Upbeat conversations about books, music , cooking , and the arts . And Alison always guides the conversations by asking very insightful questions .
Alison , listening to your show always brightens my day - thank you !
I see many others have said this, but I usually find myself tuning out of this show on the radio. Allison is not a good host or interviewer. I find myself most insulted when she attempts to empathize or sympathize with guests. It’s generic at best, fake sounding at worst. She also regularly screws up guests names. A lot of the topics feel pretty lowest common denominator but I think if there was just a different host it would be a much better show.
oh how I miss Leonard Lopate. At least he could interview with some depth. This show is boring, unoriginal, and tedious. Ms. Stewart is probably a lovely person but this show is not her thing.
Seriously, I can’t stand this dimwit who seems to be only in her element when talking about food. She should go back to mtv or the food network. This is where she belongs. Bring back Jonathan Capehart. And please save NPR.
I just listened to Alison’s five-part interview with James Birdsall, author of “James Beard: The Man Who Ate Too Much.” I have some his later cookbooks, and will pull them out again, trying NOT to eat too much! Alison clearly does her homework, and never upstages her guests. She has been a terrific addition to the WNYC daytime hosts!
Wonderful interviewer, Alison‘s questions are fresh and thoughtful. She brings a lot of energy to this time slot from Get Lit to I Need a Minute. Keep up the good work!
Alison Stewart invites people to call in to the show and then she ignores what they say completely saying “thank you for your call” and she moves on to the next caller right away. At times it’s awkward at other times it’s insensitive. In addition to this her interview style is stilted and unnatural. Her guests are all high caliber and interesting but she almost always stumbles and seemingly has difficulty truly engaging. I listened daily for more than a year hoping she would improve but she has not, I’m sorry to say that I wish they would replace her. At the very least please stop taking call ins! It’s painful to listen to and I now turn off WNYC when she comes on and return to listening when her show is over.
Love Alison Stewart and this show. She’s a great interviewer and makes even the most mundane-sounding subjects interesting along with her well-chosen guests!
Not for me. After years of listing all day, the addition of this show has me turning WNYC off until 2pm.
I tried to enjoy it but it is too “lite” on subject matter and interview ability to listen to.
Maybe improve content and depth of interview skill and I would reconsider.
I don’t want to hurt anyone’s career. But this show is filled with washed up generation xers - and yes I am one of that generation. Celebrated the 25th anniversary of that Oasis album? No thanks. Horrible outdated theme music? No thanks. The guests are awful, the topics are awful, I now have to turn off npr for one of the main times I used to listen to it. Sorry npr this show is awful.
Been giving this show more than its share of chances, particularly because I’m a sustaining member of WNYC. But this tripe doesn’t measure up to what I expect from NPR. The intro “music” is simply atrocious. Secondly, the host Allison trips over her words. Her thoughts are disjointed and, more often than not, I sense the guests’ irritation at her nonsensical asides. Please remove her from midday! You’re losing daytime listeners, WNYC!
I really want to like this show, but after listening to WNYC from 8am - 12pm, I find myself turning the radio off until after it’s over. The guests are just not that broadly interesting and the host does not do a good job asking questions that reveal why the audience should care about their work. The questions are very shallow (“what was it like directing this movie?”) and sometimes feel like the conversation is for the benefit of the host rather than thinking about the listener. Really I’m writing this review because I want this show to be better/get better since I love WNYC so much (and yes, I donate monthly).
I miss The Leonard Lopate Show. I was always interested in his interviews—what an empty hole he has left in the lineup. After all this time, nobody has come close to his genius.
I keep waiting for this show to get better, but what it has done is it has gotten me to stop listening to WNYC. There is hole in my listening schedule and I never seem to go back to the station.
I find I am am not interested in the guests the way I was when Lopate held this spot. Surely the station can find someone who is more suited to this task. I understand you won’t bring back Lopate but please find some who can fill his shoes properly.
Below is my original review about how wonderful the show once was:
I am smarter, more informed, moved, and dare I say enlightened at times by listening to The Leonard Lopate Show. Every week I am amazed and thrilled by the variety of guests.
I’ve listen to this show for years while drawing in my studio each and every day. I’ve been exposed to books, plays, films, artists, comedians, graphic novels, world affairs, and the plights of other people at home and abroad. I can’t a single show, in all of media, that is so informative on such a wide variety of subjects. Bravo!
