The Brian Lehrer Show

By WNYC

News & Politics Society & Culture Arts Education Literature TV & Film History

What's The Brian Lehrer Show about?

Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.

4.5

497 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

The History of Memorial Day

05.24.2019

Kenneth C. Davis, author of the "Don't Know Much About History" series and In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives (reprint, Square Fish, 2019), talks about the origins of Memorial Day. ...

The Brian Lehrer Show episodes:

05.24.2019 The History of Memorial Day Kenneth C. Davis, author of the "Don't Know Much About History" series and In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives (reprint, Square Fish, 2019), talks about the origins of Memorial Day. ...
05.24.2019 Foster Youth Stories Virginia Vitzthum, editor of Represent, a national magazine by and for youth in foster care, talks about the stories shared in the magazine and the awards for Youth in Foster Care. Pauline Gordon, former award winner who works in social ...
05.24.2019 #AsktheMayor: Eric Garner; Taxi Medallions; Affordable Housing; Libraries Bill de Blasio, New York City Mayor , takes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC. We discuss: Eric Garner, Taxi Medallions Affordable Housing: Homelessness; Libraries; Campaign Trip Security Payments
05.24.2019 Trump and Deutsche Bank Andrea Bernstein, senior editor for politics and policy and host of the Trump, Inc. podcast at WNYC, explores the long relationship between President Trump and his longtime lender, Deutsche Bank.
05.23.2019 What London Can Teach NYC About Congestion Pricing New York City will make history when it becomes the first city in the country to implement congestion pricing. Bobby Cuza, political reporter for NY1, and Tony Travers, visiting professor in the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) ...
05.23.2019 Observing Ramadan in 2019 For millions of Muslims, Ramadan means no eating and no drinking during daylight hours for a full month. We ask observers how they are balancing the act of honoring Ramadan while leading busy lives.
05.23.2019 Buying Influence is a Bipartisan Issue Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, junior United States Senator from Rhode Island and author of Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy, talks about how corporations, through dark money, buy political influence on every level of the government, from senators to regulators. ...
05.23.2019 Race and Specialized High School Admissions Ahead of Thursday's public hearing in Manhattan, New York Senator John Liu (D, 11-Queens), chair of the NYC Education Committee, talks about Albany's role in addressing diversity in NYC schools, including proposals to change the admissions process at the specialized ...
05.22.2019 Our Hair, Our Stories Rohina Hoffman, fine art photographer, neurologist and author of Hair Stories (Damiani, 2019), explores the significance of women's hair through her art and interviews with women of varying ages and ethnicities. When my mother started losing her hair due to ...
05.22.2019 India and Australia's Polarizing Leaders Will Likely Remain Krishna Andavolu, correspondent for Vice News Tonight, and Jamie Tarabay, a correspondent for The New York Times based in Sydney, Australia, discuss the dramatic election results in India and Australia, and take listener calls.
05.22.2019 NYC's Immigration Court Is a 'Pressure Cooker' Beth Fertig, WNYC senior reporter covering courts and legal affairs, talks about her latest reporting on the city's immigration courts, and the pressures that judges are under. "It’s very frightening for the people going," to immigration court in NYC, says ...
05.22.2019 Democrats Skirmish Over Impeachment Michael Scherer, national political reporter for The Washington Post, talks about the latest in the skirmish between Congress and the White House over subpoenas for information and testimony, and the reports of growing support for starting formal impeachment proceedings among ...
05.21.2019 What New York City Owes Eric Garner Mara Gay, New York Times editorial board member and Phil Stinson, professor and criminologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, reports on the latest from the administrative trial of police officer Daniel Pantaleo who killed Eric Garner in 2015. ...
05.21.2019 The SAT's New Adversity Score Scott Jaschik, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed., explains why the College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT. The score is meant to assess the student's economic and social background.
05.21.2019 Anita Hill's Courage and PEN America Attorney, law professor, equal rights activist and recipient of the 2019 PEN Courage award, Anita Hill and PEN America chief executive officer, Suzanne Nossel talk about Prof. Hill's work on behalf of gender and racial equality and her award. There ...
05.21.2019 Scott Pelley's Stories from 45 Years as a Journalist 60 Minutes correspondent and former CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, now the author of Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times (Hanover Square Press, 2019) talks about the importance of a free ...
