Midday on WNYC

Bestselling cookbook author Mark Bittman discusses his new book How to Grill Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Flame-Cooked Food. He explains how to grill everything from the perfect steak to cedar-plank salmon to pizza. Featuring 1,000 recipes and variations, Bittman covers every part of the meal, including appetizers, seafood, meat, vegetables (including vegetarian mains) and even desserts. This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo discusses his new book The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life, which is the author’s first collection of personal essays and provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend, and reader. Richard Russo will be in conversation with Eddie Joyce and signing books on May 15 at 7:30 pm at Books Are Magic (225 Smith St. Brooklyn).  This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright.  

Michael Pollan discusses his new book How To Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan explains his research into how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from depression, addiction and anxiety. He also takes a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. This book blends science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine to create an exciting example of participatory journalism. This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright. 

In the first installment of our series, “The Costs of Higher Ed,” Meredith Kolodner, higher education reporter at The Hechinger Report and Jeffrey J. Selingo, author and editor at large for the Chronicle of Higher Education and contributor to Washington Post, discuss why college tuition is rising and what's being done about it. Listeners, call in with questions about your kid's tuition bill and what it actually pays for! This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright. 

Priya Parker discusses her new book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters in which she argues that a human-centered approach to gathering is essential, now more than ever. Parker draws on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. Priya Parker will be in conversation with Anand Giridharadas  on May 15 at 6:30 pm at NeueHouse                        (110 East 25th Street).  Priya Parker will in conversation with Melissa Bell on May 16 at 7 pm at Strand Books (828 Broadway). This segment is guest hosted by Kai Wright.  

Deb Perelman, creator of the award-winning Smitten Kitchen food blog and cookbook author, discusses springtime baking! This segment is guest hosted by Michelle Buteau.  Rhubarb Upside-Down Spice Cake A photo of Deb Perelman's Rhubarb Upside-Down Spice Cake.  (Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen Every Day/Knopf) SERVINGS: 8 TO 12 TIME: ABOUT 1 HOUR If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, a deep (ideally 3-inch sides) 9-inch cake pan or regular depth 10-inch cake pan should work as well. Coat the sides with butter or nonstick spray. Cook the topping in a frying pan and pour it into the prepared cake pan before adding the batter. Baking times will vary a bit; the 9-inch is likely to take longer, a 10-inch, possibly shorter. TOPPING 1 pound (450 grams) rhubarb, trimmed 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar Finely grated zest from half a lemon 4 tablespoons (2 ounces or 55 grams) unsalted butter, cold is fine Two pinches of salt CAKE 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, softened 2/3 cup (125 grams) light or dark brown sugar 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves A few gratings of fresh nutmeg 1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour Heat oven: To 350°F. Make topping: In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, trim your rhubarb to lengths that will fit across the bottom in one direction, i.e. some short and some taller. Remove rhubarb and cut each stalk lengthwise into thin (about 1/4-inch thick) ribbons. If your rhubarb is already quite thin, you might just want to halve each piece lengthwise. Sprinkle sugar into skillet and add lemon zest; use your fingers to mix the zest into the sugar; the grit of the sugar will help release the most flavor from it. Add butter and salt and heat skillet over medium until butter has melted, stirring frequently. Add rhubarb and cook, turning gently, for 3 to 4 minutes, until it has softened slightly and released some of its liquid. Remove from heat and set skillet aside. Make cake: In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined, then vanilla. Sprinkle mixture with baking powder, salt, and all the spices and beat well to thoroughly mix them in. Add buttermilk; mixture will have a curdly texture but don’t worry, it’s all going to even out. Scrape down bowl and add flour; beat only until it disappears. Check your rhubarb base to make sure all the pieces are in the order you’d like them to be; nudge around any that are not, then dollop cake batter over rhubarb mixture in small spoonfuls and smooth top as best as you can. As the rhubarb mixture will be very wet, this will seem almost impossible. I actually gave up and just put it in the oven, where the cake spread into one even layer on its own. (Thank you, cake.) Bake cake: For about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted deep into the cake (but not the topping underneath) comes out batter-free. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to loosen. Place a larger plate upside down over the skillet and use two potholdered hands to flip cake out onto it. If any rhubarb is stuck in the pan or slides down the side, just return it to the top of the cake cake. Serve: Warm or at room temperature. Cake keeps for a couple days at room temperature and up to a week in the fridge, or so I hear.  

Alexandra Horowitz, who teaches canine cognition and creative nonfiction at Barnard College and runs the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab, discusses the minds of dogs. Her latest book is Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell and she recently published an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Is This Dog Actually Happy?” We’ll be taking calls from listeners with questions about all things dogs! This segment is guest hosted by Michelle Buteau. 

When video blogger and star of MTV's Decoded Franchesca Ramsey posted a YouTube video “What White Girls Say to Black Girls,” it went viral. Her new book, Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist explores how Ramsey's new status as an activist lead her to re-examine issues of race, identity, activism, and communication in the age of social media. Her frank book offers advice for how to communicate effectively across barriers of race, power, sexuality, and gender on the internet. This segment is guest hosted by Michelle Buteau.

Comedians Veronica Mosey, Agunda Okeyo and Pat Brown discuss the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the challenges and joys of being a female comedian. This segment is guest hosted by Michelle Buteau. 

Can detoxes be toxic? Is gluten that bad? For this week's "Please Explain," we dispel myths that are upheld by popular public wisdom and perpetuated by the ubiquitous "fake news" that permeates our culture. Dr. Nina Shapiro, M.D., author of Hype: A Doctor's Gudie to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice--How to Tell What's Real and What's Not uses evidence-based, data-driven knowledge to set the record straight for people to become savvier consumers and patients.  This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart.     

Harry Hadden-Paton and Lauren Ambrose talk about starring in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater. It tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart.

As West Virginia's coal industry falters, many are putting their hopes on natural gas. Investigative reporter Ken Ward Jr. of the The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports on whether West Virginia is making the same regulatory mistakes with natural gas companies as it did with coal companies. Ward's series is part of Propublica’s Local Reporting Network. His first installment is titled, “The Coal Industry Extracted a Steep Price from West Virginia. Now Natural Gas is Leading the State Down the Same Path.”  This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart. 

Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, discusses EJI's new project The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. He explains how the museum is the product of years of extensive research into the history of racial injustice. He’ll also discuss the significance of the exhibits and why it was built on the site of a former warehouse in Montgomery, Alabama, where enslaved black people were imprisoned. This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart. 

Spring is finally here! It's a time for new beginnings. We’re taking calls from our listeners about spring cleaning. How do you decide what to hold onto…and what to throw away? Give us a call at 212-433-9692 or tweet us! This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart. 

Actors Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff discuss starring in the first-ever Broadway revival of Children of a Lesser God. Jackson stars as James Leeds, an instructor at a New England school for the deaf. Ridloff was recently nominated for a Tony for her role as Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. A fragile romance slowly develops between the two. We will also be joined in-studio by Candace Penn, an American sign language interpreter for Lauren Ridloff.  Children of a Lesser God is playing at Studio 54 through May 27. This segment is guest hosted by Jonathan Capehart.