Hari Kondabolu, comedian and writer of “The Problem with Apu,” talks about his new stand-up special which blends personal and political humor, and offers a comedic take on serious issues like terrorism, mass shootings, identity politics, religion, and healthcare.

Kristen Lewis co-director of Measure of America, a program of the Social Science Research Council, and co-author of their "Portrait of New York City," and Sheena Wright, president and CEO of the United Way of New York City, preview the SSRC's Portrait of New York report with a discussion of the findings on inequality across race and gender line ...…

NPR White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe talks about the latest national political news, including the conflicting messages coming from the Trump administration regarding its "zero tolerance" policy on immigration.

Dana Sinopoli, licensed psychologist and psychoanalytic candidate at the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia, and Stephen Soldz, director of the Applied Social Justice and Human Rights Program at Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, discuss organizing opposition among psychologists who are against the policy of separati ...…

The Brian Lehrer Show, in conjunction with The Harris Poll, looks at the history of the American Culture Wars in our lifetimes, as seen through years that end with the number 8. Catch up on this week's archival audio and conversations with listeners and experts to explore how Americans saw themselves and each other in 2008. The End of the Bush ...…

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Council Speaker Johnson Talks City Budget (First) | Civic Engagement (Starts at 22:13) | Transgender Men (Starts at 44:06) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

David Graeber, professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and author of Debt and of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, follows up his viral essay about how many of us work at jobs that seem useless, what purpose they serve and what it would take to change them.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House correspondent for the New York Times, discusses the latest in national politics including the new inspector general investigation into the Justice Department's handling of the Clinton email probe, the federal policy to separate children from parents illegally crossing the U.S. border and an attempt by moderat ...…

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, answers questions about the fairness of the admissions tests for the city's elite high schools and comments on his son Dante's editorial in New York Daily News, a citywide ban on plastic bags, the and the federal fine for NYCHA's gaming of HUD safety inspections.…

Eric Deggans, TV critic at NPR and author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, and Celeste Headlee public radio host and the author of We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter (Harper Wave, 2017), discuss the rise of partisan media and social media in 2008 and how it contributed to the modern Cu ...…

Corey Johnson, speaker of the New York City Council -- representing District 3, covering Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, the West Village, and parts of Flatiron, SoHo and the Upper West Side, talks about the City Council's budget, responds to Mayor de Blasio's executive budget and other city news.

Helena Morrissey, British investment banking executive, made a dame in the Queen's Birthday Honors 2017 for improving diversity in financial services and the author of A Good Time to be a Girl: Don't Lean In, argues we need to move beyond diversity initiatives to changing the values that underpin success and leadership.…

Donna Brazile, former chair of Democratic National Committee and author of Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House (Hachette Books, 2017), discusses the 2008 presidential campaign of President Barack Obama and its impact on today's Culture Wars.…

Julie Zauzmer covers religion, faith and spirituality for the Washington Post. She reports from the Southern Baptist Convention which voted this week for resolutions strongly condemning abuse while also affirming the traditional roles of women in the church. Vice President Mike Pence also addressed attendees on Wednesday.…

Ahead of this year’s midterm elections, WNYC and Gothamist are surveying listeners and readers to find out what kind of civic engagement our listeners already participate in, and what the hurdles are to doing more. Take the WNYC civic survey here. Mark Winston Griffith, executive director of the Brooklyn Movement Center, gives some suggestions ...…

Adam Cox, clinical psychologist and the author of Cracking the Boy Code: How to Understand and Talk with Boys, offers practical advice for communicating with boys.

Tanzina Vega, new host of The Takeaway, and Adam Davidson, New Yorker staff writer and co-founder of NPR's Planet Money, discuss how the Great Recession of 2008 exacerbated the cultural divides in the United States and contributed to today's Culture Wars.

Susan Page is the Washington bureau chief of USA TODAY. She takes calls on seven big news stories out of Washington today.

Ahead of a City Council hearing Wednesday on the NYPD's gang database, Anthony Posada from The Legal Aid Society and Taylonn Murphy, anti-violence activist and founder of the Tayshana "Chicken" Murphy foundation, argue that the NYPD's current anti-gang strategies harm communities, and that a public health approach to gang violence is more effec ...…

Arlene Stein, professor of sociology at Rutgers University, director of the Institute for Research on Women and the author of Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity (Pantheon, 2018), and Ben Shepherd, who shared his story for Unbound, talks about the issues transgender men face. Join Sheperd and Stein for a conversation about the ...…

John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary, columnist at The New York Post and contributing editor of The Weekly Standard, joins the show for this installment of The Eights: A Brief History of the American Culture Wars. For the decade ending in 2008, Podhoretz examines the impact of the George W. Bush presidency on the current Culture Wars.…

David Kang is the director of the Korean Studies Institute and the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California and author of American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2017), discusses the historic summit between President Trump and North Korean leader, ...…

With Ramadan coming to an end this week, Zaheer Ali, oral historian at Brooklyn Historical Society and co-host of the podcast Flatbush and Main, discusses what it means to be Muslim American in 2018.

