The Roundtable

We begin our live broadcast from EMPAC for the Albany Symphony's American Music Festival by welcoming the ASO's Music Director, David Alan Miller.

Wint Aldrich – Red Hook Town Historian and Bicentennial Committee member and Christopher Klose - Red Hook native, Vice President of the Egbert Benson Historical Society of Red Hook, and also a member of the Bicentennial Committee, join us to fill us in on what Red Hook has planned for its Bicentennial year. To learn more visit redhook200.org.

We welcome Niskayuna native, Michael Whitney, to the show to talk about what it's like to be on the road with the touring production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The show is running on the main-stage at Proctors through Sunday.

UpDocs will present 20 documentaries at Upstate Films in Woodstock and Rhinebeck May 18-24. We welcome UpDocs co-programmers, Becca Prahl and Ben Fundis.

We welcome Heather Anderson and speak with her about I Never Intended to Be Brave: A Woman's Bicycle Journey Through Southern Africa. She will be speaking and signing copies of her book at the RoeJan Library on Saturday, May 19.

The presidential election is expected to be a toss-up. In today’s Congressional Corner, Massachusetts representative Richard Neal tells WAMC’s Alan Chartock that swing states like Florida and Ohio will be important as in past contests.

We welcome Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, Stuart Firestein, and speak with him about his book, Ignorance: How It Drives Science.

We welcome radio announcer for the Boston Red Sox, Joe Catiglione.

As we pay close attention to the debate over hydrofracking this morning – and all week — on WAMC, we now turn to an interview between our Alan Chartock and Dennis Holbrook, executive vice president and chief legal officer of Norse Energy Corporation. Holbrook has spent nearly four decades in the energy industry and has served as a director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association for the past 25 years. Holbrook describes the chemical mix used in the fracking process.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2012 performing season will run from June 26th to August 19th and here are some of the names attached: Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, David Hyde Pierce, Jessica Stone, David Byrne, Blythe Danner and Bob Balaban – just to name a few. The festival’s Artistic Director, Jenny Gersten, joins us this morning with a full preview of her second season at the helm.