The Roundtable

Two-time GRAMMY Award-winning Albany Symphony will begin their 2025-2026 season next Saturday, featuring Stravinsky’smagnificent Firebird Suite, Dvořák’s masterful Cello Concerto, the world premiere of Look Up by Alex Berko and Sibelius’s stirring Finlandia.The concert will take place at the historic Palace Theatre in downtown Albany on Saturday, October 11, beginning at 7:30pm. A pre-concert talk by Music Director David Alan Miller will begin at 6:30pm.

Landscapes for Landsake is the region’s largest art-buying event of the season and ASA’s largest fundraiser of the year.Approximately 300 works of art will be displayed in the historic barn at Maple Ridge in Cambridge, NY, and over 400 additional works will be available on www.LandscapesforLandsake.com. Many of the artists are on hand to discuss their work during the in-person event.

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most esteemed and inspirational conservationists, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 91. Joe Donahue spoke with Jane Goodall on this program in 2009. We air a portion of that conversation today, in memoriam.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are CEO of The Business Council of New York State Heather Mulligan, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio, and Former Times-Union Associate Editor Mike Spain.

The Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference, “JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times,” will offer a crucial lens for finding meaning and connection amidst today's fractured world. Bringing together notable speakers with diverse narratives and insights at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the conference will be a timely exploration of joy as a powerful force, and a vital conversation around fostering resilience.

In Stacey Isom Campbell’s new play, “1999,” a student makes a complaint about the inclusion of a film produced by Harvey Weinstein in class. Emma must then interrogate her own guilt for something she did in 1999. The play explores the intersection of three women’s lives in the wake of trauma and grapples with what to do with the films of the 90s in light of recent sexual allegations and convictions.WAM Theatre is producing the world premier of “1999.” The play is a 2025 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Modern New Works Festival Finalist. WAM’s production, running in the Berkshires October 16 through November 2, is directed by Artistic Director Genée Coreno and both she and Stacey Isom Campbell join us.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College Roger Berkowitz, Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College Beau Breslin, Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin, and Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York Nic Rangel.

This week's Book Picks comes from Matt Tannenbaum from The Bookstore in Lenox, MA and Drew Broussard from Rough Draft Bar & Books in Kingston, NY.

With book bans in public schools rising to levels unseen since the McCarthy era Red Scare of the 1950s, the Eleanor Roosevelt Banned Book Awards ceremony at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. will be presented jointly with PEN America on Saturday, October 11th. Author Jennifer Finney Boylan, PEN America’s president, will be the keynote speaker.Ten honorees include best-selling author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale), who will receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on October 11th.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College and is a specialist on the history of US foreign policy Robert Brigham, Chief of Staff and Vice President for Strategy and Policy at Bard College Malia DuMont, Former Times Union Associate Editor Mike Spain, and Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Vassar College and her research is on health, wellness, and medical knowledge Catherine Tan.