disastrous side effects is an increase in global repression. Widespread economic problems are creating extensive social problems as people and governments cope with limited access to food, jobs, clean water, land, and housing. What’s more, growing unrest about the economy is leading to violence and political repression in many countries. We’ll speak with executiv ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Life After" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 May 2009) It's been 15 years since genocide devastated the country of Rwanda. Philip Gourevitch looks back on the genocide and efforts at reconciliation in his article "The Life After." It appears in the May 4th issue of The New Yorker. Philip Gourevitch was on The Leonard Lopate Show in May 2008, talking about the book Standard Operating Procedure, a collaboration with the filmmaker Errol Morris, about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. You can listen to that interview here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rogues' Gallery (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 May 2009) Michael Gross investigates the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the cast of characters who have historically supported the institution in his book Rogues' Gallery Event: Michael Gross will be reading Thursday, June 25th, at 6:30 pm Farragut Monument in Madison Square Park, at 25th Street More information here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mirrors to History (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 May 2009) Eduardo Galeano's latest collection of stories, Mirrors, is an unofficial history of the world seen through history's unseen, unheard and forgotten. Event: Eduardo Galeano will be reading Wednesday, May 27th, 7:00 pm New York Society for Ethical Culture 2 West 64th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wars of Choice and Necessity (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 May 2009) Richard Haass severed as a senior advisor to both Bush Administrations. In his book, War of Necessity, War of Choice he takes us inside the government’s decision making processes in both Iraq Wars. Event: Richard Haass will be in conversation with Katie Couric Wednesday, May 27th, at 8:00 pm The 92nd Street Y Tickets: $27 More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On Gabriel García Márquez (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 27 May 2009) Gerald Martin has written the first comprehensive biography of acclaimed Columbian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. It’s called Gabriel García Márquez. Event: Gerald Martin will be speaking Wednesday, May 27, at 7:00 pm Americas Society 680 Park Avenue Reservations are required. Please e-mail culture@americas-society.org or call 212-277-8359 ext. 1. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eddie Adams (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 May 2009) Photojournalist Eddie Adams won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for his picture of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, police chief of Saigon, firing a bullet at the head of a Vietcong prisoner. We’ll talk about Eddie’s 45-year career as a photojournalist with his widow Alyssa Adams and Hal Buell, Director of Photography for the AP, about the book Eddie Adams: Vietnam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Drones in Pakistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 May 2009) President Obama has continued the Bush Administrations deployment of pilotless drone air strikes against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives within Pakistan. Time magazine has a report on the operations titled "The CIA’s Silent War in Pakistan" that appears in this week's issue. We’ll be joined by the reports author Mark Thompson and by one of the magazine’s senior editors Bobby Ghosh. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mortgage Mayhem (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 May 2009) New York Times economics reporter Edmund Andrews was familiar with the dangers of easy mortgages from dubious lenders, but wound up taking the same kind of sub-prime mortgage that brought the economy to its knees. He tells his story in Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Prop 8 Ruling (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 26 May 2009) We get a breakdown of the California Supreme Court's anticipated ruling today on Proposition 8 from Stanford Law Professor Jane Schacter. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From Bear Stearns to Bear Markets (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 May 2009) Over the course of its 85 year history Bear Stearns became one of the financial giants on Wall Street. Then, in 2008 the company collapsed and took the rest of the financial system down with it. William Cohan chronicles the infighting, hubris, bad bets and terrible decisions that destroyed the company and triggered global financial ruin in House of Cards. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Life of Flannery O'Connor (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 May 2009) Novelist and short story writer Flannery O'Connor is an icon of American literature, but she got her first taste of fame by teaching a chicken to walk backwards. Brad Gooch's biography Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, takes a detailed look at the writer 45 years after her death. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Script and Scribble (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 May 2009) In our increasingly electronic world penmanship is a lost art. In her book Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwritting Kitty Burns Florey ruminates on the end of handwriting instruction in our public schools and the decline of scriptwriting in our society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Rock that Shaped the World (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 25 May 2009) Uranium may just look like yellow dirt, but it's altered the course of human history and shaped the modern world. In his new book Uranium: War, Evergy and the Rock that Shaped the World reporter Tom Zoellner examines the paradox of this powerful element: that the stability of our world rests in a substance that is unstable at its core. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Girls (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 May 2009) Today's Please Explain is about the nature of girls--their minds, bodies, brains, emotional lives, and behaviors. We’ll be joined by psychotherapist Lisa Machoian and Margaret M. McCarthy, professor of physiology at the University of Maryland. Listen to last week’s Please Explain: Boys. