WAMC's The Roundtable is an award-winning, nationally recognized eclectic talk program. The show airs from 9am to noon each weekday and features news, interviews, in-depth discussion, listener call-ins, music, and much (much) more!
The Roundtable podcast is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys insightful and thought-provoking discussions. As someone who looks forward to snow days and long weekends, I find great joy in being able to listen to the panel live. However, even when life gets busy, I am grateful for the convenience of podcasts, allowing me to catch up on episodes at my own pace. The Roundtable has become an integral part of my listening routine ever since I discovered it while working in Albany, NY.
One of the best aspects of The Roundtable is the diversity of opinions and perspectives brought to the discussion by the panelists. They do not shy away from expressing their own viewpoints and are not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. This makes for a refreshing and engaging listening experience, as I get a well-rounded understanding of various topics. The depth of knowledge and expertise displayed by the panelists is truly impressive, covering a wide range of subjects including current events, politics, culture, and more.
Another standout aspect of this podcast is its ability to keep me informed about important issues happening outside my listening area. Even though I do not live within range of WAMC's broadcast signal, I am grateful that I can still stay connected through their podcast. The Roundtable provides valuable insights into regional news as well as national and international events.
While there are many positives about The Roundtable podcast, it is important to acknowledge that some listeners may find it challenging if they prefer a more neutral or balanced approach in their news roundup talk shows. As mentioned earlier, the panelists express their opinions freely and passionately which may be perceived as biased by some individuals seeking a more impartial analysis.
In conclusion, The Roundtable podcast has become an invaluable source of information and entertainment for me. It has elevated itself above other news roundup talk shows due to its willingness to take a strong stand on key issues while maintaining intellectual rigor and respect for different perspectives. Whether I have the luxury of listening live during a snow day or catching up on episodes at an accelerated pace, I always find myself engrossed in the discussions. The Roundtable is a podcast that continues to impress and inspire me with its engaging panel and insightful conversations.
This week's Book Picks comes from Jackie Kellachan from the Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY and Mindy Kay Bricker from Kinderhook Books in Kinderhook, NY.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Biomedical Engineer and Principal Scientist at Regeneron Ahmad Abu-Hakmeh, Former Associate Editor for the Times-Union Mike Spain, and Semi-retired, Editor at large/columnist/editorial writer, Times Union Jay Jochnowitz.
As a solo artist and a founding member of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox has been making adventurous, generation-defining music for a quarter-century as Panda Bear. His newest album, “Sinister Grift” – his first solo record since 2019's “Buoys,” came out in February of this year on British indie label Domino.Panda Bear is playing Woodsist Festival at Arrowood Farms in Accord, New York and he spoke with Will Hermes for WAMC.
Our Suburb is a re-telling of Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. The play takes place in suburban Skokie, Illinois, 1977, where two families, one Jewish, one agnostic, deal with the approaching Nazi march coming through town and the love between their children in a dangerous time.Our Suburb will have performances at the Rosendale Theatre starting on Thursday September 18th and run through Sunday September 21st. You can go to rosendaletheatre.org for more details and ticket information.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Preceptor in Public Speaking, Strategic Communications, and Public Relations for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University Terry Gipson, Senior Fellow at the Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer, Professor of Government at Dutchess Community College and President of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley Dr. Karin Riedl, and Investment Banker on Wall Street Mark Wittman.
Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.
In "Living in the Present with John Prine," acclaimed writer Tom Piazza invites readers into the intimate final chapters of a legend's life. What begins as an assignment for Oxford American in the spring of 2018 evolves into much more than a magazine profile. As they trace winding roads and wander through record stores, Piazza and Prine cultivate a deep friendship, rich with laughter, storytelling, and the quiet magic that occurs when art and camaraderie converge.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert - Theresa Bourgeois, Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College Beau Breslin, and Senior Fellow for Health Policy at The Empire Center for Public Policy Bill Hammond.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Chief of Staff and Vice President for Strategy and Policy at Bard College Malia DuMont, a grants analyst based in Albany (who has seen firsthand the impact that state and federal funding can have on businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits.) Emily Honen, and Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick.
