During his long tenure at WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, Alan Chartock has interviewed interesting people of every stripe. From Governors, Senators and top lawmakers, to newsmakers including World War II heroes and former UN weapons inspectors. Dr. Chartock has also had the chance for in-depth chats with artists, musicians, actors and directors...authors...you name it! Click the links at the right to listen to Alan Chartock Interviews.
Dr. Alan Chartock is professor emeritus at the University at Albany. He hosts the weekly Capitol Connection series, heard on public radio stations around New York. The program for almost twelve years, higlighted interviews with Governor Mario Cuomo and now continues with conversations with state political leaders. Dr. Chartock also appears each week on The Media Project on WAMC and offers commentary on other WAMC programs such as Midday Magazine.
Recent Conversations...
NEW Julianne Boyd
Julianne Boyd founded the Barrington Stage Company in January, 1995. She has directed many productions at BSC, including last season's critically acclaimed West Side Story and the 2005 production of Follies, the world premiere musical The Game, based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Mack and Mabel, A Little Night Music, South Pacific, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Importance of Being Earnest.
Harold Varmus
Nobel Prize winning scientist and a leading figure in the fields of science and politics, Harold Varmus currently serves in the Obama Administration as co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The talk about his remarkable career including how he won the Nobel Prize, his time as Director of the National Institutes of Health and his current role as President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. They'll also talk about the relationship between science and politics and touch on a number of health related topics including cancer research, stem cells and universal health care.
David and Nancy Ginsberg
David and Nancy Ginsberg run Ginsberg's Food Service in Hudson, N.Y. This year the family owned business is celebrating 100 years of service. They talk with Alan Chartock about the history of the company from its beginning as a local grocery store and butcher shop to its evolution into the largest independently owned and operated foodservice distributor in the Hudson Valley. The Ginsbergs also touch on their family histories in Columbia County.
The Honorable David L. Bell
Judge Bell oversaw the reform of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court after its staffing and infrastructure were gutted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He describes the juvenile justice system in New Orleans and provides fascinating insight into how officials there were able to rebuild a broken system.
Earl Scruggs and Rosanne Cash
In this archive edtion of WAMC's "In Conversation with..." series, Alan first speaks with bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs. In the second half hour, Alan talk with country music star Rosanne Cash. Earl Scruggs is considered by many to be the greatest banjo player alive. A pioneer of the three finger technique on the 5 string banjo, Scruggs rose to fame as a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Grammy winner Rosanne Cash is the daughter of the late country music great Johnny Cash. Since her appearance on the national music scene in the late 1970's, Rosanne Cash has blurred the lines between Country, Rock, Folk and Blues music.
Barney Calame
"Barney" Calame is currently the eighth James H. Ottaway Sr. professor of journalism at the College at New Paltz. He retired at the end of 2004 as a deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and served as public editor for The New York Times for a two-year term ending in June 2005.
Amba Preetham Parigi
Amba Preetham Parigi serves as Managing Director of Entertainment Network India Limited and the Managing Director & CEO of Times Infotainment Media Limited. On April 7th, 2009 he received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Severino Center for Entreprenuerial Technology at RPI.
Pete Grannis and Tara Sullivan
Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Tara Sullivan, Executive Director of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission join Alan Chartock for a discussion about the events planned this year to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the voyages of Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain.
Walkway Over the Hudson
Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, Fred Schaeffer, board chair of Walkway Over the Hudson and Jeanne Fleming, artistic and producing director of Walking ON Air: The Grand Opening of Walkway Over the Hudson.
Scenic Hudson 
Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, joined the organization in 1999 and has directed it through a period of dramatic institutional growth. Andy Bicking is Scenic Hudson director of public policy.
Michael Meeropol 
Michael Meeropol is the retired Professor and Chair of the Dept of Economics at Western New England College and author of Surrender: How the Clinton Administration completed the Reagan Revolution.
John R. MacArthur
"Rick" MacArthur is a journalist, magazine, and author of three books,his most recent, You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America.
Peter Heller 
Peter S. Heller is a recognized expert on fiscal policy and public finance. The former Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson 
The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson is the 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., the oldest technological research university in the United States.
James Barba 
James Barba is president and chief executive officer of Albany Medical Center. In these capacities, he oversees the medical education, biomedical research and patient care activities of northeastern New York's only academic health sciences center.
Stephen Bergman 
Stephen Bergman is a novelist, playwright, and, for three decades, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. His novels, The House of God, Fine and Mount Misery have sold over 3 million copies.
Jeffrey Deskovic and David Kaczynski
Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted in 1990 at age 16 of raping and murdering a high school classmate. In 2006 Deskovic's conviction was overturned and he was released. David Kaczynski is the Executive Director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, a coalition of individuals and organizations who seek abolition of capital punishment.
Dr. John Ratey 
Dr. John Ratey is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this hour long interview, Dr. Ratey discusses his most recent book, Spark: The revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
Theodore Bikel 
Folk singer; theater, film and television actor; radio host; president of Actors' Equity; political activist; Jewish spokesman, and author are some of the many careers to which Mr. Bikel can lay claim.
Nadav Tamir
Nadav Tamir is Consul General of Israel to New England. Tamir was born and raised in Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel. He began his career of public service in 1980 in the IDF, where he eventually served as a company commander and retired with the rank of Major.
Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman has at least three jobs: he is professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University; Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics; and, perhaps his best-known job, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.
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