Julia Corcoran joined the show as an intern in spring 2007 after listening to the show for many years, and joined the staff full-time in February 2009. She produces the Please Explain series, the Leonard Lopate Show Book Club, and other segments on topics ranging from root vegetables to politics and the economy to the musical stylings of Weird Al Yankovic. She has reported and produced radio features for WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany and for WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut. Julia studied literature and art at the University of New Mexico, and has an M.S. from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. In her spare time, she enjoys escaping the city to climb up and ski down mountains.

Blakeney joined the show as an intern in the fall of 2004, before becoming an Associate Producer in 2007. She contributes to the Underreported and Backstory series and keeps an eye on national and international politics, and produced the year-long States of the Union series during the 2008 presidential campaign. Blakeney went to Bowdoin College, where she studied Government and Spanish.