The Brian Lehrer Show

James Solomon, mayor-elect of Jersey City, talks about his plans and priorities for when he takes office as mayor of Jersey City this January. 

Errol Louis, political anchor of Spectrum NY1 News, host of Inside City Hall and The Big Deal with Errol Louis, New York Magazine columnist and host of the podcast You Decide, talks about his new podcast where he explores the impact of the former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, locally and nationally, and why she's not more well known. Plus, the latest local political news.

Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, talks about the latest news from City Hall and Mayor-elect Mamdani's transition plans.

Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future, discusses his organization's new report documenting the importance of the creative sector to New York City's economy, the affordability challenges the city's artists are facing, and solutions that would revive the community.

Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Deep Shtetl, about the intersection of politics, culture, and religion, offers analysis of anecdotal and survey data that show a generational divide on antisemitism.

Richard Rushfield, chief columnist at The Ankler, discusses the legacies of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who were found dead in their Hollywood home on Monday, and listeners offer their tributes.

David Miliband, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee, shares the countries on the IRC's "watchlist," or the countries they determine are most at risk for humanitarian emergencies, and what the IRC is doing to prepare.

Andrew Chow, technology correspondent at TIME, talks about the choice of the people behind AI for their annual "Person of the Year" selection.

Shop Listener is back for the 2025 holiday season. Listeners call in to shout out the children's holiday gifts they sell for a Brian Lehrer Show listener-sourced gift guide.

==> Submit your information for our Shop Listener online guide at wnyc.org/shoplistener and check out all the entries!

Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent at KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast, discusses the latest over the battle in Congress over the fate of the Affordable Care Act

City Councilmember Julie Menin,  (D-5, Manhattan's Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill and Roosevelt Island) talks about her priorities for City Council, as she is about to take over as speaker, and how she foresees her relationship with the incoming Mamdani administration will be.

"Rage bait." "Parasocial." "6-7." Ben Zimmer, linguist, language columnist, and chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, discusses what the words of the year chosen by various dictionaries like Oxford and Dictionary.com, and what the choices say about our language and culture. To submit your nomination for word of the year to the American Dialect Society, go to https://americandialect.org.

Franklin Schneider, writer based in New York City, discusses his recent piece in The Atlantic, "When Did the Job Market Get So Rude?"

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

City Politics: Mamdani's Emerging Opposition; Lander's Congressional Bid (First) | Trump's Effort to Ban State AI Laws (Starts at 40:34) | Shop Listener 2025: Under $50 (Starts at 1:00:24)

If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

After years of stalled plans and unfulfilled promises of affordable housing near the Barclays Center, David Brand, housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, reports on a new plan for housing at Atlantic Yards.

Gilbert Cruz, editor at The New York Times Book Review shares the five fiction and five non-fiction books from this year that made it into The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2024.