The latest nation's report card shows that American children’s reading skills reached new lows, while there is a debate about the best way to teach reading in school. Maya Payne Smart is a writer, parent educator, and literacy advocate argues that America’s reading crisis begins well before children enter kindergarten. She says it starts at birth, which is why she wrote a step-by-step guide for parents to do what it takes to set their children up to thrive as readers from day one to early elementary school. The name of the book is “Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child.”

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are 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 Fran Berman, public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, and Former New York 19th Congressman and NY Assemblyman John Faso.

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.

Curtis Sittenfeld is the best-selling author of novels “Romantic Comedy,” “Prep,” “The Man of my Dreams,” “American Wife,” and “Rodham.” In her second story collection “Show Don’t Tell” she conjures up characters that are so real they seem like old friends laying bare the moments when their long-held beliefs are overturned.

In the 90’s, there were few more proactive and totally outrageous paradigms on TV than “The Simpsons.” Author Alan Siegel of The Ringer traces those heady years in the writers’ room and beyond in his new book “Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How The Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television — And America — Forever.”

In the new novel “Rabbit Moon” author Jennifer Haigh writes a drama set in Shanghai about a fractured American family with secret lives and an unbreakable bond between two sisters.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Partner with the Albany law firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, Cianna Freeman-Tolbert, Professional speaker, speaking coach and Albany County legislator Mark Grimm, and Aaron Pacitti is Professor of Economics at Siena College.

Mass. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from the 2nd district, speaks with WAMC's Ian Pickus on the Congressional Corner June 26, 2025.

New York Rep. Paul Tonko of the 20th district speaks with WAMC's Ian Pickus on the Congressional Corner on June 26, 2025.

On April 15th, 2024, the People of the State of New York vs. Donald J. Trump, the criminal trial of the 45th and 47th President of the United States, began in a Manhattan courtroom. It would prove to be one of the most consequential criminal trials in American history, a start of a new era in politics, and American jurisprudence. Now with Donald Trump back in The White House and Judge Juan Merchan’s sentencing complete Bromwich delivers with new reporting a definitive account of the stranger than fiction showdown in his new book “Dragon on Centre Street: New York vs. Donald J. Trump.”