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Mary Stuart" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 May 2009) The first Broadway revival of "Mary Stuart" in 40 years stars Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter as Mary, Queen of Scotts and Queen Elizabeth. "Mary Stuart" runs at the Broadhurst Theater (235 West 44th Street) through August 16th. Ticket info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website After Etan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 May 2009) Thirty years ago, six-year-old Etan Patz left his apartment to go to his school bus stop a few blocks away. He was never seen again and the disappearance is still unsolved. Lisa Cohen investigates the case and the people whose lives were touched by Etan’s disappearance in the book After Etan. Event: Lisa Cohen will be reading and signing books Tuesday, May 26th, ay 7:00 pm Borders Books at Time Warner Center 10 Columbus Circle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Olive Kitteridge (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 22 May 2009) Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge links 13 stories about the life of a seventh-grade math teacher and wife of a pharmacist living in Maine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lost Boy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 May 2009) The Mormon splinter group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FDLS) and their leader Warren Jeffs have been in the news lately for practicing polygamy. But in his memoir Lost Boy, one of Jeffs' nephews, Brent Jeffs, reveals the harsh treatment boys receive in the FDLS compound. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Food of a Younger Land (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 May 2009) The Federal Writers' Project in the 1930’s was part of FDR’s efforts under the New Deal to provide work for authors and artists. Under the program a number of writers were dispatched all across America to chonricle of lifestyles and traditions of local people, including cuisine. Mark Kurlansky looks at this forgotten literary treasure, and American food before highways and chain restaurants, in his book The Food of a Younger Land. Event: Mark Kurlansky will be reading and signing books ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The State of Afghanistan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 May 2009) Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan in 2002, and he served as a deputy governor of two provinces in southern Iraq in 2004. Last year he was appointed Ryan Professor of Human Rights at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Right Policy. He discusses his work in Afghanistan--he is CEO of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a charitable organization in Kabul--as well as the current state of the country. He was on the Leonard Lopate Show in Au ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rare Wines (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 21 May 2009) In 1985 a member of the Forbes family spent $156,000 on a bottle of wine allegedly owned by Thomas Jefferson that was unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar. Journalist Benjamin Wallace looks into the story of the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold and at the bizarre and mirage-like world of rare wines in his book The Billionaire's Vinegar. Event: Benjamin Wallace will be in discussion with David Kamp and David Lynch, co-authors of The Wine Snob’s Dictionary, and Michael Steinberge ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Torture Team (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 May 2009) In his book, Torture Team, attorney Philippe Sands takes an in-depth look at the now infamous "Rumsfeld Memo." Issued on December 2, 2002, by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the memo authorized eighteen techniques of interrogation that meet international definitions of torture. Sands investigates how the memo set the stage for the Bush Administration’s divergence from the Geneva Convention, and Torture Convention, and international law. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The American Future (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 May 2009) Historian Simon Schama looks at four themes in American history as they played out in the lives of historical figures—like Civil War general Montgomery Meigs—in his book The American Future. Event: Simon Schama will be reading and signing books Wednesday, May 20, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side 2289 Broadway, at 82nd Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Long and Strange Voyage (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 May 2009) Do you ever wonder what happened in North America between Columbus's sail in 1492 and the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620? Tony Horwitz answers that question through the stories of the brave and often crazed explorers who roamed the New World in A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. Event: Tony Horwitz will be reading Wednesday, May 20, at 6:30 pm The Lower East Side Tenement Museum 108 Orchard Street, j ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Patricia T. O'Conner (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 20 May 2009) Word maven Patricia T. O'Conner answers your grammar questions. Her new book is Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cruel and Unusual Comedy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 May 2009) Film historian Steve Massa and film historian/accompanist Ben Model on their series at the Museum of Modern Art, "Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Social Commentary in the American Slapstick Film." The series runs from May 20 through June 1 at MoMA. More information and screening schedule here. Visit the Cruel and Unusual Comedy blog to find out more about the series. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Resilience (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 May 2009) Elizabeth Edwards has had her share challenges—from losing a child to being diagnosed with cancer, from campaigning with her husband John Edwards in his run for vice president and president to discovering his infidelity. She discusses how to best cope with life’s difficulties in her book Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities. Events: Elizabeth Edwards will be reading and signing books Wednesday, May 20th, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Guggenheim at 50 (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 May 2009) Thomas Krens, former director of the Guggenheim Museum, and David van der Leer, assistant curator of architecture and design there, on celebrating the 50th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's renowned building design. The exhibition "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" is on view May 15 through August 23 at the Guggenheim. