The Brian Lehrer Show

Susan Page, USA Today Washington bureau chief and the author of several books, including The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters (Simon & Schuster, 2024) and the forthcoming The Queen and Her Presidents (Harper, April 2026), talks about what the New York City mayoral results might mean for Democrats moving forward, and offers analysis of election results in Virginia, New Jersey, and California.

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Markus Schmidt, senior Virginia politics reporter and deputy editor at The Virginia Mercury, breaks down the latest on Virginia's gubernatorial race on election day, where Democratic nominee and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger has maintained a lead in polls since very early in the race over Republican nominee Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.

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Nancy Solomon, host of the “Ask Governor Murphy” monthly call-in show, talks about the Election Day news in the New Jersey governor's race, and listeners call for an informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific exit poll.

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Brigid Bergin, WNYC's senior political correspondent, offers analysis of what the early vote numbers might mean for the New York City mayoral race, and more news from the campaign trail on Election Day.  Plus, Zohran Mamdani, New York State assembly member (D, D-36, Queens) and the Democratic nominee for mayor, Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York and independent candidate for mayor of New York City, and Curtis Sliwa, Republican nominee for NYC mayor, former WABC radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels, make their last minute pitches to voters.

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U.S. Representative James Clyburn (D, SC 6), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and author of The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation  (Hachette, 2025), tells the story of the first eight Black members of Congress during Reconstruction, and the gap that followed up until his election in 1992.

 Event: On Leadership, Legacy, and Democracy: Jim Clyburn in Conversation with Sharon McMahon at The 92nd Street Y on November 11th.

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Catherine Rampell, anchor at MSNBC and economics editor at The Bulwark, talks about the latest economic news, including on President Trump's tariffs and China, inflation numbers, SNAP benefits and more.

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Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and the author of the memoir, The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports (Random House, 2025), talks about why he runs and joins listeners in sharing stories from Sunday's NYC Marathon. 

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A. J. Jacobs, host of the "Hello Puzzlers" podcast, essayist, and the author of The Year of Living Biblically, The Know-It-All, It's All Relative and his latest, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning (Crown, 2024), reports back on how AI is already woven into daily life with another take on being a "human guinea pig," going 48 hours without using AI.

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

ACA Open Enrollment Starting  (First) | 30 Issues in 30 Days: NYC's Overdose Prevention Centers (Starts at 34:26) | Your Newsy Halloween Costumes (Starts at 1:07:42 )

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Ahead of Halloween weekend, listeners call in to share their costumes based on news and current events.

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