The Brian Lehrer Show

There's a big deadline coming up: August 16th is the last day to register to vote in this Fall's primary. We discuss various ways to increase turnout, and how you can get registered to vote. In a first-ever on-air experiment, Brian Lehrer Show producer Jody Avirgan helps one of our listeners, Dylan Fareed, register to vote in NYC. All of the tools and info you need to register can be found on our guide here. Anna Sale, WNYC politics reporter, talks about her reporting and mapping of voter rates - not just turnout - in NYC, and what various groups are doing to reach non-voters. See the map below. Listen to Anna's piece here. And New Tech City host Manoush Zomorodi discusses how the city and other groups are using technology and mobile apps to register voters and get out the vote. Help out with New Tech City's hackathon survey. Update: Dylan found a stamp! He's registered. Democracy in action! cc: @annasale @jamifloyd RT @dylanfareed: Found a stamp! Mailing my registration today. @BrianLehrer @jodyavirgan — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) August 8, 2013 @dylanfareed Postage paid version of form! http://t.co/kk1Q1xstZQ Wish we'd known. — Jody Avirgan (@jodyavirgan) August 14, 2013   → Resources: How To Register | WNYC Mayor Tracker | BL Show Mayoral Interviews

Alex Goldmark, reporter for WNYC's Transportation Nation, talks about the latest survey to show fewer teens are getting licensed to drive. 

Leigh Gallagher, Assistant Managing Editor of Fortune Magazine  and author of The End of Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving (Portfolio, 2013), explains why since the recession more Americans are opting out of the suburbs for car-free city life.  The End of Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving--Excerpt  When I set out to write a book in the spring of 2011, I originally planned to explore the future of our economy and how the aftereffects of the financial crisis would bring permanent changes to various aspects of our lives. But the more I researched, the more I discovered that the most dramatic shift involved where and how we choose to live—and it wasn’t a result of the Great Recession at all. Rather, the housing crisis only concealed something deeper and more profound happening to what we have come to know as American suburbia. Simply speaking, more and more Americans don’t want to live there anymore. The reasons are varied, but several disparate factors all point to a decrease in demand for traditional suburban living: many Americans are tiring of the physical aspect of the suburbs, the design of which has changed dramatically over the years to gradually spread people farther and farther apart from one another and the things they like to do, making them increasingly reliant on their cars and, increasingly, on Thelma and Louise –length commutes. Big demographic shifts are seeing our population grow older, younger, and more diverse seemingly all at once, while powerful social trends are shrinking and transforming the American nuclear family, long the dominant driver of suburbia. An epic financial crisis coupled with the rising cost of energy has made punishing commutes also unaffordable, while a new- found hyperawareness of environmental issues has shaken up and re-ordered our priorities in ways that stand in direct conflict to the suburban way of life. This has all been happening for years, but it’s now being backed up by data. The rate of suburban population growth has outpaced that of urban centers in every decade since the invention of the automobile, but in 2011, for the first time in a hundred years, that trend reversed. Construction permit data shows that in several cities, building activity that was once concentrated in the suburban fringe has now shifted primarily to cities, or what planners call the “urban core.” At the same time, demand for the large, single-family homes that characterize the suburbs is dwindling, and big suburban home builders like Toll Brothers are saying their best markets are now cities. Many of the builders present at the NAHB show in Orlando know this and have started changing the way they do business. Like Ralston, they’ve started breaking their own bones by tearing up old floor plans, adjusting land acquisition strategies, and shifting their focus to include smaller houses and more urban developments. “Gone are the master bathrooms you can land planes in,” said Boyce Thompson, the editorial director of the Builder group of magazines at the housing research and publishing firm Hanley Wood, during a presentation on market trends. Many of the attendees took part in educational sessions on “multifamily” housing units, design strategies for a shifting market, and the changing preferences of the new home buyer. During one such session, the audience watched an ad for builder Shea Homes’ new “Spaces” line in which pleasant-looking suburbanites talked about what they wanted in their new homes. “A typical home in the suburbs for me?” one house- wife asks. “It’s just not the way things are done anymore.” The 2012 annual Builder magazine “concept home,” at the show, always an important barometer of where housing trends are headed, was instead a series of three different homes targeted to three different generations, all featuring smaller—or “right-sized,” since “small” is still a word that goes unsaid by this group—floor plans and more efficient  use of space. “Change is the only path to

Bonnie Tsui, stories editor for The Atlantic, discusses the new Chinese law requiring adult children to visit their parents. Tsui talks about what this legislation tells us about the needs of a growing elderly population in the U.S., and takes your calls on how you manage a long-distance relationship with your parents. China has just passed a law requiring adult children to visit their parents. BT talks Cleared No about what this legislation tells us about Bonnie Tsui, stories editor for The Atlantic, discusses the new Chinese law requiring adult children to visit their parents. Tsui talks about what this legislation tells us about the needs of a growing elderly population in the US, and takes your calls on how you manage a long-distance relationship with your parents.  