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mannahatta (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 19 May 2009) Landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson takes us back to what the isle of Manhattan must have looked like back in 1609. Sanderson combed through historical and archaeological records, geographically matched an 18th-century map of Manhattan to the modern cityscape, and used modern principles of ecology and computer modeling to re-create the wilds of the island four centuries ago. The book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City is filled with illustrations. Visit the interactive Mannahatta ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Recession Stories (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 May 2009) We take an intimate look at how the recession is impacting New Yorkers with Devin Dwyer, producer of DownsizeNYC.com. We’ll also talk to Jong Min, an undocumented immigrant, and with sports reporter-turned-waiter John Walters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lost in Meritocracy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 May 2009) Walter Kirn thinks the American education system focuses far too much on standardized tests, extracurricular activities and class rankings at the expense of intellectual fulfillment. In his book, Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever, Kirn looks at the intellectual costs of our current education system. Event: Walter Kirn will be reading and signing books Tuesday, June 16, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson Bookstore 50 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Maybe That’s Why it’s Called a "Discover" Card (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 May 2009) Credit card companies know a lot more about you then you think. Faced with huge losses, they've turned to consumer profiling to find out everything from what kind of birdseed you buy to which bars you frequent, all in an effort to get you pay your bill. New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg investigated their practices. His report, "Something Borrowed" appears in the Times' Sunday Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Leaving Home, Coming Back (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 18 May 2009) In the third volume of his memoir Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back, Reynolds Price tells the story of the six most important years of his life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Summer Hours" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 May 2009) Director Olivier Assayas’ new film "Summer Hours" is about three siblings who face the difficult decision of what to do with their mother’s rambling country estate and 19th-century art collection as she passes away. "Summer Hours" opens on Friday, May 15, at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC Center. For showtimes and tickets, visit the websites for Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC Center. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Boys (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 May 2009) Today's Please Explain is about the nature of boys--their minds, bodies, brains, emotional lives, and behaviors. With Margaret M. McCarthy, professor of physiology at the University of Maryland, and Michael G. Thompson, a psychologist, school consultant, and author, most recently of It's a Boy!: Understanding Your Son's Development from Birth to Eighteen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robert Reich on the Economy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 May 2009) Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich joins us for a far reaching discussion on everything from what the Obama Administration’s pursuit of tax havens might mean for healthcare reform, to the bank stress tests, to the Employee Free Choice Act and the role unions are playing in the restructuring of Chrysler and GM. You can read Reich’s blog here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Welcome Shore" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 15 May 2009) The Met Opera's mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke joins us to talk about her performance in "The Welcome Shore," a hymn to rivers and oceans, at Merkin Concert Hall May 19 and 21. The concert includes music by Schubert, Noel Coward, Debussy Faure, Guastavino, Pauline Viardot and Rachmaninoff. Ticket and show time info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Rules with Michael Pollan (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 May 2009) Many cultures have passed down all kinds of wisdom about food and how to eat properly. Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food wants to know your “food rules” are. Do you still follow your parents’ advice that you should eat your vegetables or clear your plate? Do you only eat organic now? What about fast-food? Are you a three meal-a-day person or a snacker? Have you developed your own "food manifesto"? Let us know what kinds of food rules you try to live by in the comments secti ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Food and Drug (and Tobacco?) Administration (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 May 2009) For years, the tobacco industry has resisted efforts to make tobacco a substance that’s regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but a bill making its way through Congress could change that. Washington Post staff writer Lyndsey Layton describes how FDA regulation would change the tobacco industry and whether the bill has a chance of passing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Love and Obstacles (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 May 2009) Bosnian-born writer Aleksandar Hemon earned a MacArthur "genius grant" for his short stories. His latest book is a collection of linked coming-of-age stories that focus on the complications of growing up in a communist, but cosmopolitan country. It's titled Love and Obstacles. Event: Aleksandar Hemon will be reading and signing books Thursday, May 14, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Ungrades to US Nuclear Weapons Facilities (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 May 2009) Despite President Obama's recent pledge to seek a world free of nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is proposing a major upgrade to the nation's nuclear weapons complex, including the construction of new facilities that could produce thousands of new warheads over time. Bill Hartung is Director of Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Benjamin Millepied: Choreographer (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 