Radio Times

Guest: Norman Ornstein, Eric Lipton, Meredith McGehee

Trump took the White House but what does that mean for Capitol Hill?  Trump’s legislative agenda includes some big ticket items -- tax cuts and infrastructure spending – but many congressional Republicans have been fighting to keep the deficit in check.  Who will get their way? And what strategy will the democrats use to work with the new President?  Marty talks about all this with long time Congressional observer NORMAN ORNSTEIN, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and contributing editor to The Atlantic.  Then, with more then 100 companies operating in over 18 countries, Trump’s business ties raise serious concerns about possible conflicts of interest. We’ll hear more about the President-elect’s business interests and the potential conflicts of interest they pose from New York Times investigative reporter ERIC LIPTON.  Then MEREDITH MCGEHEE, strategic advisor at Campaign Legal Center, explains legal and ethical issues around Trump’s business dealings and his role commander-in-chief.

Guest: Ross King

Claude Monet is perhaps the world's most beloved artist. And among his works, paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny, France are the most famous. In his new book, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies, author ROSS KING explains Monet’s intense frustration with the craft, as well as the personal torments the artist suffered during the final years of his life as the horrors of World War I approached. King is the bestselling author of nonfiction books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history, and two novels.

Guests: Gino Segré, Betinna Hoerlin

A new biography of Enrico Fermi delves into the life and science of the Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist who advanced quantum mechanics, led the Manhattan Project, and built the world’s first nuclear reactor.  But husband-and-wife authors GINO SERGRÉ and BETTINA HOERLIN say those are only handful of the prolific scientist’s contributions, a man whose judgement was so infallible he was nicknamed “the Pope.” Segré and Hoerlin’s book, The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age, tells the story of Fermi, his flight from Fascism and anti-Semitism in Europe, and his work on the atomic bomb.  Segré, a University of Pennsylvania physics professor, and Hoerlin, a former Philadelphia health commissioner, come in this hour to talk about the great scientist, his discoveries and their impact on the world.

Guests: Alfred Lubrano, Maria Quiñones-Sanchez, Andrea Duffy

Opioid addiction is the public health crisis of our time, in urban areas as well as the suburbs.  We begin today’s show talking about how police and pastors in Puerto Rico have orchestrated a system to convince heroin addicts there to move to Philadelphia for treatment.  This process involves lying about the conditions of the recovery centers, couching them as heavenly, pastoral communities – but when those seeking help arrive, they are taken to ramshackle, ineffective treatment centers in a blighted section of the Kensington area of Philadelphia. We’ll be joined by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter ALFRED LUBRANO, who will tell us the story.  Then, we’ll talk about the effort to combat addiction in the city with Councilwoman MARIA QUIÑONES-SANCHEZ, and in the Philadelphia suburbs with ANDREA DUFFY, a Montgomery Township district court judge.

Guests: William Giraldi, Richard Blanco, Bobby Rydell

Coming up on today’s edition of Radio Times in Review, we’re going to talk to three memoirists; a bodybuilder, the first Latino inaugural poet, and a 1950s South Philadelphia rock star. WILLIAM GIRALDI talked with Marty about his hyper-masculine upbringing and the mentality of a bodybuilder which he wrote about in his book The Hero’s Body. We’ll also hear from poet RICHARD BLANCO.  He was raised in an exiled Cuban family, eventually becoming not only the first Latino inaugural poet, but the first openly gay one as well, when he read at the second inauguration of Barack Obama.  And, we’ll listen to Marty’s conversation with BOBBY RYDELL.  He was a part of the crop of young rock stars who emerged from South Philadelphia in the 1950s. He joined us to talk about his life, his music, and his hair.

Guests: Maryn McKenna, Carole Williams-Green and Christine Knapp

Bugs resistant to our arsenals of antibiotics are growing. The United Nations recently declared antibiotic resistance an urgent threat to public health around the globe.  And this summer, a Pennsylvania woman was found to be carrying a bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort. We start off this hour discussing the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance. Radio Times Producer Debbie Bilder talks with MARYN MCKENNA, a journalist and author of Beating Back the Devil and Superbug.  Then, we’ll learn about environmental education and sustainability. We’ll listen to Radio Times producer Elizabeth Fiedler’s interview with CAROLE WILLIAMS-GREEN, the founder and president of the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center in West Philadelphia. And we’ll wrap up by discussing the city of Philadelphia’s sustainability plans with CHRISTINE KNAPP, the city’s Sustainability Director.

Guests: Davy Rothbart, Lenore Carpenter

Love letters, old birthday cards, poetry scrawled on a napkin – sometimes, one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure. We’ll talk with one collector of such hidden gems,  DAVY ROTHBART, creator of FOUND Magazine, which features reader submissions of found notes, photos, and other context-free artifacts.  He now has a new musical called… you guessed it FOUND. It’s based on the unearthed objects that have been printed in his publications, as well as Rothbart’s life itself.  Then, we’ll discuss the apparent rise in hate crimes and hate speech that some say is attributable to the candidacy and subsequent election of Donald Trump.  We’ll be joined by LENORE CARPENTER, associate professor of law at Temple University and former legal director at Equity Advocates Pennsylvania.

Guests: Malcolm Nance, Ivan Nechepurenko

One of the strangest and unprecedented facets of the election of Donald Trump has been the influence of Russia.  Aside from the fact that Trump was unwilling to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin while on the campaign trail, the FBI has since announced that Russian hackers were responsible for hacking the emails within the Democratic National Committee, and it’s been reported that the President-elect was allegedly in contact with Putin throughout the campaign. Many claim that Putin’s disruption of the election process was an attempt to show the world that American democracy is weak.  Today on Radio Times, we talk with MALCOLM NANCE, former US Navy counterintelligence officer and author of The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election.  We’re also joined by IVAN NECHEPURENKO, a Moscow-based reporter for The New York Times.

GUESTS: Peter Marra & Katie Lisnik

Cats are described as either furry feline friends or free-ranging bird killers. In this hour, Mary talks with PETER MARRA, author of Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer about the dangerous actions of domesticated cats. Later, Mary continues the cat debate with KATIE LISNIK, the Director of Cat Protection and Policy at The Humane Society of the United States.

Guests: Michael Days and Julian Zelizer

With the 2016 Presidential election behind us and Obama’s Presidency drawing to a close, we take a look at what he accomplished, and didn’t, during eight years in office. Marty’s guest is MICHAEL DAYS, editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, and author of the new book Obama's Legacy: What He Accomplished as President. He’ll explain the book’s claims about Obama’s achievements in education, justice and homeland security and why the author believes Obama’s legacy is both transformative and historic. They’ll also discuss the permanency of Obama’s legacy given his sharp differences with the President-elect. Then, we’ll discuss Obama’s legacy in light of President-elect Trump’s views with JULIAN ZELIZER, a Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a fellow at New America.  He’s the author most recently of The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society.