Fifty years ago, a performer called Bill Martin wrote a song about his experience playing in a bar. He introduced us to people he met there. A waitress who’s practicing politics, a real estate novelist who never had time for a wife, among others. They are sharing a drink they called loneliness, which as the song affirms is better than drinking alone. Bill Martin was the stage name for Billy Joel and the song is, of course, Piano Man. As Joel’s famed residency at Madison Square Garden comes to a close and a new exhibit looking at his legacy opens …

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It is the simplest of tools designed to help us tackle the complexities of life. It helps reduce errors, remember what’s important, assess and reflect on what and how we’re doing. Pilots, astronauts, builders and surgeons use them to save lives. What is this elementary yet powerful tool? A checklist. Is it possible that a simple checklist could do for the growing issue of social isolation among older adults what previous versions have done for saving lives in surgery? Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks to Sandy Markwood, CEO of US Aging, a national association representing and supporting …

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In communities across the country, including New York, library budgets and hours are being cut, just at a time when society needs them most. This is in spite of the incredible success that libraries have in bringing people, particularly older adults, together. Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast, Attribution talks with Eric Klinenberg, NYU sociologist and author of “Palace for the People” which examines the role that third places like libraries play in avoiding isolation. We’ll also hear from four Long Island librarians who are creating innovative programs for older adults that reduce isolation and build belonging. For more information, …

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Great Gatsby Then & Now is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group. Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. They discuss her book “So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures,” and what The Great Gatsby can still teach us today, 100 years after the events of the novel take place. Major …

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A Tale of Two Teachers is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group. Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with two married Long Island teachers. They share their extraordinary experiences teaching in different Long Island schools over the course of this challenging year. This special broadcast is not about good schools or bad schools, neither about good or bad students. In fact, it’s not about anything good or bad. But it is about the opportunities afforded to our children and the potential they have …

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Erin Hagerty died last year at the age of 62. By most counts she lived an extraordinary life – simply by doing things many would consider ordinary. This is an examination not of what she did but how she was seen. By strangers, her family and most importantly how she saw herself. “Seeing Erin Hagerty” is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream, a public media initiative The WNET Group, reporting on Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America. Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with Erin’s mother, her four siblings and documentary filmmaker and …

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