FIRST THINGS FIRST, hip-hop is not just the music, and women have played a big role in shaping the way it looks today. FIRST THINGS FIRST takes readers on a journey through some notable firsts by women in hip-hop history and their importance. Factual firsts like Queen Latifah becoming the first rapper to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, La…

Laura Pappano is a veteran journalist who has covered the heated disagreements that surround K-12 education for over thirty years. Yet, today's high stakes battle is unlike anything she's seen before. "It isn't rooted in a passion for the success of all children," she writes. "Rather, it's about the hijacking of public education by a far-right Chri…

According to Award-winning journalist and Regular Contributor Robert Hennelly, most of the labor activists that are reviving the American union movement were not on the planet when Martin Luther King Jr walked the earth. But the torch has been passed and the “dream” endures when ever there’s collective non-violent action that moves US forward.Henne…

Leonard Lopate, the Peabody and James Beard Award-winning broadcaster, is on WBAI where he began his radio career. Tune in weekdays from 1-2pm at 99.5fm New York or you can listen to the show live at WBAI.org. Join us for conversation on current events and call-in into the station to let your voice be heard (212) 209-2877. Listen to past shows: htt…

A site by site, crime by crime, outlaw by outlaw walking tour through the seedy underbelly of Roaring Twenties Manhattan—where gamblers and gangsters, crooks and cops, showgirls and speakeasies ruled the day and, always, the night.In Gangsterland, historian David Pietrusza tours the Big Apple’s rotten core. The Roaring Twenties blaze and sparkle wi…

Max Roach Centennial Celebrations in January Include Film Screening, Panel Discussion and Local NYC-NJ ConcertsThe revolutionary 1960 album We Insist!: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite explored issues of social justice and racial inequality through the lens of jazz and poetry. In celebration of the centennial of Max Roach (1924-2007)—drummer, bebop pi…

Richard Rothstein is the co-author of JUST ACTION: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, and Senior Fellow (Emeritus) of the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Leah Rothstein is the co-author of JUST ACTION: How to Challenge Segregation E…

Bestselling author and historian Steven Ujifusa tells the largely forgotten, colorful story of three businessmen who, driven by very different motives, made much of this immigration possible and forever changed the fates of millions.The men were Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of an investment bank who used his immense wealth to help Jews to lea…

We'd like to hear from you during this Holiday season. How have you been coping with winter, Municipal, State, and Global concerns? Although this is the mos festive time of year it sometimes doesnt feel that way. We would like you to share your remedies on dealing with the winter blues. Call-in in Join the discussion. Listen to past shows: https://…

Edited by Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite - Good Eats: 32 Writers on Eating Ethically features a highly diverse ensemble of award-winning writers, activists, educators, chefs, farmers, and journalists, Good Eats invites readers to think about what it means to eat according to our values. These essays tell the stories of real peopl…

Michael Zweig illuminates all propositions with specific examples from US history, from the first settlement of the New World to current life, including his own lived experiences as an activist, educator, and organizer over the past six decades. As such, the book is an urgently needed resource for activists and organizers seeking structural and mor…

Photos from the 1990s present images of floods and fires that paralyzed the area, juxtaposed with continued bulldozing to clear the way for luxury housing. Politics reshaped Manhattan’s skyline by encouraging new commercial shopping, food, and restaurant destinations. This restructuring marked the beginning of the end of downtown’s blue-collar orig…

Could this really be our future? If so, what has to happen now to achieve such a radical change? In How We Ended Racism, Justin Michael Williams and Shelly Tygielski reveal a path for real and lasting global impact―not just talking about it, studying it, or making small steps, but actually ending racism in one generation.Williams and Tygielski draw…

Regular Contributor Bob Hennelly of Stuck Nation covers topics ranging from homeland security to the economy, environmental contamination to corruption, and occupational safety to homelessness.Joing us when Hennelly touches on the hearing held by Sen. Sanders for his Health, Education, Labor and Pension that featured testimony from Fain (UAW), Nels…

From Brown v. Board of Education in the mid-twentieth century to the current Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Foley explores how organizations have resisted and complied with public policies regarding race. She examines how admissions officers, who have played an important role in the long fight…

