Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

In a special all-calls edition of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, we open the phones so you can tell us about a particular boycott movement you find interesting or think more people should know about.

Marty and Jay’s Double Features is a three-week, 50-film festival of 25 classic combos selected by iconic director and film preservationist Martin Scorsese and critic/screenwriter Jay Cocks running at Film Forum through Sept. 5. Some of the more unusual pairings of the series include Olivier’s “Richard III” with Roger Corman’s “The Tomb of Ligeia,” Rossellini’s “Voyage to Italy” with Minnelli’s “The Long, Long Trailer” and Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” with “The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn” starring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Join us for a conversation with Jay Cocks, whose own credits include collaborating on the screenplay for Scorsese’s “Age Of Innocence” and “Gangs of New York,” in this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

The year 1865, after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice President Andrew Johnson became the original “accidental President,” was a dangerous time in America. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to maintain a highly segregated and unequal society, if not slavery, something that looked a lot like it. Johnson seemed to share their goals, despite the great cost of the Civil War, which had concluded only in April of that same year. With the unchecked power of executive orders, President Andrew Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned rebel leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights and called Reconstruction unnecessary. It fell to Congress to stop an American president who acted as if he was a king. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Brenda Wineapple talks about her new book “The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation” which details the first presidential impeachment in American history.

It was just a few years into the education reform movement that journalist Natalie Wexler stumbled across the real explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress on ensuring every child a high-quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats—lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. Join us for a discussion of the issues that inspired Natalie’s book “The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it” in this edition of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

Our economy is designed by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard’s new book “The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few” offers a compelling vision of an equitable, ecologically sustainable alternative that meets the essential needs of all people. Join us for a conversation with Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard about how we can forge a new economic system that works for all of us in this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

Get your questions ready for our favorite handymen, Alvin and Laurence Ubell. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, we’ll open the phones so that Al and Larry Ubell can answer whatever home or apartment repair questions you’ve got. No problem is too big (or small) for these masters of the summer project.

On a marshy Brooklyn battlefield on August 27, 1776, four hundred men from Baltimore, Maryland assembled to do battle against a vastly superior British army. Seemingly overnight, these young soldiers had matured from naïve teenagers to perhaps the most important, yet most forgotten, citizen soldiers in all of American history. Chris Formant’s novel “Saving Washington: The Forgotten Story of the Maryland 400 and The Battle of Brooklyn” blends real-life historical figures and events with richly developed fictional characters in a multi-dimensional world of intrigue, romance, comradeship, and sacrifice, transporting us two-and-a-half centuries back in time to the bustling streets of Baltimore and the bloody, smoke-filled carnage of battle in Brooklyn. Join us for a discussion of “Saving Washington” and the events that inspired it with author Chris Formant in this edition of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

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, the Village Voice, the Christian Science Monitor, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free Press along with dozens of other magazines and newspapers. His work has been featured on “60 Minutes” and C-Span's “America and the Courts.” In his second appearance on “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Robert Hennelly discusses his latest reporting on the way the ridesharing economy is affecting New York City cab drivers and announces that his current paper the Chief Leader will be expanding its coverage from public sector unions to the entire labor movement.

Acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel bought a six-story, 72-room building on the Bowery in 1966. Ever since, the site has served as his home, studio and repository for a breathtaking collection of items that inspires his photographic work. That is until he received the news that his home and studio must be emptied out following its sale in the largest private real estate deal in NYC history. As Maisel, whose credits include snapping the cover photo for the seminal Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” and the first two covers of New York Magazine, prepares for this monumental move, he reflects on his life for his former assistant, photographer and now filmmaker Stephen Wilkes. The result is Stephen's fascinating new documentary about Jay entitled “Jay Myself.” The film, Stephen's debut offering as a director, premieres at Film Forum on July 31. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Jay Maisel and Stephen Wilkes discuss “Jay Myself” and the storied career of the man it portrays.

The new documentary For Sama is an intimate feature documentary detailing the story of Syrian filmmaker, Waad Al-Kateab, who filmed her extraordinary journey through love, war and motherhood across five years of the uprising in rebel-held Aleppo, Syria. Taking the form of a letter from Al-Kateab to her daughter Sama, footage for the documentary was recorded in the final days of the battle for Aleppo. Waad lives with Samas father, a doctor in the last surviving hospital in the city. Surrounded on all sides and bombarded daily by the Syrian regime and Russian air force, she fears they may be killed at any moment. As bombs go off around them, she crafts a filmed message to her one-year old daughter to explain who her parents were, what they were fighting for and why Sama came into this world"a record for the young girl in case they dont survive. Through the local protest movement she meets Hamza al-Kateab, a young medic, and together they form a close group of friends demanding freedom in their native land. Soon Waad and Hamza fall in love, marry, and have a daughter, all while the war rages around them. The result is a rare glimpse at the challenges the Syrian conflict imposes on women and children. Join us for a discussion of "For Sama" and the devastating events it shows with Waad Al-Kateab, Dr. Hamza al-Kateab and Edward Watts in this edition of "Leonard Lopate at Large" on WBAI.