Podcast
The Brian Lehrer Show
Hosted by WNYC · EN
Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
363episodes
Episodes
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How to Fight for Public Health
2d ago00:27:50Tap to summarizeNicholas Freudenberg, professor emeritus of public health at the City University of New York School of Public Health and the author of Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since the 1960s (Columbia University Press, 2026), talks about his long career advocating for solutions to public health crises in NYC and analyzes the successes of the activists working to improve the health of New Yorkers. Photo: People wait to recieve the Monkeypox vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Manhattan on July 26, 2022 in New York City. (Liao Pan/China News Service via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The Stuff of America
2d ago00:09:34Tap to summarizeEmily Keegin, photo editor, creative consultant, and author of The New York Times Opinion piece "The Museum of America," walks through her collection of 25 objects that define American life, from Crest Whitestrips to the T-shirt cannon, as listeners add their own to the exhibit. Photo: Director Jorma Taccone of his film “Over Your Dead Body” shoots a t-shirt cannon on stage during the 2026 Beyond Chicago at the Music Box Theatre on April 05, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Monday Morning Politics: What Makes a Moderate?
3d ago00:49:03Tap to summarizeJon Allsop, contributing writer at The New Yorker, discusses the latest national political headlines and his recent story, "What Does It Even Mean to Be a Moderate?" Photo: DETROIT, MICHIGAN - AUGUST 04: U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), candidate for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, speaks during a primary night watch party at the Hotel Saint Regis Detroit on August 04, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens is facing Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary to determine who will run against former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers in the general election. (Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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New York's Medical Aid in Dying Law Takes Effect
3d ago00:22:32Tap to summarizeDavid Leven, executive director emeritus and senior consultant to End of Life Choices New York, and Amy Paulin, New York State Assembly member (D-88, Westchester, including Scarsdale, Edgemont, Eastchester, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, Pelham, Pelham Manor, and parts of New Rochelle and White Plains) and chair of the Assembly health committee, talk about the new law, now in effect, that allows terminally ill New Yorkers with six months or less left to live to end their lives. Photo: ALBANY, NY - JUNE 9: People opposing the Medical Aid in Dying Bill hold signs and line the corridor between the concourse and the Capitol on Monday, June 9, 2025, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Who is Running Venezuela?
3d ago00:21:09Tap to summarizeStephania Taladrid, contributing writer at The New Yorker, offers analysis of all the ways the US, especially Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is involved in running Venezuela as the popular opposition leader María Corina Machado is living in exile, and discusses Rubio's ambitions with regards to Cuba. Photo: U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) walks out of the El Arepzo 2 restaurant on February 28, 2014 in Doral, Florida. Rubio and Florida Governor Rick Scott held a meet and greet with the Venezuelan community to discuss the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The Gen Z Romance Recession
3d ago00:16:01Tap to summarizeFaith Hill, staff writer at The Atlantic, unpacks why so few young people are finding love. Stock photo by We Are/Getty Creative Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Brian Lehrer Weekend: Kalshi Suit; Europe's Fires; Our Social-Media Lives
6d ago01:33:31Tap to summarizeThree of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. NYS Sues Kalshi (First) | Wildfires Are Burning Through Europe (Starts at 28:30) | Social Media's Influence on Our Lives (Starts at 1:12:00) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here. Photo: VIOTIA, GREECE - AUGUST 2: Volunteers battle a wildfire burning near Porto Germeno, 70 kilometres northwest of Athens in the region of Viotia, Greece, on August 2, 2026 (Photo by Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Summer Friday: Health & Ultraprocessed Food & America's History with God
1w ago01:49:22Tap to summarizeOn this Summer Friday, we've put together some of our favorite recent interviews, including: Each year WNYC hosts a "health convening," with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as an opportunity for healthcare experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, the topic is ultra-processed foods and how they affect our health. First, Kevin Hall, Ph.D., former senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) , discusses his groundbreaking, tightly controlled metabolic ward trials and mathematical models tracking how human bodies respond to ultra-processed foods. Then, Fang Fang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., cancer epidemiologist and chair of the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, discusses her population‑based research on how ultra-processed foods influence cancer prevention, cancer survivorship and long‑term health outcomes. Then, David Kessler, MD, former FDA Commissioner, breaks down a citizen petition he filed with the Food and Drug Administration last summer which would, among other things, declare that some of the core ingredients in ultra-processed foods were no longer “generally recognized as safe (GRAS)” -- a classification that means ingredients are exempt from strict premarket approval process. Plus, Ilan Stavans, publisher of Restless Books, professor of humanities and Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College and the author of A Nation Wrestles with God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands (Restless Books, 2026), talks about the broad spectrum of American religious thought, from Cotton Mather to Lana Del Rey. These interviews were lightly polished up and edited for time, the original versions are available here: What Are Ultra-Processed Foods and What Are They Doing to Us? (June 16, 2026) Ultra-Processed Foods and Colon Cancer (June 16, 2026) Ultra-Processed Foods Policy Proposals (June 16, 2026) American Believers (July 9, 2026) photo: Potato chips and other junk food in Walmart, Wenatchee Washington (Thayne Tuason, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Nixon & Watergate Revisited
1w ago00:48:11Tap to summarizeIt's been more than 50 years since President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9th over the Watergate scandal. Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst, former Watergate special prosecutor, co-host of the podcasts "#Sistersinlaw" and "Just the Facts" and the author of The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President (Henry Holt and Co., 2020), reflects on that time versus today and efforts to downplay the crimes of Watergate. Photo: View of US President Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994) talks on the telephone at his desk in the White House's Oval Office, Washington DC, June 23, 1972. Visible behind him are family photos and a bust of Abraham Lincoln. (Photo by the White House Photo Office/PhotoQuest/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Crisis in Sudan
1w ago00:24:44Tap to summarizeCiarán Donnelly, senior vice president for International Programs at International Rescue Committee talks about the ongoing war and displacement crisis in Sudan, plus Mark Townsend, senior global development reporter at the Guardian and the author of No Return: The True Story of How Martyrs Are Made (Guardian Faber Publishing, 2020), explains the role of the UK and the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. Photo: KHAZAN TUNJUR, JEBEL MARRA, NORTH DARFUR, SUDAN — FEBRUARY 26, 2026: A Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) soldier walks past dead donkeys on the outskirts of a remote village. Residents say a livestock disease has killed animals relied on to transport food, water and firewood. In this isolated, SLA-held area, where many displaced civilians have sought refuge from surrounding violence and remain largely cut off from markets and aid routes, the loss has compounded already severe hardship. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Avaaz via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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