We all know about scissors, smudge marks, and those awkward desks -- but what makes life in the 21st century hard for left-handed people? Chris McManus, professor of psychology and medical education at the University College London and the author of Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures, talks about the history of lefties, the science behind it and the modern-day inconveniences southpaws face. [View the story "What Sucks About Being Left-Handed in the 21st Century?" on Storify]

The Danbury women's prison in Connecticut will be turned into an all-male facility. Georgia Lerner, executive director of the Women's Prison Association explains the plan to relocate women to Alabama and other states, and what it would mean for the Northeast not to have a federal women's prison.

With this week's terror alerts bringing al-Qaeda back into the spotlight, Dina Temple-Raston, NPR Counterterrorism and National Security correspondent, discusses the state of the organization, and why Yemen continues to be a hotspot. Reading List: AQAP, Yemen, and Al-Qaeda Today PBS Frontline: "Understanding Yemen's Al-Qaeda Threat" Peter Bergen: "Al-Qaeda's Kinder, Gentler Image" Brookings: "Al-Qaeda is Back" Twitter: Yemen Expert Gregory D Johnsen

This morning, President Obama canceled his Moscow one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid U.S. anger over Russia's asylum of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. David J. Kramer, president of the human-rights organization Freedom House, talks about the state of U.S.-Russia relations in light, post-Snowden, and the ongoing tension over the treatment of gays in that country. President Obama's Statement on Russia Trip Cancellation Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September. We value the achievements made with Russia in the President’s first term, including the New START Treaty, and cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea. However, given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian Government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda. Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship. Our cooperation on these issues remains a priority for the United States, so on Friday, August 9, Secretaries Hagel and Kerry will meet with their Russian counterparts in a 2+2 format in Washington to discuss how we can best make progress moving forward on the full range of issues in our bilateral relationship. The President still looks forward to traveling to St. Petersburg on September 5-6 to attend the G-20 Summit.

David Epstein, senior writer at Sports Illustrated and author of the new book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, discusses the science behind the idea that athleticism is in your genes. EVENT: David Epstein reads from and discusses his book at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan on Thursday, August 8 at an event hosted by Gelf Magazine. 

Deborah Yaffe, journalist, self-proclaimed "Janeite" and the author of Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom (Mariner Books, 2013) discusses the passionate world of Jane Austen fans and what it says about fanaticism in general. Event: Deborah Yaffe will speak about the book at the Princeton Public Library on September 12 at 7 p.m. →Jane Austen's books on Project Gutenberg →Jane Austen fansite, The Republic of Pemberley   Excerpt: Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom // AmongTheJaneitesDeboarhYaffeIntroduction (PDF) AmongTheJaneitesDeboarhYaffeIntroduction (Text) From the book Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom. Copyright (c) 2013 by Deborah Yaffe. Reprinted by permission of Mariner Books, 2013. All rights reserved.   The "Lake Scene" from the 1995 BBC Production of Pride and Prejudice:    

Kelly McEvers, NPR's Beirut bureau chief, talks about the latest on the violence in Syria, and her new documentary "Diary of a Bad Year", which chronicles her life as a war correspondent, and explores why war reporters keep going back into conflict. → Event: Kelly McEvers at UnionDocs, Brooklyn | Friday, 7:30pm | More Information Kelly McEvers: "Diary of a Bad Year" (Full Documentary)

Brigid Bergin, WNYC politics reporter, talks about the Campaign Finance Board's decision to prohibit John Liu from receiving public matching funds for his mayoral campaign.

Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, reports on the 2013 survey of IAVA members and what issues the veterans are facing.  //

NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca joins us as we open the phones to hear what baseball fans think about Alex Rodriguez's suspension from baseball and his legacy. 

Graham Rayman, staff writer for the Village Voice and author of The NYPD Tapes: A Shocking Story of Cops, Cover-ups, and Courage (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), joins us in studio to talk about his reporting on the NYPD.