Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

With US support for Israel playing a key role in this year's midterm elections, we look at the first results from Israel's national election.

On Today's Show:
Dahlia Scheindlin, Haaretz senior analyst and columnist, political scientist and the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled (De Gruyter, 2023), talks about the results so far in Israel's election, the first since the October 7, 2023 attacks and the years of war that followed.

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After Roe v. Wade was overturned, state restrictions on abortion access have put doctors in a tough position, between their patients and the law. 

On Today's Show:
Alice Miranda Ollstein, senior healthcare reporter at Politico, author of the book, Side Effects: How Abortion Bans Impact Everyone’s Health (The New Press, 2026), talks about her reporting on the impact of abortion bans, and how physicians have had to enter the political arena in order to do their jobs.

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In light of recent midterm polling, Democrats are reportedly considering whether impeachment would be a prudent pursuit. 

On Today's Show:
Lisa Mascaro, chief congressional correspondent for The Associated Press, talks about what might happen with investigations and even impeachment proceedings against President Trump or his appointees, should Democrats control congress after the midterms.

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California voters will have to decide on Prop 40, which is a one-time tax on billionaires in order to fund healthcare and education. 

On Today's Show:
Marisa Lagos, correspondent for KQED’s California politics and government desk and co-host of the show and podcast, Political Breakdown, talks about the proposal, who is for and against it and the lengths California billionaires have gone to try to sink the tax.

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Elected officials are not supposed to use their positions to boost their own personal wealth. 

On Today's Show:
Sam Kessler, Wall Street Journal reporter, talks about the billion dollar profits the president and his family have made in his second term, especially from crypto-related deals.

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With affordability, income inequality, and other consequential pocketbook policy items at play in this year's midterm elections, we look at the financial lay of the land. 

On Today's Show:
Theodore Schleifer, who covers billionaires and their impact for the New York Times, talks about the massive amounts of money currently at play in the midterm elections, the billionaires who donate it and how it affects what happens.

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Ahead of the midterm elections, one consequential issue centers the Supreme Court, and whether, amid ethics concerns, the judicial branch needs reform. 

On Today's Show:
Kate Shaw, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, co-host of the Supreme Court podcast "Strict Scrutiny," and a contributing opinion Writer with the New York Times, talks about the various proposals to reform the Supreme Court, including term limits, ethics reforms and reining in the so-called "shadow docket," which she says Democrats must do if they take control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

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Amid reports that would suggest a favorable relationship between President Trump and Russian President Putin, where does that leave Ukraine?

On Today's Show:
Julia Ioffe, founding partner and Washington correspondent of Puck and the author of Motherland: A History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy (Ecco, 2025), shares her analysis of some recent wins that President Trump has handed Russian President Vladimir Putin, and how Russia...and Ukraine have responded.

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A new memoir from an academic  international relations

On Today's Show:
Francis Fukuyama, senior fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, former State Department official and the author of The End of History and the Last Man (Free Press, 1992) and his latest, In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026), tells his story and how it intersected with events and his political beliefs.

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With the news that the US will publicly execute the Fort Hood shooter, and the recent botched execution of a woman in Tennessee, capital punishment has taken center stage in the national conversation.

On Today's Show:
Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, talks about the history and current state of the death penalty and public execution, here in the United States and around the world.

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