The Brian Lehrer Show

Listeners try their hand at a quiz with questions about city critters.

Charles Komanoff, transit activist and mathematician, and Eric Goldwyn, assistant professor and program director at NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, debate whether free buses, which are a pillar of Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani's transportation plan, are the best way to both speed up the notoriously slow bus system and best help New Yorkers struggling with the high cost of living. Plus, they discuss Andrew Cuomo's proposal to shift management of New York City Transit to the city from the state.

Throughout this membership drive we are talking about the animals we love and care for in our homes -- our pets. Today, Maxwell Branch, vice president of community programs at Flatbush Cats, talks about cats and the people who share their homes with them.

Emily Bazelon, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast, Truman Capote fellow for creative writing and law at Yale Law School and author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution  and End Mass Incarceration (Random House, 2019) , previews the cases the Supreme Court will take up in its new term, including arguments on a redistricting case they are hearing arguments on this week, and offers analysis of just how much presidential power the court will afford to President Trump in upcoming decisions.

Jeff Coltin, Politico reporter and co-author of the New York Playbook, recaps the mayoral debate between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.

Rachel Louise Ensign, economics reporter with The Wall Street Journal, explains the economic forces keeping Americans stuck in their homes and jobs, and how it impacts daily life.

Throughout this membership drive we are talking about the animals we love and care for in our homes -- our pets.  Today, Sam Laroche, manager of Petqua, a pet store on Manhattan's West Side, talks about keeping reptiles as pets and how to help them thrive.

Listeners hear a description of a place in the tri-state area and try to guess where it is.

New Jersey is generally viewed as a state with some of the strongest abortion protections, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli has some plans that could change that. Terrence McDonald, editor at the New Jersey Monitor, talks about the parts of both candidates' platforms that could change or strengthen abortion protections in the state.

Andy Kim, U.S. Senator (D NJ), weighs in on the Trump announcement that the Gateway tunnel project is "terminated."

Listeners hear a description of a place in the tri-state area and try to guess where it is.

Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, talks about the latest news from the mayoral campaign as Election Day is just weeks away.

Throughout this membership drive we are talking about the animals we love and care for in our homes -- our pets.  Today, Elias Weiss Friedman, aka @TheDogist on Instagram, author of This Dog Will Change Your Life (Ballantine, 2025) and host of a new YouTube talk show talks about the dogs he's met and why he thinks they make us better humans.

Brigid Bergin, Gothamist and WNYC senior political correspondent, talks about the proposal that NYC voters will see on this year's ballot that would move local elections to take place during presidential election years.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, talks about the latest national political news, and previews this year's New Yorker festival.

Listeners share whether they're seeing higher coffee prices due to tariffs yet and if that's changing their caffeine habits.

Graeme Wood, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With the Islamic State, offers analysis of the current ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and why one Palestinian philosopher told him he feels a "paradoxical optimism" that the current peace will hold.

On Saturday, the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of hundreds of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were mistakenly fired the day before. Apoorva Mandavilli, science and global health reporter at The New York Times, explains what happened and who remains at the CDC.

Elizabeth Glazer, founder of the journal Vital City and former director of the New York City Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, talks about the challenges the next mayor will face regarding Rikers Island, and what each says about the current plan to close Rikers in favor of borough-based jails.

Fred Kaplan, Slate's War Stories columnist and the author of many nonfiction books and his latest, a novel, A Capital Calamity (MIniver Press, 2024), offers analysis on what comes next for Israel and Gaza as Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners were released, and the ceasefire deal takes effect.

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) offers legal analysis of the Trump DOJ case against New York Attorney General Tish James.

Julian Brave NoiseCat, writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history and the author of We Survived the Night (Knopf, 2025) talks about his new book, the story of North American indigenous people through his reporting and his own story, all in the style of a traditional "coyote story."

Andrew Zwicker, New Jersey State Senator (D, District 16), and Dawn Fantasia, New Jersey Assembly Member (R, District 24), debate the hot-button issues in education and how they are playing out in the governor's race, including parents' rights, book bans and more.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.30 Issues in 30 Days: New York City Schools (First) | Who is María Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Price Winner? (Starts at 1:12) | From Railroad to Rail-Trail (Starts at 1:50)If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Daisy Khan, founder and executive director of the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) and the author of 30 Rights of Muslim Women: A Trusted Guide (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2024) , and Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, discuss how to fight both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia at a time of polarization over the Mideast in the context of concrete policy proposals from the New York City mayoral candidates, Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.

