Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(5/28/21) Perhaps the most underestimated First Lady of the 20th century, Lady Bird Johnson was also one of the most accomplished and often her husband Lyndon B. Johnson’s secret weapon. Managing the White House in years of national upheaval, through the civil rights movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War, Lady Bird projected a sense of calm and, following the glamorous and modern Jackie Kennedy, an old-fashioned image of a First Lady. In truth, she was anything but. Drawing from previously undiscovered source materials, including a personal journal from her time as First Lady, journalist and historical scholar Julia Sweig’s new book and podcast Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight offers startling new insight on just how influential Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson was during LBJ's presidency. Join us for a reconsideration of this critical yet overlooked historical figure in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/27/21) Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of Harry S. Truman’s presidency is his judicial legacy, with even the finest of Truman biographies neglecting to consider the influence the 33rd president had on the Supreme Court. The Truman Court: Law and the Limits of Loyalty the new book from former Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia Rawn James Jr. aims to correct this oversight. Join us for a look at how President Truman reshaped both the ideological and temperamental composition of the Court in ways still unparalleled in US history in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/24/21) After witnessing the brutal murder of their families and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. As revealed in Judy Batalion’s new book The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos (soon to be a major motion picture directed by Stephen Spielberg), these “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade and helped build systems of underground bunkers. Join us for the untold story of these heroic women who put their lives on the line to fight back against the Nazis in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/21/21) Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. Covid denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. Conspiracy thinking hijacks minds and incites mob violence. Toxic partisanship is cleaving nations and climate denial has pushed our planet to the brink. Meanwhile, American Nazis march openly in the streets, and Flat Earth theory is back. What the heck is going on? Why is this all happening and why now? More importantly, what can we do about it? In his new book Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think, director of the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University Andy Norman reveals these diverse phenomena all share a root cause. Join us for a look at why we live in a time when the so-called “right to your opinion” is thought to trump our responsibilities and what we can do to overcome this phenomenon in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/20/21) Investigative journalist Bob Hennelly’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, the Village Voice, the Christian Science Monitor, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free Press along with dozens of other magazines and newspapers. In addition to his radio work for NPR and Richard Wolfe’s Economic Update, he is also a regular contributor to this show. With New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promising to fully reopen the city by July 1, in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Bob considers what this will mean for the transit workers, food service workers and retail employees that are on the front lines of this public health crisis.

(5/19/21) From city streets to City Hall, this is the story of how one middle class community defeated the largest residential real estate deal in American history. In Saving Stuyvesant Town: How One Community Defeated the Worst Real Estate Deal in History, lifetime Stuy Town resident and former City Councilman Dan Garodnick recounts how his neighbors stood up to mammoth real estate interests and successfully fought to save their homes. Join us for a look at New York City's biggest-ever affordable housing preservation win in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/17/21) After reading two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian Alan Taylor’s new book American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 it is not understand why this formative period in the country’s history is often left out of high school history classes. Native peoples sought to defend their homelands from the flood of American settlers through strategic alliances with the other continental powers before falling to massive relocation efforts and genocide at the hands of the US government. While the practice of slavery continued to grow, Congress offered no legal recourse for enslaved people. Join us for a critical look at a period in American history with strong echoes in the present in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/14/21) Us Kids, the latest film from documentarian Kim A. Snyder (Newtown), chronicles the March For Our Lives movement started by the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida after a 19-year-old former classmate killed 17 students and faculty and injured 17 back in 2018. Sam Fuentes is one of a group of Parkland students who, in the face of unimaginable tragedy, helped lead the largest student-led gun control movement in American history. Join us for a look at their work to shock the US political system into change in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/13/21) Fate of Fact, the latest podcast from Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and best-selling author Jon Meacham, looks at the strong grip misinformation and disinformation have on American politics and how we got here. Join us for a look at why the right has chosen to break with a governing consensus once embodied by the figurative conversation between Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(5/12/21) It would be fair to say that Jonathan Taplin has led a charmed life. Tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band in the ‘60s, producer of Martin Scorsese’s 1973 debut Mean Streets featuring two young actors named Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, it was Jonathan’s work as a producer on The Last Waltz that will forever preserve his status as a legend among rock fans. From the folk scene to Woodstock, to the Easy Riders and Raging Bulls of Hollywood in the ‘70s and beyond, Jonathan’s new book The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life is a first hand account from someone who was the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of the 20th century. Join us for a look back with a cultural figure from that revolutionary period that actually remembers in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.