Lewin brings these general principles to life by considering the history of the genetics revolution, from the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA to the sequencing of the human genome and the possibilities of gene editing today. History shows us that each period of progress in science relied on dogmas that often advanced but sometimes …

Leonardo Freitas is the Chairman and Managing Director of Hayman-Woodward. Freitas is an entrepreneur with over twenty-five years of experience in government relations, international trade, and business development in the United States, as well as emerging markets, with a focus on Latin America and Asia.…

In The End of Reality¸ Jonathan Taplin provides his perspective into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen (“The Four”) —and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase i…

Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theoriesis a deeply researched dive into the history of the conspiracy industry around the Rothschild family - from the "pamphlet wars" of Paris in the 1840s to the dankest pits of the internet today. Join us when journalist and conspiracy theory expert Mike Rothschild, who isn't rela…

Leonard talks with ROLAND RICH, the former Australian Ambassador to the UN about his book. Leviathan.Af Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

American Castle, a Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary C. Shanklin reveals a century of controversy, politics, and lifestyles of the super-rich and powerful after Mar-a-Lago became a part-time residence and party place upon Post’s divorce from Hutton over mutual adultery.Af Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

Altagracia Pierre - Outerbridge is the owner of theNew York City - based law firm, Outerbridge Law, P.C..Founded in 2019 after representing clients from -intake through trial with a practice focused on -landlord - tenant litigation and transactional matters,diligently protecting landlords' property rights, and -meticulously defending tenants agains…

Marjorie Kelly is Distinguished Senior Fellow with The Democracy Collaborative, and the author of - Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today's Crises (Berrett-Kohler, September 2023) talks today with Leonard on Leonard Lopate at large.Af Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

Today Leonard talks with Brian H. Williams, MD, the author ofThe Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal. Author Brian H. Williams, MDAf Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

Industrial hygienist Monona Rossol brings valuable insights of occupational health and safety, which is a crucial aspect of many industries. Whether it's discussing Covid, workplace hazards, air quality, exposure assessments, or safety measures, as an expert in the industrial hygiene Monona provides important information and tips.…

For more than a century, Dr. J. Marion Sims was hailed as the “father of modern gynecology.” He founded a hospital in New York City and had a profitable career treating gentry and royalty in Europe, becoming one of the world’s first celebrity surgeons. Statues were built in his honor, but he wasn’t the hero he had made himself appear to be.Sims’s g…

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is one of the most cherished and reviled laws ever passed. It mandates protection and preservation of all the nation’s species and biodiversity, whatever the cost. It has been a lightning rod for controversy and conflicts between industry/business and environmentalists.Lowell E. Baier’s intellectual curiosit…

In these stories of struggle and hope, as one volunteer said, “you see the American story.” For some families, minor mistakes create catastrophes—food stamps cut off, educational opportunities missed, benefits lost. Other families, with the help of volunteers and social supports, escape these traps and take steps toward reaching their dreams. Engag…

DAVID SCHENCK is the former Director of the Ethics Program, Medical University of South Carolina, and was on the faculty of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.A leader on ethics in healthcare and a long-time hospice volunteer, David Schenck is familiar with feeling overwhelmed and helpless while tryin…

A “problem of twelve” arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation.According to Harvard law professor John Coates, the Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies—a conc…

Award-winning journalist and Regular Contributor Bob Hennelly has a passion for uncovering the News behind the News. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, he has always had a keen interest in the roles of immigration, local politics, business, labor unions, real estate ownership, and environmental protection in the evolution of the United States.For more t…

As we celebrate 50 years in Hip Hop, ILLMATIC CONSEQUENCES combines social science and hip-hop studies to address disinformation and propaganda that distorted political discourse after the 2020 election. In this text, scholars and activists come together to clap back on the lies that animated attacks at local school boards and the January 6, 2021, …

In this powerful and deeply felt memoir of translation, storytelling, and borders, Alejandra Oliva, a Mexican-American translator and immigrant justice activist, offers a powerful chronical of her experience interpreting at the US-Mexico border.Having worked with asylum seekers since 2016, she knows all too well the gravity of taking someone's trau…

