The Roundtable

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.

Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis will tell us about their investigation into the subversion of the Justice Department over the last decade, culminating in President Donald Trump upending this cornerstone of democracy. Their new book in "Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department."

In “Scrim: A New Orleans Story of Resilience and Rescue,” author Kaye Courington offers young readers an inspiring true tale rooted in the vibrant, storm-tested city she calls home.The book follows a young protagonist and a loyal dog named Scrim as they navigate upheaval with courage, curiosity, and care. Courington's narrative honors the texture of New Orleans - the music, neighborhoods, and communal spirit that endure through hardship -while gently teaching children about preparedness, empathy, and hope.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Professor Emeritus of Russian at Hofstra University and author of: Illiberal Vanguard: Populist Elitism in the United States and Russia Alexander Mihailovic, CEO of The Business Council of New York State Heather Mulligan, Siena University Professor of Economics Aaron Pacitti, and economics majors from Siena University -- Micah Moore, Andrew Kirk, and Kylie Castellana.

An award-winning former advertising executive, Marshall Karp is a playwright and a screenwriter, and is the author of the hugely successful NYPD Red Series. His latest is “NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber.”

Toni Morrison is one of the few Americans to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and remains the only black woman to do so. She remains central to nearly every American conversation, which is why her books are being given a fresh look for a new generation of readers, accompanied by new introductions from some of the best writers at work today.Honoree Jeffers is a poet, novelist, and professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. Some of her work includes "The Age of Phillis," "The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois," and most recently "Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings." This morning, we will talk with Honoree, about her introduction to "Beloved."

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, Senior Fellow for Health Policy at The Empire Center for Public Policy Bill Hammond, and Grants analyst based in Albany Emily Honen.

In "Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet," author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, Chuck Collins chronicles how the actions of the top .01% have severe consequences for the rest of us, especially those of marginalized identities.He will be presenting and having a discussion on his book at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley tomorrow night at 7 PM and with us this morning.

"Luigi: The Making and the Meaning" is the first book to explain why the world was primed for the Luigi Mangione moment, showing the history that led an accused killer to be embraced as an avenger with an affection not seen since Jesse James or Robin Hood.

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, Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin, and Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Vassar College Catherine Tan.

This week's Book Picks comes from Connie Brooks and Suzanne Kulick from Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY.

Greg Cope White's memoir “The Pink Marine” is the inspiration for Netflix breakout hit “Boots.” “Boots” tells the story of an 18-year-old closeted gay teenager who enlists in the Marines with his straight best friend. Greg is not only the real-life inspiration he's also one of the show's writers and co-executive producer.

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, Acting Department Head of Cognitive Science, Tetherless World Senior Constellation Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Science Jim Hendler, and The Empire Report's JP Miller.

In the new book “Selected Letters of John Updike” editor James Schiff offers readers a window into that private world drawing from decades of correspondence. Schiff presents a portrait of Updike is both craftsman and confidante, generous, witty, and endlessly reflective about writing and life.

Back for its 37th year, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare includes nearly 500 students from 10 schools in Massachusetts and New York, supported by a cadre of 20 Shakespeare & Company directors, six costume designers, and five production designers.Also, Shakespeare & Company's family-friendly Winter Show returns December 12 – 14th with Sense and Sensibility: a fast-paced, staged reading wherein the wit and romance of Jane Austen's classic tale come to life.

The newly released book "Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses" uses the history of the 26th Amendment and the ongoing fight to promote and defend youth voting rights as a prism through which to teach the history of the struggle for the fundamental right to vote in the United States.Jonathan Becker is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Politics at Bard College where he is also the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement. He has published extensively on student voting rights.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Bard College Vice Chancellor of Global Higher Education Alliance for the XXIst Century, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement Jonathan Becker, UAlbany Lecturer in Africana Studies Jennifer Burns, and Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer.

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.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon is considered “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War.”His most recent book, “Scanty Plot of Ground: A Book of Sonnets,” is a new anthology of beloved classics, hidden treasures and standout contemporary examples of this ever-vital and enthralling verse form. His latest poetry collection, “Joy in Service on Rue Tagore,” is now out in paperback.

