The Brian Lehrer Show

Céline Gounder, infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at NYU and Bellevue Hospital, host of the podcasts Epidemic and American Diagnosis, and member of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, discusses latest COVID news including an FDA decision on booster shots and the White House plan to roll out vaccines to children ages 5-11.

Before early voting starts this weekend, David Cruz, WNYC/Gothamist news editor, explains the 5 questions on the ballot and why they matter.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Sean Ono Lennon, musician and son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, discusses the cultural impact of the song "Imagine," 50 years later (First) | Andy Borowitz, author, comedian, and creator of The New Yorker's “Borowitz Report,” on his recent interview with Jane Goodall (starts around 14:40) | Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, talks about space travel and the need for science education (starts around 28:00). If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here. 

Sean Ono Lennon, musician and son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, discusses how John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine" was shaped by its time and has influenced music for generations to come.

Supply chain issues mean that people should get a jump on their holiday gift shopping and ordering if they can. Maxine Builder, editor-in-chief of The Strategist, offers advice on where to start this season and listeners chime in with their own ideas.

For this membership drive, we'll feature a brief explainer on a different topic each day. Today, Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About History and Don't Know Much About Mythology, explains the pagan origins and evolution of Halloween traditions. 

Will Shortz, NPR's puzzlemaster and The New York Times' crossword puzzle editor, offers word puzzle challenges all about Westchester County to the listeners.

Brigid Bergin, WNYC's senior political correspondent and Elizabeth Kim, senior editor for Gothamist, recap the NYC mayoral debate between Republican Curtis Sliwa and the Democratic nominee Eric Adams.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D, NJ), a former mayor of Newark, quizzes listeners on how well they know the Garden State.  ...Where is E Street?

For this membership drive, we'll feature a brief "explainer" on a different topic each day. Today, Dion Rabouin, Wall Street Journal reporter, explains what NFTs are and how they work as investment tools in the economy. 

Andy Borowitz, author, comedian, and creator of The New Yorker's “Borowitz Report,” a satirical news column, recaps his New Yorker festival interview with Jane Goodall.

Kevin Young, poet, New Yorker poetry editor and the author of Stones: Poems (Knopf, 2021), talks about his new book of poetry and his new job as director of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and founder of Humanity Forward who ran for the Democratic nominations for U.S. President in 2020 and NYC Mayor in 2021, now the author of Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy (Crown, 2021), talks about his new book that draws on his forays into electoral politics with recommendations for where we go from here, and his plans for a new political party. 

Dennis Walcott, CEO and president of the Queens Public library system, talks about the decision of all three NYC library systems to stop charging fines for overdue books and what the pandemic has meant for the libraries and the people who rely on them for books and more.

On Tuesday, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen appeared before the Senate to argue that Congress needs to demand more transparency from the tech giant. Cecilia Kang, national technology correspondent at The New York Times and co-author with Sheera Frenkel of An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination  (Harper, 2021), breaks down the key takeaways.