The Brian Lehrer Show

President Trump has been knocking down data sharing protections between federal agencies to empower ICE's growing surveillance apparatus. Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media, a digital media company focused on technology, discusses his recent investigations into how big tech is helping ICE to gather data on civilians and ultimately identify, track, and detain undocumented immigrants. 

Ahead of the Super Bowl, Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker, who writes the weekly column The Sporting Scene,  talks about the shifting expectations of the public on how famous athletes should respond to politics.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the council's priorities, working with Mayor Mamdani, and new proposals—including year-round outdoor dining.

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), talks about actions and statements by the president that are raising alarms over election integrity with midterms months away.

Alana Casanova-Burgess, host of the podcast La Brega, talks about the new season of La Brega, which spotlights Puerto Rico's champions, and what they teach us about Puerto Ricans and the diaspora.

Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor, talks about the latest news, including how the administration is protecting vulnerable New Yorkers from the cold, the budget gap and more city issues. Then, Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, offers context and analysis of the mayor's interview.

Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics, former New York Times columnist now on Substack, distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and the author of Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future (W. W. Norton & Company, 2020), talks about how President Trump's economic policies are affecting investors, and what that could mean for the overall economy.

For years, the deed theft crisis has been forcing New Yorkers out of their homes. New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé (District 36, Bedford Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) discusses his efforts to protect homeowners from eviction while their cases are pending, plus some other news of the day.

Jason Zengerle, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind (Crooked Media Reads, 2027), talks about the development of right-wing media through the story of Tucker Carlson.

Listeners call in to talk about the movies, TV shows, books and music they're consuming as the cold temperatures mean more indoor time.

Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about what it means for accountability when ICE agents are allowed to be masked.

=>"The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks" (The Atlantic, 2/2/26)

With the Westminster Dog Show underway at MSG, listeners share what their dogs deserve a medal for and Elias Weiss Friedman, aka @TheDogist on Instagram, author of This Dog Will Change Your Life (Ballantine, 2025) and host of the YouTube talk show "Dogs with Elias Weiss Friedman", shares what makes the dogs he photographs special.

Elizabeth Yeampierre, attorney and executive director of UPROSE, talks about Sunset Park Solar, a grassroots project seeking to bring green power to Sunset Park residents.

Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, political analyst and author of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America (Simon & Schuster, 2026), shares his own family's story as it intersects with America's ongoing struggle with structural racism -- what's been accomplished and what still needs to be done.

Elora Mukherjee, professor at Columbia Law School and director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, talks about the many children detained by US immigration authorities and argues for alternatives to detention for families.
→ Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All.

Sigal Samuel, senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect, talks about why many people in America are able to ignore politics and what our duty as citizens should be under an authoritarian government. 

Andrew Weissmann, professor of practice at NYU School of Law, co-host of the podcast Main Justice and and the co-author of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), offers legal analysis of the news of the day, including the DOJ's release of the rest of the Epstein files, the DOJ's civil rights investigation into the Pretti killing and more.

Early voting is underway in the primary to fill now-Governor Sherrill's seat in Congress.  Mike Hayes, WNYC/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), runs through the many candidates and their bases of support, ahead of the election on Thursday.