Please Explain (The Leonard Lopate Show)

You may have noticed that leaves have started turning, marking the end of summer. On today’s Please Explain we'll find out why leaves change color and everything else about trees, with Jessica Argate, Forest Manager, New York Botanical Garden, and David Allan Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Trees.

Our latest Please Explain is all about typefaces and typography. Typeface designer Jonathan Hoefler, type designer and president of Hoefler & Frere-Jones and Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts and author of the VISUALS column for the New York Times Book Review, will explain how typefaces are created and why typography is important to communication and design.

On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’re looking at instinct, intuition, gut feelings, those unconscious reactions that guide so much of our decision making. We’re joined by Timothy Wilson, Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, and author of Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, and by Gerd Gigerenzer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and author of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious.

Neurofeedback is a method of training the brain by monitoring brain activity with sensors. Individuals can see their brain activity on a screen in real time and learn to regulate it themselves, in order to "train" their brain to perform specific tasks more efficiently. We’ll hear about how it works with Dr. Sarah H. Lisanby, Director of the Division of Brain Stimulation & Therapeutic Modulation, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York State Psychiatric institute, and Dr. M. Barry Sterman, Professor Emeritus with the Department of Neurobiology and Biobehavioral Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA.

Most spices are delicious, some have medical value and a good amount of them have changed the course of human history. On this week's Please Explain we'll learn all about spices, from Anise to Vanilla. We'll be joined by Dr. John E. Hayes, Assistant Professor of Food Science at Penn State University and by chef Michael Krondl. Michael is also the author of numerous books, including The Taste of Conquest.

More than half of the world's nearly 7,000 languages are at risk of dying out in the next century. On this week's Please Explain, we take a look at what causes languages to disappear and the efforts to document and revive endangered languages around the world. Gregory Anderson, Director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and Anthony Woodbury, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas, join us.

According to recent studies, about 1/3 of Americans are obese, and between 1998 and 2006, the obesity rate rose 37% in this country. Obesity-related illnesses accounted for an estimated $147 billion in 2008, nearly 10 percent of all U.S. medical spending, according to the Centers for Disease Control. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we're looking into the causes of the dramatic rise in obesity and the health risks that come with it. We're joined by Dr. Louis Aronne, Clinical Professor of Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College-NY Presbyterian Hospital, and Director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program, and Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University.

Mosquitoes are one of the downsides of summer, and they are expected to be especially bad this year due to all the rain this spring. We’ll find out why mosquitoes buzz and bite, how they transmit dangerous diseases, and some ways to get rid of them. Joseph M. Conlon, a retired U.S. Navy entomologist and the Technical Advisor for the American Mosquito Control Association, and Thomas W. Scott, Director of the UC Davis Mosquito Research Laboratory and Professor of Entomology, join us.

On today's Please Explain, we’ll look at plastic surgery, from liposuction to Botox to rhinoplasty, and what happens when someone goes under the knife to improve his or her appearance. We'll be joined by Dr. Robert Grant, Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital and by Dr. Reza Jarrahy Assistant Professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCLA.

Today’s Please Explain is all about dry cleaning--how it works, what chemicals are used, and how it is becoming more environmentally friendly. We'll be joined by Wayne Edelman, President and CEO of Meurice Garment Care and past President of the National Cleaners Association. He is also the doctor of "Ask The Clothes Doctor" on Garmentcare.com. And Kim Kostka, Professor and Acting Dean of the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin Rock County.