The Brian Lehrer Show

The Beatles made their first stateside appearance 50 years ago today, arriving at the newly named JFK to thousands of screaming fans and hundreds of reporters. Sunday is the 50th anniversary of their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, marking what's known as the beginning of the British Invasion. Jim Von Schilling, professor of English and Humanities at Northampton Community College and the Baby Boomer Studies area chair for the American and Popular Culture Associations, talks about what happened when John, Paul, George and Ringo came to the U.S. Another caller was at Heathrow when Beatles returned from 1964 US trip. "It was amazing to see the fire that was lit" come back to England. — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) February 7, 2014 Caller says "The Denim Council" was encouraging fans at JFK to go greet the Beatles wearing jean jackets decorated with Beatles drawings. — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) February 7, 2014 Jim Von Schilling describing Beatles '64 JFK arrival, says AM DJs were encouraging HSers to head to the airport. "The first flash mob." — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) February 7, 2014

Steven Corsi, research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, explains the problem of using too much road salt. Then, Joshua Dawsey, Wall Street Journal reporter, talks about the shortage of road salt, plus some of the consequences of using so much. NYC has a stockpile of 150,000 tons of salt left and is ordering more. It costs about $54 a ton, and it comes from Chile. — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) February 7, 2014

In the first of a series of roundtables with the borough presidents, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., new Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and new Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams discuss life and politics in New York City and compare notes about our diverse neighborhoods.  

We're building a listener-powered guide for who to watch at the Sochi Olympics, starting with Friday's opening ceremonies. If you have a favorite athlete, from any country, tell us why you're rooting for them and why others should care too. Mike Pesca, NPR sports correspondent and panelist on Slate's Hang Up and Listen, helps take you suggestions and discusses his favorite story lines. → Update: Thanks for the great suggestions. We're going to add them to WNYC's Olympics Tracker, check back here for more!

"Gentrification doesn't need to be something one group inflicts on another," argues New York Magazine architecture critic Justin Davidson. He talks about how NYC neighborhood like Inwood and Bed-Stuy change over time, and whether "gentrification" deserves its bad reputation. "We need to define gentrification as separate from the process of displacement" says @JDavidsonNYC — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) February 6, 2014   Gentrification doesn't need to be something that one group inflicts on another; often it’s the result of aspirations everybody shares. All over the city, a small army of the earnest toils away, patiently trying to sluice some of the elitist taint off neighborhoods as they grow richer. When you’re trying to make a poor neighborhood into a nicer place to live, the prospect of turning it into a racially and economically mixed area with ­thriving stores is not a threat but a fantasy. As the cost of basic city life keeps rising, it’s more important than ever to reclaim a form of urban improvement from its malignant offshoots. A nice neighborhood should be not a luxury but an urban right. -- Justin Davidson in New York Magazine

What do you do when an artist you love is accused of something that makes your stomach churn? Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Magazine TV critic and editor-in-chief of rogerebert.com, weighs in on whether the allegations about Woody Allen make it harder to like his movies, and the sometimes tricky line between art and artist.

James Parrot, Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, discusses the municipal labor contract negotiations and whether teachers and other unions are all clamoring for the same pot of money.

Bernard Kerik, recent federal prison inmate, former New York City Police Commissioner and author of The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice (Regan Books, 2001) talks about his post-incarceration activism on behalf of sentencing reform.  

