Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(8/10/20)In 2016, outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte upset the political establishment in the Philippines by winning the presidency after promising vengeance and violence. Within hours of him taking office, bodies piled up in the streets. Rappler, the country’s top online news site, investigated the murders and revealed a government-sanctioned drug war targeting poor addicts instead of lucrative dealers. In her latest documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” Filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz documents the increasingly dangerous war between the local press and the Philippine government.

(8/6/20) As the centennial of the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was approaching, the organization asked columnist and contributing editor for Newsweek Ellis Cose to become its first ever writer-in-residence. The result is Ellis’s latest book “Democracy, If We Can Keep It: The ACLU’s 100-Year Fight for Rights in America,” the definitive story of the ACLU but also an essential account of America’s rediscovery of rights supposedly granted but long denied. Join us for the history of the organization's fight for the liberties promised in the Constitution in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(8/3/20) We gravitate toward people like us; it’s human nature. Race, class, and gender shape our social identities, the people we perceive as “like us” or “not like us.” But one overlooked factor can be even more powerful—the way we speak. In her new book “How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do And What It Says About You,” Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago Katherine D. Kinzler examines how and why the way we talk is central to our social identity. Join us for an examination of this largely overlooked phenomenon in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(7/31/20) "As American school officials debate when it will be safe for schoolchildren to return to classrooms, looking abroad may offer insights,” reads the opening line of Dr. Bob Spires’s article for The Conversation entitled “How other countries reopened schools during the pandemic and what the US can learn from them.” An assistant professor of education at the University of Richmond, Dr. Spires also defines himself as a scholar of comparative international education. Join us for a discussion of how looking at what other countries did right (and wrong) can help officials and administrators learn how to reopen schools safely here at home in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(8/30/20) Before he became a familiar journalistic voice at WNYC or WBAI’s former general manger, Robert Hennelly was national affairs correspondent for Pacifica Network News. His 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 his latest appearance on Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Bob discusses his latest reporting on people being kicked out of their homes due to the pandemic and what is being done to help them.

(7/29/20)Back in April, we welcomed Dr. Gerald M. Goldhaber to the show to discuss his new book “Murder, Inc.: How Unregulated Industry Kills or Injures Thousands of Americans Every Year...And What You Can Do About It.” In the months since then, as the coronavirus changed nearly every aspect of American life, Dr. Goldhaber has been speaking out about the link between corporations deliberately targeting communities of color with devious ad campaigns and the way these same communities are now being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Join us with a reckoning with the cost of American corporatocracy in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

According to two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James B. Steele, the downward spiral of America’s middle class is no accident. In “America: What Went Wrong?: The Crisis Deepens,” he and longtime colleague Donald L. Barlett describe in vivid detail how Washington and Wall Street have made decisions that enrich the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. An expanded edition of their 1991 bestseller “America: What Went Wrong?,” book now includes a look at how the latest government policies are launching a fresh assault on the average American. Join us for a look at political and corporate America run amok with one of the best-qualified sources on the subject in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(7/23/20) With fake news on Facebook, trolls on Twitter and viral outrage everywhere, it's easy to believe that the Internet changed everything about American politics. But in her latest book “Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy” New School for Social Research professor and political historian Claire Bond Potter reveals that the roots of today's dysfunction go back much further. Join us for an exploration of how our media ecosystem got so polluted in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(7/22/20) “Democracy Now” co-host Juan Gonzales has called Monona Rossol a hero for her work in helping to cope with the environmental disaster that arose in lower Manhattan following the tragic events of September, 11, 2001. The chemist, artist, and industrial hygienist is the founder and of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing health and safety services to the arts, and the Health and Safety Director for the Local 829 union of of the United Scenic Artists International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Monona discusses the dangers of reopening workplaces and schools in the wake of the pandemic and how workers and parents can keep themselves and their children safe.

(7/21/20) Julian E. Zelizer’s latest book “Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party” is the story of how Congressman Newt Gingrich (Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999) and his allies tainted American politics, launching the enduring era of brutal partisan warfare that we are still currently experiencing. From the Contract with America to the rise of the Tea Party and the Trump presidential campaign, Gingrich’s fingerprints can be seen throughout the most divisive episodes in contemporary American politics. Join us for an examination of how we got here in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.