Gideon Rose, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the former editor of Foreign Affairs and author of How Wars End (Simon & Schuster, 2010), talks about María Corina Machado, who was announced as the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, and related news of the day.

Marina Lopes, author of Please Yell at My Kids (GCP/Balance, 2025), talks about her story in The Atlantic suggesting American parents look at the way childcare works in Singapore where grandparents are frequently primary caregivers and get paid for the work.

Michael Tannousis, assemblymember representing District 64, including southern Brooklyn and the east shore of Staten Island" and Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute of Justice and the director of Vera Action, cover what each New York City mayoral hopeful is proposing when it comes to criminal justice reform, including the 2019 bail reform law signed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, plus Zohran Mamdani's and Curtis Sliwa's policy proposals.

Ryan Kailath, WNYC/Gothamist arts and culture reporter, talks about his reporting on the AI company called Friend, and their ads, which have been defaced throughout the subway system.

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.

Nancy Solomon, host of the “Ask Governor Murphy” monthly call-in show, recaps the final governor's debate between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. 

After yesterday's conversation on the show about rail trails, listeners call in to share their favorite places to bike outside the city, whether a rail or other kind of trail, parks, roads, or neighborhoods that are friendly to bikers.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D, NJ), talks about the ongoing shutdown, the Trump administration sending the National Guard to Oregon, Attorney General Pam Bondi's contentious Senate hearing and the funding cuts to the Gateway Tunnel.

Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, a columnist at the New York Post and the author of the book, Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car (Fordham Univ Press, 2024), and Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Worker's Justice Project and co-founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, cover what each New York City mayoral hopeful is proposing to regulate delivery apps and e-bike/scooter/moped licensing.

WNYC and Gothamist reporter Elizabeth Kim and Brigid Bergin, WNYC and Gothamist senior political correspondent, talk about the latest news in the mayoral campaign, plus, Brigid shares her reporting on the many new voters who went to the polls in the June primary.

Alex Zimmerman, reporter at Chalkbeat New York, talks about his breadth of reporting on the New York City mayoral candidates' proposals regarding the New York City public school system, including Zohran Mamdani's proposal to end mayoral control of the city's schools and Andrew Cuomo's proposal to replace the city's lowest-performing schools with charters or other models.  

Peter Harnik, co-founder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land and executive producer of the documentary From Rails to Trails, talks about his work spearheading the movement to convert abandoned railbeds into multi-use trails, 26,000 miles so far, and the new documentary about it. 

The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to three scientists for their work in immunology.  Daniel Griffin, MD, PhD, Chief of Infectious Disease for Island Infectious Diseases, the largest physician-owned Infectious Disease Specialist Group on Long Island, an infectious disease specialist and clinical instructor of medicine at Columbia University and president of Parasites Without Borders and co-host of the podcast "This Week in Virology", explains their breakthrough and what it means for future treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and more. 

In this installment of our election year series, a look into what the candidates -- especially former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani -- might do as mayor to influence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict one way or another. Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor who ran as an independent in the NYC mayor's race, first explains his support for Cuomo, who signed an executive order as governor barring the state from doing business with any organization that participated in the BDS movement. Then, Jeremy Cohan, sociologist and NYC-DSA leader and spokesperson, breaks down Mamdani's Not On Our Dime Act, intended to punish organizations that aid Israeli West Bank settlers.

Meg Kelly, senior reporter for The Washington Post's Visual Forensics team, discusses her team's reporting on the Trump administration's USAID funding pause, which resulted in the deaths of children from curable diseases around the world.

A Washington Post article explained how most families have a secret language that only they understand, or a "familect" as some linguists call it.  Listeners call in to share the words in their family that only they use, which are often conjured in the minds of small children and then used for years down the road.

Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, talks about President Trump's attempts to send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon and his plans to send troops to Chicago, how states are reacting and why a federal judge keeps blocking the plan for Portland.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University, talks about issues of free speech (First) | A 30 Issues in 30 Days debate about involuntary hospitalization of New Yorkers with severe and untreated mental illnesses (Starts at 29:48) | Your favored (and least favored) seasons (Starts at 1:17:46)If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Sophia Wohl , deputy director of stewardship, environment and planning at NYC Parks Department, talks about Saturday's celebrations of City of Forest Day with events around town, plus offers guidance for caring for the trees and forests near you.=> City of Forest Day events