The Brian Lehrer Show
Summary: Newsmakers meet New Yorkers as host Brian Lehrer and his guests take on the issues dominating conversation in New York and around the world. This daily program from WNYC Studios cuts through the usual talk radio punditry and brings a smart, humane approach to the day's events and what matters most in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives. WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, On the Media, Snap Judgment, Death, Sex & Money, Nancy, Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin and many others. © WNYC Studios
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Podcasts:
Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and 2021 Democratic candidate for NYC mayor, makes his pitch to voters to elect him mayor, ahead of the November general election.
For more than five hours on Monday, Facebook, and its companies Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, all went down worldwide. Listeners who rely on those social media platforms for work or information call in to share how the outage impacted them or their businesses.
President Biden criticized Republicans opposing efforts to keep the country from defaulting on its debt. Teresa Ghilarducci, labor economist focusing on retirement security, director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School, and a senior contributor for Forbes, explains what government shutdown would mean for ordinary Americans.
Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, and Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nigerian poet, writer and playwright and the author of the new novel, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth (Pantheon, 2021), talk about the role of writers and literature in defending human rights and the three imprisoned Iranian writers being honored by PEN America this year and the organization's work on behalf of writers and thinkers around the globe. →PEN Literary Gala [livestream] →NYPL Live: Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth: Wole Soyinka and Farah Jasmine Griffin Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7:30.
Curtis Sliwa,, Republican candidate for NYC mayor, founder of the Guardian Angels and radio talk show host, talks about his campaign and the issues that matter to him.
Mohamed Attia, director of the Urban Justice Center's Street Vendor Project, discusses the recent crackdown on street vendors in the city, and how new rules are affecting the industry.
Robert Costa, national political reporter at The Washington Post and co-author, with Bob Woodward, of Peril (Simon & Schuster, 2021), talks about his new book about the shaky transition of power from the Trump to the Biden administration.
On this "first Monday in October," Melissa Murray, NYU law professor and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny, talks about the new term, the hot-button cases the Court will take up and the fall-out from the decision to let the Texas abortion law go into effect.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio takes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC, including that over 90% of DOE employees are meeting today's vaccine mandate deadline; the situation at Rikers Island; congestion pricing and Vision Zero; and more. 90% of NYC public school staff have now gotten at least one dose of the vaccine ahead of Monday’s mandate, @NYCMayorsOffice says @BrianLehrer. Mayor says he expects the number to go up today. Deadline is midnight tonight. — Jessica Gould (@ByJessicaGould) October 1, 2021 "I think we can strike the balance," @NYCMayor says when @BrianLehrer asks re @GovMurphy's threats in NJ Gov's effort to stop NYC congestion pricing. BdB says he's a big fan of Murphy & thinks can figure things out, like whether GW Bridge toll can mean exemption from CP charge. — Ben Max (@TweetBenMax) October 1, 2021
On Thursday, the Senate and House passed a short-term spending bill ahead of a midnight deadline which would have shut down the government. Seung Min Kim, White House reporter for The Washington Post, discusses the latest news and what happens next.
Many companies are requiring workers to go back to the office but still conducting remote work practices, like virtual meetings and social distancing. Listeners call in and talk about this strange "worst of both worlds" work moment.
The C.D.C. recently issued an "urgent" plea for pregnant and breastfeeding Americans to get the COVID vaccine, since the risk of complications from COVID for this group of people is high. Veronica Maria Pimentel, attending physician of OBGYN, specialist in maternal fetal medicine, and assistant professor of OBGYN, and Uché Blackstock, emergency medicine physician, founder & CEO of Advancing Health Equity, and MSNBC medical contributor, talk about the risks, and how she approaches vaccine-hesitant people to try to convince them to get the shot.
Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. What Went Right and Wrong with the Pandemic (First) | Recapping the New Jersey Candidates for Governor Debate (Starts at 35:30 ) | Hispanic Heritage Month and Your Identity (Starts at 1:09:00 ) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.
Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for New York City's homeless families, and former NYC Council speaker, talks about how families in shelters are coping with the challenges of this school year, plus comments on New York's first woman governor.
Last weekend a 3-month-old infant was killed in a crash in Brooklyn caused by a reckless driver with dozens of speeding tickets to his name. Stephen Nessen, transportation reporter for WNYC/Gothamist, explains why some say The Reckless Drivers Accountability Act -- a law passed in 2020, but not actually put into effect yet -- might have gotten this driver off the road sooner, and what's behind the delay.
