The Brian Lehrer Show

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, previews the 18th annual New York Festival and the lineup of artists, writers and actors.

Alicia Glen, NYC deputy mayor for housing and economic development, talks about the 20+ submissions for potential homes for Amazon's second headquarters, NYC's bid and the company's impact on the economy and listeners shared their mixed opinions: .@DMAliciaGlen, on @BrianLehrer says she thinks there's not a 1-to-1 correlation between loss of small businesses and growth of Amazon — Laura Nahmias (@nahmias) September 28, 2017 The topic is NYC's joining the national race to the bottom of cities debasing themselves to get the new Amazon HQ. — siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) September 28, 2017 The high rents also have a big impact on retail and the mom and pop shops. — Loella (@LoellaMedina) September 28, 2017

Charles Dew, professor of American history at Williams College and the author of Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War (University of Virginia Press, 2002) and the memoir, now in paperback, The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade (University of Virginia Press, 2017), turns his historian skills on his own family to explain the particular racism of the American South

The Trump administration released a tax reform plan Wednesday called "Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code." Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute — who is opposed to this plan, and Diana Furchtgott-Roth, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of the Economics21 program, who is in favor of it, break down the tax reform plan.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, documentary filmmakers, talk about their ten-part, 18-hour series, “The Vietnam War," airing on PBS September 17-28.

Kevin Robillard, reports on senate, governor and house races for Politico, discusses the results in the Alabama Republican Senate primary runoff between Luther Strange and Roy Moore.

Greg David, director of the business and economics reporting program at The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, a contributor to Crain's New York Business and the author of Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City (Palgrave Macmillan Trade, 2012), examines Mayor de Blasio's record as he aims for a second term.

Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent, Yahoo News, discusses Roger Stone's Russia-probe testimony, the latest on the Facebook investigations, and White House aides using private e-mail servers.

Michael Ignatieff, rector and president of Central European University in Budapest, former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, former Harvard Kennedy School professor and the author of Blood and Belonging (1995) and Fire and Ashes (2013) and most recently The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World  (Harvard University Press, 2017), explores the globalization's effects on ethics and finds that as elites move more toward transnational identities, the rest of the population becomes more focused on the local.

Matt Katz, WNYC reporter refugees, immigration and security, discusses the story of Andre and Lisette, two Congolese refugees whose reunion in New Jersey is now indefinitely postponed due to changing immigration policies.

Angelo Falcón, president and founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy, and Jose E. Serrano, U.S. Representative (D 15th), representing the area "loosely bounded by the Harlem, Bronx, and East Rivers on the west, south, and east, extending north up past Fordham Road," talk about relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the need to address long-term issues that pre-date Hurricane Maria and listeners with ties to Puerto Rico call in with their stories.

Dan Diamond, POLITICO healthcare reporter, the author of the POLITICO Pulse morning health care politics and policy briefing and the host of POLITICO's Pulse Check podcast, recaps CNN’s town hall where Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy debated Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar over the future of health care.

Lydia Polgreen, editor in chief of The Huffington Post and former editor and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, talks about Colin Kaepernick and puts what happened yesterday in the NFL into context.

Irwin Redlener, president emeritus and co-founder of the Children's Health Fund, professor of pediatrics and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and the author of The Future of Us: What the Dreams of Children Mean for Twenty-First-Century America  (Columbia University Press, 2017), talks about his life and work dedicated to removing barriers for children to realize their potential, from healthcare to education, and discusses the recent disasters in Puerto Rico and Mexico, as well as the current efforts to repeal the ACA.

NFL player Aaron Hernandez's autopsy showed advanced stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), his lawyers are accusing the NFL of hiding the dangers of his condition. Joe Nocera, Bloomberg View columnist, former columnist for Esquire, GQ and The New York Times, talks about Hernandez’s story and how the NFL is responding to the traumatic brain injuries of its players.