Daily Schedule

Today, we’ll mark the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. Jonathan Rieder talks about Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” We’ll discuss a documentary about Dr. King’s life and work, from the beginnings of his campaign for civil rights to his assassination in 1968. We’ll look at the role civil rights activist Bayard Rustin played in the movement. He was marginalized for being openly gay. We’ll joined by his partner, Walter Naegle. And we’ll discuss another 50 year anniversary with former New York Times columnist Ira Berkow and the time he’s covered the NY Mets.

Your morning companion from NPR and the WNYC Newsroom, with world news, local features, and weather updates.

The fast food worker movement is growing. Marc Doussard, professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and author of the new book Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom ...

The Peabody Award-winning program features Terry Gross’ fearless and insightful interviews with big names in pop culture, politics and the arts.

A wrap-up of the day’s news, with features and interviews about the latest developments in New York City and around the world, from NPR and the WNYC newsroom.

A wrap-up of the day’s news, with features and interviews about the latest developments in New York City and around the world, from NPR and the WNYC newsroom.

In this episode: In his new memoir, Buck, writer and filmmaker MK Asante charts the story of his Philadelphia (or as he calls it, "Killadelphia") childhood, and finding an education through rap, poetry and mystical strangers.

Then, Soundcheck's ongoing series That Was A Hit!?! continues with a look at a musician whose entire career is one long string of improbabilities, including his second No. 1 hit, which zoomed its way to the top of the charts due to its use on the daytime soap General Hospital.

And singer-songwriter Siddhartha Khosla -- who fronts the band Goldspot -- performs songs from his new album Aerogramme, a record that brings together the story of his family's eastern roots with the sounds of his western pop music heroes.

The thumb piano, which in Zimbabwe, is called “mbira,” in Uganda, “kalimba,” in the Congo, “likembe,” – is an instrument made of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached.  We’ll have an hour of music involving the thumb piano for this New Sounds program, from a gentle song by Arthur Russell, interpreted by Jens Lekman to the Kronos Quartet, to the psychedelic electronic music in the Congotronics series of records.