The Brian Lehrer Show

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Obamacare Deadline Looms (First) | Rebel Music (Starts at 28:30) | Jimmy Carter (Starts at 48:00) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Jane McManus, reporter for ESPN New York, takes calls from Jets fans on a controversial new member of Gang Green: Michael Vick. The quarterback, who served prison time on charges related to running a dog-fighting ring, has displayed good behavior of late. Plus, we talk about the implications of the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that football players at Northwestern University are employees of the school and can form a union and bargain collectively. With Vick on the Jets, are you now a conflicted fan (or not)? Do you think it's about time that college athletes who play on teams that generate millions for their schools should be treated more like employees? Or are you with the NCAA (students first, athletes second)? Post by Brian Lehrer.

In New York City's housing court, 90% of tenants facing an eviction do not have legal representation, while 98% of landlords do. Mark Levine, Council Member from NYC's 7th District, discusses his proposal to increase funding for low-income tenants who end up in housing courts.   Councilman @MarkLevineNYC ties housing court to the homelessness crisis - says 1/3 of city's homeless were recently in housing court. — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 28, 2014 Volunteer lawyers for a day program http://t.co/kqDE0n1JP4 @BrianLehrer #AccessToJustice — Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) March 28, 2014

Ken Lovett, Albany bureau chief for The Daily News, reports from the capitol on March Madness, Albany-style, as the big budget deal negotiations wind down before the April 1 deadline, including the fate of the Dream Act, public election financing, charter co-locations, and corporate tax cuts.  

Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian Studies and Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied Cognition at the University of British Columbia, and the author of Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity(Crown, 2014) asks if careful reasoning is the best approach to ensure well being. Instead, he offers the early Chinese philosophers' method of approaching problems indirectly using "wu-wei" which he likens to "The Force" in "Star Wars". Excerpt: "Trying Not To Try" In a famous story from ancient Chinese philosophy, Butcher Ding has been called upon to play his part in a traditional religious ceremony. The ritual, to consecrate a newly cast bronze bell, requires the butcher to sacrifice an ox in a public space, with the ruler and a large crowd looking on. The still-smoking bell is brought fresh from the foundry and cooled with the blood of the sacrificial animal—a procedure that demands precise timing and perfectly smooth execution. Butcher Ding is up to the task, dismembering the massive animal with effortless grace: “At every touch of his hand, every bending of his shoulder, every step of his feet, every thrust of his knee—swish! swoosh! He guided his blade along with a whoosh, and all was in perfect tune.” Ding’s body and blade move in such perfect harmony that a seemingly mundane task is turned into an artistic performance. When questioned later by Lord Wenhui, the village master, about his incredible skill, Butcher Ding explains, “What I, your humble servant, care about is the Way [Dao].” He then launches into an explanation of what it feels like to perform in such a state of perfect ease: When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years, I no longer saw the ox as a whole. And now—now I meet it with my spirit and don’t look with my eyes. My senses and conscious awareness have shut down and my spiritual desires take me away. I follow the Heavenly pattern of the ox, thrusting into the big hollows, guiding the knife through the big openings, and adapting my motions to the fixed structure of the ox. In this way, I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint. The result is that Butcher Ding is not so much cutting up the ox as releasing its constituent parts, letting the razor-sharp edge of his cleaver move through the spaces between the bones and ligaments without encountering the slightest resistance. Occasionally Butcher Ding’s effortless dance is interrupted when he senses trouble, at which point his conscious mind seems to reengage a bit, although he still remains completely relaxed and open to the situation confronting him: “Whenever I come to a knot, I see the difficulty ahead, become careful and alert, focus my vision, slow my movements, and move the blade with the greatest subtlety, so that the ox simply falls apart, like a clod of earth falling to the ground.” Lord Wenhui clearly sees something in this account that goes far beyond simply cutting up oxen. “Wonderful!” he exclaims. “From the words of Butcher Ding I’ve learned how to live my life! ” This story of Butcher Ding comes from a book called the Zhuangzi, an important work of Daoist philosophy, and one that is principally concerned with a value known as wu-wei, or effortless action. Wu-wei literally translates as “no trying” or “no doing,” but it’s not at all about dull inaction. In fact, it refers to the dynamic, spontaneous, and unselfconscious state of mind of a person who is optimally active and effective. For a person in wu-wei, proper and effective conduct follows as automatically as the body gives in to the seductive rhythm of a song. This state of harmony is both complex and holistic, involving as it does the integration of the body, the emotions, and the mind. Just as Butcher Ding’s blade remains razor-sharp because it never touches a bone or ligament—moving only through the gaps in between—so does the wu-wei person move only through the open spaces in life, avoiding t

