The Brian Lehrer Show

Allison Pohle, reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering the travel and tourism industries, discusses the TSA's announcement that airline passengers no longer need to take off their shoes to clear airport security and what its decision could mean for traveler safety. 

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Brigid Bergin, WNYC's senior political correspondent, offers analysis of the interview with Jim Walden, who is running for mayor as an independent, and the state of the campaign.

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Immigrants and advocates are alleging that conditions at a lower Manhattan ICE facility are inhumane, including no beds and not enough food. Arya Sundaram, WNYC and Gothamist reporter covering race and immigration, shares her reporting on the story and what local elected officials have been able to find out is going on inside, and Adriano Espaillat, U.S. Representative (D, NY-13), shares his experience visiting the facility this morning.

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Elora Mukherjee, professor at Columbia Law School and director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, talks about the impact of the Trump administration's revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from seven countries, what legal recourse might be available, and what it means for the immigrants and the City.

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Jim Walden, attorney running as an independent in the NYC mayoral race, introduces himself to the voters.

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

• Natalie Wynn, creator of the YouTube channel Contrapoints, discusses her work including her latest video titled "CONSPIRACY" in which she delves into the history of conspiracies in American politics, the allure of conspiratorial thinking, and how this way of thought negatively impacts democracy.
• James Sanders, architect, author, filmmaker, and co-writer with Ric Burns of the PBS series: New York: A Documentary Film and its companion volume, New York: An Illustrated History (Knopf, 2021) and the author of Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies (Knopf, 2001), talks about the New York seen in films since the beginning of movie-making, as part of our centennial series.
• Each year the news division hosts the WNYC Health Convening with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as an opportunity for health care experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, as part of our centennial series "100 Years of 100 Things," Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, co-editor of The Cancer History Project, and author of The Dissident (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2023), discusses the century of cancer treatment advancements and how the U.S. government played a major part in funding the science for treatment, early detection and prevention.
• The WNYC Health Convening with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation continues with a look at the current state of cancer research in the United States.Sudip Parikh, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals;Otis Brawley, professor of oncology at The Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkin and co-editor of The Cancer History Project; andJulie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent at KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast; discuss what the impacts of the Trump administration's funding cuts to the National Health Institute have meant to clinical trials—and what a future without government funding to find a cure might look like should the science continue to be underfunded.

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

Contrapoints' Natalie Wynn Deep Dives into the Philosophy of Conspiracies (May 29, 2025)

100 Years of 100 Things: New York Films (May 19, 2025)

100 Years of 100 Things: Cancer Research (Jun 3, 2025)

A Roundtable on the Current State of U.S. Cancer Research (Jun 3, 2025)

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Big changes are coming to student loans as a result of President Trump's domestic spending law. Ayelet Sheffey, senior economic policy reporter at Business Insider, explains how the lawwill make it harder for some borrowers to afford medical or law school, and how repayment plans for federal student loans will change. 

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Susan Kang, associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a commentator on state on local politics, offers analysis of how the Democratic Socialists of America's New York chapter figured into Zohran Mamdani's win in the Democratic mayoral primary, and how DSA will be involved in the general election.

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Jackie Faherty, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, talks about the many meteor showers on view in the night sky this month, plus a return of 'Manhattanhenge.'

=> EVENT: On Friday, July 11 at 7 pm, Jackie Faherty gives a lecture and 3D presentation about the science and history of the "Manhattanhenge" phenomenon in AMNH's LeFrak theater, followed by an outdoor viewing event with salsa music.  Tickets available here.

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Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli are vying to be New Jersey's next governor in a race that is heating up. Tom Martello, politics editor and political columnist at NJ Advance Media, discusses the latest news from the campaigns.

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