The Brian Lehrer Show

Arun Venugopal, senior reporter for WNYC's race & justice unit, shares his reporting on how the tourism industry in NYC is suffering because of President Trump's tariffs and other policies.

Martha Barnette, co-host of the radio show and podcast A Way with Words and author of Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland (Harry N. Abrams, 2025), shares some fascinating stories of where words like "spam" and "cocktail."

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

Robert Reich's Critique of Fellow Boomers  (First) | What to Know About the Eating Disorder ARFID (Starts at :33) | The Gen Z Intimacy Recession (Starts at :52)

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The animal shelters in New York are full. There are feral cat colonies around the city. So what do we do? Will Zweigart, executive director of Flatbush Cats, a nonprofit cat rescue group, explains how we got to this point and makes some suggestions for what New York can do about all the cats.

Carter Sherman, author of The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future (Gallery Books, 2025), and a reproductive health and justice journalist at the Guardian, talks about the decline in sex and intimacy among young people and what role the internet and hookup culture have played in shaping a generation's new cultural mores.

Amy Nofziger, director of victim support at AARP's Fraud Watch Network, discusses the latest trends on how scammers are tricking people into giving them money and personal information and brings tips on how to avoid scams.

Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, offers political analysis of Brian's candidate interview with Zohran Mamdani, and other campaign-related news.

New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-AD36), the Democratic nominee for mayor, makes his pitch to voters as he runs for mayor of New York City.

Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, talks about the latest news from the campaign trail, as some national Democrats have endorsed Mamdani and others haven't, plus why Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Adams continue to criticize Zohran Mamdani over policing.

With Congress on summer recess after passing the big spending bill, GOP representatives are now tasked with defending their legislative records to their constituents. Eleanor Mueller, congress reporter at Semafor, talks about the particularly tough crowd Republican congressman Mike Flood faced on Monday evening and other news coming out of Congress. 

Patrick Willingham, executive director of the Public Theater, and Saheem Ali, associate artistic director at the Public Theater and director of the upcoming run of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Teater, talk about the reopening of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and the return of Free Shakespeare in the Park.

Listeners call in to talk about how they have met their significant other in person (as opposed to online), and share their frustrations with dating apps.

A recent expert panel organized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cast doubt on the safety of SSRIs in pregnancy -- sparking backlash from medical institutions and doctors. Lauren Osborne, M.D., vice chair of Clinical Research at the Department of OBGYN at Weill Cornell Medicine and chair of The National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry (NCRP), explains what the science says about antidepressant use during pregnancy.

Though nearly two-thirds of students in New York City's public school system are Black or Latino, just 3% of offers at eight of the city’s specialized schools went to Black students and 6.9% to Latino students. Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat New York, reports on the ongoing issue of segregation at specialized high schools, and how the mayoral candidates say they'd like to tackle it.

Nearly halfway through the summer and NPR is asking... do we have a "song of the summer" yet? Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR Music reporter, breaks down this season's contenders and listeners share their nominations.

U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY15) talks about the latest national political news of the week, as well as the NYC mayoral election, as Congress is in the midst of the August recess.