The Roundtable

Alison Larkin's hit show ‘Grief… A Comedy’ comes to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on June 12 and 13, where it will be filmed before a live audience for an upcoming special, directed by Scott Floyd Lochmus with music by Gary Schreiner.

Humorist and essayist David Sedaris has spent decades turning everyday awkwardness or family disfunction and travel disasters to some of the sharpest comedy in American letters. From ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ to his longtime contributions to ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘This American Life.’ Sedaris has mastered the art of sounding both brutally honest and hilariously off hand. His brand-new book and collection is ‘The Land and its People.’ David Sedaris will be at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck on 5/27, the speaking event is sold out. However, the singing line tickets are available.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Lecturer of Cognitive Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Fulbright US Scholar to Egypt Jackie Berry, The Ulster County Comptroller and the former president and CEO of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley March Gallagher, Editor at large/columnist/editorial writer for the Times Union Jay Jochnowitz, and Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin.

Novelist and memoirist Courtney Maum has built a career exploring ambition, identity, creativity, and the strange pressures of modern life. Her previous books include 'Touch,' 'Costalegre,' and the publishing-world favorite 'Before and After the Book Deal.'Her new novel, 'Alan Opts Out,' takes sharp aim at consumer culture and suburban status anxiety. The book follows a successful Connecticut advertising executive who suddenly decides to abandon capitalism after a disastrous pitch meeting — moving into his backyard playhouse to live off the land while his wife fights for social acceptance in elite Greenwich circles. It’s funny, pointed, and surprisingly tender.

In recent years, Senator Chris Murphy has stepped forward to challenge the Trump administration’s assaults on our democracy. In his new book, 'Crisis of the Common Good,' he draws on history and political philosophy to expose how six different cults have seized hold of American life and paved the way to our current troubles.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Associate Professor of Music at Vassar College Justin Patch, Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association and longtime editor of The Daily Gazette Judy Patrick, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio.

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.

Martha Banta has returned to the Adirondack Theatre Festival. Martha was ATF’s founding Artistic Director for its first 13 seasons, where she directed numerous premieres that went on to be produced in New York City and across the country.She directed the first of many ATF productions in an empty Woolworth’s storefront on Glen Street and later helped spearhead its transformation into the Wood Theater. Most recently, Martha directed Mamma Mia! for its return to Broadway and the national tour.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College Robert Brigham, and Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association and longtime editor of The Daily Gazette Judy Patrick.

'Under Four Flags' is program by the Musicians of Ma'alwyck being performed in the region from May 26 – 30. The program is a World War I tribute featuring a screening of the 1918 Allied propaganda silent film with an original live score by Max Caplan, alongside chamber music honoring the era and fallen soldiers.The concert opens with a work by Mihail Jora, written while he was recovering in a hospital after being wounded on the Eastern Front. His music is a personal response to the devastation of war. The major work is Samuel Gardner's piano quintet, composed after the death of violinist David Hochstein, who was killed on the Western Front in France in October 1918.