WAMC's The Roundtable is an award-winning, nationally recognized eclectic talk program. The show airs from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday and features news, interviews, in-depth discussion, music, and much (much) more! Hosted by Joe Donahue and produced by Sarah LaDuke, The Roundtable tackles serious and lighthearted subjects, looking to explore the many facets of the human condition with civility, respect and responsibility.
The show's hallmark is thoughtful interviews with A-list newsmakers, authors, artists, sports figures, actors, and people with interesting stories to tell. Since hitting the airwaves May 1, 2000, The Roundtable's hosts have interviewed the likes of Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Maya Angelou, Madeleine Albright, Jimmy Carter, John McCain, Bob Dole, Steve Martin, James Taylor, Stephen King, Melissa Etheridge, Carol Burnett, David Henry Hwang, Lin-Manuel Miranda and lots of other really cool people. Plus, Wilco does our theme song. What more can you ask for?
If you would like to be on the show email us at roundtable@wamc.org. Send your comments or questions for The Roundtable Panel to panel@wamc.org
The Roundtable is also available as a podcast.
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WAM Theatre’s first mainstage production of 2026 is ‘Rooted,’ by Deborah Zoe Laufer.WAM Theatre presents ‘Rooted’ at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare& Company in Lenox, Massachusetts May 1 through May 16. For ticket and showtime information visit wamtheatre.com.
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The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Lawyer, negotiator, and advisor to companies, nonprofits, law firms, and business leaders; Founder of the strategy consulting firm The Azara Group and author of “Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won’t Tell You” Fatimah Gilliam, Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany Robert Griffin, Lecturer of Cognitive Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Fulbright US Scholar to Egypt Jackie Berry, and Investment Banker on Wall Street Mark Wittman.
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Since 2003, Capital Region Language Center has been bridging cultures and connecting communities through language. It serves all ages and language levels with about 25 part-time teachers offering in-person classes at their location just off Wolf Road in Albany, New York; offsite at schools, organizations, or businesses; or online. Learning options include one-on-one or group classes so that everyone can access language learning in a way that works for them.Our guests to today are Founder and Director of Capital Region Language Center Kim Andersen, Korean teacher Sonya Kim, Japanese teacher Yoko Segerstrom, and Spanish teacher Miriam Rogers.
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On Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m., renowned scholar and curator Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett will explore what it means to put Yiddish on display in The Yiddish Book Center’s 2026 Melinda Rosenblatt Lecture. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is University Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of Performance Studies at New York University and Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw and she joins us now.
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The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Diplomat in residence at Bard College Ambassador Frederic Hof, Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer, Political Consultant and lobbyist, Libby Post, and Arthur Zankel Chair in Management for Liberal Arts at Skidmore College where she teaches International Affairs and Business Management Pushkala Prasad.
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Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.
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Bob Spitz has built a reputation for capturing the lives of iconic lives of artists with depth and narrative drive. Most notably and his bestselling biography ‘The Beatles,’ now he turns his attention to another seismic force in music history, The Rolling Stones. In this new biography Spitz traces the band’s evolution from scrappy blues devotees to 1960s London to global rock titans with the focus on the creative tensions, cultural impact, and enduring mystique of figures like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The book offers a vivid portrait of a band that didn’t just define an era but continues to shape an era. Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of the biographies ‘the Beatles,’ ‘Led Zeppelin,’ ‘Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child’ and many other non-fiction books including a screenplay. The new book is ‘The Rolling Stones: The Biography’ it is published by Penguin Press.
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There aren’t many contemporary poets who have name recognition beyond poetry circles, but Ada Limón, a MacArthur fellow and former two-term poet laureate of the United States, certainly does. Limón is one of the most decorated poets working today. A winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, a finalist for the National book Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award as well as the Griffin Poetry Prize. Her latest project is the book ‘Startlement: New and Selected Poems’ and it is published by Milkweed Editions.
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The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Former EPA Regional Administrator, President of Beyond Plastics, professor at Bennington College and author of the new book "The Problem with Plastic" Judith Enck, Senior Fellow for Health Policy at The Empire Center for Public Policy Bill Hammond, Former Mayor of the City of Albany, Kathy Sheehan, and Siena University Professor of Economics Aaron Pacitti.
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The Writers Resist Revival was founded by a group of local writers to blend community spirit, creative energy, great writing, and powerful performances into protest against oppression and authoritarianism. The last was held in 2017, but now they are back! On Sunday April 26th the Writers Resist Revival will be held from 5- 8pm, doors open at 4pm, at the Bearsville Theater.
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TOGETHER is a new theatrical collaboration between Sonia Friedman and Hugh Jackman, with Director Ian Rickson. Audible Theatre and TOGETHER are presenting a series of productions in repertory at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City, one of which is Tom Noonan’s ‘What Happened Was…’ This production, the first major New York revival in nearly 30 years, is directed by the aforementioned Ian Rickson, and stars Corey Stoll and, our guest, Cecily Strong.
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Tonight at 7:30, BEATrio is playing at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, New York. BEATrio is a super-group partnership between banjoist and multi-genre impresario Béla Fleck, virtuoso Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda and sensational Mexican jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez released an album last year, also called ‘BEATrio’ that was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. In advance of the show at the music hall tonight, Béla joined me to talk about BEATrio and his upcoming album with Renée Fleming.