Susan Orlean's latest, “Joyride,” is a memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight. She will be in conversation with Joe Donahue at Skidmore College on 11/17 in an event presented by Northshire Bookstore and WAMC on the Road.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government atSkidmore College Beau Breslin, Ulster County Comptroller and former President and CEO of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley March Gallagher, Executive Director of Communities for Local Power and former White House Advance Lead Anna Markowitz, and Semi-retired, Editor at large/columnist/editorial writer, Times Union Jay Jochnowitz.

The Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington celebrates “Noir-vember” this fall with “The New Hard-Boiled: The Birth of American Neo-Noir,” a five-film series highlighting defining thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s.Screenings will take place Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. and Saturday afternoons at 5 p.m., through November 19 with a special screening of Arthur Penn's “Night Moves” followed by a talkback with Penn's son, Emmy-nominated director Matthew Penn.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center's popular “Sounds of the Season” holiday series returns next month from December 12–14, featuring the acclaimed Irish ensemble Danú, rising jazz sensation Stella Cole, and, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performing Bach's Complete Brandenburg Concertos.

Wild Ones is a national nonprofit organization with local chapters that seek to improve the environment by connecting people and native plants. There will be a Native Plant Celebration and Seed Swap this Saturday, November 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Helderberg Room at John Boyd Thacher State Park Visitor Center in Voorheesville, New York.

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, Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, and Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York Nic Rangel.

In “Women Laughing,” longtime New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly sets out to explore her lifelong passion for women's humor and cartooning by speaking, laughing, and drawing with a diverse group of remarkable women who create cartoons for the iconic magazine.“Women Laughing” includes intimate conversations with some of the most celebrated and groundbreaking cartoonists at The New Yorker including Roz Chast, Emily Flake, Liana Fink, Amy Hwang, and Emma Allen, the magazine's first female cartoon editor. The film will screen at DOC NYC on November 15 + 17.

Inspired by the natural world, NightWood at The Mount in Lenox, MA combines cinematic music, theatrical lighting, and scenic elements to create encounters that evoke wonder, delight, and mystery throughout the forest and gardens of Edith Wharton's Home.It runs November 21- January 3. NightWood immerses visitors on a one-mile illuminated path.

This week's Book Picks comes from Suzanna Hermans from Oblong Books in Rhinebeck and Millerton, NY.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio, Associate 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 St. Mark Wittman.

On October 11, The Eleanor Roosevelt Center in partnership with PEN America presented the 2025 Banned Book Awards at The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, New York. This year's Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement honoree was best-selling author Margaret Atwood and Joe Donahue had the great honor of speaking with her at the event.In her latest work, "Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts," Atwood explores her past and reveals connections between real life and art.

Harbinger Theatre will close its fourth season with “Swing State” by Pulitzer Prize finalist, Rebecca Gilman, and directed by Brian Sheldon.In the play: Recently widowed, Peg tends to the native plants in her 40-acre rural Wisconsin prairie backyard, her solitary days interrupted only by visits from a family friend with a checkered past. When a mysterious theft alerts the authorities, a string of events unfold that forever changes their lives. “Swing State” marks Harbinger's 18th Capital Region premiere. Performances will be held at Sand Lake Center for the Arts from November 14 - 23, with a free preview on November 13.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer, Political Consultant and lobbyist Libby Post, and Former grade school teacher and RPI graduate student Sophia Acquisto.

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.

You never wrote about your mother. Call it a challenge, an observation, or a dare, that was what Gish Jen was thinking as she set out to write her tenth book—did she want to wake up one day and realize she had never written about the one relationship that stood at the center of her life, no matter how painful it might be?In short, "Bad Bad Girl" is the story of a mother told through the eyes of her daughter. Opening in 1920s Shanghai, we first meet Agnes as a young girl who's expected to behave and be quiet, and from there, our narrator takes us through the full arc of her life—from birth to death. Throughout, Agnes interrupts the narrative from beyond the grave to argue, amend, correct, and scold her daughter's telling.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra's next concert of the season is at the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York tomorrow night at 7:30.The evening will shine with Gustav Holst's cosmic spectacle, “The Planets,” featuring the ethereal voices of Albany Pro Musica, and the world premiere of a new Violin Concerto by composer Bobby Ge.

