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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:

Friday Morning Politics: SAVE Act, DHS Shutdown and More Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Burgess Everett, congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about the latest news out of Congress this week, including a bipartisan housing bill that passed the Senate, the stalemate over DHS funding, the president's push for the SAVE Act and more.

Photo: US aviation faces a crisis due to a Department of Homeland Security partial government shutdown, leading to Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages. (Photo by Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Albany Budget Negotiations in Full Swing Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Each house in the New York State legislature released its budget proposal, and both called for raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers. Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, reports on how that will affect negotiations, since Governor Hochul is firmly against a tax hike, and other issues in the assembly's and senate's proposals.

Photo: Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, left, and Speaker Carl Heastie, center, meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul, right, following a presentation of Gov. Hochul's executive budget proposal on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images).

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Friday the 13th and Other Superstitions Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

On this Friday the 13th, listeners call in to share their superstitions, including ones that they don't really believe in but observe anyway.

Photo: November morning in Stegna at the Levantine Sea, cat a the old storehouse of the fishermen (Archangelos, Rhodes, Greece). (Manfred Werner (Tsui), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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A $30 Hourly Minimum for NYC? Mar 13, 2026

Show notes

Sandy Nurse, City Council member (D-37, Cypress Hills, Bushwick, City Line, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York), talks about her proposal for legislation that would increase New York City's minimum wage from the current $17 per hour to $30 per hour by 2030.

Photo: Lidia Vilorio, a home health aide, gives her patient Martina Negron her medicine and crackers for her tea on May 05, 2021 (Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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How Westchester Community College is Dealing With Federal Funding Cuts Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

Belinda Miles, PhD; president of SUNY Westchester Community College, talks about how Westchester Community College is dealing with funding cuts from the Trump administration, and how they will affect college access for low-income students, and employers and the workforce.

Photo from Wikimedia Creative Commons: The Gateway Building on the campus of Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York.

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President Trump's Shifting Statements on Iran Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of The Atlantic daily newsletter, plus author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), offers analysis of how President Trump is changing the way he describes the status of the war with Iran, and why his public statements about it have shifted around so dramatically. Plus, Mohammed Sergie, editor of Semafor Gulf, talks about how the war has affected the Gulf states.
Photo: Donald Trump at a United Nations event on Religious Freedom Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (Photo: Shealah Craighead / White House)

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Stories With The Moth Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

Kate Tellers, storyteller, host and director of MothWorks, talks about The Moth's upcoming event with the theme "what are we fighting for?"

Photo: Matthew Mercier takes part in The Moth true personal storytelling show live-streamed from St. Ann's Church on April 21, 2021 in Brooklyn. (Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

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Independent Review of the Mayor's Proposed Budget Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

The Independent Budget Office led testimonies as the City Council begins reviewing the mayor's preliminary budget. Louisa Chafee, director of the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO), a non-partisan source of information on the budget and economy, gives their assessment of the assumptions underlying the budget and the mayor's plan to close the deficit.

Photo: The Committee on Finance Holds Preliminary Budget Hearing For FY2027 with testimony from the Independent Budget Office, March 10, 2026 (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)

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Oscar Talk: Streaming vs Theaters Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

Dana Stevens, film critic at Slate.com, co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast and the author of Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century (Atria Books, 2022), weighs in on Timothée Chalamet's comments about the importance of movie-going vs streaming for the future of the industry, plus the social/political meaning of two of the best picture frontrunners.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images: Timothée Chalamet speaks during the Valentine's Day weekend special screening of "Call Me By Your Name", hosted by Cinespia, at Los Angeles Theatre on February 13, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

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Why New Yorkers Dial 911 Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

Of the nearly 3.8 million 911 calls routed to the NYPD in 2025, only about a quarter were reporting a crime in progress and more than 500,000 involved “harassment, verbal conflicts, or disputes between two or more parties.” This comes from a new analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice. Daniela Gilbert, who directs the Vera Institute Redefining Public Safety initiative and served on the Mamdani administration’s Community Safety transition team, talks about the analysis and argues that many of these calls could potentially be handled by alternative responders.
Photo: Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at Gracie Mansion with New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch on March 9, 2026. Source: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

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