The Brian Lehrer Show

Martha C. Nussbaum, distinguished service professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago and the author of The Republic of Love: Opera & Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2026), offers her analysis of opera as an arm of the Enlightenment, from Mozart to today.   cover image courtesy of the publisher

Megan Messerly, a White House reporter at POLITICO, talks about the Republican support for the war in Iran and the concerns of the isolationists.Photo: American flags near the Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.CImage byMatt Hecht

Daniel Immerwahr, historian, contributing writer at The New Yorker, the Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University and the author of How to Hide an Empire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) offers historical context on the war in Iran and Trump's overall foreign policy. Photo: The aftermath of a US-Israeli strike on Tehran, Iran on March 3, 2026. Credit: محمدعلی برنو/Avash Media via Wikimedia Commons/CC 4.0

Austin C. Jefferson, Albany bureau chief for Streetsblog Empire State, talks about Governor Kathy Hochul's push for car insurance reform, including the problem it seeks to solve and where support and resistance lies.Photo: Gov. Hochul highlights her car insurance affordability proposal in Glenmont, NY on February 3, 2026. Credit: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul.

For St. Patrick's Day, Nicholas Wolf, associate director for research and publishing initiatives at Glucksman Ireland House, NYU's study of Irish and Irish America, discusses the decades-long effort to restore the Irish language after it rapidly declined under British colonial rule.    Photo: Bilingual Irish-English street name sign, named after St. Patrick, in which 'Port' is the Irish for 'Quay'. Credit: Mucklagh/Wikimedia Commons

A new report by Robin Hood and Columbia University found that the poverty rate in New York City has continued to climb, with 26 percent of the city's population now struggling economically. Richard Buery, CEO of the anti-poverty organization Robin Hood and former NYC deputy mayor for strategic policy initiatives, talks the findings of the report and what might be coming in the near future as the effects of federal cuts kick in. Photo: A volunteer fills a basket for a person in need of food at the Reaching Out Community Services food pantry on November 06, 2025, in Brooklyn borough of New York City. This popular Brooklyn food pantry has been feeding thousands of New Yorkers each month while offering a variety of other services to those in need. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images.  

Gov. Hochul has recently made it clear that she intends to try to postpone the implementation of New York's 2019 climate law, that required cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Jon Campbell, Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, reports on why she is doing this, and just how mad it's making environmental groups and others who supported the law. Photo: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a press briefing at office on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, on air quality affecting all counties of the state because of wildfires in Canada. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker staff writer and the author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (Penguin Press, 2024), talks about the scale of the U.S. immigrant detention program, health and safety issues and expansion plans, following the firing of DHS Sec. Kristi Noem. => "Trump's Mass-Detention Campaign" (The New Yorker, March 15, 2026)   photo: A warehouse purchased by the Department of Homeland Security that is slated to become an immigration detention facility is seen on March 10, 2026 in Williamsport, Maryland.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)    

David Streitfeld, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter covering tech for The New York Times, explains the landmark trial regarding social media addiction, brought by a 20-year-old woman against Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube for optimizing their products to her mental and physical detriment. Photo: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Federal Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles after defending the company in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, United States, on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty Images)    

Dan Lamothe, U.S. military and Pentagon reporter at The Washington Post, shares his reporting on the latest U.S. military actions in Iran, especially what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, and more. Photo: People clear rubble in a house in the Beryanak District after it was damaged by missile attacks two days before, on March 15, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Credit: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images.    

Sam Sanders, host of The Sam Sanders Show on KCRW, recaps the winners, losers, and culture-defining moments from the 2026 Academy Awards ceremony. Photo: Michael B. Jordan, winner of the Best Actor Award for his role(s) in “Sinners,” poses in the press room during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images.  

Michael Sol Warren, New Jersey reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about Gov. Mikie Sherrill's first budget plan, which she says will address property taxes and school funding, as well as the proposed cut to the Stay NJ tax relief program, which aimed to keep seniors from leaving the state.   Photo: New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill gives the Budget Address in the Assembly Chambers of the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Office of Governor / Rich Hundley III)

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Christiane Amanpour on the War With Iran (First) | A $30 Hourly Minimum for NYC? (Starts at 33:07) | Oscar Talk: Streaming vs Theaters (Starts at 1:08:02 ) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here. Photo: A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, on March 02, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

Burgess Everett, congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about the latest news out of Congress this week, including a bipartisan housing bill that passed the Senate, the stalemate over DHS funding, the president's push for the SAVE Act and more. Photo: US aviation faces a crisis due to a Department of Homeland Security partial government shutdown, leading to Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages. (Photo by Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images)    

Each house in the New York State legislature released its budget proposal, and both called for raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers. Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, reports on how that will affect negotiations, since Governor Hochul is firmly against a tax hike, and other issues in the assembly's and senate's proposals. Photo: Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, left, and Speaker Carl Heastie, center, meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul, right, following a presentation of Gov. Hochul's executive budget proposal on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images).

