Vietnam War scholar Fred Wilcox talks about the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment. Even today, more than 3 million people—including 500,000 children—are sick and dying from birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses that can be directly traced to Agent Orange/dioxin exposure. Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam, the first book to examine long-term consequences of chemical warfare there, and the effects on future generations.

Director Chris Paine and Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, discuss the documentary “Revenge of the Electric Car.” Paine (who directed the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car”) goes behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to follow the race be the first, the best electric car, and to win the hearts and minds of the public around the world. "Revenge of the Electric Car" opens October 21 at Landmark Sunshine Cinemas.

Walter Forsberg, research fellow at NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, and Louise Weinberg, registrar and curator at the Queens Museum of Art, discuss the Ninth Annual Home Movie Day, a day-long celebration of amateur filmmaking and home movie preservation. This year’s featured subject is the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair, and the event takes place Saturday, October 15, at the Queens Museum of Art. Members of the public are invited to bring their home movies to a local event where they will be inspected by projectionists and shared with the audience.

Neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang discuss how a child’s brain develops, from conception to college, looking at language learning, sleep problems, gender differences, and behavior issues. They debunk myths and look at the factors that matter—and those that don’t—in children’s brain development. They’re the co-authors of Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College.

How well do you know your child's brain? Take this quiz to find out!

Writer, comedian and sometime Lopate Show guest host Andy Borowitz joined us to talk about America's funniest writers. He also shared what he's been reading recently and his favorite comfort food.