The Brian Lehrer Show

Samantha Max, reporter covering public safety for WNYC/Gothamist, breaks down the latest in the Luigi Mangione case, including his guilty plea in federal court on Friday, his push to dismiss the state murder charges on double jeopardy grounds, and the postponement of his state trial.

Photo: Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on June 17, 2026 in New York City. Mangione is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024. (Steven Hirsch - Pool/Getty Images)

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As part of a three-part series on the divisions within political movements, Andrew Hale, fellow for international relations, economics, and trade at Advancing American Freedom, talks about the ideological and generational fight inside the think tank behind Project 2025, and what the battle over its direction says about where the Republican Party is headed after Trump.

Photo: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with President of The Heritage Foundation Kevin D. Roberts at The Heritage Foundation on February 09, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

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The dispute over the Elizabeth Street Garden, the site of proposed low-income senior housing, appears to be at an end as developers have dropped their lawsuit against the city, which blocked the plan from moving forward under Eric Adams' administration. David Brand, housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, shares his reporting and analysis, and explains the story in a broader housing context.

Photo: Views of the Elizabeth Street Garden on a crowded Sunday afternoon on September 9, 2024 in the Soho neighborhood of New York City, New York. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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European cities are scrambling to reinvent urban life as summers get hotter and deadlier. Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology at New York University and the author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed (Knopf, 2024), shares his reporting on what cities are doing to adapt to climate change during Western Europe's hottest summer on record--and maybe the coolest yet to come.

Photo: A man walks past a thermometer reading 40 degrees Celsius on June 21, 2026 in Seville, Spain. (Photo by Marcelo del Pozo/Getty Images).

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As part of a 3-part series on the divisions within political movements, David Hogg, founder and president of Leaders We Deserve, co-founder and board member of March for Our Lives, and former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, talks about what's dividing the Democratic Party, from the fallout over the DNC's 2024 autopsy to the primary challenges his group is backing heading into the midterms.

Photo: David Hogg, co-founder of Leaders We Deserve, and Patrick Roath, candidate for Congress (MA-08), walk to join attendees on the Freedom Trail during a "Democracy Walk" at the Boston Common on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Finn Gomez/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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Matteo Wong, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about his latest reporting on artificial intelligence, including the potentially dangerous mistakes some of the biggest companies have made.

=> "It May Be Time to Panic About AI" (The Atlantic, August 12, 2026)

Illustration by wildpixel via iStock/Getty Creative

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Now that budget season is over, NYC Comptroller Mark Levine offers his view on the health of the city's finances, plus talks about his view on the housing affordability crisis, the city's pension fund and more.

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine speaks during the annual New York State Financial Control Board meeting on August 12, 2026 in New York City. Levine was joined by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, State Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli and other board members as they discussed the state's budget. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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As part of a 3-part series on the divisions within political movements, Eric Blanc, assistant professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University, author of several books including We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big (University of California Press, 2025), and author of the Substack newsletter LaborPolitics.com, talks about what's dividing members of the Democratic Socialists of America, as the party is having a moment.

Photo: New York City Democratic Socialists (NYC-DSA) hold a rally in Union Square marking the start of a campaign to tax the rich and win universal childcare on November 16, 2025, in New York City, United States. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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

Should Democrats Bring 'Woke' Back? (First) | Who is Running Venezuela? (Starts at 28:30) | Public Shaming as Public Policy (Starts at 50:00)

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Photo: Marcia Fudge with Stay Woke Vote t-shirt in 2018. (Marcia Fudge, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is publicly sharing the process of freezing her eggs, all while people are speculating about her plans to run for higher office. Annie Karni, congressional correspondent for The New York Times and co-author (with Luke Broadwater) of Mad House: How Donald Trump, Maga Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby and a Man with Rats in his Walls Broke Congress (Random House, 2025), talks about how women are reacting and how this might connect to her political future.

Photo: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to reporters near the House steps after a series of votes at the U.S. Capitol on July 22, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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