The combination of Alison’s enthusiasm and curiosity stand out in the blur of diverse topics covered by this show. I love Andy and the Archives. Thank you for doing such a great job.
Alison Stewart is smart, snappy and engaged. And I love seeing more ladies and “others” represented through this program.
One note: can you please release the podcast in segments like BL’s show and not in single 2-hour chunks? Thanks.
Really enjoying this new show and I particularly appreciate the heavy emphasis on books and authors. Stewart is warm, well-prepared interviewer who asks questions with genuine curiosity to know the answers.
When it was the Leonard Lopate show it was the best. They unjustifiably removed him and turned the best two hours on radio to amateur hour. Occasionally there is a good host, but basically the show is terrible. Do yourself a favor and listen to Leonard Lopate @ Large on iTunes.
To say that this chit chat has become a shadow of the Leonard Lopate show would be a compliment.
I enjoyed LL’s smart in depth program
for many years. The way WNYC dismissed him is just one of the examples of a deteriorating standards of the station.
His replacement hosts are lacking in skill, knowledge and values that made LL a great host.
I and many of my friends have decided to terminate our membership and stop our financial contribution.
RIP WNYC.
Hari Kondabolou is super sharp, not afraid to gently challenge his guest (see Amy Chua interview) and is legit funny. I feel like I learn a lot by listening to him. Really hope WNYC will make sure to lock him down in a regular spot!
Although I don't disagree with WNYC's decision to let LL go, I must say that I miss his show. Midday on WNYC isn't nearly as good. (I don't care for Jonathan Capehart or Martha Plimpton.) So, with disappointment, I've unsubscribed.
I like Jonathan Capeheart. I appreciate WNYC’s got a problem with diversity on-air, but 1. JC’s just not interesting to listen to. 2. Over 30 years,I’ve heard Lopate interact with women in the arts, intelligently, sympathetically. Having him frog-marched out of WNYC by security on the advice of Walker’s consultants is cruel. 3. The woman whose complaint about his explaining the origin of “avocado” (indigenous South American people’s word for “testicle”)shows how petty, humorless, autocratic and hostile to grown-up discussion the Walker regime has been.
Not listening to this show, and curtailing my support of WNYC until Walker’s gone and Lopate’s reinstated or otherwise issued a thoroughly groveling apology.
Get rid of the irritating musical notes in the intro, it doesn't help me drive this truck. And why does the interviewer waste time saying stupid things? Some of the interviews have excellent content, especially enjoyed whatshername doc re CRISPR and nice to get a follow up.
WNYC podcasts are excellent but how to use each one is different. Where to tap to delete, to read more about a podcast, where to tap to download--each one is different and no directions anywhere. Please help. If you have same problem please put in in the reviews so we might get some help.
Locate gets good guests, I’ll give him that. But he comes across as such a NYC snob. You can almost see him when you listen to him, acting all know-it-all and superior. Sooooo, cultured enough that if you met him at a party, shortly after meeting him you’d be excusing yourself saying “I’m, uh, sorry, I just remembered I left the oven on at home…."
I've been listening to his show for years, and just recently switched over to his podcast. He covers a wide range of interesting topics that keep my mind thinking. Plus- his (and his guest's) voices are very nice to listen to. Perfect for my Subway ride home!
I've been listening to this show when it was NY and Company. Leonard Lopate is an excellent host. He reads every book before he meets with the author which is feat all by itself. Always great questions and informative. I don't always agree, but I always love to listen.
That old question of if you could pick 5 people from history for a dinner party, Leonard Lopate would be my 1st guest. He's knowledgable in many areas and charismatic. Would make the dinner so much more interesting with interesting characters.
There is no one in the media whose knowledge ranges so widely as Leonard Lopate's. He can interview equally well artists,authors, chefs, politicians, scientists, celebrities . . . . He asks the questions you'd like to ask and the ones you never thought of, and he doesn't pontificate or interrupt unnecessarily, as so many other interviewers do. Did I say he has a great sense of humor? His puns ( ok, maybe not all of them) are so refined they can sneak up and hit you minutes later. Like Brian Lehrer, he handles the crazies graciously. Just listen to the interview with a very high or inebriated Liza Minelli, or the one with a hilariously arrogant and abrasive Jerry Lewis.
Thank you, Leonard, for making us all more interesting dinner guests.