For environmentalists the last few years have been a series of bad defeats, but underneath and largely unnoticed there is one big good thing that is happening and that's the rapid rise of power from the sun.The cost of alternative energy has fallen below the price of fossil fuels. Now around the world every 18 hours people install solar panels equivalent to a coal fire power plant, this is faster than any energy transition in history. It may be the only remaining chance to slow down the rapid heating of the Earth. Bill McKibben is the author of the new book “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance Civilization.”
"All Things Considered" host Mary Louise Kelly will join us to tell us about her new podcast, "Sources & Methods with Mary Louise Kelly." Publishing each Thursday, it will feature Mary Louise and a team of NPR correspondents discussing the biggest national security news of the week.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin, Professional speaker, speaking coach and Albany County legislator Mark Grimm, and Executive Director of Communities for Local Power and former White House Advance Lead Anna Markowitz.
This week's Book Picks comes from Jim Havener from Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta, NY and Cheryl McKeon from The Book House in Albany and Marketblock Books in Troy, NY.
Movement Day 2025 is a community movement event to promote and support the work of Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood. They work to strengthen our community and support children and families to reach their potential from cradle to career. Every family in the community is supported and given the opportunity to grow, learn and thrive. There are two goals for Movement Day 2025. First, rally support for Promise's work to help those who need it most in our community. Second, coming together to strengthen community through movement. A full day celebration of fitness, fun, and community is planned for Oakdale Beach in Hudson, NY.
Award winning filmmaker Ken Burns will be in Albany tomorrow night for a special preview of his upcoming landmark film “The American Revolution” at 7:00 pm at the Palace Theatre in Albany.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College Robert Brigham, The Empire Report's JP Miller, and Former Times-Union Associate Editor Mike Spain.
WAMC's Joe Donahue and Pat Bradley and NCPR's Emily Russell explore demographic and livelihood challenges facing Adirondackers - including an aging population and a workforce struggling to find affordable housing.
WAMC's Joe Donahue and Pat Bradley and NCPR's Cara Chapman explore the challenges and opportunities facing the Adirondack Park from cross-border trade and tourism with Canada, as tariffs and a trade war have caused tensions on both sides.
The Olympic Regional Development Authority, better known as ORDA, plays a vital role in keeping the Olympic spirit alive in New York's North Country.Established after the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, ORDA manages and revitalizes the world-class venues that once hosted athletes from around the globe. Today, those facilities—including Whiteface Mountain, Gore Mountain, Belleayre, and the Olympic Center—are thriving hubs for recreation, training, and competition.ORDA not only supports elite athletes preparing for international competition but also makes these sites accessible to the public, offering skiing, skating, hiking, and year-round activities for families and visitors.
The North Country is alive with culture as evidenced by the three remarkable institutions we welcome to the program this morning.Adirondack Film brings world cinema to local audiences, showcasing international films and fostering conversations about art and storytelling. John Brown Lives! honors the abolitionist's Adirondack legacy by connecting history with today's struggles for justice and equality through education and cultural programming. The Adirondack Center for Writing champions writers and readers of all backgrounds with workshops, residencies, and events that celebrate the power of words.Together, these organizations enrich the Adirondacks, making the region a hub for film, history, and literature.
Joe Donahue is joined by WAMC's Pat Bradley and NCPR's Cara Chapman and Emily Russell to set the scene for this WAMC on The Road broadcast from The High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid, New York. They also preview the Adirondack Roundtable panel conversations that will air on both WAMC and NCPR later in the show.
Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.
