Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

With the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late night show, and the news that ABC has temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel, we explore the changing landscape and moving goalposts of 'free speech.'On Today's Show:Two Atlantic staff writers, Ashley Parker and Adam Serwer share highlights and discuss the latest from the world of politics, where President Trump's administration and its allies have taken aim at critics of Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination. 

The Trump administration's recent lethal strikes on purported drug boats in Venezuela drew widespread condemnation from experts in international law. On Today's Show:Brian Finucane, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group and a non-resident senior fellow at Reiss Center on Law and Security at NYU Law, talks about the strikes and the legal issues around them. 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has issued a report on the state of children's health.On Today's Show:Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent, KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast, talks about the details of the report and where it fits into the Trump administration's MAHA initiative.

Almost immediately after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, videos were circulating on social media, and many people saw the gruesome crime without meaning to just by logging on.On Today's Show:Adam Clark Estes, senior technology correspondent at Vox, talks about how little content moderation big tech companies are doing these days, how the algorithm fed off people pausing to watch the video, and how content like this may traumatize vast swaths of people. 

Democrats in the Senate are debating whether to allow the government to shut down when it runs out of funding later this month.On Today's 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 what's at stake in the debate over whether to go along with the Republican plan to fund the government or withhold their votes in protest.

On today's show: 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.

On Today's Show: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.

After a string of losses in lower courts by the Trump administration, in an unsigned order on Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a restriction on ICE from conducting indiscriminate stops and raids in Los Angeles that have been decried as racial profiling. On Today's Show:Lindsay Nash, professor of law at Cardozo Law, co-director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic and co-director of the Center for Immigration Innovation, offers legal analysis of the ruling, and its implications for previously established protections against racial profiling.

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. 

Recent developments on the world stage may be shifting the geopolitical calculations of the Israel-Hamas war. On Today's Show:Jane Arraf, international correspondent covering the Middle East for NPR, talks about the latest developments in Gaza as Israel clamps down on volunteer doctors and threatens more restrictions on humanitarian aid amid reports of famine.   

With the Epstein case and the possibility of other powerful abusers still at large, we look at the latest.On Today's Show:Jacob Shamsian, legal correspondent at Business Insider, talks about the latest developments in the Epstein saga as several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein urge Congress to act.

We look at how the media, including social media, is part of President Trump's approach to politics.On Today's Show:Ben Smith, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, and the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral (Penguin Press, 2023), shares his analysis for how the president has come for civil servants, and what it might mean for the government bureaucracy in the future.

Congress is returning from its summer recess to a host of issues of national and international importance.On Today's Show:U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) talks about his work in the Senate and the issues in New Jersey as congress returns to work, including his recent trip to Asia, deportations and immigrant detention, further rescission demands, and why he's supporting Zohran Mamdani.

On Today's Show:Nick Miroff, staff writer for The Atlantic who covers immigration and the Department of Homeland Security, talks about the changes at the immigration enforcement agency and how the $75 billion budget bump will be spent.

In an executive order on Monday, President Donald Trump directed each state's National Guard to be prepared to respond to civil disturbancesOn Today's Show:Dan Lamothe, U.S. military and Pentagon reporter at The Washington Post, breaks down the latest news and what this might mean for cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York City.

Between a meeting with South Korean leaders, further tariffs, and foreign investments, this week has seen several headlines regarding Trump's economic agenda. On Today's Show:Lydia DePillis, New York Times reporter covering the American economy and Shawn Donnan, Bloomberg News senior writer, talk about the latest economic and tariff news, including U.S. investment in Intel, other deals involving foreign investment in U.S. businesses, and the Federal Reserve.

The left is taking a variety of different, somewhat disjointed approaches to counter-messaging the Trump administration. On Today's Show:Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of the Atlantic Daily newsletter, talks about national politics, including Democratic messaging strategies, like California Gov. Newsom's efforts to 'troll' Trump on social media.

In July, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced it had issued subpoenas to medical providers that had provided gender-affirming care to minors. On today's show: Washington Post reporter Casey Parks discusses one of those subpoenas, which was newly made public, and what it means for transgender healthcare. 

As the Trump administration conducts a review of the content in the Smithsonian museums, the president wrote on social media earlier this week that the Smithsonian Institution was too focused on the horrors of slavery.On Today's Show:Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, talks about what could be lost if the administration is able to censor what is presented to museumgoers.

In a leaked recording, NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo suggests that Trump will urge his supporters to vote for him, rather, rather than GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa.On Today's Show:Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, and Jeff Coltin, Politico reporter and co-author of the New York Playbook, talk about the latest news in the mayoral campaign, including Andrew Cuomo's comments regarding President Trump at a Hamptons fundraiser.

Wall Street is reportedly worried that President Trump will come after big banks the way he did big law firms and elite universities.On Today's Show:William Cohan, co-founder of Puck News and author of many books, including Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon (Penguin Random House, 2022), talks about the many ways President Trump is interfering in big U.S. businesses 

The Presidents of Russia and the U.S. will meet in Alaska to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine. On Today's Show:Jonathan Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC; writer for MSNBC and contributing writer to The Atlantic, talks about the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine.

President Trump is reportedly using federal agencies to beef up law enforcement presence in Washington DC. On Today's Show:David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), talks about the context and implications of Pres. Trump's takeover of policing in Washington, DC, plus other national news.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has canceled nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding for future vaccine development.On Today's Show:Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), member of the Vaccine Integrity Project, and the author, with Mark Olshaker, of the forthcoming book, The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics (Little, Brown Spark, 2025), talks about RFK, Jr.'s cuts to mRNA vaccine development and what it means for public health and science, plus other vaccine-related news.

