Please Explain (The Leonard Lopate Show)

58,000 gallons of oil were recently spilled in the San Francisco Bay…and much of it will never be cleaned up. On today’s Please Explain: how oil spills harm the environment, and why they’re so hard to clean up.

Christopher M. Reddy is a scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Debra L. Payton the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helps coordinate oil spill cleanups.

Research shows that the average adult laughs six to eight times a day... whereas the average child laughs around four hundred times each day. Today’s Please Explain is all about laughter. Dr. Robert Provine of the Neuroscience Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County is author of the book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.

Weigh in: What always makes you laugh...without fail? A person, a joke, a situation? Tell us by leaving a comment below.

Laughter is available for purchase at amazon.com

Can’t sleep? Find out why on today’s Please Explain…and whether there’s anything you can do about it, from drinking warm milk to popping sleeping pills. Dr. Ana Krieger is the Director of the NYU Sleep Disorders Center. Dr. Carl Bazil is Director of Neurological Division at the Columbia University Comprehensive Sleep Center.

Weigh in: We want to hear about your cures for sleeplessness. What works for you when you can't sleep?

Our hearts beat about 100,000 times every day, pumping our blood nearly 12,000 miles: the equivalent of crossing the U.S. from coast to coast four times. Today we'll find out how our most vital organ works, why it sometimes fails, and what we can do to keep it healthy. Send us your questions for Dr. Peter Libby, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Professor at Harvard Medical School, and the chief medical advisor for the PBS series “The Mysterious Heart."

Call us at 212-433-WNYC or post your questions and comments here.

“The Mysterious Human Heart” airs nationwide on Monday, October 22 at 9pm (check local listings).

Find more information, use interactive features, and view all the complete episodes of the series online here.

Most experts agree that acupuncture is safe, but does it work? And what is the circulation of Qi, the meridian system, and the five phases theory? Find out all about acupuncture on today's Please Explain. Leonard is joined by Dr. Richard Hammerschlag, Neurobiologist and Dean of Research at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, and Martin Feldman, Acupuncturist and Instructor at the New England School of Acupuncture.

Tell us about your experiences with acupuncture. Has it worked for you? What would you like to know about it?

We'll get straight to the core of autumn's favorite fruit on today's Please Explain. Send your questions on all things apple-related to Steve Clarke of Prospect Hill Orchards and Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, author of A is for Apple, Apple Trees, and An Apple a Day.

Call us at 212-433-WNYC or post your questions and comments here.

Weigh in: What's your favorite apple recipe?

What type of apple to you like best?

Americans spend more than $2 billion annually on non-prescription pain relievers. Today we'll find out what they are, how they work, how they differ from one another and from prescription drugs, what side effects they cause, and more. Rear Admiral Sandra Kweder, MD, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of New Drugs, is here to answer your questions on aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and all the rest.

Call us at 212-433-WNYC or post your questions and comments here.

Find out why we have hair, if blondes have more fun, how shampoo and conditioner actually work, and more when Assistant Professor of Clinical Dermatology Dr. Michele Hanjani and anthropologist Dr. Peter Frost give us the long and short of hair, from head to toe.

Call us live on the air at 212-433-9692 or post your questions and comments here.

Weigh in: Tell us about your worst bad hair day.

The earliest known female contraceptive device dates back to 1850 BC, when pessaries made of crocodile dung, honey, and sodium carbonate may have been the best option available to women. Chemical contraception has changed a lot since then. Today's Please Explain is about the chemistry of birth control. Dr. Rini Ratan is an OB/GYN with the Columbia Unversity Medical Center.

On today's Please Explain, we get nosey with smell. Biophysicist Dr. Luca Turin and psychobiologist Dr. Charles Wysocki explain what odors are, how our noses work, and what kind of information humans can gather by smell.