The Brian Lehrer Show

Jordan Lauf, producer for All Of It and its book club, Get Lit with All Of It, offers recommendations for new books to read that are coming out in the next few weeks, plus shares the details on the new Get Lit With All of It newsletter.Sign up for the newsletter at wnyc.org/getlitnewsletter

James Solomon, mayor of Jersey City, talks about the major budget deficit of about $250 million dollars he is facing, which he blames the former mayor, Steve Fulop for, and other Jersey City news.new)

It's been more than two weeks since the big snowstorm hit, and hardened piles of dirty snow are still everywhere. Javier Lojan, acting commissioner of the New York City Sanitation Department, talks about the challenges the Sanitation Department has faced as the extreme cold settled in after the storm.

Chelsea Cirruzzo, Washington Correspondent for STAT news, explains what the Trump administration's new prescription drug marketplace aims to do, and who might save money by using it.

Annie McDonough, senior City Hall reporter at City & State New York, talks about Mayor Mamdani's plans for a Department of Community Safety to send social workers instead of police officers to respond to mental health crises.

Nadira Goffe, staff writer of culture at Slate, recaps Bad Bunny's joyful halftime show at the Super Bowl and talks about the political divide over the performance, the commercials and general vibes of the big game.→ Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Performance Was Pure Joy 

The latest Epstein files to be released exposed more embarrassing revelations for more powerful men, including the president of Bard College, the (former) chairman of the law firm Paul Weiss, and one of the owners of the Giants. Vicky Ward, investigative journalist and author of Kushner, Inc. (St. Martin's Press, 2019) and, with James Patterson, The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy (Little, Brown and Company, 2025), and Steve Eder, investigative reporter for The New York Times, talk about what the new emails reveal about how wealthy and powerful people operate. 

Steve Fulop, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, talks about what they want from the new mayoral administration, and the group's critiques of Mayor Mamdani so far. 

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.Mayor Mamdani on the Cold, Budget and More (First) | Tracing the Path from Bernie Goetz and Reagan to Today (Starts at 16:00) | What Makes Your Dog the Best? (Starts at 41 :00)If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

President Trump has been knocking down data sharing protections between federal agencies to empower ICE's growing surveillance apparatus. Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media, a digital media company focused on technology, discusses his recent investigations into how big tech is helping ICE to gather data on civilians and ultimately identify, track, and detain undocumented immigrants. 

Ahead of the Super Bowl, Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker, who writes the weekly column The Sporting Scene,  talks about the shifting expectations of the public on how famous athletes should respond to politics.

New York City Council speaker Julie Menin (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the council's priorities, working with Mayor Mamdani, and new proposals—including year-round outdoor dining.

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), talks about actions and statements by the president that are raising alarms over election integrity with midterms months away.

Alana Casanova-Burgess, host of the podcast La Brega, talks about the new season of La Brega, which spotlights Puerto Rico's champions, and what they teach us about Puerto Ricans and the diaspora.

Heather Ann Thompson, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy and her latest, Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage (Pantheon, 2026) argues that the roots of white rage and violence can be traced back to the Reagan Era and, specifically, the Bernie Goetz shootings of four Black teenagers on a NYC subway in 1984.

Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor, talks about the latest news, including how the administration is protecting vulnerable New Yorkers from the cold, the budget gap and more city issues. Then, Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, offers context and analysis of the mayor's interview.

Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics, former New York Times columnist now on Substack, distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and the author of Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future (W. W. Norton & Company, 2020), talks about how President Trump's economic policies are affecting investors, and what that could mean for the overall economy.

For years, the deed theft crisis has been forcing New Yorkers out of their homes. New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé (District 36, Bedford Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights) discusses his efforts to protect homeowners from eviction while their cases are pending, plus some other news of the day.

Jason Zengerle, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind (Crooked Media Reads, 2027), talks about the development of right-wing media through the story of Tucker Carlson.

Listeners call in to talk about the movies, TV shows, books and music they're consuming as the cold temperatures mean more indoor time.

Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about what it means for accountability when ICE agents are allowed to be masked.=>"The Real Reason ICE Agents Wear Masks" (The Atlantic, 2/2/26) 

With the Westminster Dog Show underway at MSG, listeners share what their dogs deserve a medal for and Elias Weiss Friedman, aka @TheDogist on Instagram, author of This Dog Will Change Your Life (Ballantine, 2025) and host of the YouTube talk show "Dogs with Elias Weiss Friedman", shares what makes the dogs he photographs special. 

