Midday on WNYC

Ron Nixon, New York Times reporter, talks about the Farm Bill—what it means for farmers, how it shapes food and nutrition policy in this country, and why it’s taken so long to pass and updated bill.

Filmmaker Jason Osder talks about his documentary “Let the Fire Burn,” about the catastrophic 1985 police bombing of the radical group MOVE in Philadelphia. The bomb set off a fire, and as men, women, and children fled the building, a spectacular firefight with the police ensued — broadcast on live TV. Eleven people died and 61 homes burned to the ground. “Let the Fire Burn” is playing at Film Forum through October 15.

Love your friends but hate their dog? Should you warn guests with allergies that you have a cat? Philip Galanes offers advice for dealing with pets in social situations. He's the New York Times Social Q’s columnist and author of Social Q's: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries and Quagmires of Today. Do you have questions about social etiquette and pets? Or do you have a story to share? Let us know—leave a comment!

The elephant population in Africa has been decimated in recent decades due to poaching to supply the illegal ivory trade. In 1989, a worldwide ban on ivory trade brought a dramatic drop in poaching, and black market prices of ivory slumped. But there have been sustained attempts to weaken the ban, and today, elephant poaching is on the rise. John Heminway, Chairman of WildlifeDirect and director/producer/writer of the National Geographic special “Battle for the Elephants,” and Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist, CEO of WildlifeDirect, and executive director of the Kenya Land Conservation Trust, talk about the demand for ivory and efforts to protect elephants and close down international ivory markets.

Writer Ginger Strand explains cloud-seeding, the process of spraying silver iodide into clouds to make it rain. Her article “Silver-Lining Playbook” appears in the Fall 2013 edition of On Earth magazine. She's joined by Jeff Tilley, Desert Research Institute’s director of weather modification.

Tash Aw discusses his novel, Five Star Billionaire, which captures the vibrancy of China today and paints a portrait of the booming world of Shanghai, a city of grand ambitions and outsize dreams.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit.com, share his ideas, tips and even his own doodles about harnessing the power of the Web for good. At 29, Ohanian has come to personify the dorm-room tech entrepreneur. Within a couple of years of graduating from the University of Virginia, Ohanian sold Reddit for millions of dollars. Without Their Permission is his personal guidebook for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

In The Good Soldiers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel gave an account from the front lines of Baghdad, embedded with the 2-16 Infantry Battalion during a grueling 15-month tour that changed them all forever. In his latest book, Thank You for Your Service, Finkel has again embedded with some of the men of the 2-16—this time at home. He creates a portrait of what life after war is like—not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends.

Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien discusses playing the title role in Tchaikovsky’s tragic romance “Eugene Onegin” at the Metropolitan Opera. The title role of Eugene Onegin, a handsome but emotionally repressed playboy, has become one of his most famous roles, and he’s sung it all over the world, but this is his first time singing it at the Met. “Eugene Onegin” is staged by the actress and director Fiona Shaw. Russian maestro Valery Gergiev conducts.

From 1980 to 1986, Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill waged a principled war of political ideals with President Reagan. The two men made compromises that shaped America’s future and became one of history’s most celebrated political pairings—and they remain a prime example of how ideological opposites can get things done. Chris Matthews was a top aide to Tip O’Neill, and in his book Tip and the Gipper, Matthews tells how the two leaders fought over the major issues of the day—welfare, taxes, covert military operations, and Social Security—but found their way to agreements that reformed taxes, saved Social Security, and brought peace to Northern Ireland.

Elizabeth Gilbert talks about her new novel, The Signature of All Things. Spanning much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the Whittaker family, led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who eventually becomes the richest man in Philadelphia. Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma, becomes a botanist, and as her research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a painter who draws her into the realm of the spiritual and the magical.

Benjamin Franklin, who wrote more letters to his sister than he wrote to anyone else, was the original American self-made man; his sister spent her life caring for her 12 children. Historian Jill Lepore shows that Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister was, like her brother, a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only one woman but an entire world.

Frank Dikötter chronicles Mao Zedong’s ascension and his campaign to transform the Chinese into what the party called New People. Due to the secrecy surrounding the country’s records, little has been known before now about the eight years preceding the massive famine and Great Leap Forward. In The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957, Dikötter draws on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived to reveal the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress.

Kenneth Pollack, former CIA analyst with 25 years of experience working on the Middle East, discusses America’s intractable problem with Iran, Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, and the decades-long tensions that led us to this point. In Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy, he lays out key solutions to the Iran nuclear ques­tion, and suggests ways to renew our efforts and to combine negotiations and sanctions.

A 2006 report commissioned by Brown University revealed its complex and contested involvement in slavery, setting off a nationwide controversy. But Brown’s troubling past was far from unique. Many of America’s revered colleges and universities—from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to Rutgers, Williams College, and UNC—had been dependent on slavery and were breeding grounds for the racist ideas. Craig Steven Wilder reveals the history of oppression behind the institutions often considered the cradle of liberal politics and his new book Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities.