Midday on WNYC

Stacy Horn discusses her new book Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York, which looks at the history of Roosevelt Island and how it became a home for the city’s most disenfranchised inhabitants in the 19th century. On June 6 Stacy Horn will be in conversation with Cutter Wood at the Bryant Park Reading room at 12:30 pm and in conversation with Ginia Bellafante at 6:30 pm at Mid-Manhattan Library Program Room (42nd Street & 5th Avenue). This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson.     

For final installment of our series, The Costs of Higher Ed, Columbia Ph.D. candidate Tania Bhattacharyya and Sean M. Kennedy, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, discuss the ongoing efforts to organize graduate student labor as well as adjunct professors. They’ll discuss why they believe teaching as a graduate student should be considered labor instead of an educational experience, the history of organizing labor in higher education in New York, and how the current organizing efforts at their respective universities are going. We’ll also take calls from listeners about their experiences as adjunct professors and TAs. This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson. 

Kim Barker, a New York Times reporter, and N.R. "Sonny" Kleinfield, freelance writer and former staff writer at The New York Times' Metro desk, discuss The New York Times series "Unsheltered." The series examines NYC's broken system for protecting tenants and affordable apartments. Kleinfield's story is titled "Where Brooklyn Tenants Plead the Case for Keeping Their Homes" and Barker's story is titled "Behind New York's Housing Crisis: Weakened Laws and Fragmented Regulation." This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson. 

Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, a founder of the Central Park Conservancy, discusses her new book, Saving Central Park: A History and a Memoir, which looks at Central Park’s history, its ups and downs and how the park became the city treasure it’s known as today. This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson. 

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. State Senator from Massachusetts, discusses her book, This Fight Is Our Fight, which looks at the current battle over America’s middle class and how to save it. This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson.   

ProPublica reporter Nina Martin has been investigating maternal care and preventable deaths in the U.S. for over a year. In her story, “A Larger Role for Midwives Could Improve Deficient U.S. Care for Mothers and Babies,” Martin looks at why the midwife model is controversial in the U.S. in spite of data indicating a correlation between midwives and improved maternal health. She also examines how midwives focus on community-based care, close relationships between providers and patients and avoiding unnecessary interventions. Laura Zeidenstein, Associate Professor of Nursing at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Nurse Midwifery Program, also joins the conversation. This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It originally aired on March 12, 2018.

Writer and scholar Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o discusses his book Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir, written in the 1980's and not published in the U.S. until now. He gives a detailed account of his arrest in 1978 and detainment in Kenya’s maximum security prison. He spent a year in a prison block with 18 other political prisoners, quarantined from the general prison population. He details how he managed to write one of his most acclaimed novels Devil on the Cross on toilet paper while under 24-hour surveillance. This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It originally aired on March 12, 2018.

The war in Syria is one of the most appalling tragedies of our time, but it's barely understood. Award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid has spent years reporting on the Syrian conflict. In her new book No Turning Back: Life, Loss and Hope in Wartime Syria, she dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the conflict as told by Syrians living through the war. This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It originally aired on March 12, 2018.  

Actor Nick Nolte talks about his memoir Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines. Nolte delves into stories about art, passion and struggle over the course of his fifty year career. He discusses his difficult childhood in the rural Midwest, his marriages, divorces, struggles with addiction, leading roles and Oscar nominations. This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It originally aired on March 12, 2018.  

Steven Stoll, a professor of history at Fordham University, talks about his new book Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia.  He examines the region’s history, looking at key events including the Whiskey Rebellion, the founding of West Virginia and the arrival of timber and coal companies that irrevocably changed Appalachia’s economy and culture. Stoll questions our assumptions about progress and development, and exposes the devastating legacy of dispossession and its repercussions today. This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris, it originally aired on January 3, 2018.