On this Friday the 13th, listeners call in to share their superstitions, including ones that they don't really believe in but observe anyway.   Photo:  November morning in Stegna at the Levantine Sea, cat a the old storehouse of the fishermen (Archangelos, Rhodes, Greece). (Manfred Werner (Tsui), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)  

Sandy Nurse, City Council member (D-37, Cypress Hills, Bushwick, City Line, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York), talks about her proposal for legislation that would increase New York City's minimum wage from the current $17 per hour to $30 per hour by 2030. Photo: Lidia Vilorio, a home health aide, gives her patient Martina Negron her medicine and crackers for her tea on May 05, 2021 (Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)  

Belinda Miles, PhD; president of SUNY Westchester Community College, talks about how Westchester Community College is dealing with funding cuts from the Trump administration, and how they will affect college access for low-income students, and employers and the workforce. Photo from Wikimedia Creative Commons: The Gateway Building on the campus of Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York. 

David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of The Atlantic daily newsletter, plus author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), offers analysis of how President Trump is changing the way he describes the status of the war with Iran, and why his public statements about it have shifted around so dramatically. Plus, Mohammed Sergie, editor of Semafor Gulf, talks about how the war has affected the Gulf states.Photo: Donald Trump at a United Nations event on Religious Freedom Monday, Sept. 23, 2019, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (Photo: Shealah Craighead / White House)

Kate Tellers, storyteller, host and director of MothWorks, talks about The Moth's upcoming event with the theme "what are we fighting for?"  Photo: Matthew Mercier takes part in The Moth true personal storytelling show live-streamed from St. Ann's Church on April 21, 2021 in Brooklyn. (Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)  

The Independent Budget Office led testimonies as the City Council begins reviewing the mayor's preliminary budget. Louisa Chafee, director of the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO), a non-partisan source of information on the budget and economy, gives their assessment of the assumptions underlying the budget and the mayor's plan to close the deficit.   Photo: The Committee on Finance Holds Preliminary Budget Hearing For FY2027 with testimony from the Independent Budget Office, March 10, 2026 (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)

Dana Stevens, film critic at Slate.com, co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast and the author of Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century (Atria Books, 2022), weighs in on Timothée Chalamet's comments about the importance of movie-going vs streaming for the future of the industry, plus the social/political meaning of two of the best picture frontrunners. Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images: Timothée Chalamet speaks during the Valentine's Day weekend special screening of "Call Me By Your Name", hosted by Cinespia, at Los Angeles Theatre on February 13, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. 

Of the nearly 3.8 million 911 calls routed to the NYPD in 2025, only about a quarter were reporting a crime in progress and more than 500,000 involved “harassment, verbal conflicts, or disputes between two or more parties.” This comes from a new analysis by the Vera Institute of Justice. Daniela Gilbert, who directs the Vera Institute Redefining Public Safety initiative and served on the Mamdani administration's Community Safety transition team, talks about the analysis and argues that many of these calls could potentially be handled by alternative responders. Photo: Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at Gracie Mansion with New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch on March 9, 2026. Source: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

John Leland, New York Times reporter and the author of Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old (Sarah Crichton Books, 2018), offers some background information about the two men arrested after bringing homemade bombs to the Gracie Mansion protest. Photo: View of an unexploded homemade explosive device in front of Gracie Mansion, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani's official residence, in New York on March 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)    

John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI (Macmillan, 2025) talks about his recent story, "How to Prevent Insider Trading on Trump's Wars" and other recent takes on economics and politics.photo:  Karoline Leavitt at her first Press Conference in 2025 (YouTube channel called White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Siddhartha Sánchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, and CP, local resident and member of the group Mothers on the Move, talk about why they are against state-led plans to repair and widen the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Robert Moses-designed highway that has harmed residents' health for decades, and what they propose the state does instead. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images: Cars and trucks move to enter the Cross Bronx Expressway, a notorious stretch of highway in New York City that is often choked with traffic and contributes to pollution and poor air quality on November 16, 2021 in New York City.

Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, talks about the work that Amnesty International does to advance the rights of women and girls worldwide, including in Afghanistan, Malawi, Gaza, China, Iran and more. (Photo by STAN HONDA / AFP) (Photo by STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)

Pat Kiernan and Jamie Stelter hosts of the Spectrum News NY1 show "Mornings on 1" and the new digital show 'Morning People', talk about their new show, plus some of the local news they've got their eyes on.   photo: Likely view from upper floors of the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, looking east (sookie from Vancouver, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor and host of CNN's "Amanpour" and PBS' "Amanpour & Company," talks about the latest news on the war with Iran. Photo: Women members of Iran's Red Crescent society stand near smoke plumes from an ongoing fire following an overnight airstrike on the Shahran oil refinery in northwestern Tehran on March 8, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)  

Last month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani went to Washington to pitch President Donald Trump on providing federal funds to build a huge housing development on top of Sunnyside Yard. David Brand, housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, discusses what Queens politicians and residents think about the idea, and how sentiment on the plan has changed since former Mayor de Blasio first floated the idea. Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images: Subway trains of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, which operates in New Jersey, are seen in the Sunnyside railroad yard in the Queens borough of New York on February 27, 2024. 

Listeners weigh in on whether they'd prefer to stay on daylight saving time, or standard time permanently, or whether they are fine with the status quo of changing the clocks. Plus, they talk about how the time change affects them personally. (Photo By Jesus Hellin/Europa Press via Getty Images)  

Writer Craig Welch talks about his New York Times Magazine feature, "Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?" and ways to reduce the risk of this particular injury. Photo: Two New Jersey high school girls' soccer teams play out a competitive match. Credit: K.M. Klemencic/Wikimedia Commons

Sabrina Siddiqui, national politics reporter at The Wall Street Journal, talks about the latest developments in the war with Iran, including the question of regime change and U.S. goals in the war.   Photo: Thousands of people carrying Iranian flags, gather at Enghelab Square to express support for Mojtaba Khamenei, who has become Iran's new supreme leader following Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran on March 9, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. The Anthropic-Pentagon Standoff (First) | Vaccine Hesitation & Misinformation (Starts at 17:30) | Wild NYC - Spring is Coming (Starts at 33:00 ) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.   Photo: Trout Lily, a NYC woodland wildflower that blooms in early spring. (Marielle Anzelone)

During Ramadan, Sohaira Siddiqui, executive director at the Al-Mujadilah Center and the host of the podcast "More Muslim", talks about the diversity of the Muslim community in New York and around the world. Photo: Mayor Mamdani attends Taraweeh prayers in Staten Island. Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

Data centers are booming and taking the blame for spiking power costs because of how energy intensive they are. Rosemary Misdary, WNYC and Gothamist science reporter, talks about what Gov. Hochul says she plans to do to reign in the costs to consumers.   Image: Data center infrastructure in the United States, November 2025 (DOE — NREL, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Caitlin Dickerson, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about her reporting on a mixed immigration status family who felt the risks of staying in the U.S. were too great, and moved to Mexico. Plus Rachel Cruz and Irvi Cruz talk about why their family made the decision to move to Mexico, where Irvi is originally from. Photo credit: Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., references a DHS advertising campaign while questioning DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during the House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security," in Rayburn building on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Lydia DePillis, New York Times reporter covering the American economy, talks about how the war with Iran could affect the economy at home, as issues with oil prices, supply chains and the massive cost of the war begin to pile up. Photo credit: Natasha Chebanoo on Pexels.

Drawing on his long experience covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dexter Filkins, New Yorker staff writer and author of The Forever War (Knopf Doubleday, 2008), talks about the United States' objectives in the war with Iran. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

Steven Levy, editor at large for Wired, breaks down the latest news as the Pentagon is reconsidering its relationship with artificial intelligence company Anthropic, after the company has stated it doesn't want its technology used in autonomous weapons or government surveillance, and explains the way that AI is reshaping national defense. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images: CEO and co-founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei speak onstage during the 2025 New York Times Dealbook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03, 2025 in New York City. 

Heidi Sabertooth, a NYC-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, producer and co-founder of Synth Library NYC, talks about electronic music and the library which is dedicated to giving “equal access to the means of production,” giving access to a wide array of synthesizers and creating a diverse community around it.    Photo: TR-808 Musical instrument Museum, Phoenix, AZ (Bryan Pocius from New York, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

For this pledge drive, listeners try their hand at a quiz. Today's theme is landmarks.   Photo: Jones Beach Water Tower in New York in 2021 (Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Adam Rodman, MD, MPH, FACP, a general internis­­­t and medical educator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he directs AI Programs for the Carl J. Shapiro Center for Education and Research, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, talks about his recent New York Times op-ed outlining best (and worst) practices for patients wanting to incorporate AI into office visits with their physicians. → Take It From a Doctor: It's OK if Your Medical Advice Comes From A.I.Photo: Stethoscope and Laptop Computer. Source: National Cancer Institute via Unsplash.

U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D NJ) explains why he does not support President Trump's decision to go to war with Iran. Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images. A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026.