

The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC
Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 25, 2025 • 28min
EPA Head Lee Zeldin's Moves So Far
Lisa Friedman, reporter covering climate policy and politics at The New York Times, discusses moves made by the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency administration, Lee Zeldin, including the administration's attempts to claw back President Biden's funding for "green energy" infrastructure and more.

Feb 25, 2025 • 42min
RFK's Moves So Far
Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent at KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast, and Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today Wellness reporter, discuss moves made by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including a recent vow to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule and SSRIs.

Feb 24, 2025 • 12min
Niche Wikipedia
Listeners call in to share what their favorite Wikipedia page is, niche or highly trafficked, and share a little-known nugget of knowledge, a humorous edit or anything else.

Feb 24, 2025 • 33min
100 Years of 100 Things: The Harlem Renaissance
As our centennial series continues, Jacoby Adeshei Carter, philosophy professor at Howard University, director of the Alain Leroy Locke Society, author of African American Contributions to the Americas’ Cultures: A Critical Edition of Lectures by Alain Locke (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and co-editor of Philosophizing the Americas (Fordham University Press, 2024), talks about the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on American culture.

Feb 24, 2025 • 25min
Haiti On The Line Preview
Tim Padgett, WLRN Americas Editor covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida, and Saraya Wintersmith, reporter covering Boston City Hall for GBH News and is the host of the “What Is Owed?” podcast, preview WNYC's evening public radio station special "Haiti On The Line," which examines the history of the country and the current news that the Trump administration recently ended deportation protection for 500,000 Haitians in the United States.→ HAITI ON THE LINE: A live call-in radio special about the crisis in Haiti. Listen live at WNYC.org or at 93.9 FM/AM 820 tonight, Monday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Feb 24, 2025 • 39min
Call Your Senator: Sen. Andy Kim
Andy Kim, U.S. Senator (D NJ), talks about his work in the Senate and the issues in New Jersey.

Feb 22, 2025 • 1h 25min
Brian Lehrer Weekend: Elie Mystal on Eric Adams; Trump's Putin Pivot; SNL's Best Political Sketches
Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.Analysis from Elie Mystal as a judge deliberates Mayor Eric Adams' future (First) | Richard Stengel, Former Under Secretary of State during the Obama administration, on Trump's pivot away from European allies and towards President Vladimir Putin's Russia (Starts at 35:47) | The best political sketches so far in SNL's 50-year history (Starts at 1:06:10)If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Feb 21, 2025 • 36min
The GOP's Beleaguered Budget
House Speaker Mike Johnson has several holdouts in his own party on the budget blueprint he wants to put on the House floor in the coming days. Meredith Lee Hill, Congress reporter for POLITICO covering GOP leadership, breaks down the beleaguered House budget and the Republicans pushing Johnson not to slash SNAP benefits and Medicaid.

Feb 21, 2025 • 35min
Judge Deliberates Mayor Adams' Fate
U.S. Justice Department attorneys and Mayor Eric Adams appeared before federal Judge Dale Ho, asking that the five federal corruption and bribery charges against Adams should be dropped. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation and host of their legal podcast, "Contempt of Court," author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution (The New Press, 2023), and the forthcoming Bad Law: 10 Popular Laws That Are Ruining America (The New Press, 2025), offers legal analysis of the request as Judge Ho continues to deliberate.

Feb 21, 2025 • 12min
Workday Nap, Anyone?
A recent AP story focused on people who take naps to help refocus on workdays and callers share if they break for naps and if their employers support that.


