The Brian Lehrer Show

Stephen Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio and the co-author of Freakonomics (Harper Collins, 2025), now in a new 20th anniversary edition, reflects on 20 years of "Freakonomics," its impact and use of data, and talks about what's next.

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

Shop Listener is back for the 2025 holiday season. Listeners call in to shout out their businesses that sell gifts for the holiday season.

President Trump and his allies are framing recent kidnappings and attacks in Nigeria as Islamic assaults on Christians, even threatening military intervention. NPR international correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu explains what’s truly behind the violence, how it’s being portrayed in Washington, and why the situation is more complex than a religious conflict.

Ana González, host of WNYC's new podcast (with Yo-Yo Ma) Our Common Nature, talks about the new podcast she hosts where Yo-Yo Ma travels around the country and collaborates with musicians in nature. Plus, they talk about the pictures people have sent in of their favorite places in nature.

Elizabeth Alexander, president of The Mellon Foundation, poet, educator, memoirist and scholar and the author of The Trayvon Generation (Grand Central Publishing, 2022), talks about the Mellon Foundation's new grants and funding for literary arts and jazz musicians, and why money for the arts from the nonprofit sector is crucial.

David Herzberg, professor of history and director of the drugs, health and society program at the University at Buffalo, offers his take on the fentanyl crisis, and why he says President Trump is wrong about almost every aspect of it.

Michael Scherer, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about his cover story on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other news.

Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Representative (D NY-8th, Brooklyn) and House minority leader, offers his take on how the meeting between President Trump and Mayor-elect Mamdani went, and more national political news.

Jeffery Mays, New York Times metro politics reporter, recaps Mayor-elect Mamdani's Friday meeting at the White House with President Trump, where the two spoke well of each other and pledged to work together.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton premiered ten years ago and pretty much immediately became a phenomenon. Frank DiLella, Spectrum News NY1 theater correspondent and host of “On Stage”talks about the hit play and its affect on Broadway and more.

Edward Larson, chaired professor of history and law at Pepperdine University and the author of Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters (W. W. Norton & Company, 2025) talks about the change in thinking 250 years ago in the American colonies from British subjects protesting the crown to revolution.

After President Trump and Mayor-Elect Mamdani's curiously friendly meeting this past Friday, listeners call in to share their theories as to why the president was all smiles with New York's incoming democratic socialist mayor, whom the president has called a communist many times in the past.

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

Climate Advocates Are Angry at Gov. Hochul (First) | The First G20 Summit on African Soil (Starts at 23) | De-Cluttering Legacies (Starts at 45)

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As the U.S. approaches its 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson, professor of history at Tulane and the author of several books, including his latest, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written (Simon & Schuster, 2025), digs in on a key sentence in the Declaration of Independence and how its reverberated throughout the country's history.

Jonathan Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNOW; writer for MSNOW and contributing writer to The Atlantic talks about the national political news of the week, including Mayor-elect Mamdani's meeting with President Trump at the White House.

Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Business Insider, talks about navigating issues around what to do with all the 'stuff' that boomer parents will be leaving their millennial kids.

Vincent Schiraldi, Pinkerton Foundation visiting fellow and former New York City Commissioner of both the Department of Correction and Department of Probation, argues against trying teenagers as adults and defends New York's "Raise the Age" law against pushback from some elected leaders.

Jessica Gould, education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, shares her reporting on how the city's school bus system has been failing the families who rely on it, and if reform is possible.