Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

On our first day back on the air after the station was taken over by a rogue faction at the Pacifica network, WBAI’s program director Linda Perry and general manager Berthold Reimers take your calls and try to explain the bizarre events of the past few weeks.

Sean Carroll’s latest book “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime” may change everything you think you know about space and time. His thinking begins with the fact that most physicists haven’t acknowledged and uncomfortable truth: physics has been in crisis since 1927. Quantum mechanics has always had obvious gaps—which have come to be simply ignored. Science reporters continue to tell us how weird it is, how impossible to understand. Academics discourage students from working on the "dead end" of quantum foundations. Carroll says that the crisis can now come to an end. We just have to accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. Join us for a reconsideration of time and space with Sean Carroll in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US, yet Dr. Jennifer Ashton never thought it could happen in her family. Weeks after the chief medical correspondent for ABC News had her divorce finalized, she received the news that her ex-husband had jumped off of the George Washington Bridge. In her book “Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort and Community After Unthinkable Loss” and her podcast, also called “Life After Suicide,” Dr. Ashton explores suicide from the perspective of a doctor and a survivor of the ultimate loss. Join us for a conversation on the medical and personal ramifications of suicide with Dr. Jennifer Ashton in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

On February 18, 1965, a televised debate in Cambridge, England became the forum for a historic faceoff between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of that movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual overseas. Nicholas Buccola’s “The Fire Is upon Us James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America” is the first book to tell the full story of this momentous event and to examine how the debate continues to speak to America's racial divide today. Join us for a discussion of what Baldwin and Buckley’s historic faceoff can tell us about America’s present in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Fans of the legendary 1980s legal drama “L.A. Law” will be no stranger to both fictional and real-life couple Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker, but may be curious what they’re up to these days. The answer comes in the form of the new Off-Broadway play “Fern Hill” which Michael wrote and Jill currently stars in alongside Mark Linn-Baker (“Perfect Stangers,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) at Manhattan’s 59E59 Theater. Join us for a conversation with Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker about "Fern Hill" and their careers both individually and as a beloved TV couple in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Written from the perspective of a liberal intellectual with a long career as a college professor, Robert Boyers’s new book “The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies” is a precise and nuanced insider’s look at shifts in American culture—most especially in the American academy—that so many people find alarming. This collection of essays is devoted to such subjects as tolerance, identity, privilege, appropriation, diversity and ableism that have turned academic life into a minefield. Join us for a discussion of the modern restraints on academia in this edition of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

With the race to secure the Democratic nomination for president heating up, the debates are the way most Americans will be getting to know the candidates for the first time. But is this rapid-fire format the best way to determine who would make the best president? In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large, our executive producer Jesse Lent joins Leonard to take your calls.

With over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's industry dominance may seem inevitable, but the 21st century's most disruptive startup began with few believers and calamity at every turn. The transformational journey Marc Randolph describes in his new book “That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea” exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts and determination can change the world, even with an idea that many think will never work. Join us for a discussion with Marc Randolph on how he turned a crazy idea into a home entertainment revolution in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Monona Rossol is a chemist, artist, and industrial hygienist. She was born into a theatrical family and worked as a professional entertainer from age 3 to 17. Currently, she is the president of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing health and safety services to the arts. Monona is also is the Health and Safety Director for Local 829 of the United Scenic Artists, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and has lectured throughout North America and Europe. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Monona explains the chemistry behind the recent deaths caused by e-cigarettes.

America's most storied urban underdog, Brooklyn has become an internationally recognized brand in recent decades—celebrated and scorned as one of the hippest destinations in the world. Thomas J. Campanella’s new comprehensive history “Brooklyn: The Once and Future City” unearths long-lost threads of the urban past, telling the rich history of the rise, fall, and reinvention of one of the world’s most resurgent cities. Join us for a deep dive on the story of New York’s coolest borough with Thomas J. Campanella in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.