05.20.2019 How Fury Can Fuel the Fight for Reproductive Rights In the wake of Alabama's abortion bans, more states announce their rollbacks on reproductive rights. Rebecca Traister, writer-at-large for New York Magazine and the author of, most recently, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger (Simon & Schuster, ...
05.20.2019 In Defense of Liberalism Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, argues that "liberalism" is not a political ideology, but a way of life.
05.20.2019 In Defense of Liberalism Staff writer for The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik, also author of A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism Basic Books (Basic Books, 2019) argues that "liberalism" is not a political ideology, but a way of life.
05.20.2019 What's New in New York? The Census; Budgets; Wages and More City Hall and politics reporter for WNYC, Brigid Bergin and executive editor of Gotham Gazette and co-host of the Max & Murphy podcast, Ben Max talk about what de Blasio's presidential bid means for NYC. Plus the latest on city ...
05.20.2019 Monday Morning Politics With Shawna Thomas: Student Loan Debt; Abortions Laws; Politics Shawna Thomas, Washington bureau chief at VICE News talks about the latest political news out of Washington.
05.17.2019 10 Minute Explainer: Robocalls Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst at Consumer Reports, breaks down how robocalls work and what — if anything — people can do to stop them.
05.17.2019 2020 Ideas Festival: Baby Bonds Naomi Zewde, postdoctoral research scientist at the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy, discusses her study of 2020 presidential contender and NJ Senator Corey Booker's "baby bonds" proposal. The study finds that the policy would considerably narrow the ...
05.17.2019 Supreme Court Updates NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, breaks down the current slate of SCOTUS cases and talks about the issues the court will likely take up in the future. Alabama law would, "likely, almost certainly, unless something really weird happened," be ...
05.17.2019 Ask the Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City Mayor and recently announced democratic primary contender, takes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC. We've been doing our weekly #AskTheMayor call-in for years. Now, the WNYC @datanews team made a word ...
05.17.2019 De Blasio as Candidate Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette and co-host of the Max & Murphy podcast, talks about the first day of Mayor Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign. Plus, WNYC's Brigid Bergin calls in to report from the field on the ...
05.16.2019 10-Minute Explainer: Roe v. Wade Mary Ziegler, Stearns Weaver Miller Professor at Florida State University College of Law and author of Beyond Abortion: Roe v. Wade and the Battle for Privacy (Harvard University Press, 2018), explains the history of Roe v. Wade and the precedent ...
05.16.2019 2020 Ideas Festival: Buy Assault Weapons Back From Owners For this installment of our 2020 Ideas Festival, California congressman and democratic presidential candidate Eric Swalwell talks about his buyback plan to get assault weapons off the street. @ericswalwell's plan: ATF administers a buyback, over the course of 2 years. ...
05.16.2019 San Francisco Banned Facial Recognition. Should New York? In light of San Francisco's ban on the use of facial recognition technology, Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) at the Urban Justice Center, discusses the use of facial recognition in New York City, ...
05.16.2019 2020 Ideas Festival: Rent Subsidies To combat high housing costs, Senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker — both democratic primary contenders — have proposedoffering monthly subsidies to those paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent. Noëlle Porter, director of government affairs at ...
05.16.2019 What Will de Blasio's Presidential Campaign Look Like? This morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his candidacy for president. Christina Greer, co-host of the New York politics podcast “FAQ NYC” and associate professor of political science at Fordham University, considers how he will make his case to voters ...
05.15.2019 10 Minute Explainer: Fast Fashion In light of the U.S. trade war with China, Elizabeth Cline explains how the "fast fashion" industry is fueled by cheap production overseas, and how consumers can build a more ethical closet. Cline is a journalist, clothing resale expert and ...
05.15.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: How Do We End Child Poverty? Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, from Connecticut's 3rd congressional district is the sponsor of the House of Representatives version of the American Family Act of 2019. The Senate sponsor is 2020 candidate Michael Bennet, a Colorado democrat. For our Ideas Festival: 2020 ...
05.15.2019 The 'Online' Left vs. the 'Real' Left New York Times op-ed columnist Michelle Goldberg discusses her recent column, about whether left leaning Twitter reflects the opinions of the Democratic electorate. A lot of people were surprised by Biden's strong poll showing, @michelleinbklyn says. This, despite the fact ...
