The Brian Lehrer Show

Jodi Kantor, New York Times investigative reporter, co-author of She Said (Penguin, 2019) and author of How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work (Hachette, 2026), expands on her Columbia University commencement address where she tried to answer the question, “How, in this environment, is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?”

Photo: Cover art for 'How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work.' (Credit: Hachette)

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As part of a series on "spring cleaning," Kaitlyn Wells, senior writer at Wirecutter, offers advice on how to organize and digitize life's most important documents.

Photo: Stock image by Tsuji/E+ via Getty Creative

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Mara Liasson, NPR national political correspondent, talks about the latest national political news, including what's happening in foreign policy as President Trump travels to China and a deal to end the Iran war is still not happening. Plus, she discusses the redistricting wars and what a recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll found about the president's approval ratings.

Photo: A Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida speaks during an emergency town hall about Florida Republicans’ newly approved congressional redistricting map (seen on wall) on May 04, 2026 in Coral Springs, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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As state lawmakers continue to hammer out the details in this year's budget, Jon Campbell, Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, reports that it looks like the state will loosen the emissions goals in the landmark 2019 climate law, and explains why Gov. Hochul is dedicated to this, and why environmentalists are furious.

Photo: Factory smoke via rawpixel.

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Listeners try their hand at a quiz based on numbers in the news.

Image: Stock illustration, (GrafikLab via Getty Creative)

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As part of the yearlong series "Wild NYC," Marielle Anzelone, urban botanist and ecologist and the founder of NYC Wildflower Week, and Christian Cooper, science and comics writer, host of the National Geographic TV series Extraordinary Birder, NYC Bird Alliance board member, and the author of Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World (Random House, 2023), talk about the spring migration of birds and butterflies, happening now.

Photo: Northern Parula, a small warbler, perched on diagonal perch in Spring, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, New York (Adria  Photography via Getty)

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As part of a series on "spring cleaning," Kaitlyn Wells, senior staff writer for The Wirecutter, offers advice on how to purge your old clothes, including where to send them when they're out of your closet.

Image: Stock photo; (smirart via Getty Creative)

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Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, digs into the details of the new, though still not final, $268 billion dollar New York State budget.

Photo: The New York State Senate. (Credit: The New York State Senate)

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As the Trump administration is in the process of revamping Penn Station, Tom Wright, CEO and president of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), talks about a new report that offers the RPA's ideas for how to increase capacity and make the transit hub work for commuters.

Photo: A clock at Penn Station. (Credit: Boaventuravinicius via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0)

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Civil rights scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, founder and executive director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, distinguished professor and Promise Institute chair for human rights at UCLA Law School and Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher professor at Columbia Law School, and author of Backtalker: An American Memoir (Simon & Schuster), talks about key moments in her life that helped her develop groundbreaking legal concepts. Crenshaw is popularly known for her development of “intersectionality,” “Critical Race Theory” and as the host of the podcast Intersectionality Matters! She'll be in discussion about Backtalker at NYPL on Wedneesday.

Cover art courtesy of Simon & Schuster

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