More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign policy: a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public. War Made Invisible, by the journalist and political analyst Norman Solomon, exposes how this happened, and what its consequences are,…

Tenants in rent-stabilized apartments will see rent increases in the coming year lower than worst-case scenarios, following a Rent Guidelines Board preliminary this past Spring.Join us when Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, founder and owner of New York city-based law firm Outerbridge Law P.C. who’s practice is focused on landlord-tenant litigation an…

With Homelessness in NYC being such a pervasive issue today's guest, former Commissioner of Mental Health Dr. Robert Okin covers the two years he spent on the street meeting and photographing homeless individuals with mental illness to find answers to many questions such as: How do they end up on the street? How do they survive the stress and priva…

Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia's war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier.The War Came To Us is the definitiv…

The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between vice president Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and former Alabama governor George Wallace. The United States was reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and was bitterly divided on the Vietnam War and domestic issues, including civil rig…

The Story of Russia is a peek into the thousand years of Russia’s history, concerned as much with the ideas that have shaped how Russians think about their past as it is with the events and personalities comprising it. No other country has reimagined its own story so often, in a perpetual effort to stay in step with the shifts of ruling ideologies.…

In 1967, David Rothenberg produced a play called Fortune and Men’s Eyes that revealed the horrors of life in prison. This inspired him to establish The Fortune Society (Fortune). In its 50 years, Fortune has become one of the leading reentry service organizations in the country, serving nearly 7,000 formerly incarcerated individuals per year, provi…

Sean A. Mirski a lawyer and U.S. foreign policy scholar who has worked on national security issues across multiple U.S. presidential administrations ask, What did it take for the United States to become a global superpower? He suggest the answer lies in a missing chapter of American foreign policy with stark lessons for todayIn We May Dominate the …

It’s one of the iconic photographs of American history: A Black teenager, a policeman and his lunging German Shepherd. Birmingham, Alabama, May of 1963. In May of 2020, as reporter Paul Kix stared at a different photo–that of a Minneapolis police officer suffocating George Floyd–he kept returning to the other photo taken half a century earlier, hau…

Join us today when award-winning journalist and Regular Contributor Bob Hennelly shares his passion for bringing real news. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, he has always had a keen interest in the roles of immigration, local politics, business, labor unions, real estate ownership, and environmental protection in the evolution of the United States.For…

According to renowned advocate for children’s welfare and juvenile justice Jane M. Spinak, at the turn of the twentieth century, American social reformers created the first juvenile court. They imagined a therapeutic court where informality, specially trained public servants, and a kindly, all-knowing judge would assist children and families. But t…

According to award-winning journalist Jeff Goodell, the world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as t…

Writer, educator, filmmaker, and scholar from Chicago - Dr. Rob Eschmann writes on educational inequality, community violence, racism, social media, and youth wellbeing.His research seeks to uncover individual, group, and intuitional-level barriers to racial and economic equity, and he pays special attention to the heroic efforts everyday people ma…

Today on Leonard Lopate at Large gardening expert Pete Muroski, founder of Native Landscapes in Pawling, NY returns to share tips and take calls.Pete is a talented landscape designer with a particular affinity toward using material that is indigenous to the specific environment.Join us when Pete touches on current weather patterns, proper pruning t…

Symbols of Freedom is the surprising story of how enslaved people and their allies drew inspiration from the language and symbols of American freedom. Interpreting patriotic words, phrases, and iconography literally, they embraced a revolutionary nationalism that not only justified but generated open opposition. Mindful and proud that theirs was a …

At the height of the John Birch Society’s activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. “Birchers” believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in America and posed an existential threat to Christianity, capitalism, and freedom. But as historian Matthew Dallek reveals, the Birch Society’s extremism remade American …

Gender Without Identity offers an innovative and at times unsettling theory of gender formation.Rooted in the metapsychology of Jean Laplanche and in conversation with bold work in queer and trans studies, Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini jettison “core gender identity” to propose, instead, that gender is something all subjects acquire -- and t…