Please Explain (The Leonard Lopate Show)

WNYC•www.wnyc.org

In Please Explain, we set aside time every Friday afternoon to get to the bottom of one complex issue. Ever wonder how New York City's water system works? Or how the US became so polarized politically? We'll back up and review the basic facts and principles of complicated issues across a broad range of topics — history, politics, science, you name it.

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Episodes

The Long Life of the Dead

Caring for the dead, mourning the dead, and commemoration the dead, has always been an essential part of human civilization. For this week's Please Explain, we are talking to historian Thomas Laqueur, whose latest book, The Work of the Dead, exhaustively details why our treatment of death has always been such an important part of human life.

Dec 11, 2015•33 min•Ep. 373

The Honest Truth About Lies

Everybody lies, sometimes even when we know it's wrong. But then why do we do it? Behavioral scientist Dan Ariely tells us the truth about lying in our latest edition of Please Explain.

Dec 04, 2015•32 min•Ep. 372

The Unbalanced Power of Expert Witnesses

In our latest Please Explain, we examine expert witnesses to find out their role in courts, their influence in trials, and their impact in both civil and criminal cases.

Nov 20, 2015•32 min•Ep. 371

Understanding How The Media Reports on Health and Nutrition

When the World Health Organization announced their findings about the risk factors of eating red meat, many media outlets ran headlines equating bacon to cigarettes. Red meat, coffee, wine, fish, and other foods and drinks have been the source of stories in the media that have been misleading, vague, and contradictory. For this week’s Please Explain, we are talking all about how the media covers nutrition, and what you need to know when reading health and nutrition reporting, with Anahad O’Conno...

Nov 13, 2015•25 min•Ep. 370

Translating the Untranslatable

Cervantes, Voltaire, the Bible: English audiences rely on translators to access to some of the world’s most important texts, but when it comes to translation, there is no magic formula.

Nov 06, 2015•33 min•Ep. 369

Humans and Horses: Together (Nearly) Forever

For our latest Please Explain, we are talking to the journalist Wendy Williams about the history of horses. Horses and humans have worked together for thousands of years, and they have made a big impact on the course of human civilization. Williams' book is The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion . Event: Wendy Williams will be speaking and signing books at Rutgers' G.H. Cook Campus , at the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health Building, 65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, on Nov. 2 at...

Oct 30, 2015•31 min•Ep. 368

Should Fantasy Sports Be Regulated Like Gambling?

In 2006, Congress tried to crack down on illegal online sports betting. Nearly a decade later, Internet gambling is flourishing, and a new business that increasingly looks like gambling, fantasy sports, is winning millions of players and stoking controversy. For this week's Please Explain, we talk to James Glanz and Walt Bogdanich, part of the New York Times investigative team that, with the PBS series "Frontline," investigated the business , and the technology, of illegal gambling in the Intern...

Oct 23, 2015•34 min•Ep. 367

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