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The Leonard Lopate Show

Thursday, July 31, 2008
  • Annie

    Hard Knock Life

    Charles Strouse, the Broadway composer who gave us hits like "Annie" and "Bye Bye Birdie," looks back on his life in New York, Hollywood, and beyond. Also, States of the Union is all about North Dakota, a.k.a. the Peace Garden State. And on Underreported: why hundreds of millions of dollars in small business contracts have been awarded to corporate giants.

    We're hosting another FREE Lopate Show film screening this coming Monday, August 4! We'll be watching the 1972 film "The Candidate." Seats are almost gone, so RSVP soon. Find out more.

Charles Strouse: Put on a Happy Face

Charles Strouse, one of the most successful composers in Broadway history, gave us the music for hits like “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Annie,” and “Applause.” He gives us an insider’s view of Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond in his new memoir, Put on a Happy Face.

States of the Union: North Dakota

Find out which issues matters most to voters in the Peace Garden State and how rising prices for food are affecting the nation’s leading producer of hard red spring wheat. Also: whether the presence of oil in the Western half of the state is generating more interest as oil prices rise. Dale Wetzel is state Capitol reporter for The Associated Press in Bismarck, N.D.

States of the Union fact of the week: North Dakota has the nation’s only state-owned bank and its only state-owned flour mill. Both businesses were approved by the ND Legislature in 1919 to satisfy farmers’ needs for credit and grain marketing.

A Summer of Family Traumas

Roxana Robinson’s new novel, Cost, is about a New York art professor who travels to Maine to spent the summer with her elderly parents, and subsequently gets entangled in family traumas.

Underreported: Small Business Money Goes to Corporate Giants

During 2006 and 2007, the Department of Interior awarded over $430 million in small business contracts to corporate giants like Xerox and John Deere. We look into how that happened, and whether that’s part of a larger pattern of directing small business money to large corporations. Lloyd Chapman is president and founder of the American Small Business League, a non-partisan group advocacy group for small businesses.

The Future of Global Free Trade

Talks at the World Trade Organization collapsed earlier this week, ending a 7-year effort to create a new global trade pact. Some experts say the end of these negotiations could mean an end to decades of continuous expansion of global free-trade deals. Simon Cox is economics correspondent for The Economist magazine.

Patrick Swayze

The Leonard Lopate Show

Patrick Swayze mixed grace with athleticism in his movies – and rose to stardom with roles in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost.” He died just recently after a battle with pancreatic cancer. And you can hear his interview with Leonard Lopate from July 16, 2002, when he came by to discuss appearing in the film, “Green Dragon.”

The Silver Anniversary of the Silver Palate

The Leonard Lopate Show

Sheila Lukins was one half of a partnership that helped popularize gourmet cooking throughout America – first, through their gourmet food shop in New York City and then with the cookbook, The Silver Palate, which remains one of the top-selling cookbooks of all time. She collaborated on 2 other cookbooks that simplified gourmet cooking for the home cook. She died recently from brain cancer at the age of 66, and you can listen to her 2007 conversation with Leonard Lopate and her business partner Julee Rosso about the 25th Anniversary of the publication of The Silver Palate.

Dominick Dunne

The Leonard Lopate Show

Dominick Dunne was a famous novelist and Hollywood producer. But he may be best remembered for covering trials of the rich and famous – from Claus von Bulow to O. J. Simpson. He died just recently at the age of 83. But you can still hear his interview with Leonard from November 23, 2001, when he was discussing crimes, trials, and punishments.

Let’s Go Swimming!

The Leonard Lopate Show

According to the Centers for Disease Control, bacterial, viral, and parasitic organisms found in recreational water in the United States sicken thousands of people every year, and even result in deaths. We’ll speak with chemist and industrial hygienist Monona Rossol about the protozoa, amoebas and other things that love to go swimming with us. Monona is also founder and President of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety.

Frank McCourt

The Leonard Lopate Show

Frank McCourt has been a guest many times on this show over the years, starting in 1996 for the memoir, Angela’s Ashes, that would earn him a Pulitzer Prize. Fame came to him late in life, after he’d retired at the age of 65 from teaching English and creative writing at public schools here in New York. He was a sweet, eloquent man who spoke with grace and humility; he just died at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer. You can hear him speaking with Leonard Lopate for his Survival Kit in 2000, and in 2005, for his memoir, Teacher Man.

Science and Faith

The Leonard Lopate Show

Earlier this week, Pres. Obama announced that he plans to nominate geneticist Dr. Francis Collins to lead the National Institutes of Health. You can listen to Leonard’s 2006 conversation with Dr. Collins about how he reconciles his personal faith with his professional scientific knowledge.

FDA to Regulate Tobacco?

The Leonard Lopate Show

May 14, 2009
Congress is getting ready to a vote on whether to make tobacco subject to FDA regulation. You can listen to a segment we did in May about the bill and what it would mean for the cigarette companies.

Our 3-ingredient Challenge wins a James Beard Award

The Leonard Lopate Show

On May 3, the Lopate Show won its third James Beard Award for our 3-ingredient challenge. In August, we asked our listeners to call in and name 3 ingredients and then challenged New York chef and 3-ingredient expert Rozanne Gold to whip up a recipe! You can listen to the 3-ingredient challenge and get some inspiration for simple, delicious, and unexpected dishes.

Leonard is on Facebook

Now Leonard is on Facebook! We’re posting photos, status updates, links to notable interviews, and lots more. Check it out.

Barack Obama, Circa 2004

The Leonard Lopate Show

Listen to President-Elect Barack Obama on the Leonard Lopate Show in November 2004. He had recently won a seat in the U.S. Senate, and only a few months before, his rousing speech during the 2004 Democratic National Convention catapulted him into the national spotlight.

Guest Picks

The Leonard Lopate Show

Find out surprising facts about some recent guests on the Leonard Lopate Show. Check out our Guest Picks section! Did you know that football star Herschel Walker loves Judge Judy, Laurie Anderson is a big fan of agility training for dogs, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi likes Johnny Depp?