The Brian Lehrer Show

Arun Venugopal, senior reporter for WNYC's race & justice unit, shares his reporting on how the tourism industry in NYC is suffering because of President Trump's tariffs and other policies.

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Martha Barnette, co-host of the radio show and podcast A Way with Words and author of Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland (Harry N. Abrams, 2025), shares some fascinating stories of where words like "spam" and "cocktail."

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

Robert Reich's Critique of Fellow Boomers  (First) | What to Know About the Eating Disorder ARFID (Starts at :33) | The Gen Z Intimacy Recession (Starts at :52)

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For this "Summer Friday" we've put together some of our favorite conversations this year:

• David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of the Atlantic daily newsletter, plus author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), looks at where the initial actions of the Trump administration align with the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, and what's still to come.
• From our centennial series, Deb Whitcraft, founder and president of the New Jersey Maritime Museum, and Emil Salvini, author of several books on the history of the Jersey Shore and host of "Tales of the Jersey Shore" for NJTV, take us through the larger history as listeners share their memories and stories from the towns and beaches that fit under that giant umbrella of "the shore".
• Young men broke heavily for Trump in November. Andrew Marantz, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation (Viking Press, 2019),discusses the reason behind this phenomenon and how the left might make gains in this demographic.
• From our centennial series, Tina Jordan, deputy editor of The New York Times Book Review, and a co-editor of The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History (Clarkson Potter, 2021), looks at the history of best-selling books and what that says about the past century of American culture.

These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:

Catching Up on Project 2025 (Apr 25, 2025)

100 Years of 100 Things: The Jersey Shore (Aug 12, 2024)

How the Left Can Connect with Young Men (Mar 28, 2025)

100 Years of 100 Things: Best Sellers (May 21, 2025)

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The animal shelters in New York are full. There are feral cat colonies around the city. So what do we do? Will Zweigart, executive director of Flatbush Cats, a nonprofit cat rescue group, explains how we got to this point and makes some suggestions for what New York can do about all the cats.

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Carter Sherman, author of The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future (Gallery Books, 2025), and a reproductive health and justice journalist at the Guardian, talks about the decline in sex and intimacy among young people and what role the internet and hookup culture have played in shaping a generation's new cultural mores.

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Amy Nofziger, director of victim support at AARP's Fraud Watch Network, discusses the latest trends on how scammers are tricking people into giving them money and personal information and brings tips on how to avoid scams.

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Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, offers political analysis of Brian's candidate interview with Zohran Mamdani, and other campaign-related news.

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New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-AD36), the Democratic nominee for mayor, makes his pitch to voters as he runs for mayor of New York City.

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ARFID is an eating disorder that often presents as extremely picky eating, but that can quickly turn serious. Caitlin Moscatello, author and contributor to New York Magazine, and William Sharp, director, Children’s Multidisciplinary Feeding Program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta; and associate Professor, Division of Autism and Related Disorders & Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, explain how to recognize signs and how treatment is evolving. 

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