Midday on WNYC

Cartoonist Liza Donnelly, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, talks about her new cartoon collection, Women on Men, about relationships.

Isabella Rossellini talks about her one-woman stage adaptation of her Sundance series “Green Porno.” She acts out the surprisingly kinky and strange mating rituals of insects and marine life—the praying mantis eats its partner while copulating, the male bee loses his penis when he mates; and the shrimp’s foreplay involves shimmying out of its shell. “Green Porno” is a quirky, cheeky zoology lesson brought vividly to life onstage by Rossellini’s storytelling. “Green Porno: Live on Stage” is at BAM January 16-25. Rossellini says she took inspiration from silent film and Buster Keaton. She said that when you look at nature, perfection is not what counts. What counts in diversity."

Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, talks about “lost” words—words that once had a literal meaning but are now used only in their metaphorical senses, like “masthead” and “loophole”. She’ll also answer questions about language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of O’Conner’s book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, is available in paperback, as is  Origins of the Specious, written with Stewart Kellerman.

Ranya Tabari Idliby discusses her experience being Muslim in America and how her family faces challenges in schools, friendships, and with neighbors. They are challenged by both Muslims who speak for them and by Americans who reject them. In her memoir, Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie, Idliby explores life as a Muslim  in a world where hostility towards Muslims is common.

Reporter Mark Follman investigates how the online forum Reddit has become a gun marketplace. The article “How Reddit Became a Gun Market—and Authorized Its Logo on Assault Rifles” is in Mother Jones.

Thirty-five years ago, anxiety did not exist as a diagnostic category, and today it is the most common form of officially classified mental illness. Scott Stossel talks about his own struggles with anxiety, and about the history of efforts by scientists, philosophers, and writers to understand the condition. In My Age of Anxiety , he reports on famous people who struggled with anxiety,  how it has afflicted generations of his own family, and the many psychotherapies, medications, and other treatments that have been developed to address it.

Nicole Polizzi (also known as Snooki), the famous Jersey Shore party girl, talks about getting unexpectedly pregnant and how having a baby has changed her life. Her new book, Baby Bumps: From Party Girl to Proud Mama, and all the Messy Milestones Along the Way, is about the realities of pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum life.    

Jane Pauley talks about her career and gives advice and shares stories about life after 50. Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life is about the opportunities that lie ahead after age 50. She points out that research has shown that people in their 50s are more vital now than they were only ten years ago.

Anna Sale guest hosts for Leonard Lopate. On today’s show: Tanya Selvaratnam weighs the pros and cons of delaying having kids. Jane Pauley talks about her career and the opportunities that lie ahead once we turn 50. Nicole Polizzi—you may know her better as “Snooki” from MTV’s “Jersey Shore” —talks about how having a baby has changed her life. And Scott Stossel chronicles his own anxiety and the anxious through the ages.

Rita Moreno talks about her career and being awarded the 2013 SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. She earned an Oscar in 1962 for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story,” won a Grammy in 1972 for her performance on “The Electric Company Album.” She won a Tony for her 1975 role as Puerto Rican bathhouse singer Googie Gomez in Broadway's “The Ritz.” And she's won two Emmy Awards. She’s also the author of Rita Moreno: A Memoir. Moreno also recalled her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, and commented on some of the speeches winners gave last night at the Golden Globes: "I thought, Why are they doing that? When they could say something really meaningful, because these are wonderful actors who won for great movies this year." Then Andy Borowitz suggested: "They should just list the people who tried to thwart them."   

Nanette Burstein, director of the ESPN documentary “The Price of Gold,” remembers the worldwide spectacle that erupted 20 years ago, when, weeks before the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right knee by an unknown attacker. It was revealed that figure skater Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had planned the attack with his friends to eliminate Kerrigan from the competition and increase Harding’s chance at a gold medal. “The Price of Gold”  premieres January 16, at 9 pm on ESPN.

David Dante Troutt looks at the cost of inequality in the country. He writes of the problems facing working- and middle class-communities: fiscal stress, urban decline, environmental sprawl, failing schools, mass incarceration, political isolation, disproportionate foreclosures, and severe public health risks. In The Price of Paradise: The Cost of Inequality and the Vision for a More Equitable America, he argues that adopting policies that take all class levels into consideration.

Robert Kolker discusses the “cannibal cop” case and looks at whether it’s possible—or even legal—to convict people for crimes they haven’t even committed yet. His article “A Dangerous Mind,” in the January 13 issue of New York magazine, is about Gilberto Valle, who was arrested in New York on a charge of conspiracy to kidnap. Details from his bail hearings told the story of a husband secretly plotting to kidnap and kill, cook, and eat several women, including his own wife. The trial seemed to be two different cases—the actual charge against Valle (conspiracy to kidnap) and the question of what Valle might do in the future if he were allowed to go free.

Comedians Deon Cole, Billy Eichner, and Reza Farahan talk about their careers in comedy and what they think is funny. They trade stories about getting heckled, the importance of doing standup at clubs, and how comedy sometimes comes from dark places.

Journalist Adrian Levy gives a definitive account of the siege the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in November of 2008. His book The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel, written with Cathy Scott-Clark, tells what happened when Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists attacked targets throughout the Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Hundreds were held hostage as a fire raged and gunfire rang out. When the smoke cleared, 68-hours later, 31 people were dead and many more were injured.