Leonard Lopate

Enlarge

Leonard Lopate, Host of The Leonard Lopate Show

On March 5, 2015, Leonard Lopate celebrated his 30th anniversary as the host of WNYC’s daily talk show The Leonard Lopate Show.  Every week day from 12:00pm to 2:00pm, New Yorkers explore literature, art, culture, food, and life in and around our city with Leonard Lopate as their guide. 

Heavy-hitting writers, actors, ex-presidents, political figures, economists, scientists, comedians, dancers, chefs, historians, filmmakers and do-it-yourself experts have all sat down with Leonard Lopate in the WNYC studios for in-depth and personal conversations. More than 35 Noble Prize winners have appeared on The Leonard Lopate Show over the years. Prominent guests have included: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, Henry Kissinger, Lech Walesa, Orhan Pamuk, Ang Lee, Anne Hathaway, Catherine Deneuve, Stephen Sondheim, John Updike, Doris Lessing, Bill Bradley, Mark Morris, Francis Ford Coppola, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alice Munro, Robert Altman, Mel Brooks, and too many others to list.  The program has been honored with multiple awards for its work including a George Foster Peabody Award, three Associated Press Awards for Best Interview and three James Beard Awards for Best Shows on Food. 

Each Friday, Lopate gets to the bottom of one complex issue in his Please Explain series and each month he digs deep into a particular novel with listeners through the popular Leonard Lopate Show Book Club. He also hosts live event series and annual specials like Lopate & Locavores in New York Public Radio’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

In addition to his work with New York Public Radio, Lopate makes frequent appearances as an interviewer and moderator at the 92^nd St. Y, Queens College, Brooklyn College, the Brooklyn Public Library and other major venues throughout the New York Metropolitan area. Lopate’s career in radio began in 1977 at WBAI.  For many years, he was the host of WBAI’s program Round Midnight. Before radio found him, Lopate worked in advertising as an art director and copywriter.

Lopate was born and raised in Brooklyn. He studied art at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College and Hunter College Graduate School. He knows just enough Cantonese to order the best dim sum in Chinatown.

Blogs:

• The Lodown