Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is honored to have as our guest Leonard Lopate host of The Leonard Lopate Show that has served as New York City's salon of arts and ideas, featuring in-depth and insightful interviews with a range of luminaries, from newsmakers, tastemakers, and filmmakers to artists, authors, and actors.  From Francis Ford Coppola to Norman Mailer, Barack Obama to Meryl Streep, Henry Kissinger to Toni Morrison, a visit to the Lopate studio has been an essential stop in the New York cultural scene.

During his time on WNYC, Leonard Lopate has welcomed an impressive range of guests – poets, painters, politicians, novelists, dancers, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, filmmakers, scientists and chefs – to talk about their work, their process, and their passions. Leonard is renowned for an interview style that sounds less like traditional talk radio and more like eavesdropping on a fascinating conversation. He engages his guests in complex, illuminating talks that delve deeply into each guest’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

The Leonard Lopate Show has been recognized with three Associated Press Awards for “Best Interview” for interviews with President Jimmy Carter, Tony Bennett and Yoko Ono. Additionally, the show has received three James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Awards in the “Radio Food Show” category, including a win for his “Holiday Recipe Swap” segment with Chef Michael Lomonaco, who will be on hand to celebrate Leonard’s 25th anniversary.

Norm:

When did your radio hosting begin and what motivated you to become a radio host? What keeps you going?

Leonard:

My current radio career began in April, 1977, when I became the host of a gospel show on WBAI.  Soon after, I was invited to fill in as the substitute host on some talk shows and then in September I was given my own show (from midnight to 5am on Monday nights). In 1985, I moved over to WNYC and I’ve been here ever since.

I’d already been a serious painter, worked as an advertising art director…and as a producer at a record company, so I knew my way around the culture and I really enjoyed discussing it (and politics, science and what ever else seemed interesting) as a way of making a living. What keeps me going is that new things are happening all the time…things that I find fascinating as topics of investigation and discussion.

Norm:

How do you decide which guests you wish to interview? Do they have to be well known? As a follow up, how do you prepare yourself for the interview?

Leonard:

Guests and topics are usually decided upon with my producers. They don’t have to be well-known, but we expect them to excite our listeners with their ideas and/or achievements. My staff prepares me for most of the segments in the morning before we go on the air. And I also prepare some of the segments.

Norm:

In your opinion, what makes a good interview?

Leonard:  

When an interview goes well I usually pat myself on the back for being so brilliant; when it goes poorly, I blame it on the guest.

Actually, a good interview requires a comfortable interaction between the guests and me…so that it sounds more like a conversation than a formal discussion. It should be both informational and entertaining. The best ones are where the guests get past their regular talking points and really open up.

Norm:

If you had a choice of the three most interesting interviews you ever conducted, which ones would they be and why?

Leonard:

An near impossible question to answer. And something best left to the listeners to decide. Four segments a day and twenty hours a week over the course of twenty-five years adds up to many thousands of interviews. Luckily, there have been only a few disasters and quite a few pleasurable ones.

Norm:

What was the most surprising reply you ever received from a guest?

Leonard:

See previous answer. (Actually, there have been a few that were rather indiscreet and I’m not sure I should remind those guests of their faux pas.)

Norm:

What do you want your interviews to do? Amuse people? Provoke thinking?

Leonard:

Both. And also to make listeners aware of something they may not have heard about elsewhere. Or to provide context for important stories. That’s why we’ve developed series like “Underreported,” “Underappreciated” and “Please Explain.”

Norm:

What's the most difficult thing for you about being a radio host?

Leonard: 

Addressing difficult subjects in ways that don’t alienate the guests and/or my listeners.

Norm:

Do you have a specific interview style?

Leonard:

I try to keep it as conversational as possible. But also to move it along. A guest once complimented me by saying that he felt appearing on my show was the conversational equivalent of speed chess.

Norm:

Do you have any advice for anyone who wishes to become a radio host?

Leonard:

Don’t imitate someone else. Your approach has to come naturally from who you are.

Norm:

Do you hear from your listeners much? What kinds of things do they say?

Leonard:

I hear from them all the time…through e-mails and comments they post on our website.  I pay attention to the criticisms and corrections that are constructive and ignore the really mean-spirited stuff.

Norm:

Do you feel that writers, regardless of genre owe something to readers, if not, why not, if so, why and what would that be?

Leonard:

The best writers don’t seem to write with the notion of pleasing readers. But that doesn’t mean that, as a reader, I have to give them any slack. I’m sure Finnegan’s Wake is a masterpiece, but don’t expect me to plow through it. On the other hand, I prefer a difficult writer to the Dan Browns and James Pattersons who write with bestselling formulas as their guides.  

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and you radio show?

Leonard:

They can check out our showpage at wnyc.org. And there are many thousands of entries on Google.   

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Leonard:

No. I’m tired out from all this typing.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors