Guest Hosts

Julie Burstein

Julie Burstein is a writer, radio host and producer who loves sitting in for Leonard Lopate. She is the creator and founding executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning Studio 360, public radio’s premiere national weekly show about creativity, pop culture and the arts. She has also produced radio series for Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, hosted talk shows and music programs on both public and commercial stations, and frequently moderates panels at the American Museum of Natural History. Currently, Julie is writing the first Studio 360 book, on creativity and inspiration, which will be published by Harper Studio in 2010.

Philip Gourevitch

Philip Gourevitch is the Editor of The Paris Review, and a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of A Cold Case (2001) and We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: stories from Rwanda (1998), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angelese Times Book Prize, and in England, the Guardian First Book Award. His books have been translated in nine languages, and his short stories have appeared in a number of journals. Before relaunching The Paris Review last year, Gourevitch had traveled extensively for a decade, writing from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and In 2004, he was The New Yorker’s Washington Correspondent, covering the presidential election. Most recently, he reported on Sri Lanka’s civil war in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Katherine Lanpher

Katherine Lanpher is a writer and broadcaster whose first book, a memoir of her move to New York from Minnesota entitled "Leap Days," will be published this fall. She was the host of a popular weekday call-in show on Minnesota Public Radio from 1998-2004 and also hosted "Talking Volumes," an interview show with authors ranging from Salman Rushdie to Margaret Atwood that was broadcast live from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. She moved to Manhattan on Leap Day 2004 to co-host on "The Al Franken Show" as heard on Air America Radio and seen on the Sundance Channel and left a year and a half later to pursue work on her book. A former reporter and newspaper columnist, Lanpher's work has appeared in The New York Times, as well as More and Marie Claire magazines. She is the host and curator of the music and interview series held at the flagship Barnes and Noble store in Union Square, "Upstairs at the Square." She has been a guest host and commentator on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and has appeared on shows on CNN, MSNBC and PBS. She lives in Greenwich Village.

Dean Olsher

Dean Olsher has been a radio broadcaster for 30 years. Much of the last 20 he spent in public radio, serving as arts and culture correspondent for NPR News and, most recently, as the creator and host of The Next Big Thing. Currently a visiting professor in the journalism department at NYU, Dean also recorded the audio version of Steven Pinker's new book The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature and is finishing his own book about crossword puzzles (Scribner).

Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Toobin has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since January 1993. Mr. Toobin is also the legal analyst for CNN, which he joined in 2002 after six years with ABC News. In 2000, he received an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elian Gonzalez case. His most recent book is Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election, which was published in 2001 by Random House. He is also the author of A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President (Random House, 2000), and The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson (Random House, 1996). Both books were New York Times best-sellers. Mr. Toobin lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.