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In our Please Explain feature, we set aside time every Friday afternoon to get to the bottom of one complex issue. Ever wonder how New York City's water system works? Or how the US became so polarized politically? We'll back up and review the basic facts and principles of complicated issues across a broad range of topics — history, politics, science, you name it.

Please Explain: Alcohol

The Leonard Lopate Show

November 06, 2009

Our latest Please Explain is all about alcohol--what it is, how it works and the ways it affects our bodies. We'll be joined by Dr. Rueben Gonzales, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Texas and by Dr. Henry R. Kranzler, Professor of Psychiatry and Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

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Please Explain: Electricity

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 30, 2009

How does electricity get from its source into your home and to your cell phone charger, television, or microwave? We’ll find out on today’s Please Explain. Michael Caramanis, Boston University Professor of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, joins us, along with Dr. Robert Thomas, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University.

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Please Explain: Sleep

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 23, 2009

Sleeping is something all of us do every day, but exactly what happens to us when we sleep isn’t completely understood. On today’s edition of Please Explain, we’re looking into why we sleep, why we sometimes can’t sleep, and why many of us aren’t sleeping enough. Dr. Allan Pack, Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, Co-Director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, join us.

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Please Explain: Regional Accents

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 16, 2009

You can tell a lot about someone from the way they speak. On today’s edition of Please Explain we’ll look at the different accents found around the United States and find out where they come from and why they persist. Joining us are Natalie Schilling-Estes, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University, and Kara Becker, of the Department of Linguistics at New York University.

Clips of the New Jersey, Outer Banks, Boston, and Midwest accents are from the International Dialects of English Archive.

Clips of the Brooklyn and Atlanta accents are from George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive.

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Please Explain: Prions

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 09, 2009

On today’s Please Explain we're looking at prions and how they can cause infectious diseases such as Mad Cow disease and the Chronic Wasting disease that’s been affecting deer, elk, and moose herds in the West and Midwest. Dr. David Westaway, Professor of Neurology and Director of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta; and Walker Jackson, postdoctoral associate in the Lindquist Laboratory at MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research join us.

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Please Explain: Animal Migration

The Leonard Lopate Show

October 02, 2009

The days are growing shorter and colder, and birds, butterflies, and other animals are starting to head to warmer climates for the winter. These journeys are often thousand of miles—monarch butterflies can fly as far as 3,000 miles to winter in Mexico. On today’s Please Explain, we’ll find out how these animals know when and where to go. We’ll also talk about how climate change is affecting animal migration. We’re joined by Leon Kreitzman, co-author with Russell Foster of Rhythms of Life and Seasons of Life; and Dr. David Wilcove, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, and Director of the Program in Environmental Studies, at Princeton University, and author of No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations.

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Please Explain: Sharks

The Leonard Lopate Show

September 25, 2009

There are some 440 species of sharks, and the fish have been swimming in the oceans for 420 million years, before dinosaurs existed. On today's Please Explain we'll find out about sharks, from hammerheads to great whites, and look at how they are becoming threatened. We're joined by Melanie L. J. Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator of Fishes, Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History; and John Maisey Curator and Axelrod Research Chair, Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History.

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