Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

Join us when environmental law expert Lowell E. Baier reveals how over centuries the federal government slowly preempted the states’ authority over managing their resident wildlife. In doing so, he educates elected officials, wildlife students, and environmentalists in the precedents that led to the current state of wildlife management, and how a constructive environment can be fostered at all levels of government to improve our nation’s wildlife and biodiversity, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Actual Malice tells a story of New York Times v. Sullivan, the dramatic case that grew out of segregationists’ attempts to quash reporting on the civil rights movement. In its landmark 1964 decision, the Supreme Court held that a public official must prove “actual malice” or reckless disregard of the truth to win a libel lawsuit, providing critical protections for free speech and freedom of the press. Join us when Professor of Law Samantha Barbas, tracks the saga behind one of the most important First Amendment rulings in history, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Based on ten years of work with immigrant children as young as six years old in Arizona and California― and featuring an analysis of three hundred drawings, theater performances, and family interviews―Silvia Rodriguez Vega provides accounts of children’s challenges with deportation and family separation during the Obama and Trump administrations. While much of the literature on immigrant children depicts them as passive, when viewed through this lens they appear as agents of their own stories.

According to Professor Rodriguez Vega, when children are the agents of their own stories they can reimagine destructive situations in ways that adults sometimes cannot, offering alternatives and hope for a better future.

Join us when Assistant Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara Silvia Rodriguez Vega, provides key insights into how immigrant children presented creative, out-of-the-box, powerful solutions to the dilemmas that anti-immigrant rhetoric and harsh immigration laws present on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

At once devastating and revelatory, Drawing Deportation provides a roadmap for how art can provide a safe and necessary space for vulnerable populations to assert their humanity in a world that would rather divest them of it.

Black and Queer on Campus offers an inside look at what life is like for LGBTQ college students on campuses across the United States. Michael P. Jeffries shows that Black and queer college students often struggle to find safe spaces and a sense of belonging when they arrive on campus at both predominantly white institutions and historically black colleges and universities. Many report that in predominantly white queer social spaces, they feel unwelcome and pressured to temper their criticisms of racism amongst their white peers. Conversely, in predominantly straight Black social spaces, they feel ignored or pressured to minimize their queer identity in order to be accepted. According to Jeffries, this fraught dynamic has an impact on Black LGBTQ students in higher education, as they experience different forms of marginalization at the intersection of their race, gender, and sexuality. Join us Jeffries provides a new, much-needed perspective on the specific challenges Black LGBTQ students face and the ways they overcome them, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Today on Leonard Lopate at Large gardening expert Pete Muroski, founder of Native Landscapes in Pawling, NY shares tips on getting ready for Spring. According to Pete now is the time to get out into this beautiful winter weather and start pruning, splitting, transplanting, mulching, planting. Call in and join the conversation when Pete examines our unusual weather patterns -- what's going on in the garden, out in the deep woods this winter, and his observations on how the natural world is adjusting to the weather we are seeing and more.

According to Arthur Turrell the most important energy-making process in the universe takes place inside stars. The ability to duplicate that process in a lab, once thought impossible, may now be closer than we think. In The Star Builders, award-winning young plasma physicist Arthur Turrell examines how teams of scientists around the world are being assembled by the boldest entrepreneurs, big business, and governments to solve what is the most difficult technological challenge humanity has ever faced: building the equivalent of a star on earth. If their plans to capture star power are successful, they will unlock thousands, potentially millions, of years of clean, carbon-free energy.

Join us when Turrell expounds on star machines with ten times as many parts as the NASA Space Shuttle, and structures that extend over 400 acres on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

From civil rights to Ferguson, Franchise reveals the untold history of how fast food became one of the greatest generators of black wealth in America.

Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans, fast food restaurants like McDonald's have long symbolized capitalism's villainous effects on our nation's most vulnerable communities.

Franchise acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders.

Join us when Marcia Chatelain tells a story when federal programs under presidents Johnson and Nixon promoted a new vision for racial justice: that the franchising of fast food restaurants, by black citizens in their own neighborhoods, could finally improve the quality of black life. Synthesizing years of research, Franchise tells a troubling success story of an industry that blossomed the very moment a freedom movement began to wither on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Cobalt Red is an exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.

Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Join us when Siddharth Kara examines this human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

According to University of California, Los Angeles, law professor Joanna Schwartz, in recent years, the high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have brought much-needed attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct. Yet it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power—the decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have, over decades, made the police all but untouchable.

Join us when one of the country's leading scholars on policing Joanna Schwartz examines her book which exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

THE AFTERMATH by Philip Bump is an assessment of how the baby boom created modern America, and where power, wealth, and politics will shift as the boom ends. He questions... How much longer than we'd expected will Boomers control wealth? Will millennials get shortchanged for jobs and capital as Gen Z rises? What kind of pressure will Boomers exert on the health care system? How do generations and parties overlap? When will regional identity trump age or ethnic or racial identity? Who will the future GOP voter be, and how does that affect Democratic strategies? What does the Census get right, and terribly wrong? Join us Philip Bump examines these questions today on Leonard Lopate at Large.