The Brian Lehrer Show

During this holiday season, hear some recent favorites:

• Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University and the author of Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (Hachette, 2025), talks about issues of free speech and campus politics at Princeton, and the university's relationship with the Trump administration.
• Seth Berkley, MD, an infectious disease epidemiologist currently advising vaccine, biotechnology, and technology companies; an adjunct professor and senior adviser to the Pandemic Center at Brown University; former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; cofounded COVAX; founded and served as CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; and the author of Fair Doses: An Insider’s Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity (University of California Press, 2025), talks about the need for vaccine equity and lessons learned (and ignored) from the COVID pandemic.
• Clay Routledge, social psychologist, director of the Human Flourishing Lab at Archbridge Institute and author of Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life (Sounds True, 2023) explains why nostalgia for the late '90s and early 2000s is roaringly popular among Gen Z right now and listeners share stories of life before the internet and what it is about that era that younger listeners wish for today.
• Rachel Louise Ensign, economics reporter with The Wall Street Journal, explains the economic forces keeping Americans stuck in their homes and jobs, and how it impacts daily life.
• Ilya Marritz, journalist working with The Boston Globe, talks about his new series, in conjunction with The Boston Globe and On the Media, that looks at how the Trump administration has interfered with Harvard, and how it will affect academia and scientific research going forward.

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

Princeton President Talks Campus Speech and Politics (Oct 1, 2025)

Pandemic Preparedness Alert (Oct 28, 2025)

Gen Z Wishes It Were 1997 (Aug 26, 2025)

Americans are Economically Stuck (Oct 16, 2025)

The Future of Academia (Nov 17, 2025)

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During this holiday season, hear some recent favorites:

• New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani defines himself as a democratic socialist, yet his critics have seized on his leftist identity to paint him as an extremist. Carlo Invernizzi-Accetti, professor of political science and executive director of the Moynihan Center at The City College of New York, and author of 20 Years of Rage: How Resentment Took the Place of Politics (Mondadori, 2024), explains the core principles of the various strains of thought on the left to paint a clearer picture of what Mamdani believes in and how he'll govern as mayor.
• Joyce Vance, a legal analyst for MSNBC and former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, University of Alabama School of Law professor, and author of the Civil Discourse substack, and of the new book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy (Dutton, 2025), talks about the rule of law and offers legal and historical context for the current moment in American history as she calls for citizens to uphold the Constitution.
• Jared Fox, education consultant, former NYC secondary science teacher and the author of Learning Environment: Inspirational Actions, Approaches, and Stories from the Science Classroom (Beacon Press, 2025), guides teachers in taking science education out of the classroom, drawing on his experience teaching science in Washington Heights.
• Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the author of Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy (Thesis, 2025), talks about her new book and explains why she says education protects democracy.
• Peter Harnik, co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land and executive producer of the documentary "From Rails to Trails", talks about his work spearheading the movement to convert abandoned railbeds into multi-use trails, 26,000 miles so far, and the new documentary about it, plus listener suggestions for the best places to bike outside the city.

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

What is Zohran Mamdani's Political Ideology? (Nov 14, 2025)

A Democratic Manifesto (Oct 27, 2025)

Reimagining Teaching Science (Nov 11, 2025)

Fighting Fascism with Education (Sep 26, 2025)

From Railroad to Rail-Trail (Oct 7, 2025) and The Best Places to Bike Outside the City (Oct 8, 2025)

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In our annual news quiz, listeners call in to answer trivia questions about the past year in politics, culture, and more.

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In our annual news quiz, listeners call in for some trivia about the past year in politics, culture, and more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

During this holiday season, hear some recent favorites:

• Jelani Cobb, dean of the Journalism School at Columbia University, a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025 (One World, 2025), looks back at recent history and find the threads that connect the era of protests and backlash.
• Irin Carmon, senior correspondent at New York magazine, co-author of Notorious RBG (Dey Street Books, 2015) and, most recently, author of Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancy in America (Atria/One Signal, 2025), explores what it means to be pregnant today in America through reporting and personal stories.
• Marina Lopes, author of Please Yell at My Kids (GCP/Balance, 2025), talks about her story in The Atlantic suggesting American parents look at the way childcare works in Singapore where grandparents are frequently primary caregivers and get paid for the work.
• Julia Ioffe, founding partner and Washington correspondent of Puck and the author of Motherland: A History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy (Ecco, 2025), talks about her new book that delves into the feminist history of Russia and why it offers context for the war in Ukraine.
• Liza Donnelly, writer and cartoonist at The New Yorker and the author of Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists, 1925-2021 (Prometheus, 2022) and the substack "Seeing Things", discusses the short documentary film she directed, "Women Laughing," about cartoonists at The New Yorker and their artistic processes.

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

Defining the Decade (Nov. 13, 2025)

The Perils of Pregnancy in America (Nov. 6, 2025)

Grandparenting as Paid Labor? (Oct. 10, 2025)

Russia and Feminism (Oct. 25, 2025)

Funny Women of The New Yorker (Nov. 10, 2025)

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Listeners share the best gifts they've ever received and what made them so special.

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Listeners offer their picks of what they loved and hated this year in the world of film, literature, podcasting, performance, and more. 

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Christians call in to share the religious meaning of the holiday for them and what "Christian politics" mean as they come into the spotlight under the Trump administration. Then, listeners tell stories of moments that defined their common humanity with people from different backgrounds.

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Listeners share which of their favorite businesses closed in 2025, and shoutout new spots where they plan on becoming regulars.

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Derek Kravitz, reporter and deputy editor for Consumer Reports, discusses an investigation into third-party grocery delivery service Instacart's algorithmic pricing experiment.

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