The Brian Lehrer Show

Ciarán Donnelly, senior vice president for International Programs at International Rescue Committee talks about the ongoing war and displacement crisis in Sudan, plus Mark Townsend, senior global development reporter at the Guardian and the author of No Return: The True Story of How Martyrs Are Made (Guardian Faber Publishing, 2020), explains the role of the UK and the United Arab Emirates in the conflict.

Photo: KHAZAN TUNJUR, JEB...

Joshua Mitts, Columbia Law School professor specializing in corporate, business, and transactional law, talks about New York State's suit against the prediction market platform Kalshi for allegedly "running an illegal gambling operation.”

==> "From Iran to Taylor Swift:  Informed Trading in Prediction Markets" (April 6, 2026)

Photo: Kalshi's logo is displayed on a smartphone placed on a reflective surface onto which a...

As summer begins its slow wind down, listeners call in to share what's still on their summer bucket lists.

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 15: A beachgoer sits in the shade under an umbrella at the beach at Coney Island in Brooklyn on July 15, 2026 in New York City. New York City is under an Air Quality Health Advisory as the Canadian and Great Lakes wildfire smoke gradually moves through the area, creating a thick haze in the hea...

This week marks the 81st anniversary of the US dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Fred Kaplan, Slate's War Stories columnist, contributor to The iPaper and the author of many nonfiction books and his latest, a novel, A Capital Calamity (Miniver Press, 2024), recalls the history and discusses the current state of nuclear weapons, especially as it relates to the war with Iran.

Photo: People stand along the Motoya...

New York City's Department of Finance sent letters to thousands of high-value homeowners regarding a so-called pied-à-terre tax, but many of the people who received those letters say these are their primary residences. Kathryn Brenzel, senior political reporter at Crain's New York Business, explains the roll-out, the extended appeal deadline, and the rules for who qualifies.

Photo: BROOKLYN, NY - APRIL 15: Brooklyn Brownstones in a...

Amanda Ripley, journalist who writes the Substack The Understory, conflict mediator and co-founder of Good Conflict and author of several books, including High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out (Simon & Schuster, 2021) talks about her method of conflict mediation, and moderates a conversation among listeners who have different views on whether they are proud or ashamed of the United States.

Photo: HOBOKEN, NJ - JU...

Chico Harlan, global climate correspondent at The New York Times, discusses the wildfires in Europe and the ways climate change is impacting the continent right now.

Photo: VIOTIA, GREECE - AUGUST 2: Volunteers battle a wildfire burning near Porto Germeno, 70 kilometres northwest of Athens in the region of Viotia, Greece, on August 2, 2026 (Photo by Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz compa...

Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to Congress to testify on his role in the COVID-19 pandemic after Republican Senator Rand Paul released some of Fauci's diary entries from 2020. Chelsea Cirruzzo, Washington correspondent at STAT News, discusses Fauci's testimony and related news. 

Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci is sworn in before testifying to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Comm...

Kathryn Jezer-Morton, writer of The Cut's Brooding newsletter and the author of The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything (Viking, 2026), talks about her reporting on and experience with the way social media is changing our lives.

Photo: BATH, UNITED KINGDOM - MARCH 29: In this photo illustration a 14-year-old boy holds an iPhone screen displaying various social media and messaging apps on Mar...

A new private club is slated to open this month at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula. Dubbed "The Peoples Beach," the park has a long history as an informal gathering place for the LGBTQ community. Liam Quigley, parks and sanitation reporter for Gothamist/WNYC, unpacks the status of the project, whose opening has been delayed several times this summer, including why some beachgoers are unhappy with the plan; plus listeners ...

Despite no real progress, the U.S. war with Iran continues, and according to F. Gregory Gause, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University, author of The International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2014), it has all been meaningless.

Photo: DOVER, DELAWARE - JULY 22: A U.S. Army carry team transports the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan during a dign...

Sideya Sherman, director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission, talks about the department's new report on the demographic makeup of New York City's immigrants, which found that China has caught up to the Dominican Republic as the two leading places where immigrants to the city come from.

Photo: NEW YORK, NY - JULY 23: Tom Ellis films on set for the TV show "CIA" in the Chinatown neighborhood ...

James Martin, SJ, a Jesuit priest, founder of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic resource, editor at large for America Media, and the author of the memoir Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest (HarperOne, 2026) talks about his path to the priesthood, as well as the first American pope.

Photo: US priest Father James Martin speaking at the world meeting o...

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), and NYC Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, NYC Council Member (District 10, Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill), talk about reports of ICE activity picking up in NYC, as well as a specific incident in Inwood where an observer recording ICE agents was pepper sprayed in the face.

Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol the hal...

On this Summer Friday, we've put together some of our favorite recent interviews, including:

• Ben Rhodes, contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, co-host of "Pod Save the World," an advisor to former president Barack Obama and the author of All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches (Random House, 2026), talks about his new book that tells the history of the United States and its central...

Following a recent cybersecurity breech by OpenAI, in which two of their in-progress models autonomously hacked into the AI company Hugging Face, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are pushing for an "AI Kill Switch" bill in Congress. Brendan Bordelon, AI and tech influence reporter at Politico, discusses Washington's changing approach to AI regulation amid growing concerns over cybersecurity in every sector, and unpacks how te...

After Stuyvesant high school admitted only 3 Black students for next year, 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," argues it's time to end the use of a single test for admission to NYC's specialized high schools.

Photo: New York, NY, USA - March 21, 2021: Main entrance to Stuyvesant High Sch...

Sophia Smith Galer, UK-based journalist and the author of How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words(Crown, 2026), talks about what's lost when a language dies.

Photo: A person leads a finger on the lines in the book, but instead of letters only question marks on the page in the textbook.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of...