05.15.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: Reshaping the Supreme Court? Ian Millhiser, columnist at ThinkProgress Justice and author of Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted (Bold Type Books, 2016), discusses Pete Buttigieg's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court, and to ...
05.15.2019 Political News Roundup Juana Summers, national politics reporter for the Associated Press covering the 2020 presidential campaign, ticks through the latest political news, including her recent reporting on Sen. Bernie Sanders finding someone to run against, in former Vice President Joe Biden. "Every ...
05.14.2019 10-Minute Explainer: Secret Agent Whale Eleanor Cummins, assistant editor for Popular Science, talks about how animals are used by the military, as spies or as weapons themselves. "The Russians do have a long history of using animal spies for missions," says @elliepses. "New technologies are ...
05.14.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: Break Up Big Tech Scott Hemphill, NYU law professor specializing in antitrust law and big tech, explains Elizabeth Warren's proposal to break up companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google, which she said have "bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit and tilted the ...
05.14.2019 Eve Ensler on Healing Through Apology Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, In the Body of the World, and now, The Apology (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019), discusses her new book, an imagined apology to her from her father for his sexual abuse. "I haven’t heard one ...
05.14.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: A Workable Green New Deal Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic staff writer covering climate change and technology, details Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's climate change proposal, which promises 100 percent clean energy by 2030. "Cars, they’re such an important part of the economy… so it will take ...
05.14.2019 The Berlin Wall of the Internet David Sanger, national security correspondent for The New York Times and the author of, now out in paperback, The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age (Crown, 2018), talks about America's vulnerability to cyber attacks by global ...
05.13.2019 10-Minute Explainer: Pharmacy Benefits Managers Gerard Anderson, PhD, professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains the role of Pharmacy Benefits Managers and whether they are to blame for the rising cost of prescriptions, as pharmaceutical ...
05.13.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: Should the President Debate Congress Quarterly? John Delaney, former Maryland Congressman and 2020 presidential candidate, pledges to debate Congressional leaders four times a year to engage opposing view points, highlight facts, and promote honest discussion about national news. "What I’m calling for is for the President ...
05.13.2019 Showdown Between the President and House Democrats Jennifer Rubin, opinion writer for The Washington Post, discusses her latest columns in The Washington Post, and the news of the day, including how the Mueller report has opened the door for House Democrats to issue subpoenas.
05.13.2019 Ideas Festival 2020: Letting Prisoners Vote Aubrey Menarndt, international election monitor, discusses her recent New York Times column comparing the United States to other countries regarding voting rights for felons, representing one of Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign issues. "This is a feature of democracies around the ...
05.13.2019 Biden’s Lead, China’s Retaliatory Tariffs, SCOTUS and Abortion Susan Page, Washington bureau chief of USA TODAY, discusses the latest in national political news, including Vice President Biden's lead in 2020 polls, China's retaliatory tariffs against the United States and how Trump's Supreme Court may impact abortion laws. "We ...
05.10.2019 Modern Motherhood Just ahead of Mother’s Day, Molly Millwood, Ph.D. in clinical psychology on the faculty at Saint Michael's College in Vermont and the author of To Have and to Hold: Motherhood, Marriage, and the Modern Dilemma (Harper Wave, 2019), offers a ...
05.10.2019 Post-Mueller Report World Call-In The Mueller report may not have brought as much clarity to Washington as some voters may have hoped it would. Listeners weigh in on what Democrats, Republicans and Trump should do next now that everyone is dug into their positions ...
05.10.2019 #AskTheMayor: NYC and ICE, Specialized High Schools, NYPD Trial After Garner's Death Bill de Blasio, New York City mayor, takes cakes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC, including the circumstances in which the City may work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, specialized high school testing and the trial of ...
05.10.2019 White House Juggles Sanctions in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela Heather Hurlburt, columnist at New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer and initiative director at New America, joins to talk about the latest military news at home and abroad including Iran's decision to halt its compliance with the nuclear deal, and recent ...

Older episodes