Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(4-4-22)Join us when author Daniel Treisman examines his book Spin Dictators. Which traces how leaders have pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. While they have cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with author and activist Andre Henry, when he shares his new book, All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep. In his book Henry explores how the historical divides between Black people and non-Black people are expressed through our most mundane interactions, and why he suggests this struggle won’t be resolved through civil discourse, diversity hires, interracial relationships, or education. But in fact, a revolution, that disrupt systems of racial violence and inequality in tangible, creative ways.

Henry shares stories of his own path to activism—from studying at seminary to becoming a student of nonviolent social change, from working as a praise leader to singing about social justice—and connecting those experiences to lessons from successful nonviolent struggles in America and around the world on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM

(3/30/22) Join us when Pete Muroski of Native Landscapes Garden Center, shares information on planting and landscape maintenance as we move into the growing season.

Because Spring is the best time of year to begin planting, Pete will take questions from callers and cover topics such as: finding the optimal location of the home for the right plant, which plants remove toxins from the air, proper planting techniques, how plants acclimate to their new homes in the growing season, the benefits of planting native plants and how native plants sustain wildlife in our gardens and in the natural world on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM

(3/29) Join us when acclaimed author, Buddy Levy examines River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage through the Amazon, a thrilling account from one of history's greatest adventures of discovery.

Levy shares the narrative non-fiction, based on historical facts and research of a legendary 16th-century explorer and his death-defying navigation of the Amazon - river of darkness, pathway to gold.

Buddy Levy is an author of eight books reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and Library Journal; co-star, for 25 episodes, on the HISTORY Channel’s docu-series DECODED, and on-camera expert on the 4-part TV Series THE FRONTIERSMEN: The Men Who Built America, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM.

Join us, when NYT Bestselling author Azar Nafisi explores the role of literature in an era when politics can greatly influence writers and the press. Drawing on her experiences as a woman and voracious reader living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, her life as an immigrant in the United States, and her role as literature professor in both countries, Azar has written a guide to the power of literature in turbulent times. In her book READ DANGEROUSLY, Nafisi crafts an argument for why, in a genuine democracy, we must engage with the enemy, and how literature can be a vehicle for doing so, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM.

In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM, Ted Hamilton, co-founder, and staff attorney at the Climate Defense Project, a legal organization fighting for a stable planet for present and future generations, discusses the legal system’s complicity in the climate crisis. In his new book Beyond Fossil Law, Hamilton exposes how judges, police, and prosecutors enforce the dominance of the fossil fuel industry.

In his groundbreaking new book, Hamilton shares the stories of the activists fighting back in the streets and courtrooms worldwide—from the Valve Turners in the United States to the Rights of Nature movement in Latin America.

In Majority Minority, Dr. Justin Gest examines how societies respond to great demographic change. Dr. Gest discusses contemporary politics of the United States and other countries where persistent immigration has altered populations and may soon produce a majority minority milestone, where the original ethnic or religious majority loses its numerical advantage to one or more foreign-origin minority groups.

During this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI 99.5FM,

Dr. Gest suggests rather than yield to people's prejudices, states hold great power to shape public responses and perceptions of demographic change through political institutions.

In A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the Hijacked Brain, author, and neurologist Sara Manning Peskin examines extraordinary stories of the brain under siege.

Sara Manning Peskin is an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Join us, when Peskin covers the four main groups of molecules she reports have the power to sabotage our brains; and labels them as “mutants”, “rebels”, “evaders”, and “invaders” on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

(3/17/2022) Chemist, artist and industrial hygienist Monona Rossol is the founder of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, Inc. A not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing health and safety services to the arts. She is also the Health and Safety Director for the Local 829 union of the United Scenic Artists International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Monona addresses concerns of the COVID pandemic actually being over, federal guidelines, and overall COVID preparedness planning for the months ahead.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Pincus exposes the darkest secret in American nuclear history. How sixty-seven nuclear tests in the South Pacific’s Marshall Islands decimated a people and their land. Unknown to many people, the most important place in American nuclear history is the Marshall Islands.

It was here, from 1946 to 1958, that America perfected the weapon that preserved the peace of the post-war years. It was here that America executed its largest nuclear detonation, a thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. And it was here that a native people became unwilling test subjects in the first large scale study of nuclear radiation fallout when the ashes rained down on villagers, contaminating the land they loved and forever changing a way of life.

On this episode of Leonard Lopate at Large join us for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Pincus on his book, Blown to Hell, in which tells for the first time the tragic story of the Marshallese people caught in the crosshairs of American nuclear testing.