Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(4-14-2023) Just as racism is embedded in the legal system, so is misogyny—even after the law proclaims gender equality and criminally punishes violence against women.

In After Misogyny, Julie C. Suk shows that misogyny lies not in animus but in the overempowerment of men and the overentitlement of society to women's unpaid labor and undervalued contributions. This is a book about misogyny without misogynists.

From antidiscrimination law to abortion bans, the law fails women by keeping society's dependence on women's sacrifices invisible. Join when author Julie C. Suk takes us on a tour of constitutional change around the world, shows how to remake constitutional democracy on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

With meticulous detective work, Timothy Egan shines a light on one of the most sinister chapters in American history—how a viciously racist movement, led by a murderous conman, rose to power in the early twentieth century. The Roaring Twenties was the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West.

A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND is a historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the story of Stephenson the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership.

Join us when Tim Egan examines the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

A composer, sound artist, performer, and innovator whose goal over the past four decades has been to bring experimental sound and music to a wider audience. And, through avenues including concert performances and ad jingles, city-wide events and film soundtracks, museum sound installations and hospital sound environments, his work has in fact been experienced by a wider audience than most creative artists can claim. Join us when Composer Charlie Morrow, the writer of the Leonard Lopate at Large theme music, offers fascinating discussion on the phenomena of sound.

Award-winning, print and broadcast journalist Robert "Bob" Hennelly joins us for a discussion on national and local politics, business, and labor unions. Bob Hennelly of Stuck Nation has a passion for bringing real news to his audience in a balanced and detailed way.

Bob hosts a weekly radio talk show, "What's Going On - Labor Monday," on WBAI-Pacifica Radio in New York City, focusing on politics and labor. He had been on-air as a senior investigative reporter for WNYC-New York Public Radio for more than 12 years, covering politics, government, and the civil service.

What should we do about the police? We’re swimming in proposals for reform, but most do not tackle the aggressive culture of the profession, which prioritizes locking up bad guys at any cost, loyalty to other cops, and not taking flak from anyone on the street.

Far from improving public safety, this culture, in fact, poses a danger to citizens and cops alike.

Walk the Walk brings readers deep inside three unusual departments—in Stockton, California; Longmont, Colorado; and LaGrange, Georgia—whose chiefs signed on to replace that aggressive culture with something better: with models focused on equity before the law, social responsibility, racial reconciliation, and the preservation of life. Informed by research, unflinching and by turns gripping, tragic, and inspirational, this book follows the chiefs—and their officers and detectives—as they conjured a new spirit of policing.

Join us when Neil Gross examines Walk the Walk which opens a window onto what the police could be, if we took seriously the charge of creating a more just America, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

When W. E. B. Du Bois, believing in the possibility of full citizenship and democratic change, encouraged African Americans to “close ranks” and support the Allied cause in World War I, he made a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Seeking both intellectual clarity and personal atonement, for more than two decades Du Bois attempted to write the definitive history of Black participation in World War I. His book, however, remained unfinished.

In The Wounded World, Chad Williams offers the dramatic account of Du Bois’s failed efforts to complete what would have been one of his most significant works. The surprising story of this unpublished book offers new insight into Du Bois’s struggles to reckon with both the history and the troubling memory of the war, along with the broader meanings of race and democracy for Black people in the twentieth century.

Join us when Chad Williams offers new insight into Du Bois’s struggles to reckon with both the history and the troubling memory of the war, along with the broader meanings of race and democracy for Black people in the twentieth century on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people.

In the The Devil’s Element, Dan Egan shares his investigative research of this vital crop nutrient which is causing toxic algae blooms and “dead zones” in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Egan also explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide―which risks rising conflict and even war.

Join us when Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan provides an eye-opening account that urges us to pay attention to one of the most perilous but little-known environmental issues of our time on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Justin Brooks has spent his career freeing innocent people from prison. With You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent, he offers up-close accounts of the cases he has fought, embedding them within a larger landscape of innocence claims and robust research on what we know about the causes of wrongful convictions.

Putting readers at the defense table, this book forces us to consider how any of us might be swept up in the system, whether we hired a bad lawyer, bear a slight resemblance to someone else in the world, or are not good with awkward silence.

Join us when Justin Brooks provides a better understanding of how injustice is served by our system on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

When the Helsinki Accords were signed on August 1, 1975, the likelihood they would have a profound and lasting impact on the world were very small. The thirty-five signatories were the nations of Europe, the United States and Canada were formally known as the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Final Act of CSCE contained detailed provisions on respect for human rights and set country borders that essentially held until Russia invaded Ukraine in February,2022. Only 15 years after the summit signing, the Soviet Union imploded and its Eastern European satellites broke with Communism and the broad range of human rights issues –civil, social, economic, and political – were a major factor in this historic turning point.

Peter Osnos was a reporter and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and served as the newspaper’s foreign and national editor. From 1984-1996 he was Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Senior Editor at Random House and Publisher of Random House’s Times Books division. He later founded PublicAffairs where he served as Publisher and CEO until 2005, and was a consulting editor until 2020 when he and his wife, Susan Sherer Osnos, launched Platform Books LLC.

Join us when Peter Osnos shares his vast expertise as a journalist and publisher in Would You Believe on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.

Now that we are in Spring, home improvement season has begun. Join us as Alving and Larry Ubell of Accurate Building Inspectors discuss everything from cooling to upgrades.

As regular listeners know, there are few construction questions that Ubells of Accurate Building Inspectors don’t know how to answer. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, one of our favorite handymen will answer your questions on any home repair projects you may be working on this Summer. Call-in 212.209.2877