News Archive

After six years of research, journalist Nina Munk has written The Idealist, a book doccumenting the efforts of Jeffrey Sachs in global sustainable development. Sachs is a professor at Columbia University and the director of the Earth Institute.

Late City Edition Producer Ruby Dutcher sat down with game designer Ken Eklund, who talks about his most recent project, an interactive science fiction game called Futurecoast. Futurecoast hopes to teach people about climate change and help create conversation about possible futures through the "untapped narrative potential" of voicemails.

Tune in to this Thursday's Late City Edition for a conversation with Marci Hamilton, expert in constitutional and First Amendment law, and author of God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law. Professor Hamilton discusses what happens when religious liberty and the law come into conflict, especially when First Amendment protection permits and even fosters oppression and abuse.

For the past two years the Egyptian Revolution has garnered worldwide media attention. A new documentary, The Square, goes behind the news coverage to tell the stories of a group of passionate young protesters fighting to create a new "society of conscience" in Egypt. Late City Edition Producer Nico Esguerra sat down with the film's director, Jehane Noujaim, and producer Karim Amer, to discuss the revolution and their filmmaking process.

In 2013 the prolific cartoonist Al Jaffee - best known for creating Mad Magazine's fold-in back cover - donated his entire archives, including fan mail, sketches and never-before-published comic strips, to Columbia. Late City Edition sat down with Karen Green, Columbia's graphic novels librarian, to discuss Jaffe's work and its relation to the history of publishing, censorship, and comic books in New York City.

Late City Edition producer Danielle Smith sat down with Dr. Rachel Adams, author of Raising Henry: a Memoir of Motherhood, Disability and Discovery. The book recollects her experience of raising her son Henry, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth. Dr. Adams discusses her writing process, reactions to the book, and the complex and coded language can surround discussions of disability.

January's installment of our series with the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4) features John Zinsser, an instructor at the negotiation and confilct resolution masters program at Columbia University. Zinsser discusses his experience as an organizational ombudsman, a designated neutral and confidential mediator within organizations like hospitals, universities and corporations.

For this Late City Edition, check out our coverage on After Tiller, an award-winning documentary on late-term abortions. The film follows the only four doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions; the fifth, George Tiller, was assassinated in 2009. Late City Edition producer Ruby Dutcher sat down with the directors of After Tiller, Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, to discuss their motivations for making the film, and the reaction they have recieved in the wake of its release.

Dr. Stephan Mayer, director of the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Columbia University Medical Center, joins our producer Ruby Dutcher to discuss his experience as an intensive care physician and the epidemic of slow, machine regulated death that has accompanied advances in modern medicine, and explains why we should talk about death at dinner.

The Jordan river has inspired countless poems and spirituals, but these days it is hardly recognizable. Partially due to human intervention, the flow of the Jordan has dramatically slowed, and the river is now ecologically endangered. In our December 2013 collaboration with the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4), Dr. Beth Fisher-Yoshida, an expert in conflict reslolution, is joined by three of her students.

In this Late City Edition feature, producer Naomi Cohen moderated a round-table discussion on mining and oil drilling -- also known as extraction -- in Latin America. She sat down with Lisa Sachs, Director of the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment; Chris Santiago, a Phd candidate in Columbia University's Anthropology Department who is researching the protests in Cajamarca, Peru against gold mining; and Nicolas Chango, the last leader of his tribe in Salasaca, Ecuador and a speaker on indigenous rights issues.

The Sundance film Narco Cultura follows a CSI unit in Juarez, Mexico - the world's murder capital - and explores the culture surrounding narcocorridos, a music genre that features Mexican ballads about the country's drug lords. Late City Edition Producer Zachary Wyche sat down with director Shaul Schwarz to discuss the film and narcocorrido culture.

For this Late City Edition, check out our coverage on After Tiller, an award-winning documentary on late-term abortions. The film follows the only four doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions; the fifth, George Tiller, was assassinated in 2009. Late City Edition producer Ruby Dutcher sat down with one of these doctors, Dr. Susan Robinson, to discuss her work, its surrounding controvery, and the film.

Late City Edition prodcuer Ethan Edwards sits down with Phoenix Perry, a local artist and game designer. Perry founded the Code Liberation Foundation, which focuses on teaching women the fundamental skills of game programming. Listen to Perry discuss the conditions of women in the game industry and the power of videogames as an expanding artistic medium.