14 May 2009) New York City Ballet principal dancer Benjamin Millepied is very much in demand as a choreographer these days. His first major commission with NYCB, Quasi Una Fantasia premiered Wednesday. There are additional performances May 22nd and 26th. You can find out more about his performances here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Love, Loss, Food! (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 May 2009) Guilia Melucci’s new book I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is part memoir and part cookbook. In it, she tells the story of her fizzled romances and the recipes she used to seduce her men and console herself when the relationships went south. Events: Giulia Melucci is reading and signing books Tuesday, May 19, at 7:00 pm Book Court 163 Court Street Brooklyn Saturday, May 30, at 12:30 pm Uncorked! Festival Historic Richmond Town 441 Clarke Avenue Staten Island Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Great Books Can Teach You (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 May 2009) At the age of 27 Christopher Beha quit his job and moved back into his parents' apartment. There, he decides to read all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics Library, a collection of Western literature that spans everything from Plato to Darwin. His attempt to do that, along with some personal trauma that occurs along the way is the basis for his memoir The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me. Event: Christopher Beha will be discussing his book with editor Jofie Ferrari-Adler Wed ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Gurus of How-To (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 13 May 2009) Al & Larry Ubell answer your questions on home repair. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions, or leave a comment below.The Ubells' Accurate Building Inspectors website Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Opium Wars (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 May 2009) Despite the United States best efforts in the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror", Islamic fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan still rake in half a billion dollars a year in the opium trade. Gretchen Peters has covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for over a decade. Her book is called Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Event: Gretchen Peters will be reading and signing books Monday, May 18, at 7:00 pm Half King 505 West 23rd Street, at Tenth Avenue Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Follow the Money (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 May 2009) On today's show: Frontline correspondent Martin Smith discusses his investigation into the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Then, David Hare talks about his two controversial solo monologues called "Berlin/Wall." And, holocaust survivor Clara Kramer on the 18 months she spent hiding in a bunker in Nazi-occupied Poland. Plus, foreign correspondent Gretchen Peters on how opium is bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Clara's War (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 May 2009) For 18 months during World War Two, 17 year old Clara Kramer hid in a bunker dug under the home of their anti-Semitic neighbor while the Nazi's occupied her home town of Zolkiew, Poland. Unlike Anne Frank, Clara survived the War. She recounts her experience in her book Clara's War. Event: Clara Kramer is reading and signing books Tuesday, May 12, at 7:00 pm McNally Jackson 52 Prince Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "The Madoff Affair" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 12 May 2009) Frontline correspondent Martin Smith joins us to discuss "The Madoff Affair," his investigation into the story behind the global Ponzi scheme—a deception that lasted longer, reached wider, and cut deeper than any other business scandal in history. "The Madoff Affair" airs tonight, May 12th, on PBS stations. Check local listings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coming Clean on Cleaners (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 May 2009) The Makers of many common household cleaning agents have been reluctant to disclose the ingredients in their products. We'll be joined by Keri Powell, a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice, who filed a suit requiring manufacturers to come clean on what's in their products. We’ll also speak with industrial hygienist Monona Rossol from Arts Crafts and Theater Safety on why there’s been such resistance to comply – and what it means for our health. You can hear Monona’s last ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Songs" by Tyne Daly (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 May 2009) Tony- and six-time Emmy Award-winning actress Tyne Daly joins us to talk about "Songs," her upcoming nightclub debut at Feinstein’s. More information and tickets here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Imitation of Life" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 May 2009) Douglas Sirk’s film, “Imitation of Life” was one of the most popular movies of the 1950’s. Sam Staggs provides a behind the scenes, in-depth look at the film in his book Born to Be Hurt. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Book Stores Going Under (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 11 May 2009) Book sellers are in trouble, and not just from the poor economy. We’ll talk to Jonathan Friedman, media columnist for MarketWatch, Henry Zook, a co-owner of Bookcourt, in Brooklyn, and Chris Doeblin of Book Culture to discuss the state of bookstores today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Please Explain: Bankruptcy (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 May 2009) Bankruptcy rates went up 32% in 2008 compared to the previous year. Marie Beaudette, blogger for the Wall Street Journal’s Bankruptcy Beat and Dow Jones Newswire reporter, and Robert Lawless, Galowich-Huizenga Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois College of Law, explain what filing for bankruptcy means for corporations and consumers and why the rate of bankruptcy filings is expected to go up in the next year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 May 2009) Actors Roger Robinson and Chad Coleman join us to talk about their roles in the acclaimed revival of August Wilson's "Joe Turner’s Come and Gone," now playing on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre. Ticket info here. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Picasso's Late Work (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 May 2009) Picasso friend and biographer John Richardson has put together an unprecedented exhibition of the artist’s late paintings. "Picasso: Mosqueteros" is the first US exhibition in more than 25 years of Picasso's late paintings, and is organized around a large group of important, rarely seen works from multiple collections. The exhibit is one view at the Gagosian Gallery at 522 W. 21st St. through June 6th. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Understanding Globalization (The Leonard Lopate Show: Friday, 08 May 2009) The global financial system may have collapsed, but according to Peter Marber more countries depend on each other for trade, capital, and ideas than ever before. Yet politically, some of these countries are drifting further apart. Marber demystifies globalization in his book Seeing the Elephant: Understanding Globalization from Trunk to Tail. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: Child Soldiers in Burma (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 May 2009) It’s been a year since a massive cyclone devastated Burma. Though much of the country is still in ruins the Burmese Armed Forces and associated armed groups have continued a decades long low-level conflict with opposing groups. According to a new report put out by Watchlist the Burmese government is coercing children as young as nine into the armed forces. On our second Underreported we’ll be joined by Julia Freedson, executive director of Watchlist and by Jennifer Haigh from the Karen ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Match King (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 May 2009) From the 1920's through the Great Depression, Ivar Kreuger made a fortune selling matches. His matchstick monopoly was one of the rare success stories of the period— but his business practices were more than questionable: shell companies, fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting and even forgery. Frank Partnoy shows how Kreuger’s business methods were precusors to the financial instruments wreaking havoc today in The Match King. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bad Mother (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 May 2009) Modern motherhood is riddled with anxiety. In her book, Bad Mother, Ayelet Waldman chronicles everything from balancing work and family, to the hysteria of competitive parenting to the relentless pursuits of what she calls the "Bad Mother police." Event: Ayelet Waldman will be reading and signing books Thursday, May 7, at 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Tribeca 97 Warren Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Underreported: The Melting Polar Ice Cap Resource Bonanza (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 May 2009) As the polar ice caps melt, scientists are mapping the floor of the Arctic Ocean – including the natural resources like natural gas and oil. On today's first Underreported, McKenzie Funk describes the Healy Mapping Mission and how countries around the world are trying to lay claim to what’s underneath the ice caps. His article appears in the May issue of the National Geographic Magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Many Lives of A-Rod (The Leonard Lopate Show: Thursday, 07 May 2009) Alex Rodriguez is the highest-paid player in the history of baseball, but his time on the diamond has not been without controversy. We’ll talk to Selena Roberts-- who broke the story in Sports Illustrated that A-Rod had used performance-enhancing drugs in February. Her book is called A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Joy Behar's View (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 May 2009) Joy Behar discusses working with the opinionated women of "The View," politics, guest hosting "The Larry King Show," and why she's written a children’s book, Sheetzu Caca Poopoo: Max Goes to the Dogs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Richard Goode (The Leonard Lopate Show: Wednesday, 06 May 2009) Pianist Richard Goode will be performing Bach and Chopin and talking about his career as a classical musician. His latest CD is "Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Perforated Heart (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 May 2009) Actor and playwright Eric Bogosian’s latest novel Perforated Heart tells the story of an accomplished author who came to New York City in the 1970’s and is now financially comfortable and artistically embittered. Event: Eric Bogosian will be reading and signing books Tuesday, May 5, at 7:00 pm Barnes and Noble, Union Square 33 East 17th Street Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Cost of Global Warming (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 May 2009) In 2006, Prime Minister Tony Blair asked economist Lord Nicolas Stern to put a price tag on the cost of global warming. The result was the The Stern Review. Sir Nicolas has recently turned his groundbreaking report into a book, The Global Deal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Memoir of a Former Debutante (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 May 2009) Eve Pell was born into an East Coast dynasty, but left her world of privilege for a career as an investigative reporter. In We Used to Own the Bronx she chronicles the bizarre values and customs of America's upper-crust, from debutante balls to the fanatical pursuit of blood sports. Event: Eve Pell will be reading and speaking Tuesday, May 5th, at 6:30 pm Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum 895 Shore Road, Pelham Bay Park The Bronx Tickets: $5; $3 for seniors and children; members free For more in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Daniel Barenboim (The Leonard Lopate Show: Tuesday, 05 May 2009) Israel's most celebrated musician, Daniel Barenboim argues that the power and eloquence of music can shed light on how we live and illuminate some of the world's most intractable issues in his book Music Quickens Time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 40 More Years (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 May 2009) In 40 More Years, Democratic campaign strategist and Ragin' Cajun James Carville celebrates the Democrats' 2008 electoral victory. He argues that if Democrats rebuild Americans trust in government as a force of good, they can dominate politics not just for the next four years but for the next four decades. Event: Charlie Rose will be interviewing James Carville and Karl Rove, as part of Radio City's Speaker series "Strategies, Alliances and Policy" Tuesday, May 26, at 8:00 pm Radio City M ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Urban Exploration (The Leonard Lopate Show: Monday, 04 May 2009) Built in 1844, the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel is officially the world's oldest subway tunnel. Bob Daimond is founder of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Assocation and conducts tours of the tunnel. Listen |