The Brian Lehrer Show

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

Lawmakers Attempt to Improve the Ticket-Buying Experience  (First) | The City's Rat Czar Shares Progress and Challenges (Starts at 23:40) | Helping Monarch Butterflies Thrive in NYC (Starts at 44:44)

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As the US economy and consumer preferences fluctuate, listeners in the restaurant industry and their customers share how they're adapting to tariffs, slowed job growth, widespread use of GLP-1 medications altering appetites, and other trends.

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Zack Beauchamp, senior correspondent at Vox and the author of The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World (PublicAffairs, 2024), talks about the debate among Democrats over whether to go along with the Republican plan to fund the government or withhold their votes, resulting in a shutdown.

=> "The Democrats’ shutdown debate is about something much bigger" (Vox, Sept. 10, 2025)

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This week, the French government lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly, forcing the prime minister François Bayrou and his cabinet to resign. Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief at The Economist, breaks down the latest and what's on the table for President Emmanuel Macron to remedy what's being called a "collapse" of his government.

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James Skoufis, New York State Senator (D - 42nd District), talks about his bill that would regulate the live events ticketing industry, plus shares why he agrees with Zohran Mamdani's petition to FIFA to improve consumers' ticket-buying experience for the men's World Cup, which will be in the US next year.

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Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords Law Center, Ned Parker, investigative reporter at Thomson Reuters, and McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Romney: A Reckoning (Simon & Schuster, 2023), talk about guns and the state of political violence in America after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event on a Utah college campus.

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Benji Jones, senior environmental correspondent at Vox, shares his reporting on how cities like New York can nurture threatened species, including monarch butterflies.

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Steven Markowitz, MD DrPH, an occupational medicine physician, internist, and epidemiologist who directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at the City University of New York, talks about the latest data from the World Trade Center Health Program.

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Nancy Solomon, host of the “Ask Governor Murphy” monthly call-in show, recaps her conversation with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on the assassination of Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Governor's planned economic trip to India and his executive order to ensure COVID vaccinations (and medical insurance coverage) to New Jerseyans. Plus, Nancy talks about the latest news in the governor's race between Jack Ciattarelli and Rep. Mikie Sherrill. 

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It has been more than two years since Mayor Adams appointed a "rat czar."  Kathleen Corradi, citywide director of rodent mitigation, reports on progress in the city's fight against the pests, and challenges that remain, like persistent rats nests near playgrounds and in parks. 

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