Midday on WNYC

Martha Plimpton fills in for Leonard Lopate. First, Slate's Amanda Marcotte discusses states restricting abortion access and other reproductive rights. This American Life's Ira Glass talks about David Rakoff's final work—a novel written in verse. Uzoamaka Maduka talks about the new literary journal The American Reader. Meena Seshu, founder and secretary general of SANGRAM, discusses fighting HIV/AIDS among sex workers in India. Dr. Vint Virga explains what animals can teach us about being human.

Dave Malloy, who created the show “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” actor Blake DeLong, and director Rachel Chavkin discuss their unusual production. It’s an electropop opera slice of War and Peace, and it’s playing at Kazino through September 1.

Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn describe collaborating on “The Designated Mourner,” written by and starring Wallace Shawn, directed by Andre Gregory. It's the first New York revival of the acclaimed 1996 masterwork, and it’s part of runs through August 25 at the Public Theater.  

Guest host Martha Plimpton speaks with Constance Rosenblum, who writes the “Habitats” column for the New York Times, about how New Yorkers really live. Dave Malloy, who created “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” director Rachel Chavkin, and Blake DeLong discuss their unusual production. Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn talk about their collaboration on “The Designated Mourner.” Plus Simon Critchely and Jamieson Webster look at one of the most famous works in Western literature: Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

The figure of Hamlet reverberates in our culture. Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster and professor of philosophy Simon Critchley, show how the power of Hamlet casts light on the intractable dilemmas of human existence. In Stay, Illusion: The Hamlet Doctrine, the authors show how Hamlet discloses the modern paradox of our lives: how thought and action seem to pull against each other, the one annulling the possibility of the other.

Jamie Shreeve, National Geographic magazine’s executive editor for science talks about why DNA from a skeleton found in a cave in Russia adds a mysterious new member to the human family. His latest article, “The Case of the Missing Ancestor,” is in the July issue of National Geographic.  

Director Ciaran O'Reilly and actor Dan Butler discuss the revival of Conor McPherson's “The Weir.” Set in a remote country pub in Ireland, newcomer Valerie arrives and becomes spellbound by an evening of ghostly stories told by the local bachelors who drink there. Then Valerie reveals a startling story of her own. It's playing at the Irish Repertory Theatre through September 8.

In 1903, on Coney Island, an elephant named Topsy was electrocuted, and over the past century, this bizarre, ghoulish execution has reverberated through popular culture. But it really happened, and many historical forces conspired to bring Topsy, Thomas Edison, and those 6600 volts of alternating current together that day. Michael Daly tells the story of this astonishing tale in Topsy The Startling Story of the Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison.

Brooke Gladstone fills in for Leonard Lopate. She speaks with neurologist Oliver Sacks about his work and his research into hallucinations. We’ll find out the true story of an elephant that was electrocuted at the turn of the last century. Director Ciaran O’Reilly and actor Dan Butler discuss “The Weir,” playing at the Irish Rep. And National Geographic’s Jamie Shreeve explains what DNA found in a cave in Siberia tells us about our human roots.

Grammy Award-winning singer Aaron Neville talks about his latest album, “My True Story” and his upcoming tour. Neville revitalizes some of his favorite songs from the doo-wop era and beyond, including “Tears on My Pillow” and “Under the Boardwalk.” In March PBS will air the special Aaron Neville: Doo Wop: My True Story—a concert filmed in November at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl. Neville was joined by musicians and guests including Paul Simon, Joan Osborne, Eugene Pitt of the Jive Five, and Dickie Harmon from the Del-Vikings.

Glenn Frankel tells the story behind “The Searchers.” In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches, raised by the tribe, and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years later she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and reunited with her white family. It’s become a foundational American tale and has inspired operas plays, and a novel by Alan LeMay, which was adapted into one of Hollywood's most legendary films, “The Searchers,” directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. In The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend, Frankel examines how the story has been shaped over time.

New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot uses the life and career of her father, Lyle Talbot, an early Hollywood star, to tell the story of the rise of popular culture. The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century is a combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir, conjures nostalgia for those earlier eras of 1910s and 1920s small-town America, and the 1930s and 1940s in Hollywood.

Drummer John Densmore talks about his time in The Doors and about the conflicts that broke out as the band became more successful. His book The Doors: Unhinged is part memoir and part exploration of the what makes some people focus on attaining wealth, even at the expense of principles and friendships.

K. Eric Drexler, the founding father of nanotechnology talks about the rapid scientific progress that is about to change our world. In Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization he explains that the result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.

Jaron Lanier, the father of virtual reality and one of the most influential thinkers of our time, examines the effects network technologies have had on our economy. In his new book Who Owns the Future? he asserts that the rise of digital networks led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class. He looks at why and charts the path toward a new information economy that will stabilize the middle class and allow it to grow.