Dana Kaplan , criminal justice reform expert, talks about her new role as Mayor Mamdani's Close Rikers Czar, leading NYC's efforts to close Rikers in favor of borough-based jails as required by law. Photo: An aerial image of Rikers Island. (Credit: U.S. Geological Survey via Wikimedia Commons ) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Listeners call in to talk about what they feel unsure about in this age of certainty and political polarization. Photo: A person sits at a restaurant in New Orleans on Feb. 5, 2008. (Credit: Bridget Coila via Wikimedia Commons) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Elisabeth Rosenthal , senior contributing editor at KFF Health News, former ER physician, and author of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back (Penguin Press (hardcover, 2017)), discusses her latest reporting on how patients in emergency department are getting stuck waiting for days to be transferred into an inpatient ward. Photo: Rooms in the emergency department are made up at the new UCI Health hospital in Irvine, CA on Thursday, November 6, 2025...
Cory Booker , U.S. Senator (D, NJ) and the author of Stand (St. Martin’s Press, 2026), talks about his efforts to gain support for a war powers resolution to stop the war in Iran, and other national news. Photo: U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks at the National Action Network's annual convention on April 11, 2026 in New York City. A horde of 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls will descend on a Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan this week for Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference...
Gideon Levy , Haaretz columnist, talks about the current state of violence and settlements in the West Bank. Photo: US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (C) and the Palestinian mayor of the village of Taybeh, Suleiman Khourieh (C-L), tour the fifth-century Church of St George in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on July 19, 2025. In the villages and communities around Taybeh, Palestinian authorities have reported that settlers had kill...
This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that centers on Monsanto and Bayer's weedkiller Roundup—and its active ingredient glyphosate. Maureen Groppe , Supreme Court correspondent for USA Today, and Lianne Sheppard , Rohm and Haas endowed professor of public health at the University of Washington, explain the legal questions and the science, respectively. Photo: Roundup weed killing products are offered for sale at a home improvement store on May 14, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. ...
David Brand , housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about the Mamdani administration's new Office of Deed Theft Prevention, and six-month lien moratorium after Councilmember Chi Ossé's arrest at a deed theft protest. Photo: Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, right. (Credit: NYC Office of the Mayor) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Jessica Winter , staff writer at The New Yorker , covering family and education, discusses her latest reporting on how artificial intelligence tools are cropping up in the classroom, like the pre-installed AI tools on Google's Chromebooks, and why an increasing number of parents and educators are becoming concerned. Photo: Cam Eaton, 9, works on a Chromebook during home schooling on March 18, 2020 in New Rochelle, New York. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz comp...
Brian Stelter , chief media analyst for CNN Worldwide, lead author of the Reliable Sources newsletter and the author of several books, including Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for America (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024), offers his perspective of the shooting at this weekend's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, including how commonplace it is becoming for Americans to experience this kind of trauma. photo: Guests take cover after a unkno...
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has testified before Congress several times over the past month. Chelsea Cirruzzo , Washington Correspondent for STAT News, offers analysis as to why he seemed to move away from some of the more radical MAHA messaging he has promoted in the past. Photo: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers remarks at a White House event announcing the Make America Healthy Again Commission on May 22, 2025. (Credit: Joyce N. Boghosian/White House via W...
Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's lessons for Mayor Zohran Mamdani (First) | Journalism in the common good: Michelle Adams on her Hillman Prize-winning book 'The Containment,' which charts the fight over school integration in the suburbs of Detroit (Starts at 53:15) | Jodi Kantor's advice for young people at the start of their careers (Starts at 1:15:50) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that her...
Two so-called "buffer zone" bills passed the New York City council last month, and lawmakers in Albany have similar proposals on the table, too. Jimmy Vielkind , New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, talks about whether the bills, which would require a buffer zone for protesters outside houses of worship and health care facilities, will make it into the state budget, and Sahalie Donaldson , City Hall reporter at City & State New York reports on the bills' status in New York City, plus the...
With over fifty days into the U.S.-Iran war, the world has lost 550 million barrels of Gulf crude oil. Matthieu Favas , commodities editor at The Economist, explains how this is impacting global energy markets in European and Asian countries that rely on that supply. Photo: Coryton Oil Refinery by Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Dan Lambe , CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation , and Ben Osborne , assistant commissioner of forestry and horticulture at NYC Parks , talk about Arbor Day and NYC's new Urban Forest Plan for expanding the tree canopy. Photo: Blossoming trees by the road in Prospect Park (Taty Sena, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Michael Valdovinos , a clinical psychologist, veteran, trauma expert and the author of Moral Injuries: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt (Harper, 2026), talks about recognizing and healing "moral injuries" that occur not from physical trauma, but from acts that violate the conscience. Photo: A United States Marine Corps rifleman completes a field exercise in Finland. (Credit: Sgt. Mason Roy/U.S. Marine Corps via Wikimedia Commons) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.a...
