Midday on WNYC

Sam Garwin and Ryan Fibiger from Saugatuck Craft Butchery in Westport, Connecticut, talk about the importance of local, humanely raised meats. They explain the various cuts of meat, how they’re best prepared, whole-animal butchery, knife skills, and how the sausage is made.

Every year nine billion broiler chickens, 250 million turkeys, 113 million pigs, and 33 million cows are raised and slaughtered in the United States. Paul Solotaroff discusses the conditions many of those animals live in—and how they are often killed—in his Rolling Stone investigation “In the Belly of the Beast.”  

Ethan Hawke, who plays Macbeth, and Anne-Marie Duff, who plays Lady Macbeth, talk about Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” along with director Jack O’Brien. It’s playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center.  

Gray squirrels may seem like they've always been in New York City, but they're actually a fairly recent immigrant. Etienne Benson, Assistant Professor in the department of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, explains why the rodents were introduced into cities at the end of the 19th century. His paper “The Urbanization of the Eastern Gray Squirrel in the United States” is in the Journal of American History.

Bruce McCall talks about collaborating with David Letterman on an illustrated chronicle of satirical of the indulgences of the super-rich, This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me): Billionaires in the Wild.

Thomas E. Patterson argues that today’s journalists are not providing trustworthy and relevant news and that reporters too often give equal weight to facts and biased opinion, stir up small controversies, and substitute “infotainment” for real news. In Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism, Patterson looks at the problems with the press’s eroding quality, and he proposes a corrective. Patterson is a professor in the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The Gurus of How-To, Al Ubell and Larry Ubell, answer questions and give advice on how to repair and maintain your home or apartment. Now that winter's here, they'll offer tips on keeping your furnace in fine form, making sure your pipes don't freeze, and making sure you're home is heated and insulated efficiently. Call 646-616-7456 with your questions or leave a comment below!

New Yorker contributor Douglas Starr examines the Reid Technique of interrogation and whether it can prompt innocent people to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. Police forces, the military, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Secret Service have been trained in the method, but a growing number of scientists and legal scholars have raised concerns about Reid-style interrogation leading to false confessions. His article “The Interview” appears in the December 9 issue of The New Yorker.

Victoria Wilson discusses her biography A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907-1940. Stanwyck's astonishing career in movies (88 in all) spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound, and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s. The book that delves deeply into her rich, complex life and explores her extraordinary range of motion pictures, many of them iconic. Film Forum's 4-week Stanwyck festival (December 6-31) celebrates the actress by screening 40 Stanwyck features, including "Stella Dallas," "Double Indemnity," "The Lady Eve," "Baby Face," "Meet John Doe"; "Sorry, Wrong Number," "Ball of Fire," and the original "Titanic."

Author Michael Sokolove talks about what made the theater program at a high school in Levittown, Pennsylvania, so extraordinary. He’s joined by Lou Volpe, former theater director there. Solkolov is a former student, and his book Drama High chronicles the drama director’s last school years and follows a group of student actors as they work through dramas both on and off the stage.

Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart talk about their roles in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and Pinter’s “No Man’s Land,” in repertory at the Cort Theatre. In “No Man’s Land,” two elderly writers, having met in a London pub, continue drinking and talking into the night. All might be well, until the return home of two younger men. In “Waiting for Godot,” two wanderers wait by a lonely tree to meet up with Mr. Godot, who they hope will change their lives for the better. Instead, another couple of eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other's rope.

Astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana explains what neutrinos are and why scientists are looking for them. These incredibly small bits of matter may hold the secret to why antimatter is so rare, how mighty stars explode as supernovae, what the universe was like just seconds after the big bang, and even the inner workings of our own planet. In Neutrino Hunters, Jayawardhana tells a detective story with cosmic implications.  

Each year since 2010, Tony Award winner Richard Nelson has premiered a new play at The Public about the fictional, liberal Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York. This year's edition, the fourth and final play, "Regular Singing," is playing in repertory with the first three Apple plays. Nelson is joined by stars Maryann Plunkett and Jay O. Sanders. "Regular Singing" is a Public Lab production; it runs through December 15 at The Public Theater.

Jonathan Miles talks about his latest comic novel, Want Not. It opens on Thanksgiving Day, and presents three characters in various states of disrepair—a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, dealing with the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate with a trophy wife.

Legendary songwriter/producer Mike Stoller (the man behind such disparate hits as “Hound Dog,” “Stand By Me,” and “Stuck in the Middle with You”) talks about his long career as one of rock and roll’s architects. He’ll be celebrated at the 92Y on December 9, with artists like Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson and Bettye LaVette on the same stage.