Elizabeth Yeampierre, attorney and executive director of UPROSE, talks about Sunset Park Solar, a grassroots project seeking to bring green power to Sunset Park residents.

Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post, political analyst and author of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America (Simon & Schuster, 2026), shares his own family's story as it intersects with America's ongoing struggle with structural racism -- what's been accomplished and what still needs to be done. 

Elora Mukherjee, professor at Columbia Law School and director of Columbia Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, talks about the many children detained by US immigration authorities and argues for alternatives to detention for families.→ Liam Ramos Was Just One of Hundreds of Children at This Detention Center. Release Them All. 

Sigal Samuel, senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect, talks about why many people in America are able to ignore politics and what our duty as citizens should be under an authoritarian government. 

Andrew Weissmann, professor of practice at NYU School of Law, co-host of the podcast Main Justice and and the co-author of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), offers legal analysis of the news of the day, including the DOJ's release of the rest of the Epstein files, the DOJ's civil rights investigation into the Pretti killing and more.

Early voting is underway in the primary to fill now-Governor Sherrill's seat in Congress.  Mike Hayes, WNYC/Gothamist New Jersey politics reporter and the author of The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform (Kingston Imperial, 2023), runs through the many candidates and their bases of support, ahead of the election on Thursday. 

President Trump is revoking Temporary Protected Status from Haitians in the United States, putting them at risk of deportation to a country experiencing unprecedented violence and a political crisis. Macollvie Neel, special projects editor at The Haitian Times, discusses the looming uncertainty for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who will be affected.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.One Month of Mayor Mamdani (First) | How AI is Changing Medicine (Starts at 39:32) | A History of General Strikes (Starts at  1:09:33)If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Eric Blanc, assistant professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University, author of several books including We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big (University of California Press, 2025) and author of the Substack newsletter Labor Politics, talks about the history of general strikes, and what makes them effective, and listeners call in if they are participating in Friday's general strike.

President Donald Trump and Democrats say they have reached a deal to avert a partial government shutdown. Siobhan Hughes, a reporter covering Congress in The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, talks about the latest and whether Republicans will agree to limit funding and impose restrictions on the Department of Homeland Security. 

As the cold snap continues and the piles of snow linger, listeners share if they've taken up a hobby appropriate to the season.

Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter talks about Mayor Mamdani's first month in office, including challenges like this week's big snowstorm and a major budget crisis.

Russell Berman, a staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about how Republicans in Congress are speaking out against the deportation operation (and the fatal shootings), in a rare intra-party rebuke to President Trump, and what this might signal ahead of this year's midterm elections.

Lloyd Minor, M.D., dean of Stanford University School of Medicine and VP of medical affairs at Stanford University, talks about the big changes artificial intelligence is bringing to research and health care, especially related to cancer and chronic diseases, and shares how Stanford is training physicians to use AI.

Nostalgia for 2016 is a trend on social media this month, so we ask our listeners to reflect on the recent past. Are you nostalgic for 2016?

Reuven Blau, reporter for The City who covers criminal justice and the city's prison system, talks about the man appointed by a federal judge as "remediation manager" and what that means for the jail's future.

As the cold weather continues, Patrick Spauster, City Limits housing and homelessness reporter, talks about the obligations landlords have to keep apartments heated, and what tenants should do if their heat or hot water isn't working. 

Emily Bazelon, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast and Truman Capote fellow for creative writing and law at Yale Law School, and Rachel Poser, features editor at The New York Times Magazine, discuss their reporting on the The Federal Bureau of Investigation under the leadership of Kash Patel, after speaking to forty-five current and former employees on the changes they say are undermining the agency and making America less safe.  

Snow clearers, liquor store owners, restaurant and bar proprietors...or anyone: call in to share whether this week's storm was good or bad for your business, financially speaking.

The United States version of TikTok has new owners, and among them are several corporations and investment firms with ties to President Trump. Vittoria Elliott, senior writer for Wired covering platforms and power, talks about the new era of TikTok in America, including a controversial new terms of service, concerns about surveillance and data privacy, and claims of censorship

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, the executive director of the Skeptics Society and the author of Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026), offers advice for evaluating information and sources and argues that getting to the truth is still possible.

Over the weekend, seven New Yorkers perished in the cold and snow despite the city's outreach attempts to get unhoused people in shelter. Dave Giffen, executive director of Coalition for the Homeless, explains why these efforts fell short, and what the city can do to get the homeless population indoors and save lives.