“On November 9, 2016, just a few minutes after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, a man named Vyacheslav Nikonov approached a microphone in the Russian State Duma (their equivalent of the US House of Representatives) and made a very unusual statement. ‘Dear friends, respected colleagues!’ Nikonov said. ‘Three minutes ago, Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections, and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America, and I congratulate you on this.’ Nikonov is a leader in the pro-Putin United Russia Party and, incidentally, the grandson of Vyacheslav Molotov — after whom the ‘Molotov cocktail’ was named. His announcement that day was a clear signal that Trump’s victory was, in fact, a victory for Putin’s Russia. Longtime journalist Craig Unger opens his new book, ‘House of Trump, House of Putin,’ with this anecdote. The book is an impressive attempt to gather up all the evidence we have of Trump’s numerous connections to the Russian mafia and government and lay it all out in a clear, comprehensive narrative.” – Sean Illing, Vox. On Thursday’s “Leonard Lopate at Large,” Craig tells Leonard about just how deep President Trump’s connections to the Russian mob go.

Scientists predict that depression will be the largest cause of disability worldwide in the next 20 years. But treatment for it hasn’t changed much in the last three decades. In his new book “The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression” released on December 31 on Picador, University of Cambridge Professor of Psychiatry Edward Bullmore reveals the link between depression and the inflammation of the body and brain. “The Inflamed Mind” goes beyond the clinic and the lab to examine how mind, brain and body all work together in an often-misguided effort to help us survive in a hostile world. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Edward Bullmore discusses the science behind the methodology he outlined in the book.

“We had lunch on a large covered balcony overlooking the sea. Bono asked my father about the beginning of Apple. Did the team feel alive? Did they sense it was something big and they were going to change the world? My father said it did feel that way as they were making the Macintosh, and Bono said it was that way for him and the band, too, and wasn’t it incredible that people in such disparate fields could have the same experience? Then Bono asked, ‘So, was the Lisa computer named after her?’ There was a pause. I braced myself—prepared for his answer. My father hesitated, looked down at his plate for a long moment, and then back at Bono. ‘Yeah, it was,’ he said. I sat up in my chair. ‘I thought so,’ Bono said. ‘Yup,’ my father said. I studied my father’s face. What had changed? Why had he admitted it now, after all these years? Of course it was named after me, I thought then. His lie seemed preposterous now. I felt a new power that pulled my chest up. ‘That’s the first time he’s said yes,’ I told Bono. ‘Thank you for asking.’ As if famous people needed other famous people around to release their secrets.” - excerpt from Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s memoir “Small Fry,” courtesy of Vanity Fair. In today's installment of "Leonard Lopate at Large," Lisa discusses her life growing up with the most important technological visionary of our time.

On Friday’s show, Leonard talks to Italian food expert Lou Di Palo, the owner of his favorite cheese shop, Di Palo's Fine Foods in Little Italy. The food blog Serious Eats described Di Palo's Fine Foods a “100-year-old Italian specialty market with incredible mozzarella and fresh porchetta. Expect long waits, but they're worth it.” Chef Daniel Boulud has called Di Palo one of the seven wonders of New York. “Di Palo’s stories come from the gathering of the food, the discovery of where it was made,” wrote Kenneth Rapoza of Forbes. “It’s not so much about the taste, but what makes it taste that way in the first place. So it all inevitably comes down to the air and the water and the grass and the sheepherder he’s met that led him to the perfect little farm, that made the perfect little cheese, somewhere south of Trentino.” Don’t miss Leonard’s conversation with this giant of Italian cuisine

It was just a few years into the education reform movement that journalist Natalie Wexler stumbled across the real explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress on ensuring every child a high-quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats—lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. Join us for a discussion of the issues that inspired Natalie’s book “The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it” in this edition of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services have become a ubiquitous presence in the five boroughs over the past several years, but their popularity has raised questions about whether drivers can actually make a living working for them. The City Council recently voted to halt the issuing of new licenses for these services, and to set a minimum wage for drivers, based on the new study “An Earnings Standard for New York City’s App-based Drivers: Economic Analysis and Policy Assessment,” which looked at pay rates and working conditions for drivers working in the ride-sharing economy. On Friday’s show, one of the co-authors of the study, Dr. James A. Parrott, joins Leonard in the studio for a discussion of this complicated and controversial issue.

“Because insects are legion, inconspicuous and hard to meaningfully track, the fear that there might be far fewer than before was more felt than documented,” writes New York Times reporter Brooke Jarvis's article “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here: What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?” reads. “People noticed it by canals or in backyards or under streetlights at night — familiar places that had become unfamiliarly empty. The feeling was so common that entomologists developed a shorthand for it, named for the way many people first began to notice that they weren’t seeing as many bugs. They called it the windshield phenomenon.” In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Brooke Jarvis is joined by two of the scientists quoted in her article, Dr. Arthur Shapiro of UC Davis and Dr. David Wagner of the University of Connecticut, for a discussion of what is behind this massive insect disappearance.

"Cracked Up" is a new documentary from filmmaker Michelle Esrick that recounts the incredible story of actor, comedian, master impressionist and "Saturday Night Live" veteran, Darrell Hammond. A victim of child abuse, Darrell ascended to comedy's greatest heights. Yet behind the scenes, he suffered from debilitating flashbacks, self injury, addiction and misdiagnosis until the right doctor isolated the key to unlocking the memories his brain had kept locked away for over 50 years. Striking an inspiring balance between comedy and tragedy, "Cracked Up" (crackedupmovie.com) helps us understand the effects of childhood trauma in a new light, breaking down barriers of stigma and replacing shame with compassion and hope. On Wednesday’s “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Michelle Esrick and Darrell Hammond join us in the studio for a look behind the mask of one of the world’s preeminent impressionists.