A new report finds that New York City is losing population across income levels, and subsequently schools are losing students. Andrew Rein , president of the Citizens Budget Commission, shares his group's recommendations for how to stem the tide of people leaving. Photo: ThibautRe, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
In honor of World Book Day, National Library Week and the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary, librarians from Brooklyn Public Library have put together a list of 250 books that have been important to the United States. Linda Johnson , CEO and president of Brooklyn Public Library, talks about some of the books on the list and why librarians chose them. Photo: Rare books at the Brooklyn Library Central Branch. Credit: MMHAD via Wikimedia Commons. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm....
Jamelle Bouie , opinion columnist for The New York Times and guest judge for the Hillman Prize , talks about the Hillman Prize, plus some of his recent columns, which are about national politics with an eye toward history and Michelle Adams , professor of law at the University of Michigan, former member of the Biden administration’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court, Hillman Prize winner and the author of The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice i...
Controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker has become a litmus test for Democrats after a campaign appearance with Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Jonathan Cowan , co-founder and president of the centrist think tank Third Way, and Daniel Denvir , journalist, host of the Jacobin podcast The Dig, and author of All-American Nativism (Verso Books, 2020), address Piker's statements and debate whether or not politicians should interact with him, and more broadly, if he belongs in the Democrat...
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), talks about Iran's military capabilities even as President Trump extended the ceasefire, plus offers his analysis of President Trump's unconventional negotiating tactics. Photo: A man reads a newspaper with a front page article referring to anticipated US-Iran peace talks, at a stall in Islamabad on April 22, 2026. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz...
Jackie Faherty , astrophysicist and science educator at the American Museum of Natural History, gives an astrophysicist's view of Earth Day. Photo: In this handout image provided by NASA, a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman from the Orion spacecraft's window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. (Photo by Reid Wiseman/NASA via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our ...
Jodi Kantor , New York Times investigative reporter, co-author of She Said (Penguin, 2019) and author of How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work (Hachette, 2026), expands on her Columbia University commencement address where she tried to answer the question: “How, in this environment, is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?” Photo: Cover art for How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work. (Credit: Hachette) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for info...
On Earth Day, Lisa Friedman , reporter covering climate policy and politics at The New York Times , talks about her reporting on how EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has drastically changed the mission of the EPA, and more related environmental and climate news. Photo: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is shown during CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. S...
Abigail Savitch-Lew , a former staff reporter for City Limits and now the author of the novel Livonia Chow Mein (Simon & Schuster, 2026), talks about her novel about inter-generational and cross-cultural conflict and community in Brooklyn. Photo: Cover art for Livonia Chow Mein. (Credit: Simon & Schuster) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Brigid Bergin , WNYC's senior political correspondent, recaps her event with Mayor Mamdani, where they talked about the lessons he has taken from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and other news from his first 100+ days in office. Photo: Mayor Zohran Mamdani appears live at a WNYC forum entitled “Mamdani's First 100 Days: Lessons from La Guardia" on April 20, 2026. (Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about o...
Frederick S. Barrett , director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology of Consciousness in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, talks about the use of psychedelics for mental illness and the effects of President Trump's executive order speeding up research. Photo: Tabernanthe iboga, a shrub with hallucinogenic properties, grows in Cameroon. (Credit: Marco Schmidt via Wikimedia Comm...
It's National Library Week, and today we're asking library workers (and patrons) to talk about the services their libraries provide. Photo: The Brooklyn Public Library. Credit: Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Elizabeth Alexander , president of The Mellon Foundation, poet, educator, memoirist and scholar and the author of The Trayvon Generation (Grand Central Publishing, 2022), talks about the latest cohort of the Mellon Foundation's (in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America) jazz legacies fellows, and the importance of the genre. Also in this segment, saxophonist Gary Bartz reflects on his long career in jazz. Photo: An alto saxophone. (Credit: Rama via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0) Hosted by S...
NYC Comptroller Mark Levine talks about his plan to invest $4 billion from NYC's pension funds into affordable housing developments in the city, plus weighs in on the budget and other city news. Photo: NYC Comptroller Mark Levine. (Credit: New York City Comptroller's Office) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
David Wasserman , senior editor and elections analyst for The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, talks about early indications for the upcoming midterm elections. Photo: An Oklahoma midterm ballot from 2018. (Credit: Okcgunner via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
