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The Brian Lehrer Show — News
The Brian Lehrer Show

Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.

Copyright: © WNYC

Latest Episodes:

NJ's Voter Registration Snafu Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

Liza Weisberg, supervising attorney at the ACLU of New Jersey where she focuses on democracy and voting rights, and Mike Hayes, WNYC and Gothamist New Jersey politics reporter and the author of The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform (Kingston Imperial, 2023), talk about the error in New Jersey that led to registering about 6,600 noncitizens to vote (only about 400 did so), and what it tells us about election security more broadly.

Photo: Governor Mikie Sherrill, Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell and MVC Acting Chair & Chief Administrator Rosalie Johnson hold a press conference announcing that New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to voter registration of roughly 6,600 people, who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens, between June 2023 and June 2024, while in the media room of the statehouse in Trenton, N.J. on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (Office of Governor / Tim Larsen)

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Black and Latino Leaders React to DSA Wins Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

Jeffery Mays, New York Times metro politics reporter, talks about how Black and Latino political leaders, and some of their constituents, are feeling as members of the Democratic Socialists of America have gained power throughout the city.

Photo: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 16: New York City Democratic Socialists (NYC-DSA) hold a rally in Union Square marking the start of a campaign to tax the rich and win universal childcare on November 16, 2025, in New York City, United States. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Cutting 'Red Tape' for Small Businesses Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

Kenny Minaya, commissioner of the NYC Department of Small Business Services, talks about City Hall's plan to smooth the way for NYC's small businesses.

Photo: Zohran Kwame Mamdani announces “OPEN for Small Business”, a package of more than 50 regulatory reforms to reduce the paperwork and bureaucratic burden facing the city’s roughly 180,000 small businesses. Alongside an Executive Order that immediately implements several reforms, the package saves time, effort, and money for the small businesses that anchor New York’s economy and the one million New Yorkers they employ, at La Bodega in the Bronx on Monday July 20, 2026. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

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Context and a Movie: The Odyssey Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

Classicist Mary Beard, professor emerita of classics at the University of Cambridge, co-host of the podcast "Instant Classics" and the author of many books, including her recent Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old (University of Chicago Press, 2026), and Dana Stevens, film critic at Slate.com and the author of Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century (Atria Books, 2022), talk about the film, the epic poem and today's political context.

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 14: (L-R) Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and Zendaya attend the premiere of "The Odyssey" presented by Universal Pictures on July 14, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

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The Four Parts of (Great) Pop Songs Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

The award-winning podcast, "Switched On Pop" launches on Netflix. Co-hosts Charlie Harding, songwriter, associate professor at Berklee School of Music and an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhardt’s Music Performing Arts Professions, and Nate Sloan, musicologist and associate professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, join to break down their four-part series breaking down the different components of pop songs (intro, verse, chorus, bridge) and what makes a great pop song.

Photo: Asian young man wearing headphones while looking through the window. Via Getty Images.

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Who Counts as Working-Class? Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

As the Democratic Socialists of America rack up electoral wins this primary season, the group is pushing an expansive definition of who counts as working-class. Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, and Chris Maisano, professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, editor at Jacobin and for the journal New Labor Forum, discuss who counts as working class and why the definition matters.

Photo: High angle view of busy programmers working on computers and laptops while sitting around desk at office - stock photo via Getty Images

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How the AI Bubble is Different Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

Annie Lowrey, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Give People Money (Crown, 2018) and the forthcoming The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time―and How to Fix It (Ecco, 2026) talks about what makes the AI bubble different from ones in the past and what it means for the economy.

Photo: EVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCE - JUNE 17: CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman attends a working lunch with G7 leaders, G7 outreach partners, and global tech CEOs on innovation and AI, during the G7 Summit on June 17, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. Leaders from the Group of 7 (G7) countries convened in Evian, France, near the Swiss border, for their annual summit to discuss challenges to peace and security for Ukraine and Europe, the situation in the Middle East, and other geopolitical issues. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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The New Nominee For CDC Director and More Public Health News Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

Jeremy Faust, emergency medicine physician, public health researcher and author of the Inside Medicine Substack, talks about the confirmation hearing for the potential new CDC director, and why some senators were surprised by her answers, plus why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is requiring servicemembers to have their testosterone tested.

Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 15: Erica Schwartz attends her confirmation hearing to become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill July 15, 2026 in Washington, DC. Schwartz, President Trump's pick to lead the CDC, would fill the position left vacant since August 2025 when Trump ousted former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez. (Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images)

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The Mamdani Administration's 'Rental Ripoff' Report Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, and Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning, talk about the so-called "rental ripoff" report the administration put together and the policy recommendations that came out of it.

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 11: An apartment building stands in the East Village neighborhood on May 11, 2026, in New York City. A New York City board that sets the rent for city-subsidized apartments voted last Thursday night to set a preliminary rent adjustment of 0% to 2% for one-year leases and 0% to 4% for two-year leases, angering many of the city's landlords. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, made reducing New York City's high housing costs a key campaign pledge. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Why Canada's Forest Fires Are So Difficult to Fight Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Augustin Guibaud, PhD, fire expert in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, explains why Canada's forest fires present a unique challenge for experts and first responders—and how forest management can help prevent them in a world marked by climate change. Then, Rebecca Florsheim, MD, MPH, environmental health physician at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, discusses the health impacts of wildfire smoke and poor air pollution.

Photo: NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES - JULY 16: Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada engulfed the New York City skyline, reducing visibility and casting an orange haze over the New York City, United States on July 16, 2026. The smoky conditions reduced visibility across the skyline, while authorities continued monitoring air quality as the wildfire smoke spread across the northeastern United States. (Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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