Midday on WNYC

In 2003 a New York Times Magazine cover story looked at women who decided to leave their jobs to stay at home with their children. Ten years later, Judith Warner revisits women from that story, now trying to restart their careers. She looks at the challenges of working mothers, the challenges of staying home, and how the changing economic landscape of the past decade has effected their home and working lives. Judith Warner wrote “The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In” in the August 11 New York Times Magazine.

The Gurus of How-To, Al Ubell and Larry Ubell, answer questions and give advice on how to repair and maintain your home or apartment--from floor to ceiling. Call 212-433-9692 with your questions or leave a comment below!

Curator Carter Foster talks about Edward Hopper’s drawings, and how they provide insight into the artist's process. “Hopper Drawing” is on view at the Whitney Museum of Art through October 6, and it features more than 200 drawings, paired with some of the artist's most famous paintings, including “Nighthawks” and “New York Movie.”

Architect Hugh Hardy talks about his 50-year career and some of his favorite projects—the restored Radio City Music Hall and the revived New Victory and New Amsterdam theaters near Times Square and the state-of-the-art Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth. His book Theater of Architecture gathers 20 projects from New York City and beyond, and discusses each project's challenges, strategies, and human concerns that influenced its design.

Jennifer Silva discusses how the erosion of traditional markers of adulthood, like marriage, a steady job, and a house, has changed life for working class Americans. Coming Up Short: Working-Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty is based on interviews with working-class people in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia, and looks at the economic insecurity, deepening inequality, and uncertainty about marriage and family many young adults face.

Time magazine’s environmental editor Bryan Walsh looks at the causes behind mass bee deaths — a mixture of new pesticides, parasitic mites and bacterial disease within the colonies — and what the potential death of the honeybee could mean for our future. His article “The Death of Bees” is in the August 19 issue of Time.  

Four inmates—two Christian and two Muslim men from South Philadelphia—are serving life sentences at Pennsylvania’s maximum-security Graterford Prison, and all of them work in Graterford’s chapel. Joshua Dubler tells the story of one week in the prison chapel, and talks about the many uses prisoners make of their religions. He’s the author of Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison.

Cris Beam talks about her experience as a foster mother, and describes what it’s like for children growing up in the foster care system—the back-and-forth with agencies, the shuffling between private homes and group homes, the emotionally charged tug of prospective adoptive parents, the pull of biological parents, and aging out of the system. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care draws on Beam’s experience and traces the firsthand stories of kids and parents.

Elisabeth Rosenthal talks about the high cost of hip and knee replacement surgery in the U.S., and the growing popularity of having surgery overseas. Her New York Times series, Paying Till It Hurts, is about the cost of medical care in the US. Her most recent articles are "In Need of a New Hip, but Priced Out of the U.S." and "The Growing Popularity of Having Surgery Overseas." She's joined by Michael Shopenn, who was the subject of her article.

Mac Griswold talks about Long Island’s Sylvester Manor and the family that has lived there since its founding as a slave plantation centuries ago. Alongside a team of archaeologists, Griswold began a dig that would uncover a landscape bursting with stories. The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation describes how the house proved to be a hidden vault full of revelations and treasures, including the 1666 charter for the land, and correspondence from Thomas Jefferson.

Peter Gethers discusses his new novel, Ask Bob, a love story about a pet doctor who discovers that the best relationships are often the most surprising. Dr. Robert Heller is one of New York City’s leading veterinarians, and his “Ask Dr. Bob” advice column is hugely popular among pet-lovers. Yet Dr. Bob understands animals a lot better than people, and he definitely could use some advice of his own.

Janine di Giovanni discusses covering the conflict in Syria and talks about reports that rape has become an epidemic in Syria and in refugee camps as both sides seek to de-stabilize, frighten, and ruin the other. But unearthing the stories is difficult, and often impossible, because women in Syria face dire political, personal, and familiar consequences if they admit to being victims. Her article “Syria’s Unspoken Crimes” appears in the August issue of Vanity Fair. She’s also the author of Ghosts by Daylight: Love, War, and Redemption.

Rachel Dratch talks about starring in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park musical production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” along with Michael Friedman, who wrote the songs. The King and his best friends decide at their five-year college reunion to swear off women, but when four cute, clever girls from their past show up, they’re forced to reconsider. “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” is playing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park through August 18.

Ten to 15% of couples experience infertility, and assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization can help couples conceive. We’re finding out how IVF works and what new ways are being developed to reduce the incidence of debilitating and life-threatening mitochondrial diseases. Joining us: Dr. Mark Sauer, chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and program director for the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care at Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Michio Hirano, chief of the neuromuscular disease division and co-director of the Adult Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Columbia University Medical Center. 

New York City generates 11,000 tons of household trash each day on average, and the city’s sanitation workers keep a regular schedule to take all that trash away. Anthropologist Robin Nagle discusses New York’s City’s 400-year struggle with trash, which she documents in Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City. She’s joined by Angelo Bruno, who was a sanitation worker in Greenwich Village for 31 years; Annalee Feliciano, supervisor in the Bronx, and Myron Priester, former Borough Chief of Brooklyn South, who was involved in the Department's response to Hurricane Sandy.