The Brian Lehrer Show

Frederick S. Barrett, director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology of Consciousness in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, talks about the use of psychedelics for mental illness and the effects of President Trump's executive order speeding up research.

Photo: Tabernanthe iboga, a shrub with hallucinogenic properties, grows in Cameroon. (Credit: Marco Schmidt via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.5)

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It's National Library Week, and today we're asking library workers (and patrons) to talk about the services their libraries provide. 

Photo: The Brooklyn Public Library. Credit: Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons.

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Elizabeth Alexander, president of The Mellon Foundation, poet, educator, memoirist and scholar and the author of The Trayvon Generation (Grand Central Publishing, 2022), talks about the latest cohort of the Mellon Foundation's (in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America) jazz legacies fellows, and the importance of the genre. Also in this segment, saxophonist Gary Bartz reflects on his long career in jazz.

Photo: An alto saxophone. (Credit: Rama via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0)

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NYC Comptroller Mark Levine talks about his plan to invest $4 billion from NYC's pension funds into affordable housing developments in the city, plus weighs in on the budget and other city news.

Photo: NYC Comptroller Mark Levine. (Credit: New York City Comptroller's Office)

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David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, talks about early indications for the upcoming midterm elections.

Photo: An Oklahoma midterm ballot from 2018. (Credit: Okcgunner via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0)

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Michael Sol Warren, New Jersey reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, recaps last week's Ask Governor Sherrill and provides an update on the New Jersey state budget.

Photo: Governor Mikie Sherrill. Credit: State of New Jersey, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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

White Collar Workers, Unite!  (First) | The Push for Junk Food Warning Labels (Starts at 27:40) | Last Mile Deliveries (Starts at 49:23)

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Photo Credit: Todd Van Hoosear, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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Miranda Nazzaro, senior technology reporter for The Hill, talks about her reporting on Anthropic's Mythos model, which is unnerving some big businesses over cybersecurity concerns.

Photo: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, delivers remarks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. (Credit: TechCrunch via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0)

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"Fibermaxxing" is the latest social media nutrition trend. Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the “Ask A Doctor” columnist for The Washington Post and the author of the new book You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong (PRH/Avery, 2026), talks about the major health benefits of eating plenty of fiber, and how to do it.

Photo: A bowl of cereal with berries. (Credit: U.S. Food and Drug Administration via Wikimedia Commons)

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Mayor Mamdani announced plans this week to expand the pedestrian corridor of the notoriously chaotic Grand Army Plaza, which advocates have been pushing for for years. Liam Quigley, parks & sanitation reporter for Gothamist and WNYC, unpacks the latest announcement, plus digs into the city-wide decline in composting.

Photo: A market at Grand Army Plaza pictured in 2003. (Credit: Alex756 via Wikimedia Commons CC 3.0)

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