Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(10/6/21)“Whatever the justification for foreign intervention, the results are the same,” Ian Buruma writes in his Project Syndicate op-ed The Colonial Trap. “Dependency—not just on another state, but on NGOs and other well-meaning institutions that do what governments should be doing—fuels corruption…The colonial elites, bloated with free money, have no legitimacy in the eyes of their compatriots. Rebels and revolutionaries may have more, but only know how to rule by force. The imperial power is trapped. Leaving is almost always bad. Staying is worse.” Join us for a look at whether the current administration can avoid the foreign policy mistakes of the past in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(10/4/21) There’s no shortage of false prophets out there serving up misguided dieting advice. Count calories! Cut carbs! Exercise more! Skip meals! Add this powder to your water! Pop a pill! Yet as more people try diligently to follow this advice, waistlines continue to expand. In Supersized Lies, Robert J. Davis, PhD, aka The Healthy Skeptic, shows you why this inability to lose weight isn't your fault as he reveals how hype, half-truths, and unproven solutions have steered you into fruitless quests inflicting emotional and often physical harm. Join us for a hard look at the flawed ideas at the heart of most diet plans in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/30/21) Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations, undocumented immigrants who man the kill floors of industrial slaughterhouses, guards who patrol the wards of the United States’ most violent and abusive prisons—in his new book Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America, journalist Eyal Press looks at the state of America through the stories of people who perform society’s most ethically troubling jobs. As he shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name. Join us for a look at the lives of the people doing society’s dirty work in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/28/21) US soldiers are stationed in over 800 locations across the world to enforce our country’s concept of the rule of law. In his new book The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine,

Harper’s Magazine editor Andrew Cockburn examines the true intentions behind Congress’s adventures in “nation building.” Join us for a hard look at the largest military machine in history—us, in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/23/21)The streets of Brooklyn may not be considered ideal terrain for cultivating wine grapes, but what about our rooftops? In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Rooftop Reds director of operations Clara Kann and founder Devin Shoemaker join us to discuss their unique approach to winemaking.

(9/22/21) George Washington is said to have remarked that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the American Revolution would be accused of writing fiction. Of course, no one called the uprising from American colonists by that name or referred to the struggle as the Revolutionary War at the time. John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without the consent of the colonies. In his new book The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning historical scholar Joseph J. Ellis of Mount Holyoke College takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783, recovering a war more brutal than anything we learned in grade school. Join us for a critical look at the stories we have long told about our origins as a nation in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/13/21) You may think the story of human evolution begins following the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. Yet, over the last 20 years scientists have made discoveries that have forced them to rethink that narrative. In her new book, Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution, palaeontologist and the Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Oxford University Elsa Panciroli charts the emergence of mammals from their emergence underwater to their evolution as mostly land-dwelling creatures. Join us for a reconsideration of where we came from in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/10/21) In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. For over five decades, the standoff continued before Barack Obama normalized relations with the island in 2014 only to have the policy reversed by his predecessor. In her new book Cuba: An American History, historian and the Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean History at New York University Ada Ferrer examines the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Join us for a look at the last 500 years of Cuban history and what it can tell us about the future of diplomacy between the two nations in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(11/9/21) James Reston Jr. is the author of 18 books ranging from politics to medieval history to science to baseball. In his latest, The Nineteenth Hijacker: A Novel of 9/11, he set out to use fiction as a way of understanding radical Islam and its role in what was a defining moment in the lives of anyone old enough to remember. As the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, join us for a different way of examining the tragic events that changed the world forever in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(9/7/21)Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and ‘70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers—Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler and John Coltrane—are now acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as one of America’s greatest art forms. Documentarian and drummer Tom Surgal’s new film Fire Music examines what free jazz was (to the music scene then) and what it is. Join us for a look at the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries way beyond the formal confines of bebop in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.