The Brian Lehrer Show

Alana Casanova-Burgess , host of the podcast La Brega, talks about the new season of La Brega, which spotlights Puerto Rico's champions, and what they teach us about Puerto Ricans and the diaspora. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Heather Ann Thompson, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy and her latest, Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage (Pantheon, 2026) argues that the roots of white rage and violence can be traced back to the Reagan Era and, specifically, the Bernie Goetz shootings of...

Zohran Mamdani , New York City mayor, talks about the latest news, including how the administration is protecting vulnerable New Yorkers from the cold, the budget gap and more city issues. Then, Elizabeth Kim , Gothamist and WNYC reporter, offers context and analysis of the mayor's interview. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use...

Paul Krugman , Nobel laureate in economics, former New York Times columnist now on Substack, distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and the author of Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future (W. W. Norton & Company, 2020), talks about how President Trump's economic policies are affecting investors, and what that could mean fo...

For years, the deed theft crisis has been forcing New Yorkers out of their homes. New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé  (District 36, Bedford Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) discusses his efforts to protect homeowners from eviction while their cases are pending, plus some other news of the day. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection a...

Jason Zengerle , staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind (Crooked Media Reads, 2027), talks about the development of right-wing media through the story of Tucker Carlson. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for ad...

Listeners call in to talk about the movies, TV shows, books and music they're consuming as the cold temperatures mean more indoor time. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Adam Serwer , staff writer at The Atlantic , talks about what it means for accountability when ICE agents are allowed to be masked. =>" The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks " (The Atlantic, 2/2/26)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With the Westminster Dog Show underway at MSG, listeners share what their dogs deserve a medal for and Elias Weiss Friedman , aka @TheDogist on Instagram, author of This Dog Will Change Your Life  (Ballantine, 2025) and host of the YouTube talk show "Dogs with Elias Weiss Friedman", shares what makes the dogs he photographs special.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com f...

Elizabeth Yeampierre , attorney and executive director of UPROSE, talks about Sunset Park Solar, a grassroots project seeking to bring green power to Sunset Park residents. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Eugene Robinson , a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post , political analyst and author of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America (Simon & Schuster, 2026), shares his own family's story as it intersects with America's ongoing struggle with structural racism -- what's been accomplished and what still needs to be d...

Elora Mukherjee , professor at Columbia Law School and director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, talks about the many children detained by US immigration authorities and argues for alternatives to detention for families. → Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com fo...

Sigal Samuel , senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect, talks about why many people in America are able to ignore politics and what our duty as citizens should be under an authoritarian government.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andrew Weissmann , professor of practice at NYU School of Law, co-host of the podcast Main Justice and and the co-author of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary  (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), offers legal analysis of the news of the day, including the DOJ's release of the rest of the Epstein files, the DOJ's civil rights investigation into the Pretti killing and...

Early voting is underway in the primary to fill now-Governor Sherrill's seat in Congress.  Mike Hayes , WNYC/Gothamist New Jersey politics reporter and the author of The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform  (Kingston Imperial, 2023), runs through the many candidates and their bases of support, ahead of the election on Thursday.   Hosted by Simplecast, a...

President Trump is revoking Temporary Protected Status from Haitians in the United States, putting them at risk of deportation to a country experiencing unprecedented violence and a political crisis. Macollvie Neel , special projects editor at The Haitian Times , discusses the looming uncertainty for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who will be affected. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz compa...

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. One Month of Mayor Mamdani  (First) | How AI is Changing Medicine  (Starts at 39:32) | A History of General Strikes  (Starts at  1:09:33) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of...

Eric Blanc , assistant professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University, author of several books including We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big (University of California Press, 2025) and author of the Substack newsletter Labor Politics , talks about the history of general strikes, and what makes them effective, and listeners call in if they are pa...

President Donald Trump and Democrats say they have reached a deal to avert a partial government shutdown. Siobhan Hughes , a reporter covering Congress in The Wall Street Journal 's Washington bureau, talks about the latest and whether Republicans will agree to limit funding and impose restrictions on the Department of Homeland Security.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.c...

As the cold snap continues and the piles of snow linger, listeners share if they've taken up a hobby appropriate to the season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Elizabeth Kim , Gothamist and WNYC reporter talks about Mayor Mamdani's first month in office, including challenges like this week's big snowstorm and a major budget crisis. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Russell Berman , a staff writer at The Atlantic , talks about how Republicans in Congress are speaking out against the deportation operation (and the fatal shootings), in a rare intra-party rebuke to President Trump, and what this might signal ahead of this year's midterm elections. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of person...

Lloyd Minor, M.D. , dean of Stanford University School of Medicine and VP of medical affairs at Stanford University, talks about the big changes artificial intelligence is bringing to research and health care, especially related to cancer and chronic diseases, and shares how Stanford is training physicians to use AI. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information abo...

Nostalgia for 2016 is a trend on social media this month, so we ask our listeners to reflect on the recent past. Are you nostalgic for 2016? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Reuven Blau , reporter for The City who covers criminal justice and the city’s prison system, talks about the man appointed by a federal judge as "remediation manager" and what that means for the jail's future. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.