Marianne Leone is an actress, essayist, and screenwriter. She is the author of three memoirs “Jesse,” “Ma Speaks Up,” and most recently “Five-Dog Epiphany.” She had a recurring role on HBO's “The Sopranos” as Joanne, Christophers Mother. She has also appeared in films by David O. Russell, Larry David, and John Sayles.Her latest project is a novel, and it is “Christina the Astonishing.” It's a coming-of-age novel told from the perspective of an irrepressible girl by the name of Christina. Her encounters with Catholic school, nuns, Italian mothers, and smalltown Massachusetts all come together in one brewing stew.
Rural ambulance services across New York State are facing a growing crisis that threatens the health and safety of small communities. For decades, these services have relied heavily on volunteers, but that model is straining under modern realities. Fewer people are available to volunteer, while the demand for emergency medical services continues to rise due to aging populations, chronic health conditions, substance abuse, and mental health emergencies.Recognizing these challenges, the New York State Legislature created the Rural Ambulance Services Task Force. The Task Force brings together representatives from state government, EMS professionals, and local stakeholders to study the state of rural emergency care.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Partner with the Albany law firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna Cianna Freeman-Tolbert, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio, and CEO of The Business Council of New York State Heather Mulligan.
Late-night television, once a cornerstone of American entertainment, is facing a dramatic decline. Bill Carter has written about the television industry for over 40 years, mostly at the New York Times, where he was the chief television correspondent for 26 years. He's the author of four books about TV, including 1994's best-selling “The Late Shift,” and a 2010 follow-up, “The War for Late Night.”
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Ulster County Board of Elections Commissioner Ashley Dittus, Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York Nic Rangel, and Investment Banker on Wall St. Mark Wittman.
The new documentary film, “No One Cares About Crazy People” explores the mental health crisis in America through intimate personal stories and urgent social commentary.The film, directed and produced by Gail Freedman, was inspired by Vermont author Ron Powers's acclaimed book of the same name. Powers, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, shares his own family's tragedy - losing his younger son, a musical prodigy, to suicide at age 20 - while following grassroots advocates working to reform the broken mental health system in the United States.“No One Cares About Crazy People” will screen at The Townhall Theatre in Middlebury, Vermont this Saturday, September 6, at 2 p.m.
WAMM Fest 2025 — the Capital Region's first festival dedicated entirely to women-led music. Happening Sunday, September 14 at The Hangar in Troy, the event will bring together powerful harmonies, blazing guitars, and fearless voices across genres, plus a marketplace of women-owned businesses.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and Professor of Politics, Philosophy, and Human Rights at Bard College Roger Berkowitz, Editor at large/columnist/editorial writer, Times Union Jay Jochnowitz, and Albany Law School Professor and director of the Edward P. Swyer Justice Center at Albany Law School Sarah Rogerson.
This week's Book Picks comes from Kim Van Alkemade from Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, NY and Manchester Center, VT and Amy Zimmerman from Chatham Bookstore in Chatham, NY.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College Beau Breslin, and Former Times-Union Associate Editor Mike Spain.
Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.
Nicholas Boggs, whose new book, "Baldwin: A Love Story," offers a fresh, intimate portrait of James Baldwin. Drawing on letters, archives, and conversations, Boggs traces Baldwin's search for connection across Harlem, Paris, and beyond, revealing how love shaped his politics and prose.
Donna Leon's memoir, "Wandering through Life," gave her fans a colorful tour through her life, from childhood in New Jersey to adventures in China and Iran, to her love of Venice and opera. Nowhere, however, did she discuss her writing life.Now in her new collection of essays "BACKSTAGE: Stories of a Writing Life," Donna reveals her admiration for, and inspiration from, the great crime novelists Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their approach to storytelling as she dissects her favorite books of theirs. She expresses her love for Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and her appreciation for Sir Walter Scott's generosity of spirit. And she chronicles the amount of research she undertakes to be able to present her characters and work authentically.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, Former EPA Regional Administrator, Professor at Bennington College, and President of Beyond Plastics Judith Enck, is a writer and analyst; he recently retired from the presidency of Siena College and was a former NY Congressman, and his new book is “The Spirit of Philadelphia” Chris Gibson, and Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick.
