Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(6/23/20) Before he became a familiar journalistic voice at WNYC, 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 new article for InsiderNJ “Thirty Days that Woke America: Can N.J. Finally Own its Own Slavery History?”

The Herbert Fuller, a three-masted sailing ship loaded with New England lumber, left Boston bound for Buenos Aires on July 8, 1896 with 12 people on board. Just before 2am on the vessel’s sixth day at sea, the captain, his wife and the second mate were slaughtered in their quarters. Incredibly, no one saw or heard anything. Gerard Koeppel’s “Not a Gentleman's Work: The Untold Story of a Gruesome Murder at Sea and the Long Road to Truth” is the story of the fates of two vastly different men whose lives intersected briefly on one horrific voyage at sea. Join us for a maritime murder mystery more than 100 years in the making in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

(6/15/20) Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. Herman wrote the screenplay for “Citizen Kane” with Orson Welles, sharing the honors for the film’s only Academy Award. While Joe earned two of his four Oscars for writing and directing 1950 Best Picture winner “All About Eve.” Despite triumphs as diverse as “Monkey Business” and “Cleopatra,” “Pride of the Yankees and “Guys and Dolls,” the brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have―a career in New York theater. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Sydney Ladensohn Stern discusses writing the first-ever portrait of these two legends of the silver screen in her book “The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics.”

In his new book The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions” economist Jeffrey D. Sachs turns to world history to shed light on how we can meet the global challenges of the 21st century. Along the way, he considers how the interplay of geography, technology and institutions influenced the Neolithic revolution, the role of the horse in the emergence of empires, the spread of large fiefdoms in the classical age and the rise of industrialism. Join us for a look at the effects of globalism past and present in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Before he became a familiar journalistic voice across New York City’s radio dial, Bob 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 talks about the harrowing process of reopening sections of the country as COVID-19 continues to claim hundreds of lives daily and examines the ways that economic inequality and structural racism have made things much worse.

Do you ever notice odd patterns in the meaning or spelling of similar words? Kathryn and Ross Petras have too. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, our favorite language experts discuss their new book “Awkword Moments: A Lively Guide to the 100 Terms Smart People Should Know.”

The 1919 Elaine race massacre, despite possibly being the worst race riot in our country’s history, has been widely unknown for the better part of a century. In 2008, when the Episcopal Church formally apologized for its role in transatlantic slavery and related evils, J. Chester Johnson was asked to write the Litany of Offense and Apology for what was to be a National Day of Repentance. In his research, Johnson came upon a treatise by historian and anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells on the Elaine massacre, where more than 100 (and possibly hundreds) of African-American men, women and children perished at the hands of white posses, vigilantes and federal troops in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. His new book “Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation” not only investigates what happened in Phillips County on that terrible day but examines the ways that the past is still with us. Join us for the untold story of the Elaine Race Massacre in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Cynthia Kinahan owns Pawling Bread Co, a bakery revered for their fresh sourdough loaves and black–sesame-stuffed croissants. Born in Malaysia, Cynthia discovered the allure of American cuisine after college, as she explained to the food blog Edible Husdon Valley back in 2018. Drawn to baking though her interest in American bread, eventually she began selling her goods at the Pawling Farmers’ Market where her baked goods quickly earned a large, loyal following. Jim Lahey thought he was going to be a sculptor. After noticing he couldn't find bread in New York like the beautiful, crusty loaves he ate in Italy while traveling there as an art student, he took it upon himself to recreate those loaves. In 1994, he opened Sullivan Street Bakery in the West Village, which now has locations in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and Miami. In 2015, his work at Sullivan Street earned him the first-ever James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker in 2015. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Cynthia and Jim compare notes on their baking philosophies, running a bakery and how COVID-19 has changed everything.

Roee Messinger’s new film “American Trial: The Eric Garner Story” is an unscripted courtroom drama imagining the trial that never happened involving Daniel Pantaleo, an NYPD officer videotaped administering a fatal chokehold on Staten Island resident Eric Garner in 2014. The video, in which Garner repeatedly called out “I can’t breathe!” has become a rallying cry against police brutality and the murder of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Eric Garner’s widow Esaw Snipes-Garner, who appears in the film, joins director Roee Messinger and executive producer Ralph Richardson for a conversation about "American Trial" and the horrific events that inspired it.

Don and Mimi Galvin appeared to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom—the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. But behind their idyllic profile there were psychological breakdowns, sudden outbursts of violence and clandestine abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the 10 Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. Robert Kolker’s latest book “Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” documents the life of a family that seemed to carry an unfathomable burden. Join us for a discussion of the story that inspired the book in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.