Midday on WNYC

Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control's division of health care quality promotion, talks about the CDC’s new report on antibiotic resistance, which found that at least 2 million Americans contract diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, and that at least 23,000 die from those infections. This is the first time the effects of these infections have been quantified.

Johnny Temple, the publisher of Akashic Books and chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council, talks about the upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival, the largest free literary event in New York City. It takes place September 22, 10 am–6 pm, and Bookend events begin September 16.

Poet Jeanne Murray Walker talks about her mother's long passage into dementia. In The Geography of Memory explores parental love, grief, and the unexpected consolation of memory. Her mother's memory, which more and more dwells in the distant past, illuminates Walker's own childhood, and helps her rediscover and understand her own past.

Director Hannah Fidell talks about her new film, “A Teacher,” along with star Lindsay Burdge. Part psychological thriller and part provocative character study, “A Teacher” explores the unraveling of a young high school teacher, after she begins an affair with one of her teenage students. It opens September 6 at the AMC Loews Village 7 and is available now on VOD and iTunes.

This week's Please Explain is about the largest mammals on earth: whales. Joining us are: Dr. John J. Flynn, the Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History and the Dean of the Museum's Richard Gilder Graduate School. He's also the curator of the exhibition "Whales: Giants of the Deep," on view at the museum through January 5. And Dr. Mark Baumgartner, Marine Biologist and Associate Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Catherine Burns, artistic director of The Moth, its founder George Dawes Green, and contributor Dr. George Lombardi discuss the art of telling stories. The book The Moth presents 50 spellbinding, soul-bearing stories selected from the extensive archive.  

Amana Fontanella-Khan tells the story of the Pink Sari Revolution and how one poor, illiterate Indian woman mobilized thousands of her countrywomen against abuse and injustice. Jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer plays songs from his latest album, “Heart of the Piano” live in our studio! Plus, painter Christian Brechneff talks about stumbling upon the Greek island of Sifnos and how returning there year after year changed his life.

Dr. Charles Wilkinson explains how traumatic brain injuries caused by bomb blasts can lead to hormonal disorders, and how this finding might impact the way military veterans with head traumas are treated. He was the lead researcher in a study conducted by the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and the University of Washington.

Filmmaker Dylan Gray and advocate James Love discuss how Western pharmaceutical companies use patent law to keep drug prices high, at the expense of human lives around the world. Love is featured in Gray’s new documentary “Fire in the Blood,” which explores how the blockade of medications like low-cost AIDS drugs in the developing world caused millions of avoidable deaths, a problem that continues to this day. "Fire in the Blood" is playing at IFC Center September 6.

Christian Brechneff tells about first traveling to the Greek island of Sifnos in 1972, when he was a 21-year-old painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work. On Sifnos, he found a muse, a subject to paint, and a sanctuary for more than 30 years. In The Greek House, Brechneff writes about the island, its residents, and the house he bought in a hilltop farm village.

Two-time Grammy nominated jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer plays live from his album, “Heart of the Piano.”

Alan Alda, discusses the PBS program, “Brains on Trial,” about how developments in neuroscience may dramatically affect criminal trials. He’s joined by psychologist and neuroscientist Dr. Bea Luna. “Brains on Trial” airs on PBS  September 11and 18.

Kirk W. Johnson tells why and how he started The List Project, which has helped more than 1,500 Iraqis who worked with Americans find refuge in America. In To Be a Friend Is Fatal, he writes of going to Iraq in January 2005, as USAID’s only Arabic-speaking American employee, and working alongside idealistic Iraqi translators who believed in the idea of a peaceful, democratic Iraq. Johnson also writes about how the violence, kidnapping, torture, and led him into a severe depression and PTSD.

Marianne Szegedy-Maszak tells a wartime love story about her parents, Hanna and Aladár, who met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was sent to Dachau, and she and her family were forced into hiding when the Germans invaded Hungary and later fled to Portugal. They were reunited and were at last married in a devastated Budapest.  I Kiss Your Hands Many Times includes her parents letters and tells of the complicated relationship Hungary had with its Jewish population and with the rest of the world.

Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, talks about what’s changed in the garment industry since the devastating fire in Bangladesh earlier this year, and, just in time for NY fashion week, look at the growth of eco-friendly, worker-friendly fashion trends.