The Roundtable

This week's Book Picks come from James Conrad from The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY and Lily Bartels from Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady, NY.

"This Shining Night" is a choral concert from the Berkshire Concert Choir bookended by two different settings of James Agee's poem, "Sure on this Shining Night." Beginning at sunset and ending at sunrise, the program plunges deep into the human condition using the phases of the night as an extended metaphor for the complex topic of aging and memory loss.Berkshire Concert Choir will perform “This Shining Night” on Sunday May 18th at St Mark's Catholic Church in Pittsfield (Saturday Night Performance at Tanglewood’s Linde Center is sold out.)

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Communications expert and Founder/President of Stanhope Partners Bob Bellafiore, Public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, The Empire Report’s JP Miller, and Former Times-Union Associate Editor Mike Spain.

At a time when trusted, fact-based journalism is more essential than ever, WAMC remains strong thanks to the support of our members, underwriters, and community partners. Your contributions ensure that everyone in our region can access in-depth reporting, diverse voices, and cultural programming that informs, inspires, and connects us.Joe Donahue and Sarah LaDuke speak with WAMC’s Vox Pop host Ray Graf, and Vox-Poppers Rich Guthrie (Birds), Carrie O'Loughlin (Pets & Vets) and Greg Ward (Gardening.)

In "Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece," acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato—documents that have long been kept in obscurity—to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse.

Annie Hartnett is the author of “Unlikely Animals: The Novel” which won the Julia Ward Howe Prize for fiction and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is also the author of “Rabbit Cake,” a finalist for the New England Book Award. Her latest novel is “The Road to Tender Hearts” which is a darkly comic and also warm hearted story about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Preceptor in Public Speaking for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University Terry Gipson, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio, Political Consultant Libby Post, and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan.

At a time when trusted, fact-based journalism is more essential than ever, WAMC remains strong thanks to the support of our members, underwriters, and community partners. Your contributions ensure that everyone in our region can access in-depth reporting, diverse voices, and cultural programming that informs, inspires, and connects us.Joe Donahue speaks with WAMC’s CEO Sarah Gilbert, WAMC’s News Director Ian Pickus, WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, and WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes about the work of WAMC's News Department.

Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.

Author Jeff Kisseloff’s new book, "Rewriting HISStory," is a political history that looks to uncover the innocence of alleged Communist spy Alger Hiss. Kisseloff brings to light a wealth of original material, including 150,000 pages of mostly unredacted previously unreleased FBI files (which he sued the FBI to obtain) and other documents from government and library collections around the country.