The Brian Lehrer Show

David Owen, staff writer at The New Yorker, talks about the business of storage lockers and why so many Americans have them.

Photo: Stop and Stor, Self storage warehouse, Queens, New York. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic, historian and author of Autocracy Inc. (Penguin, 2024), shares her reporting on how influential figures in MAGA world, including private citizens looking for personal gain, and others peddling anti-Democratic values, have become the primary way the U.S. does foreign policy, and are realigning the world order.

Photo: USA President Donald Trump speaks as USA Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and USA Secretary of State Marco Rubio stand behind during the press conference at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkiye on July 8, 2026. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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After a spate of hit-and-run deaths earlier this year, the Mamdani administration has released its new Vision Zero plan to reduce traffic fatalities. Stephen Nessen, transportation reporter for the WNYC Newsroom, reports on what's in the plan and how safety advocates are responding.

Photo: On September 15, 2026, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces new street safety measures aimed at preventing automobile accidents and pedestrian injuries. (Photo courtesy of City Hall/Office of the Mayor)

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William Cohan, co-founder of Puck News and author of many books, including Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street (Portfolio, 2026), tells the story of one Wall Street titan's rise and fall and what it says about the larger system.

Photo: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on September 16, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Concrete may be the world's most widely used building material, but it isn't widely considered a stimulating topic of conversation. John Wilson, filmmaker and creator of "How To with John Wilson", discusses his new documentary, "The History of Concrete," about the hidden side of a material that's more fallible than we might think and why we should care. 

Photo: A scene from THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE, a Magnolia Pictures release. (Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

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City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the latest developments in the City Council and takes calls from listeners, in the latest installment of a new monthly series.

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The Trump administration's new "public charge" rule, which is scheduled to go into effect this week, will make it more difficult for immigrants applying for visas and green cards if they have used public benefits like SNAP or Medicaid. Catherine Chen, CEO of the Asian American Federation, talks about what to know, the city's lawsuit to try to stop it and why Asian immigrants will be disproportionately affected.

Photo: A sign alerting customers about SNAP food stamps benefits is displayed in a Brooklyn grocery store on December 5, 2019 in New York City. (Scott Heins/Getty Images)

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Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Senator John Fetterman and a former deputy chief of staff to Senator Harry Reid and the author of Supermajority: How Democrats Can Build Lasting Power (WW Norton, 2026), argues Democrats need a supermajority in Congress and offers advice for achieving it, and suggestions for what legislation to enact if it's achieved.

Photo: People watch as U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) appears on a video to endorse U.S. Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center on September 09, 2026 in Dallas, Texas. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Robert Sietsema, veteran restaurant critic and author of Substack newsletter Robert Sietsema’s New York, talks about his recent article in Gothamist on the diversity of curry dishes in New York City as listeners share curry dishes from their home country and their favorite curry spots in the five boroughs. 

Photo: The spice curry powder in center is made up of, from left, coriander, black pepper, cardamom, mustard, cumin, cayenne pepper and turmeric at Caroline Barrett's home on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 in Delmar, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)

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Will Oremus, a staff writer at The Atlantic, discusses the uproar over the warnings of potential threats to humanity from unregulated AI, then Andrew Prokop, senior politics correspondent at Vox, talks about possible government actions to prevent disaster from the purposeful or inadvertent consequences of AI harm.

Photo: A person holds an iPhone displaying icons for Copilot, Gemini, Meta AI, Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek, Perplexity and Doubao in a folder titled "Artificial Intelligence" on September 15, 2026, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.(Cheng Xin/Getty Images)

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