From one the nation's most trusted public affairs radio hosts comes a new daily politics podcast that goes beyond the headlines and talking points. Through thoughtful conversations with leading journalists and key newsmakers, Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast, helps listeners make sense of the…
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While it's difficult to find any major flaws with The Brian Lehrer Show, one minor downside could be the lack of availability for ratings above 4.5 stars consistently. Given the quality of content and discussions presented on this podcast, it would be fitting if listeners had the option to give it an even higher rating.
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The federal government shutdown continues, as Trump's efforts in the Middle East draw praise.On Today's Show:Jonathan Lemire, co-host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, contributing writer at The Atlantic and author of the book,The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020 (Flatiron Books, 2022), talks about what he calls the "project 2025 shutdown" and more national political news.
As the federal government shutdown enters its second week, a Democrat in the Senate shares his insights.On Today's Show:U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) talks about the ongoing shutdown and how issues like the Affordable Care Act are a part of the negotiations.
President Trump is making moves to deploy national guard troops to cities like Chicago and Portland, OR. On Today's Show:Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, talks about how states are reacting and why a federal judge keeps blocking the plan for Portland.
As the federal government shutdown continues, how is the White House using it for political leverage?On Today's Show:Russell Berman, a staff writer at The Atlantic talks shares the latest shutdown news. Note: This conversation was recorded on Friday morning about a developing story.
It's the second day of the latest federal government shutdown over funding.On Today's Show:Politico congressional reporter Nicholas Wu talks about the latest on the impasse, who is getting blamed for the shutdown, and what it will take to end it.
Universities have had to contend with a climate of protest, and pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on it. On Today's Show:Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University and the author of Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (Hachette, 2025), talks about issues of free speech and campus politics at Princeton, and the university's relationship with the Trump administration.
As Artificial Intelligence technology develops, and as nations vie for technical dominance, the UN has been considering its role. On Today's Show:Vilas Dhar, president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Body on AI, talks about the two new institutions created by the United Nations to study and discuss the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, and his goals for governing this emerging technology so that it serves the public good.
Learning institutions, from public schools to universities, have been the site of several political fights in recent times. On Today's Show:Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the author of Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy (Thesis, 2025), talks about her new book and explains why she says education protects democracy.
The prospect of a government shutdown is growing as Democrats are threatening to not help Republicans on the Hill pass a spending bill by the September 30 deadline. On Today's Show: Deirdre Walsh, congressional correspondent for NPR's Washington Desk, talks about the politics of the potential shutdown and related news from Congress.
Jimmy Kimmel's brief suspension and, as of yesterday evening, illustrates some of the thornier challenges around the ideal of free speech.On Today's Show:Greg Lukianoff, attorney, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the author of several books on free speech, offers his thoughts on how he says both the political left and right weaponize crackdowns on speech, and why he thinks that is a problem for everyone's rights.
After President Trump and his public health chief raised concerns about the use of acetaminophen while pregnant, we look at what the science has to say.On Today's Show:Chelsea Cirruzzo, Washington correspondent for STAT News, talks about the results of last week's meeting of the federal advisory committee on vaccines and other public health news.
On today's episode, Richard Gowan, Director of UN and Multilateral Diplomacy at the International Crisis Group, shares insights on what to expect at the UN General Assembly, including President Trump's Tuesday address, the war in Gaza and the role of the United Nations worldwide.
Trump's administration has been using pressure to tamp down criticism by some major network late night hosts. On Today's Show:Elie Honig, senior legal analyst at CNN, New York Magazine columnist, former state and federal prosecutor and author of several books, including When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President, From Nixon to Trump (Harper, 2025), explores investigations by the Department of Justice of presidents and other high-ranking officials throughout the years, and how the system may be tested during Trump's second presidency, as well as his efforts to control narratives about his administration.
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.