From Abby Ellin's first date with the Commander, she was caught up in a whirlwind. Within six months he'd proposed, and they'd moved in together. But soon, his exotic stories of international espionage began to unravel. Finally, it all became clear: he was lying about who he was. In her book “Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married,” Abby Ellin studies the art and science of lying, talks to people who've had their worlds upended by duplicitous partners and writes with great openness about her own mistakes. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large,” she talks about writing “Duped” and shares her unbelievable story.

Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled’s latest album, “Bach Suites Volume 1” is slated for release on February 1 on the CTM Classics imprint. Recorded on a Goffriller cello from the year 1733 formerly owned by legendary virtuoso Pablo Casals, the album features Bach’s first three suites. The album marks the first time that Bach’s Suites have been recorded on the instrument since Casals’ own path-breaking venture in 1936. “Casals had nothing in his ear as a model when he began recording the Suites," Peled said. "When I started, I had his recording, of course, plus those of 50 other great cellists.” Join us for a special in-studio performance of Bach’s cello suites from Amit Peleed.

Was an advanced civilization lost to history in the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age? In his book “America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization,” Graham Hancock, the internationally bestselling author, draws on the latest archaeological and DNA evidence to bring his quest to a stunning conclusion. We’ve been taught that North and South America were empty of humans until around 13,000 years ago, but new discoveries have radically reshaped this long-established picture and we know now that the Americas were first peopled more than 130,000 years ago—many tens of thousands of years before human settlements became established elsewhere. In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Graham Hancock discusses what his has uncovered about this unknown history.

The human brain is an extraordinary machine. Its ability to process information and adapt to circumstances by reprogramming itself is unparalleled and it remains the best source of inspiration for recent developments in artificial intelligence. In his new book “How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine…for Now,” Stanislas Dehaene decodes the brain's biological mechanisms, delving into the elaborate processes taking place inside our heads. Join us for a discussion of the finer points of the human mind in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

“Within about 15 years, China’s economy will surpass America’s and become the largest in the world,” reads the opening line of Kishore Mahbubani’s cover story for this month’s Harper’s Magazine entitled “What China Threat? How the United States and China can avoid war. He continues, "as this moment approaches, meanwhile, a consensus has formed in Washington that China poses a significant threat to American interests and well-being.” In this installment of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, Kishore Mahbubani, a professor in the practice of public policy at the National University of Singapore, discusses what is driving the US-China conflict and what can be done to ease tensions between the two countries.

On our first day back on the air after the station was taken over by a rogue faction at the Pacifica network, WBAI’s program director Linda Perry and general manager Berthold Reimers take your calls and try to explain the bizarre events of the past few weeks.

The documentary “A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics, Genetics and the American Dream” reveals how biologically determined politics has disenfranchised women and people of color, provided a rationale for state sanctioned crimes committed against America’s most vulnerable citizens, and now gains new traction under the Trump administration. Featuring interviews with social thinkers such as Van Jones and Robert Reich, as well as prominent scientists, “A Dangerous Idea” is a radical reassessment of the meaning, use and misuse of gene science. On Tuesday’s show, Leonard speaks to director Stephanie Welch and co-writer Andrew Kimbrell about this important work.

During the last half a century of its existence, the Ottoman Empire and the lands around its borders were places of constant political turmoil and unceasing military action. The enormous costs of war were paid not only by politicians and soldiers, but by the Ottoman civilian population as well. Jeremy Salt’s book “The Last Ottoman Wars: The Human Cost, 1877–1923” examines the hardships that ordinary people, Muslim and Christian alike, endured during decades of warfare. Join us for a discussion of this turbulent time in human history in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Covering fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children’s books, history, and more James Mustich’s book “1,000 Books to Read Before You Die” ranges across cultures and through time to offer an eclectic collection of works that each deserve to come with the recommendation, “you have to read this!” The book is not a proscriptive list of the “great works”—rather, it’s a celebration of the varied mosaic that is our literary heritage. Join James Mustich and Leonard for a discussion of what the Washington Post called “the ultimate literary bucket list,” in this edition of “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI.

In his new book “The World According to Physics,” quantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al-Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at what physics reveals about the world. Join us for a discussion of what physics can tell us about the universe and our home planet in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Before he became a familiar journalistic voice at WNYC or WBAI’s former general manger, Robert Hennelly was national affairs correspondent for Pacifica Network News. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, the Village Voice, the Christian Science Monitor, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free Press along with dozens of other magazines and newspapers. His work has been featured on “60 Minutes” and C-Span's “America and the Courts.” In latest appearance on Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Bob talks about his latest reporting on local and national politics.

“Readers will find many parallels to today’s fraught political environment,” reads the Publishers Weekly review of “Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny” by Wednesday’s guest on “Leonard Lopate at Large” on WBAI, UC San Diego professor Edward J. Watts. “The powerful influence of money in politics, a delegitimized establishment and the emergence of a personality-driven, populist politicking…His well-crafted analysis makes clear the subject matter’s relevance to contemporary political conversations.” While Americans often compare this particular moment in the nation’s history to the fall of Rome, in this installment of the show, Leonard and Prof. Watts will examine the concrete similarities between the end of their civilization and ours.