For this month's collaboration with The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4), Professor Peter Coleman sat down with colleagues Dr. Joshua Fisher and Kyong Mazzaro. Tune in to hear the trio discuss the peace side of peace and conflict and the United Nation's work towards achieving its Millenium Development Goals.

Late City Edition producer Erica Getto sat down with Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, a Hindu monk and author of the recent book Urban Monk: Exploring Karma, Consciousness, and the Divine. Tune in to hear Pandit discuss his personal journey, his experiences living as a Hindu monk in New York City, and his philosophies on spirituality, religion, and wellness.

For this month’s collaboration with The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4), Professor Peter Coleman sat down with Nick Redding Project Coordinator at the Earth Institute, Columbia University and a PhD candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University studying the social psychology of conflict, sustainable peace, and online interaction and collaboration. Tune in to hear Coleman and Redding discuss conflict-resolution and AC4's current initiatives.

Alexander van Geen, a geochemist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, joins Late City Edition producer Erica Getto to explore how naturally occurring arsenic pollutes wells worldwide.

For this month’s collaboration with The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4), Professor Beth Fisher-Yoshida sat down with Jeff Thompson, a Conflict Specialist and Detective in the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Community Affairs Bureau. Tune in to hear Fisher-Yoshida and Thompson discuss how body language, gestures, and appearance factor into mediation.

For this Late City Edition collaboration, we aired a two-part series of radio shorts from the Columbia University undergraduates enrolled in this summer’s Fundamentals of Radio Journalism course. Led by Professor Kate Fink, students explored radio reporting and editing, taking to the streets of New York City and to WKCR’s studios. Check out these radio shorts on topics including Indian holy site Bodh Gaya, Italian artists’ American migration, New York City’s Museum of Mathematics, and the return of the New York City marathon. (Part 2)

For this Late City Edition collaboration, we aired a two-part series of radio shorts from the Columbia University undergraduates enrolled in this summer’s Fundamentals of Radio Journalism course. Led by Professor Kate Fink, students explored radio reporting and editing, taking to the streets of New York City and to WKCR’s studios. Check out these radio shorts on topics including Indian holy site Bodh Gaya, Italian artists’ American migration, New York City’s Museum of Mathematics, and the return of the New York City marathon. (Part 1)

For this month’s collaboration with The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4), Prof. Beth Fisher-Yoshida discussed power and conflict with Doctor Robert Ferguson. Ferguson is a professional therapist, coach, consultant and instructor at Columbia University’s International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR).

For this Late City Edition segment, producer Sophia Lian sat down with Philipp Ruprecht, a volcanologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Ruprecht recently co-authored a study concerning eruption forecasting with Terry Plank, a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty.

A discussion with Dr. Fisher-Yoshida, Claudia Cohen, Rebecca Neshkes and Stanley Richards from Fortune Society, a not-for-profit community-based organization dedicated to educating the public about prisons and criminal justice and staffed primarily by ex-offenders.

As part of WKCR’s early hip hop celebration, Late City Edition Producer Sophia Lian sat down with Dr. Olajide Williams, known in the recording studio as The Hip Hop Doc. Williams, who is also Chief of Staff of Neurology and Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, heads up the Hip Hop Public Health program. The program employs hip hop and rap to educate elementary-age students about stroke prevention. Listen to hear Dr. Williams discuss the project, public health innovation, and the importance of arts in education.

Late City Edition producer Erica Getto talked New York City politics with the team behind the website Who’s On the Ballot. The not-for-profit project offers New York City residents a comprehensive guide to election season, including registration deadlines, upcoming debate information, and resources for getting to know candidates . Listen in to hear Who’s On the Ballot representative Chris Santulli discuss the voter education project and how you can stay informed and active this election season.

Late City Edition producer Nico Esguerra sits down with Cyrus McGoldrick, speaking on behalf of the Council for American Islamic Relations about NYPD profiling and surveillance.

Late City Edition producer Erica Getto was joined by Columbia Business School professor Olivier Toubia for a discussion on Twitter. Toubia recently co-authored the report “Intrinsic vs. Image-Related Utility in Social Media: Why Do People Contribute Content to Twitter?” in the journal Marketing Science. Listen in to hear his findings on why we tweet, how often we tweet, and how Twitter may be trending towards more of a media consumption than contribution site.