The Brian Lehrer Show

In one week, on June 6th, New Jersey will begin voting on who will succeed Chris Christie as governor of the state. Callers reveal who they'll be voting for plus for those still undecided WNYC's Nancy Solomon presents WNYC's new voter guide that explains where the candidates stand on key issues.

For Memorial Day, hear a few of our past favorites, including: Happy birthday, Mr. President! Douglas Brinkley, history professor at Rice University and CNN Presidential Historian, and Stephen Kennedy Smith, lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, fellow at the Connection Science Group at MIT, take this opportunity to reflect on John F. Kennedy's life and impact on America and their new book JFK: A Vision for America (Harper, May 2017). David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and the author of The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For (Simon & Schuster, 2017), shares his insights from years of study of American history. Brooke Gladstone, host and managing editor of WNYC's On the Media and the author of The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time (Workman Publishing Company, 2017), talks about why reality itself has become a hotly contested issue of our time.  John Waters, American filmmaker, actor, writer and visual artist best known for his cult films including "Hairspray," "Pink Flamingos" and "Cecil B. Demented" talks about his new book, Make Trouble (Algonquin Books, 2017), and offers advice to callers about making it as an artist. To start? Embrace chaos. These interviews originally aired earlier this year. Links to the unedited interviews are here: Happy (100th) Birthday, Mr. President (May 1, 2017) A Nation of Spectators (Apr 18, 2017) Brooke Gladstone: 'Trump Shattered Reality' (May 16, 2017) John Waters Says Make Trouble (Apr 11, 2017)

In case you missed them, hear three of our favorite segments from the week: SCOTUS Strikes Down Racial Redistricting (First) | Labor Trafficking in the United States (Starts 13:44) | Summer in the City (Starts 38:50)   If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

For today's show you'll hear a few of our past favorites: Neil DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of the radio and TV show StarTalk, and the author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017), offers an introduction to time and space for people who are too busy to "read fat books, yet nonetheless seek a conduit to the cosmos." James Forman Jr., a clinical professor of law at Yale Law School, former DC public defender, and the author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), explores the incremental steps that led to the crisis of mass incarceration, including calls for law and order from the black middle class. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Roe v. Wade that a woman’s right to an abortion is protected by the 14th Amendment. Carol Sanger, professor of law at Columbia Law School and author of About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in Twenty-First-Century America (Harvard University Press, 2017), explores why the issue of abortion remains hotly contested political and moral issue. Paula Poundstone, stand-up comic, frequent panelist on "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" and the author of The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness (Algonquin Books, 2017), tries out various methods that promise happiness and shares her findings. Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Lynn Nottage, and actor Michelle Wilson, talk about their new play, "Sweat," which chronicles the lives of factory workers in an economically-depressed steel-belt city in Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. These interviews originally aired earlier this year. The unedited interviews can be found at the links below: Astrophysics for The Rest of Us (05/04/17) An Unintended Consequence of the Civil Rights Movement (04/24/2017) Abortion in the Twenty-First Century (04/13/2017) Paula Poundstone in Pursuit of Happiness (05/09/17) Life in the Rust Belt on Broadway (03/29/2017)

The Veterans Affairs department's motto is this: To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan. Allison Jaslow, executive director of IAVA, says that the VA's motto reflects a major problem within the organization: it does not take seriously the rights and needs of women veterans.  Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population, a trend that will continue as the number of male veterans simultaneously declines over the next decades. However, many female veterans are left without the proper care to support their needs when they return from service.  Alison talks about IAVA's new campaign called “SHE who borne the battle,” aimed at promoting policy which would support female veterans. 

The Islamic State claimed responsibility on its social media for an attack in Manchester that killed 22 people. Rukmini Callimachi, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times covering Islamic extremism, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, analyzes ISIS’s online messages and explains what they mean. Plus: Nuala McGovern, from BBC's Outside Sources, has been reporting in Manchester since the attack — she shares the Mancunian perspective.

In light of the clashes by both sides over jury selection for Bill Cosby's upcoming trial, Elie Mystal, editor-at-large of Above the Law and legal editor for WNYC's podcast More Perfect, talks about assumptions around race and gender as legal teams choose jurors.

Sarah Ferris, who covers budget and appropriations for POLITICO Pro, discusses the Trump administration's budget proposal and the Congressional Budget Office's score of the House healthcare bill. Then — Gabriel Debenedetti, political reporter for POLITICO, joins from Montana to discuss the yesterday’s incident when a reporter for The Guardian was body-slammed by Montana GOP candidate Greg Gianforte.

Former CIA Director John Brennan testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, telling investigators that Russia "brazenly interfered" in US elections. Brennan said he saw no proof of collusion between Trump associates and Russian intelligence before he left office on Jan. 20, but he “felt as though the FBI investigation was certainly well-founded.” Mark Mazzetti, Washington Investigations Editor, talks about how John Brennan's testimony shed new light on how the federal investigation into Russian election meddling began.  

Alex Tizon's story in The Atlantic, "My Family's Slave," is about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a woman his family brought over from the Philippines to work in their house for 56 years without pay. Linda Oalican, executive director of Damayan, migrant rights activist and former domestic worker, and Sameera Hafiz, advocacy director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), discuss the story and the policies needed to end domestic worker trafficking. Labor trafficking can happen hidden in plain sight. If you suspect a case, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.

Joseph Rullo, entrepreneur, small business owner, actor and now Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, talks about his campaign to be the next governor of New Jersey.

Hirsh Singh, engineer, businessman and now Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, talks about his campaign to be the next governor of New Jersey.

Rami Khouri, Jordanian-Palestinian national, senior public policy fellow at the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut and a senior fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School , discusses how Arabic language newspapers are interpreting President Trump's visit to the Middle East and Jane Eisner, editor-in-chief of The Forward, weighs in on the Israeli perspective.

John Chaneski, creator of The Brian Lehrer Show activity book, co-host of TriviaNYC's QNA podcast, as well as a puzzle guru on NPR's Ask Me Another, stumps listeners – and Brian – with his mind-bending trivia and puzzles by playing a little clip of music and asking you to name that tune!

William Saletan, national correspondent at Slate, lists all the ways that Vice President Mike Pence has abetted President Trump, despite the distance his aides are trying to create between the Veep and the President.