"How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism" is a practical guide for parents, caregivers, and others with young men in their lives on how to talk with those young men about fascism and the right-wing, which specifically and particularly preys on them for recruitment.The book covers the history of right-wing recruitment of young men, explaining why the right-wing focuses on recruiting men both on a theoretical basis and through the logic of movement-building, and then moves to practical analysis and suggestions for how to counter recruitment today.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Publisher Emeritus of The Daily Freeman Ira Fusfeld, Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio.
Rogue Oliphant is a collective of musicians that specialize in original songs, and accompanying spoken word lyrics by the Pulitzer Prize winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon and Paul Muldoon and Rogue Oliphant will be performing at Cherry Valley Artworks on August 30th at 7:30 PM.Paul Muldoon & Rogue Oliphant have a new single and Album - Visible from Space. This is what happens when a World-renowned poet joins forces with an all-star musical collective - a transcendent fusion of lyrical spoken-word storytelling and genre-crossing arrangements. The album, Visible from Space, arrives via Soul Selects Records on Friday, September 12th.
Barrington Stage Company presents the world premiere of “Something Beautiful: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty,” at the Boyd-Quinson Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts from August 28-30. The brand new celebration of the work of Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty is conceived of and directed by Jason Danieley.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin, Professor Emeritus of Russian at Hofstra University and author of: Illiberal Vanguard: Populist Elitism in the United States and Russia Alexander Mihailovic, and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan.
This week's Book Picks comes from Kira Wizner from Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook, NY and Lily Bartels from Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady, NY.
Paula Saunders' new novel is “Starting from Here.” It is a portrait of a young woman striving for greatness. It is 1973 Rapid City, South Dakota, at the center of a family struggling to keep afloat is René, a young girl whose dream is to become a dancer. With the support of her mother, Eve, whose own dreams has been dashed by life's many demands. René is sent to train alongside stick-thin sculpted girls in Phoenix, then onto Denver, and beyond.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Stuart Rice Honorary Chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University Fran Berman, Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College Robert Brigham, Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Vassar College Catherine Tan, and Investment Banker on Wall St. Mark Wittman.
Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco is renowned for her outspoken politics, staunch feminism, and commitment to activism. Since 1989, she's released more than 20 records, and championed the work of other artists on her Righteous Babe label. She's on a summer tour with Hurray for the Riff Raff and she spoke with Will Hermes for WAMC.
Author James Ransome joins us; he is the Children's Literacy Legacy Award Winner and the author of the new book “A Place for Us.” The book is a poignant wordless picture book about an unhoused boy and his mother. Ransome's illustrations speak volumes as they convey not only what daily life looks like for this family, but also the love that they have for each other.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Chief of Staff and Vice President for Strategy and Policy at Bard College Malia DuMont, Senior fellow at the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College Ambassador Frederic Hof, Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer, and Political Consultant and lobbyist Libby Post.
Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.
Howard Jones' groundbreaking 1985 album, Dream Into Action, peaked on the UK charts and cracked the US Top 10. It went on to spawn global hit singles, “Things Can Only Get Better” (which experienced a resurgence after being featured on an episode of Netflix's Stranger Things) and “No One is to Blame” as well as “Life in One Day” and “Like to Get to Know You Well."
Sifting through layers and layers of myth and legend—from nineteenth-century dime novels to prestige dramas to the casino billboards outside of present-day Deadwood— author Peter Cozzens unveils the true face of Deadwood South Dakota. He does so in his new book “Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West.” It is the true story of the Black Hills goldrush settlement once described as the most diabolical town on earth.
The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Former EPA Regional Administrator, Professor at Bennington College, and President of Beyond Plastics Judith Enck, Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI Jim Hendler, and Siena University Professor of Economics Aaron Pacitti.