After many delays and negotiations, most of President Donald Trump's tariffs went into effect last Thursday, August 7th.On Today's Show:Eric Levitz, senior correspondent at Vox, break down the latest news, including why Trump's tariffs, no matter how tough they might be on American pocketbooks, might be very hard to reverse.

One of NYC's most likely mayoral hopefuls has been finding success supporting some extremely left-leaning policies. On Today's Show:Zohran Mamdani, New York State assembly member (D-36, Queens) and the Democratic nominee for mayor, makes his pitch to voters as he runs for mayor of New York City. 

With Congress on summer recess after passing the big spending bill, GOP representatives are now tasked with defending their legislative records to their constituents. On Today's Show: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. 

With recent stories around the Fed chair, and US employment figures, a former government economist explains the latest, and the stakes. On Today's Show:Robert Reich, recently retired as Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, Secretary of Labor under Pres. Clinton, a columnist for Newsweek and The Guardian and Substack, and the author of several books, including his latest, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America (Knopf, 2025), shares his story and why he thinks his generation 'came up short' and why young progressives listen to his political analysis. 

With national political issues like the social safety net, immigration, and foreign policy playing out locally in NYC, a local elected weighs in. On Today's Show:U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (D, NY-15) talks about the latest national political news of the week, as Congress is in the midst of the August recess. 

As new information and reporting into the human trafficking scandal around Jeffrey Epstein continues to come to light, we explore how we know what we know about the case.  On Today's Show:Epstein experts Vicky Ward, an investigative journalist and author of books including Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump (St. Martin's Press, 2019), and Jacob Shamsian, legal correspondent at Business Insider, comb through the extensive history of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes, information about his associates, and recent news involving the Trump administration.

As the Northeast US faces another heatwave, we take a look at some of the data behind particular climate issues.On Today's Show:Radley Horton, professor of climate at Columbia University's Climate School, connects the dots between hotter temperatures, air quality and Canadian wildfires. 

Israel celebrates its apparent military victory over Iran. How does that square with the humanitarian conditions in Gaza?On Today's Show:David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, talks about his recent trip to Israel as the country navigates the complicated geopolitics of the region, and the changing landscape of international support.  

The conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, with many Palestinian civilians reportedly unable to access food, medicine and other basic supplies.On Today's Show:Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in the United States, and Katy Crosby, Mercy Corps Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, talk about the on-the-ground reports they're receiving on the food and medical crises in Gaza. 

General Motors' CFO says they won't raise prices despite the tariffs imposed by Trump's White House, and the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the US's global trade partners.On Today's Show:Alexandra Svokos, the digital managing editor of Kiplinger, talks about what some economic indicators say about the effects of the new tariffs.

Speaker Mike Johnson sent members of the House of Representatives home for their August break a few days early in order to avoid a vote on releasing Epstein materials.On Today's Show: Annie Karni, congressional correspondent for The New York Times and co-author (with Luke Broadwater) of Mad House: How Donald Trump, Maga Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby and A Man with Rats in his Walls Broke Congress (Random House, 2025), talks about how the years-old story is roiling Republicans and delighting Democrats, and more Congressional news.

In clips that went viral, Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, columnist for The Guardian and former MSNBC host, debated 20 far-right conservatives on Jubilee's YouTube series "Surrounded."  He talks about the experience and why he's still not sure it was worth it.

The Texas state legislature has reconvened for a special session and at the behest of President Trump, one of the primary goals is to redraw the state's Congressional map to shore up the Republican majority in the House. On Today's Show:Matthew Choi, co-writer of the Early Brief politics newsletter at The Washington Post, explains why this is happening now, and how Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are trying to fight back.

Hear about the latest media headlines, from the Late Show's cancellation, to Trump's newspaper lawsuits and public media funding clawbacks and the Epstein Files news cycle.On Today's Show:Brian Stelter, chief media analyst for CNN Worldwide, lead author of the Reliable Sources newsletter and the author of several books, including Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for America (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024), offers analysis of all the big media stories from recent days. 

Columbia University has announced it will use a controversial definition of antisemitism on campus, approved by the Trump administration. On Today's Show:Arno Rosenfeld, enterprise reporter at the Forward and author of the Antisemitism Decoded newsletter, talks about the new definition and why some groups don't support it. Plus Katie J.M. Baker, national investigative correspondent for The New York Times, discusses Project Esther, a project of the conservative Heritage Foundation that aims to suppress pro-Palestinian activism and what it labels antisemitism across America.

The senate approved a rescission package of cuts to NPR and PBS along with foreign aid.On Today's Show:LaFontaine Oliver, president and CEO of New York Public Radio, and Sarah Gilbert, president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, talk about what comes next, both for larger stations like WNYC and smaller and more rural public radio stations.

President Trump has attempted to signal a change of tune toward Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine.On Today's Show:Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion and democracy activist, plus host of The Atlantic podcast "Autocracy in America," chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative and a vice president of the World Liberty Congress, offers his take on how the United States of America can avoid backsliding into autocracy.

A local Senator shares his thoughts on federal responses to recent flooding in his state, Trump's budget, and foreign relations.On Today's Show:Senator Andy Kim (D NJ), talks about his work in the Senate and the issues in New Jersey.