Chris Kimball, founder, publisher and editor of Cook’s Illustrated and host of “America’s Test Kitchen,” was on the Leonard Lopate Show recently to share his list of essential kitchen equipment. Here’s his list – along with some helpful pointers about how to care for your pots and pans.

"If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything." So tells the celebrated and deceased author David Foster Wallace in a 1996 interview with Leonard Lopate Show. In this Blank on Blank digital animation, Wallace talks about his thoughts on ambition.

We asked you to share your essential cookbooks - you know, the ones that have stains and notes all over them that contain your favorite, tried-and-true recipes.

Listeners shared over 50 titles with us! Click below to see them all, and maybe find a new favorite. Don't see your old stand-by on the list? Add it to the list in the comments below!

Jack Bishop, editorial director of America’s Test Kitchen, joined us recently to talk about what essential ingredients every cook should have on-hand in their kitchen at all times. Here’s his list – along with some helpful tips on how to store them so that they last longer:

Celebrated novelist Philip Roth is turning 80 this week. As you may have heard on WNYC, he's returning to Newark to mark the occasion. You can mark the occasion by listening to his conversations with Leonard Lopate - he was on the show in 2008 to talk about Indignation and in 2010 to talk about Nemesis.

When Food 52.com's Amanda Hesser joined us for Food Fridays, we talked about how to make a recipe your own. Now it's your turn!

Our first Food Friday includes a look at how to make red wine vinegar, sriracha sauce and other condiments at home. Do-it-yourself projects are a big part of our Food Fridays series, so tell us: What do you want to learn how to make? Is it beer? Bread? Greek-style yogurt? Pickles?

Tell us in comments section below, and we’ll see if we can include it in a future Food Fridays DIY segment!

There are quite a few "Downton Abbey" fans here at the show, and we're pretty excited to watch the end of Season Three. In preparation for Sunday's finale, you can listen back to Leonard's conversation with Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, and Joanne Froggatt. (You may know them better as Lord and Lady Grantham and Anna Bates.) They were on the show at the beginning of Season Two. You can also read Dan Stevens's Guest Picks!

WNYC will be live-chatting during Sunday's finale, which starts at 9 pm. Join us!

This year, the Leonard Lopate Show spoke with many of the actors, directors, and writers of films nominated for Oscars in 2013. The Academy Awards are being held Sunday, February 24.

On Thursday, Senator Chuck Hagel, Pres. Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense, will testify before the Senate Armed Forces Committee. As he prepares for his confirmation hearings, you can hear his 2008 conversation with Leonard Lopate about his memoir, America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers.

On Thursday, John Kerry, Pres. Obama's nominee for Secretary of State, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations committee at his confirmation haring for the post. He was on the show back in March 2007, along with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. They discussed their involvement in environmental issues, which Sen. Kerry discussed during his testimony on Thursday. You can listen to Leonard's conversation with the Kerrys below.

You can keep up with the Leonard Lopate Show on Facebook and Twitter! Find out who's on the show, see photos, listen to interviews you may have missed, and ask questions and leave comments.

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When asked how the candidates intend to address the issue of unequal pay for women in the workplace in the debate Tuesday night,  President Obama referred to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first bill he signed into law when he took office. Mr. Obama said: "It's named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn't bring suit because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about it. So we fixed that."

Lilly Ledbetter told her story on the Leonard Lopate Show in March, and you can listen to to that interview here!

Having watched Vice President Joe Biden debate Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan last night (you can hear Andy Borowitz's take on the night here), we thought we'd post the audio from Leonard's 2007 conversation with then-Senator Joe Biden. He doesn't call Leonard his friend, but he does call him a wise guy.

The 2012 National Book Award nominees were announced this week, and many of the finalists in the fiction and nonfiction categories have been on the Lopate Show to talk about their work. We love great conversations about great books! Listen to those interviews:

Fiction

Junot Diaz on This is How You Lose Her

Louise Erdrich on The Round House

Ben Fountain on Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Kevin Powers on The Yellow Birds 

Nonfiction

Katherine Boo on Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Robert Caro on The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power

Nada Bakri on her late husband Anthony Shadid's memoir House of Stone. Anthony Shadid died while covering the conflict in Syria in February 2012.

Writer Junot Diaz, whose 2007 novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and whose most recent book is This Is How You Lose Her, was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant. You can listen to Leonard's conversations with him about both of those books.

Listen: Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her, September 11, 2012

Listen: The Wondrous Debut Novel of Junot Diaz, October 1, 2007

Junot Diaz on Studio 360 February 25, 2011, live in the Greene Space

When he accepted the presidential nomination earlier this month, Barack Obama joked about the nature of modern politics—and the amount of money required to run a media campaign— by saying “If you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I.” There was sustained applause.

The Museum of the Moving Image has a great collection of Presidential campaign advertisements and posted below are a few examples of the lost art of the political jingle. The lyrics in most of these ads aren’t exactly at Cole Porter levels of word-play. A few notable clunkers include: “He is the gov that brings the dove of peace and joy” and “Reachin’ out across the sea, makin’ friends where foes used to be.” But many of them are catchy.

Take this 1952 ad for Adlai Stevenson. The Democratic governor of Illinois may have lost two consecutive Presidential elections, but he did produce at least one hummable advertisement.  The show-tunes vote has been an essential swing constituency ever since.

More jingles after the jump--->

After Wyclef Jean's interview with Leonard, in which he said he wanted to sample Leonard on his next album, he sat down at the piano in WNYC's green room and played a song.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice organization, addressed the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. She was one of the Nuns on the Bus, and she spoke with guest host Julie Burstein in August about her advocacy work for the poor and why she was critical of Paul Ryan's budget. At the convention she didn't expressly endorse President Barack Obama, but she did speak out against the Romney-Ryan budget, saying it would hurt struggling families.