The Brian Lehrer Show

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, visiting professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and Jaser AbuMousa, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and senior policy advisor at the International Peace Institute, both suffered major traumas on October 7th, 2023 and its aftermath. They discuss their personal devastation, as well as why they are engaging in dialogue and what they hope for in Palestinian and Israeli politics.

Photo: An Israeli flag flies at a rally organized by the German-Israeli Society Bremen/Lower Weser to mark the Independence Day of the State of Israel on the market square in Bremen, while counter-demonstrators hold a Palestinian flag in the background. (Photo by Focke Strangmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Sam Levine, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), touts the city's settlement with DoorDash over worker pay, plus recounts his testimony before the City Council on artificial intelligence.

Photo: A Doordash delivery person rides their bike on Church Avenue in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn on December 04, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Timmy Facciola, founder of the local news outlet Judge Street Journal, which focuses on New York politics, unpacks Mike Lawler and Cait Conley's positions on AI and data centers.

Photo: People protest artificial intelligence and data centers ahead of a New York City Council Committee hearing on the risks and regulation of artificial intelligence. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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The New York Times recently released a list of the top 100 television series of the 21st century as compiled by many influential TV figures. Listeners call in to share their own favorites.

Photo: (L-R) Actors Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Dean Norris accept the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award for 'Breaking Bad' onstage during the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 18, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

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Timmy Facciola, founder of the local news outlet Judge Street Journal, which focuses on New York politics, talks about the how Mike Lawler is positioning himself in relation to President Trump on issues like immigration and antisemitism, and how Cait Conley is framing her policy positions in relation to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose for a photo with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-OH) after Trump delivered remarks during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Eric Lee via Getty Images)

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Rose Broderick, disability in health care reporting fellow at STAT News, shares her reporting on major federal rollbacks of landmark disability protections such as Section 504, as well as broader trends in federal disability rights.

Photo: Disability rights activists and caregiving advocates hold a vigil in front of the US Capitol to urge Congress to include full federal funding for home and community based care services in President Biden’s Build Back Better budget package on October 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Larry French/Getty Images for The Arc of the United States)

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Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, founding editor of Jacobin, publisher of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, former vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality (Basic Books, updated 2026) and co-author of The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World (Verso, 2026) talks about today's socialism and its response to today's issues.

Photo: Bhaskar Sunkara poses ahead of delivering the inaugural Eric Aarons Memorial Lecture: Socialist Horizons for Our Times at the NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium on May 26, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams via Getty Images)

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Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly, an assistant editor at The Atlantic, talks about her recent article in The Atlantic on "upgrade holdouts" as listeners share the old tech they hold onto, and why.

Photo by AIDEPCUL, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons. 

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Timmy Facciola, founder of the local politics news outlet Judge Street Journal, talks about several key affordability issues that came up in the debate between U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler and his Democratic challenger Cait Conley, including energy, tariffs, and housing.

Photo: Cait Conley, who is challenging U.S. Representative Mike Lawler to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District, speaks to supporters on September 16, 2026 in Tarrytown, New York.  (Spencer Platt via Getty Images)

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New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah Jones's article about her family's experience with New York City public schools has brought the system's persistent segregation and inequality back into the forefront of education conversations. Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat, New York talks about the issues her article brought forth, her challenge to the mayor to do something and what the city does say it's doing to address the longstanding issue.

Photo: A row of students ages 5-7 raising their hands while standing along a chain-link fence on a playground during recess at P.S. 111, a public school in Hell's Kitchen, New York City . (Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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