NJPR reporter Matt Katz and WNYC reporter Andrea Bernstein talk about what Governor Christie's lawyer, Randy Mastro, found in his review of the governor's involvement (or lack thereof) in the George Washington Bridge closures. Read the Full Mastro Report Investigation into Governor Christie's office re: Bridgegate by katehinds

→ UPDATE: Read the full report and WNYC's initial findings of the Mastro report here. Today at 10:30am, reporters were shown the 300p Bridgegate investigation put together by Randy Mastro, the lawyer appointed by Chris Christie to look into the traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge that was created as political payback. We offer live coverage of the press conference and quick reaction to the findings of the report from Nancy Solomon and the rest of the New Jersey Public Radio reporting team. Mastro clarifies the order of operations, according to his report: Wildstein's idea, took it to Kelly for approval from Christie office. — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 27, 2014 IMPORTANT NOTE: interviews were NOT under oath. Did NOT interview Samson. ONLY info in the report on Samson is based on his prior statements — Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaWNYC) March 27, 2014 Reporters get ONE HOUR to read 300-page #Bridgegate Report tomorrow before we get a chance to question @GovChristie's tax-funded lawyer. — Matt Katz (@mattkatz00) March 26, 2014 A list of people who did NOT cooperate with today's Bridgegate report: -Bridget Ann Kelly -David Wildstein -Bill Stepien Huh. — Jody Avirgan (@jodyavirgan) March 27, 2014

At the G7, President Obama acknowledged that "Russia's actions are a problem. [But] they don't pose the number one national security threat to the United States." Angela Stent, Georgetown professor, fellow at Brookings and author of The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, January 2014) discusses the latest from Crimea, what we don't understand about Putin, and the future of U.S.-Russia relations. From Brian's Prep: Five Things About Russia from Angela Stent Here are five things you might not know about the Ukraine crisis but might want to know to impress your friends and actually understand some of the history of how we got here. 1. The borders of Ukraine that we see as being violated today were drawn by Stalin. 2. In 1954, Soviet premiere Nikita Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine on "a whim" (as Stent puts it). 3. When President Clinton ordered the bombing of Kosovo in 1999, Russia felt betrayed by the West in a similar way to today. 4. The Bush administration worked on a plan to invite Russia into NATO, but it never worked out... And 5. My next guest, Angela Stent, says she spends hours every year asking Vladimir Putin challenging questions, and he allows it.

Mitri Raheb, president of Dar al-Kalima University College, senior pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and author of Faith in the Face of the Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes (Orbis Books, 2014) talks about his work in Bethlehem to establish a Palestinian community.  

Diane Savino, New York State Senator (IDC - Staten Island), talks about budget negotiations and her support for legalized medical marijuana.

New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz sheds light on the problems at the City jail complex on Rikers Island, including prisoner abuse and the problems corrections officers face in dealing with a smaller population, but one with a higher component of the mentally ill.

Subway ridership hasn't been this high since 1949. Gene Russianoff, staff attorney at NYPIRG Straphangers campaign explains what has happened in the past 65 years, and what higher ridership means for service, repairs, and those crowded subway cars. // Post by Brian Lehrer.

Update 11am Wednesday: The jury has convicted Abu Ghaith. He could face life in prison on charges of conspiracy and aiding al Qaeda. The trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, accused of working to recruit for al Qaeda after 9/11, is a test of how civilian courts can take on terrorism cases. Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham and Charles Levinson, Wall Street Journal reporter covering the trial discuss the latest developments. Obama "concerned about a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan" http://t.co/qyRoO8GSBa Discussing that and NYC terror trial at 10am #WNYC — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 26, 2014 "This is about the very grey space between war and crime" says Karen Greenberg about the Sulaiman Abu Ghaith trial. #WNYC — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 26, 2014

The deadline to start signing up for health insurance if you aren't covered is March 31st (Monday), and the White House has just announced some more important dates. Susan Dentzer, Senior Policy Adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, health policy analyst for PBS NewsHour and former editor-in-chief of the journal Health Affairs, explains what happens if you don't sign up, your options, and the state of the policy.

Hisham Aidi, lecturer at the School of International and Public Affairs and the Institute of African Affairs at Columbia University and the author of Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture talks about the use of music -- jazz, hip hop, reggae Gnawa -- to reach young Muslims from post- WWII to today. Listen: Rebel Music Playlist as Recommended by Hisham Aidi Rebel Music: Songs Recommended by Hisham Aidi from blshow on 8tracks Radio.