David Evanier, as a novelist and a biographer, is fascinated by quintessential New York's world within worlds. His obsession with the flowering of Italian American singers has resulted in 2011's All the Things You Are, the Life of Tony Bennett.

Both an espionage thriller and an authentic look at war through the eyes of military intelligence, Red Flags depicts Vietnam as the blueprint for the US's subsequent involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Host Charles Ruas speaks with Wang Ping about her recent collection of poetry The Magic Whip. Here the writer and scholar confesses how she discovered the power of Chinese characters - by studying Ezra Pound and translating for Allen Ginsberg.

It's never too early or late in the day to get ready for dinner! Listen close as host Charles Ruas speaks with author Lawrence Osborne about his tasty new book, The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World.

New York School poet Anne Waldman, who is also associated with the Beat poetry movement, discusses her collection In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems 1985-2003 and becoming engaged in political process once again.