Alice Quinn, the executive director of the Poetry Society of America and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, discusses her book The Best of Poetry in Motion: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years on Subways and Buses. Since 1992, the Poetry in Motion program—co-sponsored by MTA Arts & Design and the Poetry Society of America—has brought more than 200 poems before the eyes of millions of subway and bus riders. Quinn discusses the curated collection of 100 poems and looks at how they offer comforting moments to riders.  This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris, it originally aired on January 3, 2018.

Novelist Pia de Jong talks about her new book Saving Charlotte: A Mother and the Power of Intuition. She tells the story of her daughter, Charlotte, who was diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of leukemia, often treated with chemotherapy. Pia and her husband decide instead to take Charlotte home and care for her there.  This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It was originally aired on January 3, 2018.

Suzanne Bouffard discusses her book The Most Important Year: Pre-Kindergarten and the Future of Our Children. Bouffard examines American pre-schools in order to find out what young children need in the earliest years of school, and how we ensure that everyone gets it. She discusses the value of offering quality universal pre-K programs, including better language, literacy, problem-solving, math skills and better self-control.  This segment is guest hosted by Mary Harris. It originally aired on January 3, 2018.  

Artist and author Maira Kalman and food writer Barbara Scott-Goodman discuss their book Cake, an illustrated book dedicated to their mutual love of cakes. Kalman's illustrations and Scott-Goodman's mouthwatering recipes complement each other perfectly, making this book a joyful celebration of a timeless dessert. Maira and Barbara will be at Archestratus Books (160 Huron Street) on May 19 at 4 pm.  On June 2 at 3 pm Barbara and Maira will be at George Home (4 Titus Road, Washington Depot, Connecticut) for a book-signing, bubbly, and cake event.  This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright.  Strawberry and Blueberry Shortcakes MAKES: 8 shortcakes; SERVES: 8 There is no better way to celebrate summer than to serve shortcakes slathered with whipped cream and piled  high with fresh berries. These individual shortcakes are baked together as two round layers, then split and filled with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. If you can’t serve them as soon as they come out of the oven, warm the shortcakes up a bit before adding the berries and cream. SHORTCAKES 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough 3 tablespoons sugar 1⁄4 teaspoon salt 5 teaspoons baking powder 6 ounces (1 1⁄2 sticks), 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 1⁄4 cups heavy cream BERRIES 2 pints fresh ripe strawberries 1 pint ripe blueberries 1⁄2 cup sugar, or more to taste WHIPPED CREAM 2 cups cold heavy cream 1 teaspoon white rum 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract Heat oven: To 450°F Make shortcakes: Butter a baking sheet and set aside. To make the shortcakes: Sift the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Add 6 ounces of the butter and work into the dry ingredients using your fingers or a pastry blender. Add the cream and mix into a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 1 minute or until it holds together. Transfer to a lightly floured pastry board or a large sheet of wax paper and, using a floured rolling pin, roll it out to a rectangle about 1⁄2 inch thick. Using a floured 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can. Press the scraps together, roll out again, and cut out to make 16 rounds. Transfer 8 of the rounds to the baking sheet. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan and brush the tops. Place the remaining 8 rounds on top of them. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the tops of the biscuits are golden brown. Make berries: Meanwhile, hull the strawberries, slice them in half, and put them in a large shallow bowl. Add the blueberries and stir in the sugar. Toss together gently, cover, and set aside for about 30 minutes. Make whipped cream: In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed, whip the cream until it just begins to thicken, add the rum and vanilla and beat until firm. If not serving right away, the whipped cream can be chilled in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour. Serve: Pull the shortcakes apart and arrange the bottoms on small cake plates. Spoon some of the whipped cream and a generous amount of the berries over them. Top them with the shortcake tops, the remaining whipped cream and berries.

Luke Barr discusses Ritz & Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class. Beginning in early August 1889, César Ritz, a Swiss hotelier, met Richard D'Oyly Carte, the financier of Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operas, who wanted to create the world's best hotel. D'Oyly Carte convinced Ritz to move to London with a team that included Auguste Escoffier, his chef de cuisine. The book charts the trio's foray into creating the most extravagant hotel the world had ever seen. This show is guest hosted by Kai Wright.