Jennifer Williams, deputy attorney-in-charge of the Immigration Law Unit at Legal Aid Society, and Make The Road lead organizer Natalia Aristizabal talk about their last-ditch efforts to prevent the deportation of Pablo Villavicencio, detained by ICE after delivering a pizza to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn.…

Laura Nahmias, POLITICO New York City Hall reporter, talks about the upcoming NYC budget deadline, then New York Daily News Albany bureau chief Ken Lovett discusses about the looming NYS legislative session deadline, and Ryan Hutchins, POLITICO's New Jersey bureau chief, reviews the New Jersey budget negotiations.…

Jonathan Lemire, White House reporter for the Associated Press and political analyst for MSNBC/NBC News, talks about the latest national political news of the day, including recapping the G7, previewing the North Korea summit and more.

The Brian Lehrer Show, in conjunction with The Harris Poll, looks at the history of the American Culture Wars in our lifetimes, as seen through years that end with the number 8. Catch up on this week's archival audio and conversations with listeners and experts to explore how Americans saw themselves and each other in 1998. The Clinton Impeachm ...…

Ahead of Sunday's Puerto Rican Day parade, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. talks about what’s happening on the island, including on the aftermath and recovery from Maria, the start of the new hurricane season, and how this year's parade will be different.

Listeners call in to share the moments when their political or ideological allegiances shifted. Noah in Manhattan explains he was homophobic in high school, but turned around after meeting people in college and seeing his behavior reflected in popular culture — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 8, 2018 Robert in Brooklyn grew up w a "rock a ...…

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Changes to Specialized High School Admission (First) | Overdoses and Murder Charges (Starts at 26:16) | A Comedian Talks To Fellow Immigrants (Starts at 50:13) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.…

On the opening day of "Watching Oprah," the Smithsonian exhibition honoring Oprah Winfrey's life, Brian hears from listeners about when and how the media mogul and cultural icon has inspired them.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, talks about the news of the day and The Nation's decision to endorse Cynthia Nixon as governor of New York State.

After the news that both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain died as a result of suicide, and the CDC released a study finding suicide rates have risen in every state over the past twenty years, Mary Buser, clinical social worker, assistant unit chief in the Mental Health Department on Rikers Island (1995 to 2000), co-founder of the Samaritans of N ...…

Linda Yueh, economist, broadcaster, and author of What Would the Great Economists Do?: How Twelve Brilliant Minds Would Solve Today's Biggest Problems (Picador, 2018), talks about how the great economists of the past would tackle today's big economic problems.

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, discusses how world trade agreements in the 1990s created a new debate that reverberates in the culture wars today. "The Zapatistas were not just being rhetorical when they said their rights would be undermined." -- @WallachLori on NAFTA — Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) June 7, 20 ...…

Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Representative (NY-8), discusses the national political news of the day, including the latest on the Mueller investigation, presidential pardons and criminal justice reform, and more. .@RepJeffries: "The American people just need to know what happened, and Bob Mueller at the moment is the vehicle to provide that informatio ...…

Jane Sasseen, executive director of the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, explains how New York is involved in Puerto Rico's financial crisis in a new series for WNYC, "Puerto Rico: The Future of Debt." She's breaking down one of the most complicated bankruptcy cases ever. Listen now. @mcgrawcenter ...…

Kelly Sundberg, writer and the author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival (Harper, 2018), tells her story of surviving domestic abuse. -->Kelly Sundberg will be in conversation with Hillary Brenhouse, editor in chief of Guernica, today (6/6) at 7:30 PM, at WORD Bookstore, 126 Franklin ST Brooklyn, NY 11222 .@K_O_Su ...…

Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent, Yahoo News, and co-author of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (Twelve, 2018), and Allison Yarrow, journalist and author of 90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality (Harper Perennial, June 2018), discuss ho ...…

Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, and Baratunde Thurston, futurist comedian, writer, and activist, talk about Facebook's data-sharing policy with device makers and Apple's attempt to differentiate its privacy policies from Facebook's, and personal d ...…