The Brian Lehrer Show

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

Kate Manne, professor at the Cornell University Sage School of Philosophy, offers her take on the casual misogyny that allows rape culture to thrive (First) | The Left's pleas for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch (Starts at 45:00) | The literary legacy of brothers Frank and Malachy McCourt (Starts at 1:10:00)

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Maria Ressa, journalist, CEO of the news outlet Rappler, professor at Columbia University and the author of The Fight Back: A Citizen's Guide to Standing Up to Dictators (Harper, 2026) talks about the role of the press and individuals in maintaining democracy, especially in this age of AI.

Photo: Maria Ressa at the book fair Frankfurt 2025 (Jaramo81, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons)

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Jon Campbell, Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about how the issue of affordability came up in this week's debate between Gov. Hochul and her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman.

Photo: New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate, current Gov. Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman face off in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election at the Spectrum News NY1 studios on October 13, 2026 in New York City. (Anna Connors, Pool via Getty Images)

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Ash Wu, books news reporter at The New York Times, talks about Anne Carson, the Canadian poet, essayist and novelist who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, and where to start if you’ve never read her.

Photo: Anne Carson, poet, at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading in the NYU Skirball Center (Jay Dixit, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons)

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Kate Manne, professor at the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, author of the Substack newsletter More to Hate, and many books, including Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (Crown, 2020), offers her take on the casual misogyny that allows rape culture to thrive.

Photo: Students walk the campus grounds at Cornell University, on October 8, 2026, in Ithaca, New York. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)

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Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, offers analysis of how the ICE shooting in Marble Hill, and immigration and crime more broadly, came up in the debate between Governor Hochul and her Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman.     

Photo: People participate in a march against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities on October 9, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

 

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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), offers analysis of some recent wins that President Trump has handed Russian President Putin, and how Russia...and Ukraine have responded.

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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Kristin LaBuz, executive director of Open House New York, talks about OHNY's annual festival this weekend.

Photo: Bandaloop performs dance routines off of the facade of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center during their open house weekend on October 29, 2022 in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld via Getty Images)

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Errol Louis, political anchor of Spectrum NY1 News, host of Inside City Hall and The Big Deal with Errol Louis, New York Magazine columnist and host of the podcast You Decide, offers analysis of the issues in New York's governor's race, and in the debate that he moderated.

Photo: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul debates in the race for governor at the studios of WNBC4-TV June 16, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Ruttle-Pool/Getty Images)

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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.

Photo: Francis Fukuyama, author and political scientist, poses for a portrait during an interview at the Javeriana University of Colombia. (Photo by Ovidio Gonzalez/Getty Images)

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