Can a common set of "values and beliefs, habits and practices" cut across race and culture to help kids of all backgrounds? Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of  Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, also a Yale Law School professor, discuss their controversial new book, The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America. Excerpt: Introduction of The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America It is one of humanity’s enduring mysteries why some individuals rise from unpromising origins to great heights, when so many others, facing similar obstacles and with seemingly similar capabilities, don’t rise at all. This book is about that age-old question. We wrote it hoping that readers might come away with a better understanding of the world we live in—a world in which certain individuals and groups do strikingly better than others in terms of wealth, position, and other conventional measures of success. The paradoxical premise of this book is that successful people tend to feel simultaneously inadequate and superior. Certain groups tend to make their members feel this way more than others; groups that do so are disproportionately successful. This unlikely combination of qualities is part of a potent cultural package that generates drive: a need to prove oneself that makes people systematically sacrifice present gratification in pursuit of future attainment. Groups that instill this kind of drive in their members have a special advantage in America, because contemporary American culture teaches a contrary message—a message of self-acceptance and living in the moment. This book brings together two very different bodies of work and expertise. One of the two authors has written for almost twenty years about successful ethnic minorities all over the world, from Southeast Asia to Africa to the former Soviet Union. The other has written extensively on how the desire to live in the present has come increasingly to dominate modern Western culture, especially in America, undermining the country’s ability to live for the future. America was not always this way; in fact, as we’ll discuss, the United States was born a Triple Package country. That certain groups do much better in America than others— as measured by income, occupational status, test scores, and so on—is difficult to talk about. In large part this is because the topic feels racially charged. The irony is that the facts actually debunk racial stereotypes. There are black and Hispanic subgroups in the United States far outperforming many white and Asian subgroups. Moreover, there’s a demonstrable arc to group success—in immigrant groups, it typically dissipates by the third generation—puncturing the notion of innate group differences and undermining the whole concept of “model minorities.” This book offers a new way to look at success—its hidden spurs, its inner dynamics, its costs. These costs can be high, even crippling. But when properly understood and harnessed, the package of three cultural traits described in this book becomes a source of empowerment unconfined by any particular definition of success. As we’ll show, the Triple Package can be a ladder to accomplishment of any kind, including that which is measured not by gain to oneself, but by service to others. Ultimately, the Triple Package is accessible to anyone. It’s a set of values and beliefs, habits and practices, that individuals from any background can make a part of their lives or their children’s lives, enabling them to pursue success as they define it. From the book The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America. Reprinted by arrangement with The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, 2014.

The day before the opening ceremonies and last-minute construction continues in Sochi, along with reports of broken infrastructure, unsanitary conditions, and botched logistics. Timothy Heritage, Brussels bureau chief and European affairs editor for Reuters, reports from Sochi on whether Russia has properly prepared for the Olympics. These Tweets Do Not Inspire Much Confidence About How Ready Sochi Is... My hotel room has no internet, no hot water, no curtains and no furniture. On the plus side, three of the four lights work. #Sochi2014 — jian ghomeshi (@jianghomeshi) February 5, 2014 Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet. — Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 4, 2014 To anyone in Sochi: I am now in possession of three light bulbs. Will trade for a door handle. This offer is real: pic.twitter.com/7AeesqDi8Y — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) February 4, 2014 Watch your step @Sochi2014 -- I've noticed on walkway and on sidewalks that not all man holes are always covered. pic.twitter.com/a5Nv4wu5iA — Jo-Ann Barnas (@JoAnnBarnas) February 1, 2014 CNN booked 11 rooms in one @Sochi2014 media hotel five months ago. We have been here for a day and only one room is available. #cnnsochi — Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 4, 2014 This is the one hotel room @Sochi2014 have given us so far. Shambles. #cnnsochi pic.twitter.com/RTjEkmyan3 — Harry Reekie (@HarryCNN) February 4, 2014 My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014 — Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014 Parts of Sochi remind me of Phoenix in 2009. Unfinished, lavish buildings incongruously placed. pic.twitter.com/FtZ2x0gSS1 — Anton Troianovski (@AntonWSJ) February 5, 2014 ...But These Give Us A Little Hope The rings and torch on the way to the rink #Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/8Fh9CwqvZX — Brianne McLaughlin (@BrianneMcL) February 4, 2014 Go Canada Go!!! pic.twitter.com/8xPYqBkTbY — Maxence Parrot (@MaxParrot) February 4, 2014

Peter Coy, economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek, talks about the CBO report on the effect of Obamacare on jobs, plus age discrimination's part in long-term unemployment. Then Ruth Finkelstein, senior vice president of policy and planning for the New York Academy of Medicine, continues the discussion on aging and long-term unemployment and talks about her work on the Age-Smart Awards Program.  

Scott Stringer, New York City Comptroller, discusses his first month in office, from minimum wage efforts to his library audit and more. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman struggled with drug and alcohol abuse at the age of 22, then relapsed 23 years later, dying of a heroin overdose this past Sunday. Carrie Wilkens, clinical director of the Center for Motivation and Change and the co-author of Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change helps lead a discussion about addiction, support, and treatment. If you've struggled with addiction, or have a loved one who has, what lessons can we draw from Hoffman's death? Call 212-433-9692... // Post by Brian Lehrer.

David Hendy, media historian at the University of Sussex, host of the thirty-part BBC Radio series, Noise: A Human History, and the author of Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening, talks about the social history of noise and kicks off the call-in on the question of sound and creativity.  What sounds sparks your creativity or do you need absolute quiet?   Electronic Musician Matthew Herbert Re-Tells "Noise: A Human History" in Sound

A call-in segment: Tell us a story about sound in your life, any true story. Good or bad, describe a particular relationship with noise and sound. Call 212-433-9692, or post your story below. // Post by Brian Lehrer.