The Brian Lehrer Show

Zack Beauchamp, senior correspondent at Vox and the author of The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World (PublicAffairs, 2024), talks about the debate among Democrats over whether to go along with the Republican plan to fund the government or withhold their votes, resulting in a shutdown.

=> "The Democrats’ shutdown debate is about something much bigger" (Vox, Sept. 10, 2025)

This week, the French government lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly, forcing the prime minister François Bayrou and his cabinet to resign. Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief at The Economist, breaks down the latest and what's on the table for President Emmanuel Macron to remedy what's being called a "collapse" of his government.

James Skoufis, New York State Senator (D - 42nd District), talks about his bill that would regulate the live events ticketing industry, plus shares why he agrees with Zohran Mamdani's petition to FIFA to improve consumers' ticket-buying experience for the men's World Cup, which will be in the US next year.

Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords Law Center, Ned Parker, investigative reporter at Thomson Reuters, and McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Romney: A Reckoning (Simon & Schuster, 2023), talk about guns and the state of political violence in America after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event on a Utah college campus.

Benji Jones, senior environmental correspondent at Vox, shares his reporting on how cities like New York can nurture threatened species, including monarch butterflies.

Steven Markowitz, MD DrPH, an occupational medicine physician, internist, and epidemiologist who directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at the City University of New York, talks about the latest data from the World Trade Center Health Program.

It has been more than two years since Mayor Adams appointed a "rat czar."  Kathleen Corradi, citywide director of rodent mitigation, reports on progress in the city's fight against the pests, and challenges that remain, like persistent rats nests near playgrounds and in parks. 

Listeners share stories of when they've lost big but managed to come back, inspired by Amanda Anisimova's comeback in the U.S. Open to make the finals after her infamous "double-bagel" loss at Wimbledon.

Ben Casselman, chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, talks about the adjustments to hiring numbers showing 911,000 fewer jobs were created in the 12 months before March 2025, as listeners share their real-world job search stories.

As New York's mayoral election enters its final stretch, Boston voters are casting ballots to narrow their own mayoral field—and President Trump is attempting to influence both races.  Emma Platoff, political enterprise reporter at The Boston Globe, talks about the state of the Boston mayoral election.

Kyle Chayka, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the weekly column Infinite Scroll, talks about his latest column about ghosting and discusses whether our hyperconnected digital moment has made us all expect too much of each other. 

Dana Rubinstein, New York Times reporter who covers New York City politics and government, and Brigid Bergin, senior political correspondent for WNYC and Gothamist, share their reporting on the possibility that Mayor Adams will drop out of the mayoral race to take a job with the Trump administration (despite the mayor's assertion that he's staying in the race).

Cristian Farias, legal journalist who writes for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and other publications, and the host of The Bully’s Pulpit, a podcast of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, talks about the many legal issues the Trump administration is running into, related to sending the National Guard in to LA and DC, deportations and more.

Following up on Thursday's calls from parents of kids whose education was interrupted by the pandemic lockdown, Angela Mora, LMSW, child therapist at Cope With School NYC, talks about some of the emotional health issues children face today.