Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

Journalist Stuart Wexler is one of the nation’s preeminent investigative researchers on domestic terrorism and radical religious activities. His books include “The Awful Grace of God: Religious Terrorism, White Supremacy, and the Unsolved Murder of Martin Luther King Jr.” and “America's Secret Jihad: The Hidden History of Religious Terrorism in the United States.” His forensics work and historical crime analysis has been featured on NBC News and in The Boston Globe, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and USA Today. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Stuart Wexler talks about the rise of white nationalism and its link to anti-Semitism.

Rozanne Gold is a celebrated chef, author, journalist and philanthropist known for her innovative take on food. At the age of 24, Rozanne became first chef to New York Mayor Ed Koch. She went on to become consulting chef at The Rainbow Room and Windows on the World. A four-time winner of the prestigious James Beard Award, Ms. Gold is the author of 13 cookbooks and more than 600 articles about food, trends and dining culture for publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Rozanne shares her distinctive take on the culinary arts and takes your questions.

Thirty years ago, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change in his groundbreaking book The End of Nature. In his latest offering Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Bill broadens the warning to include the entire human race, suggesting we are entering the final chapter of our existence. Tune in for a discussion with Bill McKibben about the end of the world as we know it, in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth’s new book Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses stakes out a pragmatist path through the thicket of issues facing colleges today to carry out the mission of higher education. With great empathy, candor, subtlety, and insight, Roth offers a nuanced take on the debates surrounding affirmative action, political correctness and free speech, urging us to envision college as a space in which students are empowered to engage with criticism and with a variety of ideas. Join us for a discussion of the role colleges should play in preserving freedom of speech on campus with Michael S. Roth in this edition of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Have you ever wondered what goes into pricing a bottle of wine? Is an $100 bottle of pinot noir really five times better than a $20 bottle? In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, wine expert Josh Wesson explains what makes some bottles so much more expensive than others.

The artists and writers that invented Dadaism and later surrealism in the early 20th century had a simple goal. They wanted to produce art that extended beyond the limits of realism, juxtaposing elements of the real world in new and shocking ways and shining a light, so to speak, on the workings of the unconscious. In her new book “Montparnasse: The Emergence of Surrealism in Paris, from Duchamp to Dali” biographer and art historian Sue Roe looks at the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse where many of the artists behind these critical movements in art history lived. Join us for a discussion of Dada and surrealism and where it came from with Sue Roe in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Plagued by such ailments as rippling asthma and grossly myopic eyesight as a child, Theodore Roosevelt was told to give up exercise completely by a doctor while he was attending Harvard. If he didn't, the doctor swore he would die of a heart attack. Still, Roosevelt pressed on. His body was his weakness, the one hill he could never fully conquer. But, oh, how he tried! Roosevelt developed a lifelong obsession with athletics that he carried with him into the highest office in the nation. As President of the United States, he boxed, practiced Ju-Jitsu, played tennis, conducted harrowing “point-to-point” walks, and invited athletes to the White House constantly. With Roosevelt in office, baseball’s first ever World Series took place, interscholastic sports began, and schools began to place a legitimate emphasis on physical education. Additionally, the NCAA formed and the United States hosted the Olympic Games for the first time. Join us for a discussion about TR’s role in fostering America’s love affair with athletics and his role in the birth of professional sports with Ryan Swanson, author of The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete, in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

While there has been a great deal of discussion recently about increasing college access—who gets admitted and what they pay—little attention is given to the fewer than 60 percent of college freshmen in America that graduate within six years. Often students leave college with a mountain of debt, worse off economically than if they had never attended. David Kirp is a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and a contributing writer for the New York Times. His new book “The College Dropout Scandal” addresses the scope of the problem and explores some possible solutions. Join us for look at the financial state of college in America today with David Kirp in this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

“Wild bees are our best pollinators, yet pesticides, pathogens and industrial farming are devastating their numbers,” reads the subheading of Rowan Jacobsen’s recent Huffington Post article, Are We Handling The Bee Crisis All Wrong? “Is there a better way to work with them?” In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Rowan Jacobsen examines whether public misperceptions have led us down the wrong path in coping with the crisis of vanishing bee populations worldwide.

In addition to hosting the program that airs directly after ours on WBAI, Thom Hartmann is also a bestselling author. His latest book “The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment examines the brutal role guns have played in American history, from the genocide of the Native Americans to the enforcement of slavery and the Jim Crow laws of the southern states. For this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Leonard spoke to Thom Hartmann in front of a live audience at the Brooklyn Commons.