Midday on WNYC

John D’Aquino tells us about putting on a head-to-toe Hazmat dry diving suit last week and jumping into the Gowanus Canal, one of the country’s most polluted waterways. He’ll explain why he did it and what he found at the bottom of New York City’s notorious superfund site. He's joined by commercial diver Lenny Speregen.

Microbeads, tiny pieces of plastic commonly used in personal care products, are showing up in waterways across the nation. These tiny particles are considered potentially dangerous to the environment because of their tendency to absorb toxins in the water and then get consumed by fish and other organisms. Rolf Halden, Director of the Center for Environmental Security at Arizona State University, and Sherri Mason, Associate Professor of Chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, explain the hazards of these particles in our water.

Laura Newland examines the hypercompetitive battle for internships and the economic pressures—student loans, the daunting cost of graduate degrees, high unemployment—at the nation’s elite universities. She argues that these economic pressures have fueled a Wall Street recruiting machine that is winning over the best and the brightest. In Chasing Zeroes: The Rise of Student Debt, the Fall of the College Ideal, and One Overachiever’s Misguided Pursuit of Success, she writes about her own experiences with college debt and the lure of finance, and looks at higher education and the tension between ambition and debt.

E. L. Doctorow talks about his latest novel, Andrew’s Brain, which goes into the mind of a man who has been the inadvertent agent of disaster more than once in his life. In the novel Andrew tells the story of his life, his loves, and the tragedies he’s experienced.

Leonard Lopate Show Book Club’s first selection for 2014 is Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx. Author Adrian Nicole LeBlanc spent years with one extended family in the Bronx to create a portrait of poverty, and of life in and of public housing, prison, and court. It received high praise when it was published in 2003, and remains as relevant and important a decade later. We chose it after we read Andrea Elliott's powerful New York Times series Invisible Child: Dasani's Homeless Life, which reminded us of the extensive reporting on a family's struggles with poverty in Random Family. Share your thoughts and questions below! Adrian Nicole LeBlanc shared some of her favorite authors, stand-up comedians, and feminist books. Watch the video!

Derek Thompson, senior editor of The Atlantic’s Business Channel, looks at what the cities with the fewest cars tell us about driving and density, and why the cities with the smallest amount of cars tend to have more educated populations. His article “Why Do the Smartest Cities Have the Smallest Share of Cars?” draws from a study from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, appears in the Atlantic magazine. Do you have a car in the city? Do you wish there were fewer cars here? Share your thoughts on cars and city-living by leaving a comment!

Jamie Ford discusses his second novel, Songs of Willow Frost. Set in the 1920’s Depression-era Seattle, it follows a young orphan who has big dreams as he sets out in search of a woman who’s trying to escape her haunted past. 

Greg Grandin tells the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that occurred in 1805. Off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren’t. Having earlier seized control of the vessel and slaughtered most of the crew, they were staging an elaborate ruse, acting as if they were humble servants. The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World explores this extraordinary event, which inspired Herman Melville’s masterpiece Benito Cereno.

Frank Langella talks about playing King Lear in BAM’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear.” It’s playing through February 9. 

Robert Berger, screenwriter, co-director, and co-producer; and Patrick Daniels, screenwriter, co-director, co-producer, and actor, talk about the film “Charlie Victor Romeo,” which dramatizes cockpit voice recordings of six harrowing airline emergencies. It opens at Film Forum January 29. Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels and Karlyn Michelson will be doing a Q & A session following the 8 pm screening on Wednesday, January 29 at Film Forum Robert Berger and Karlyn Michelson will be doing Q & A sessions following the 8 pm screenings on Friday, January 31 and Saturday, February 1 at Film Forum

New York Times reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal continues her series “Paying Till It Hurts,” on the high cost of health care in this country. Her latest article in the series is “Patients’ Costs Skyrocket; Specialists’ Incomes Soar,” which looks specifically at how expensive some dermatological procedures are, why they cost so much, and what patients can do about it.

Do children bring unmitigated joy to the lives of their parents? Jennifer Senior is not so sure. She talks about the many ways children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. Senior argues that the roles of today's mothers and fathers are radically different from the way they were 50 years ago. Her book All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood uses history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology to dissect old and new aspects of parenting.

Rosanne Cash talks about her new album, “The River & the Thread,” her first since 2009. Cash wrote the album’s 11 original songs with her longtime collaborator (and husband) John Leventhal, who also served as producer, arranger and guitarist. Cash found inspiration in the many musical styles associated with the South – swampy Delta blues, gospel, Appalachian folk, country and rock, to name a few – to create this completely contemporary collection.

June Squibb discusses her role in “Nebraska,” for which she’s been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

New York magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman talks about how Roger Ailes, the powerful founder of Fox News, built the most influential television news empire of our time. The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News—and Divided a Country, Sherman looks at how Ailes became an indispensable figure in conservative America and set the right-wing agenda, from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal to the Tea Party attack on the Obama presidency.