The Roundtable

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are:Ambassador Fred Hof - former U.S. Army officer and State Department Diplomat who taught at Bard College for six years and is now a Senior Fellow at Bard's Center for Civic Engagement. Theresa Bourgeois - Public policy and communications expert. Fatimah Gilliam - author, lawyer, consultant, public speaker, and entrepreneur. Her most recent book is: 'Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won't Tell You’ Stephen Haff - is an educator who teaches drama and humanities at Poughkeepsie Day School in Poughkeepsie

This week's Book Picks comes from Cheryl Mckeon from The Book House/Marketblock Books in Albany, NY and Cassidy Washburn from Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs NY and Manchester VT for our selections this week.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are:Roger Berkowitz - Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center and Professor of Political Studies, Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College. Mark Wittman - Wall St Investment Banker.Sophia Acquisto - a former NY elementary school teacher and now PhD Student at RPI.

Few films have captured the work, responsibility, and power of investigative journalism as vividly as 'All the President's Men.' Released in 1976 and directed by Alan Pakula, the film stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose painstaking investigation of the Watergate break-in helped uncover a political scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.Based on Woodward and Bernstein's book, the film received eight Academy Award nominations, it won four Oscars. Fifty years later, it remains a landmark portrait of journalism, of cultivating sources, verifying facts, confronting powerful institutions, and following a story wherever it leads. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2010.Last weekend WAMC and the Crandell Theatre in Chatham teamed up for a special screening of all the president's men, followed by a conversation about the film and the current state of journalism and investigative reporting. It was a full house, and our panel brought together four people with very different perspectives on the press, politics, and public life.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are:The Reverend Peter Cook - Principal, Faith in the Public Square and Co-Principal of The Religious Nationalisms Project.Heather Mulligan - CEO of The Business Council of New York State.Larissa Phillips - the founder and director of the Volunteer Literacy Project. She is also a columnist for The Free Press and a Greene County resident.

Twenty-five years after September 11th, investigative journalist Jeffrey Robinson returns to those terrifying hours with 'Ash and Honor: The Untold 368 Minutes of 9/11.'Drawing on interviews with more than sixty American and Canadian eyewitnesses, Robinson reconstructs the military, aviation and national-security response minute by minute - from Air Force One and NORAD to officials scrambling to clear American airspace.The book also revisits disputed and confusing episodes, including reports of additional hijacked aircraft and questions surrounding authorization to shoot down civilian planes—claims certain to invite renewed scrutiny of the official record. Robinson is an international bestselling author of more than thirty books, including 'The Laundrymen' and 'Grace of Monaco.'

Gloria Steinem, a renowned American journalist, feminist, and activist, passed away yesterday at the age of 92 in her home in New York City. She co-founded 'Ms.' magazine, and helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus, the Women's Action Alliance, and the Women's Media Center. For more than six-decades, she fought for equality, reproductive rights, and social justice.In 2015, we spoke with Steinem about her memoir 'My Life on the Road,' her first book in more than 20 years, chronicling a lifetime of travel, listening, and activism. We were honored to have her on The Roundtable and The Book Show quite a few times over the years. This interview was actually recorded in NYC after midnight; it was so worth it! In memoriam we air that conversation today.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are:Fran Berman - Stuart Rice Honorary Chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.Theresa Bourgeois - Public policy and communications expert.Bob Brigham - Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. He is a specialist on the history of US foreign policy.Donna Welton - Diplomat in Residence at Bard College. She retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2025 after over 30 years in public service. Her last post was ambassador to the SE Asian country, Timor-Leste.

In her new book, 'School’s Out: Why Families Are Choosing Unconventional Education,' Mickey Revenaugh explores the growing world of homeschooling, microschools, virtual classrooms, unschooling, and even roadschooling and the families driving this transformation.

We've all heard of the placebo effect, the remarkable ability of positive expectations to make us feel better. But what about its darker twin? In her new book, ‘This Book May Cause Side Effects, The Curious and Dangerous Power of the Nocebo Effect, Placebo's Evil Twin.’ Dr. Helen Pilcher explores how negative expectations can produce very real symptoms, intensify pain, and even contribute to illness.Pilcher is a science writer and former scientist with advanced training in neuroscience and a former reporter for ‘Nature.’ Her new book takes us from chronic pain and medication side effects to mass psychogenic illness, asking a provocative question, can what we believe about our health actually change our health?