The discussion got heated when opinion journalists Rosemary Armao and Jay Jochnowitz starting talking about the E. Jean Carroll Case and wound up debating whether women bear any responsibility for preventing rape and if No really always means No. ..

Do you think the Epstein survivors are remiss is not simply naming names themselves instead of demanding the release of more files, legal liability be damned?

Opinion journalists Rosemary Armao and Jay Jochnowitz talk with a salon audience about the value of trying to talk with friends and relatives with different political ideas even when it's maddening and everyone knows there's no real chance of anyone changing their minds.

Have you lost any friends because they don't think the same way about the Trump administration as you do?

Food historian and costume designer Professor Brittney Belz of Union College talks with host Rosemary Armao about the travails of 18th Century housewives who had no appliances, no refrigeration, no supermarkets, no expectation of help from the men, not even measuring cups, timers or whisks, and we think we have it rough today.

Are you seeing food prices continuing to rise at your supermarket? 

Speaker Bio: A youthful fascination with history and a desire to work as a museum interpreter led Brittney Belz to studying historic clothing and to a career as a costume designer. After earning a BFA in theater design and technology and an MFA in costume design and Technology, she worked at professional theaters and colleges across the country from Alaska to Vermont.  That focus on historic clothing transitioned into the study of all things related to the domestic experience. She now researches  the clothing and kitchen customs of the early modern era. She uses the feel, images, and flavors of the past to help bring every day stories from history to life. She is the faculty costume designer and current chair of the Theater and Dance Department at Union College in Schenectady, NY. She can often be found throughout the region designing costumes for stage, or presenting workshops on historic clothing.

Dead or alive: Lindsey Graham? Mitch McConnell Hope for fair and free midterms? In a wide-ranging salon discussion with a lively audience journalists Rosemary Armao and Jay Jochnowitz talk about a variety of troubling news items and age restrictions on Politicians.

Dead or alive: Brave journalists? Hope for fair and free midterms? Odysseus? In a wide-ranging salon discussion with a lively audience journalists Rosemary Armao and Jay Jochnowitz talk about a variety of troubling news items  -- plus a controversial movie.

When journalist/professors Leslie-Jean Thornton submitted an academic paper about the effect of Trump administration attacks on the media on journalists and broadcasters, it was rejected. “Just a flash in the pan,” the scholarly reviewer told her. Well, they published that paper belatedly this year, and Thornton has plenty of material for an updated paper on increasing and more serious attacks. Journalists are fearful, more cautious — and more determined to keep on doing their work, the professor says.

Leslie-Jean Thornton began in journalism, of a sort, when she was seven and handwriting the High Point News – on lined paper, distributed in violation of federal law in neighbors’ mailboxes. She was shut down after the first edition, accused of embarrassing her mother and embroidering the truth by reporting a flirtatious exchange between mom and the milkman. She’s been intrigued by truth, the perceptions of truth, and the communication of information ever since. She holds degrees in journalism and mass communication from Mercy College, New York University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned her doctorate. She had most recently worked at the Virginian-Pilot as the copy desk chief, and before that in editorial capacities in Connecticut and New York, including as executive editor of the Scarsdale Inquirer and The Enterprise, both in Westchester County. She was on faculty at SUNY New Paltz for three years before moving to Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. There she was foundational in the school’s revisioned masters’ and inaugural doctoral programs. She  teaches about social media, free expression. She is particularly interested in journalism practice during times of great change and stress, and communication through visual means such as social media memes and political cartoon

Is the government really wrong to go after reporters who revealed weaknesses in the defensive mechanisms on the new Air Force One? Host Rosemary Armao and guest Mark Wittman disagree about the Trump administration's latest attacks on news-gathering by the New York Times.

 Do you think the independent press in the US has too many privileges even considering the First Amendment?

Mark Wittman is an Investment banker and capital markets specialist with 20-plus years advising executives and boards on global financing, capital structure, and M&A. His career spans Lehman Brothers, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and SunTrust. Coverage focused on consumer products companies. He holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Trinity University.

Native Greg Hamilton remembers growing up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, long an isolated fishing and farming region on the edge of Virginia but now a focal point of racial inequality, environmental deterioration, and economic decline.

Is the future hopeless for coastal areas like the Eastern Shore faced with dwindling  fishing stock, rising ocean waters, and an aging, declining population? 

Greg Hamilton is a retried teacher, coach, and principal who grew up on marshy Webb Island off Virginia’s Eastern Shore. He graduated from what was then Elon College near Burlington, NC, and holds a masters degree is school administration and supervision from Liberty University in Lynchburg Va. He served as an NCAA referee, whom players addressed as “coach” , in soccer and lacrosse. He lives now in Roxboro NC with his wife Patty plus an assortment of pets, visited frequently by grandchildren who know all his stories.

Revolutionary War re-enactor Carle Kopecky says 18th century soldiers were fighting for the same thing today’s protestors are: no kings lording it over them.

Americans are noticeably less excited by the country’s 250th birthday than they were during the Bicentennial 60 years ago. Is this because we are less patriotic?

What do you think would most surprise a  soldier from 1776 looking at modern  America: a. technology, b. US power surpassing England, c. king-like power of President, d. warrior culture of professional military?

New York Capital District activists Christine Primomo and Darlene Stott talk about the logistical, artistic and political challenges of fighting MAGA with messages plastered on bridges and overpasses. The Visibility Brigade organizers say non-violent protest works and combat the right-wing talking point that only old white women are out in the streets.

The best way to combat an administration you disapprove of is: A. Voting B. marching and demonstrating peacefully C. Civil disobedience and strong push-back D. patience and prayer 

Have you seen an anti-Trump, pro-Democracy message while traveling under local bridges and overpasses in the past year?

Christine Primomo of Coeymans is a self-described feminist, activist, environmentalist and grandmother. She started out as a human resources and management analyst, then in mid-life became a registered nurse. She retired from that profession a decade ago and is now active in a variety of civic organizations in addition to the Albany Visibility Brigade which she co-founded, including the League of Women Voters, Capital Women, and the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena and Coeymans. 

Darlene Stott is a co-founder of the Albany Visibility Brigade and a member of numerous other activist groups: We Get Out the Resistance, Bethlehem Indivisible, The League of Women Voters, the Clean Air Coalition, and NY 20/21 Leaders.  She is a retired English teacher and administrator who spent 30 years in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District.