"The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences" is the effort of scholars and specialists in the hope that it "could make a significant contribution to public understanding and to improving the justice system."

Richard Ravitch, MTA chairman, baseball labor negotiator, Lieutenant Governor, NYS Budget Task Force co-chair, after 6 decades in public service is now an author. His well received memoir, "So Much To Do" is both NY's past and a guide to the future.

NYU professor, Pedro Noguera, author of 10 books and numerous articles, continues his conversation with host Doug Muzzio about the state of education in the US, and what needs to be done to promote programs to improve public education.

Pedro Noguera, prolific author, NYU professor discusses Common Core, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind indicating that there are no short cuts; gimmicks; silver bullets when promoting programs to improve US public education and the future of students.

Ed Rollins, Republican campaign consultant and advisor and Hank Sheinkopf, Democratic political campaign advisor at every level of government discuss the 2016 election and candidates, a divided electorate, and the exceedingly high cost of elections.

Scott Stringer, New York City's Comptroller, talks about the responsibilities of his office, describing it as a counterweight to the Mayor

37% of NY's population are immigrants; 55%, when their children are included; 168 "home languages" are spoken in New York's public schools. Nancy Foner, author of "One Out of Three" discusses NY's contemporary immigrant population.

Ron Kuby, criminal defense/civil rights attorney, co-host of "Curtis & Kuby" on 77 WABC radio, talks about wrongful conviction cases in NYC in the 1980's. Crack, the upswing in crime created an urgency to solve cases, jailing many who were innocent.

Mayor John Lindsay (1966-1973) "... was a controversial figure...aligning himself with racial minorities...poor people who had been left on the sidelines of politics" says Joseph Viteritti in "Summer in the City: John Lindsay, NY, and the American Dream."

James Parrott, Fiscal Policy Institute, on Gov. Cuomo's 2014-15 budget: his concerns-impact from unspecified cuts; the effect on health care system funding from uncertainty surrounding the Federal Medicaid Waiver; the freeze to state aid to municipalities