Justin Davidson, New York magazine’s architecture critic, looks at the ways development has changed the city’s character during the Bloomberg years. We’ll take calls on how neighborhoods have changed through new zoning, historic districts, and new construction in the last decade. 

Filmmakers Jon Alpert  discusses founding the Downtown Community Television Center 40 years ago, and looks at how it has grown over the past four decades.

Sherman Alexie talks about his 20-year, 20-book career as a writer known for his irreverent observations of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. His newest collection, Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories, which includes 15 classics with 15 new stories in one anthology.

Daisy Foote talks about writing the play “Him,” which stars her sister Hallie Foote. “Him” explores the institution of the American family. Two siblings struggling to keep the family store afloat must decide which is a priority: their father’s final wishes or their financial stability. It’s playing at Primary Stages through October 28.

Journalist Nancy Mullane tells the story of five convicted murderers sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, who discover after decades in prison that a second chance, if it comes at all, is also the challenge of a lifetime. Her book Life After Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption follows their legal battles to make good on the state’s promise of parole, and the how they changed after so many years in prison. 

Actress Hallie Foote was on the Leonard Lopate Show recently to talk about starring in the off-Broadway production of "Him," written by her sister Daisy. The chocolate fan also told us what she's been reading and watching recently.

Playwright Daisy Foote was on the Leonard Lopate Show recently to talk about the new off-Broadway production of her play "Him," starring her sister Hallie Foote. She also told us what she's been reading and watching -- let's just say, she enjoys a good mystery.

Writer Sherman Alexie was on the Leonard Lopate Show recently to talk about his latest collection of stories -- his 20th! -- called Blasphemy. He also told us what he's been reading and listening to recently.

Former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter was quite a character. Hard-edged and sometimes difficult, Specter was at the center of the Senate’s legal battles for years as a ranking member of the Judiciary Committee – particularly Supreme Court nominations. He also had a large independent streak, which led him to announce that he was switching parties and becoming a Democrat in 2009. The move cost him his Senate seat. He died on Sunday at the age of 82 of complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was on the Leonard Lopate Show in 2008 and he told Leonard about his earlier battle with Hodgkin’s disease and his long career in the Senate.