The Norman Rockwell Museum's latest exhibit, “Jazz Age Illustration,” is opening tomorrow in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Organized by the Delaware Art Museum, it is the first major survey of American illustration from 1919 to 1942 - a vibrant and transformative era of innovation, evolving styles, social change, and expanding popular media.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are senior fellow and faculty member in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, President of Beyond Plastics, former EPA Regional Administrator, and co-author of the book "The Problem with Plastic" Judith Enck, CEO of The Business Council of New York State Heather Mulligan, Siena University Professor of Economics Aaron Pacitti, and Economics majors from Siena University: Josh Florence, Kerry Ann Wise, and Giovanna Perez.

The award-winning documentary “Locker Room Talk” from Kingston's TMI Project was produced in partnership with the nationally acclaimed organization A Call to Men.On November 9, they will be hosting their first Hudson Valley screening at the Kingston High School, where the film began.

This Saturday, November 8, Silkroad Ensemble will present a reimagined version of its American Railroad program at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Massachusetts at 7 p.m.The concert will feature an intimate, powerhouse ensemble of eight world-class musicians lead by Silkroad founding musician and international pipa virtuoso Wu Man.

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, Ulster County Comptroller and former President and CEO of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley March Gallagher, Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, and Executive Director of The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York Nic Rangel.

In the new book “The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature” editor and critic Gerald Howard brings this complex literary life into focus drawing on Cowley's letters, essays, and archival material. Howard reveals how one man's sensibility helped to find what we now consider American literature.

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, Preceptor in Public Speaking, Strategic Communications, and Public Relations for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University Terry Gipson, and Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin.

This week's Book Picks comes from welcome Jim Havener from Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta, New York and James Conrad from The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, New York for our selections this week.

What better way to honor and enjoy all the holidays of a year than to toast each one with a fabulous new cocktail - mocktail?"Extremely Happy Holidays: Wildly Creative New Cocktails to Uplift and Enchant Through A Full Year Of Holiday Chaos" is a new book by Devin McEwan features art by (his mother) Sandra Boynton.Joe Donahue will be in conversation with McEwan and Boynton in a special Oblong Books and WAMC On the Road at The White Hart Inn in Salisbury, CT on November 12 at 6:30 p.m.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Semi-retired, Editor at large/columnist/editorial writer, Times Union Jay Jochnowitz, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio, and Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Vassar College Catherine Tan.

The Adirondack Center for Writing and NCPR are teaming up with Caffe Lena in Saratoga to present the Howl Story Slam on November 12th @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm. The storytelling competition is open to all participants. Storytellers take the stage to tell a true story in under 5 minutes.

The Friends of Schenectady County Public Library will host an evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout on Wednesday, November 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, New York.

Heather Clarke is the award-winning author of "Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath." Her debut novel, "The Scrapbook" tells the story of an intense first love haunted by history and family memory, inspired by the startling WWII scrapbook of Clark's own grandfather, hidden in an attic until after his death.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are former NY 19 Congressman John Faso, political consultant and lobbyist, Libby Post, and Wall Street Investment Banker 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.

The Osprey hailed by Roger Tory Peterson as the symbol of the New England Coast, all but vanished during the 1950s and 60s because of the ravages of DDT. In the next few decades, however, the birds returned, slowly at first and then in a rush. Now writing with passion, humor, and reverence for the natural world, David Gessner interweaves the stories of the nesting Osprey pairs he observed with his own readjustment to life on the windblown, beautiful, and increasingly developed landscape he knew as a child. The book is a season of flight and wonder. The name of the book is “Return of the Osprey: A season of Flight and Wonder.” It is 25 years old and has a very special 25th edition out.