Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(12-9-22)Partisan warfare and gridlock in Washington threaten to squander America’s opportunity to show the world that democracy can solve serious economic problems and ensure widely shared prosperity. Instead of working together to meet the challenges ahead—an aging work force, exploding inequality, climate change, rising debt—our elected leaders are sabotaging our economic future by blaming and demonizing each other in hopes of winning big in elections. They are weakening America’s capacity for world leadership and the case for democracy here and abroad.

Join us when Allan Rivlin shares the late Alice M. Rivlin decades of experience in economic policy making, in which she argued economic policies could lead to sustainable American prosperity and opportunity for all, but crafting them requires the tough, time-consuming work of consensus building and bipartisan negotiation. In a divided country with shifting majorities, major policies must have bipartisan buy-in and broad public support. Otherwise we will have either destabilizing swings in policy or total gridlock in the face of challenges looming at us, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Emily Flitter delivers an explosive and deeply reported look at the systemic racism inside the American financial services industry.

In 2018, Emily Flitter received a tip that Morgan Stanley had fired a Black employee without cause, that one tip lit the spark plug for a three-year journey through the shocking yet normalized corruption in our financial institutions.

From local insurance agencies and corporate titans like JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, and Wells Fargo, The White Wall reveals the practices that have kept the racial wealth gap practically as wide as it was during the Jim Crow era.

Join us when acclaimed New York Times finance reporter Emily Flitter examines hiring and layoff policies designed to keep Black employees from advancing to high levels; racial profiling of customers in internal emails between bank tellers; major insurers refusing to pay Black policyholders’ claims; and the systematic denial of funding to Black entrepreneurs, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

In the years before the First World War, a collection of writers and artists began to make a name for themselves in England and America for their irreverent spirit and provocative works of literature, art, and criticism. They called themselves the Bloomsbury Group and by the 1920s, they were at the height of their influence.

Then a new generation stepped forward—creative young people who tantalized their elders with their captivating looks, bold ideas, and subversive energy. The group had always celebrated sexual equality and freedom in private, feeling that every person had the right to live and love in the way they chose. But as transgressive self-expression became more public, this younger generation gave Old Bloomsbury a new voice.

Join us when Nino Strachey discuss her book, Young Bloomsbury which celebrates an open way of living and loving that would not be embraced for another hundred years, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Join us when regular contributor Pete Muroski of Native Landscapes in Pawling, New York examines the type of weather we'll have this winter and identifies signs or signals nature is showing us. Pete covers an array ot topics and has encyclopedic knowledge of how to preserve your surrounding ecosystem. But as any New Yorker knows, not all of us have space for a garden or any outdoor space of own for that matter.

According to Pete, outdoor containers for winter plant maintenance can be great for those that live in a high rise or condominium and have limited space for plants and enjoy gardening.

According to Robert Ovetz the US constitution, written by 55 of the richest white men, and signed by only 39 of them, is the sacred text of American nationalism. Popular perceptions of it are mired in idolatry, myth and misinformation - many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have little idea what it says.

In his book We the Elites, Ovetz reports he examining the constitution for what it is – a rulebook for elites to protect capitalism from democracy. Social movements have misplaced faith in the constitution as a tool for achieving justice when it actually impedes social change through the many roadblocks and obstructions we call 'checks and balances'.

Join us when Senior Lecturer in Political Science at San José State University, Robert Ovetz's shares his research on the constitution which supports the concept that the system isn't broken, but in fact works as it was designed to, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation.

One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's 1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you (Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Afghanistan); and, tragically, some adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do certain personality traits.

Join us when Best-selling author Michael Shermer presents an overarching theory of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

As he did for Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, biographer Fred Kaplan offers a look at the life of Thomas Jefferson and his contributions as a writer.

Fred Kaplan emphasizes Thomas Jefferson’s genius with language and his ability to use the power of words to inspire and shape a nation. A man renowned for many talents, writing was one of the major activities of the statemen’s life, though much of his best, most influential writing— numbering approximately 100,000—was done by 1789, when Jefferson was just forty-six. All of his works—from his earliest correspondence; his essays and proclamations, including A Summary View of British America, The Declaration of Independence, and Notes on the State of Virginia; his religious and scientific writings; his inaugural addresses; his addresses to Indian nations; and his exchanges with Washington, Madison, Hamilton, John and Abigail Adams, demonstrate his remarkable intelligence, prescient wisdom, and literary flair and reveal the man in all his complex and controversial brilliance.

In His Masterly Pen, readers will find a new appreciation of Jefferson as a whole, of his strengths and weaknesses, and particularly of the degree to which his writing skills—which James Madison admired as “the shining traces of his pen”—are key to his personality and public career.

Join us when we examine his complications, the inconsistencies, and the contradictions between his principles and his policies, between his head and his heart, and between his optimistic view of human nature and the realities of his personal situation and the world he lived in on this installment on Leonard Lopate.

(11/21/2022) In Power Concedes Nothing author Max Elbaum an American author and social activist tells the stories behind a victory that won both the White House and the Senate and powered progressive candidates to new levels of influence. It describes the on-the-ground efforts that mobilized a record-breaking turnout by registering new voters and motivating an electorate both old and new. In doing so it charts a viable path to victory for the vital contests upcoming in 2022 and 2024.

Join us when Max Elbaum tell the story of the November 2020 US election which was arguably the most consequential since the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln—and grassroots leaders and organizers played crucial roles in the contention for the presidency and control of both houses of Congress on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

For more than 30 years, Robert "Bob" Hennelly has reported on a broad spectrum of major public policy questions, ranging from homeland security to the economy, environmental contamination to corruption, and occupational safety to homelessness.

Now that election day is behind us and many of the votes have been counted, there is still much to discuss. The G.O.P. majority, however slim, will still be a challenge for President Biden and Pelosi’s decision to step aside paving a path for a new generation of democrats are only the tip of the iceberg.

Join us award-winning, print and broadcast journalist, Bob Hennelly examines the unprecedented spike in healthcare insurance premium hikes for essential workers, Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Dec. 6 run-off in Georgia, and more on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 16, 1943, American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher Philip Lopate sits down with his older brother Leonard Lopate for discussion around his extensive career. Phillip Lopate’s publications include an extensive list of essay collection, film, non fiction, poetry collections, a Memoir, Anthologies (as both editor and contributor).

He has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, Hofstra University, New York University and Bennington College. He is a professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches nonfiction writing.

Join us as Phillip Lopate covers his extraordinary experiences and expansive literary career on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.