The Brian Lehrer Show

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, nearly two years before the first primary votes will be cast (by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images).

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 killed three people and damaged or destroyed multiple water sources in the past two weeks alone. The July 7 arson attack on the remains of the Church of Saint George, which date back to the 5th century, was the last straw for many villagers, who blame Israeli settlers for a spate of recent attacks. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP via Getty Images)

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. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images.

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)

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)

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 unknown safety event took place as President Donald Trump was to speak to attendees of the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner April 25, 2026 in Washington, DC. According to reports, President Donald Trump, along with other government officials, were evacuated from the Washington Hilton after what sounded like gun fire. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

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 Wikimedia Commons)

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 here.

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 they both discuss the disagreements between Democrats over the issue. Photo: New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin delivers remarks on Jan. 21, 2026. (Credit: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit)

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

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)

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)

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

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.

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 in the North (Macmillan, 2025), talks about her Hillman Prize-winning book and work. photo: Photograph of Downtown Detroit taken from over the Detroit River between Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Detroit's riverfront, November 2021(Lrgjr72, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

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 Democratic coalition. Photo: Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, addressed his supporters after the historic mayoral election victory on Tuesday night, November 4, 2025, in New York City, United States. Famous online streamer Hasan Piker attends Mamdani's election watch party (by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images).

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 Sharif thanked US President Donald Trump for extending a ceasefire with Iran and indefinitely pushing back the end of the two week truce, with Tehran silent on the decision early on April 22. (by Asif HASSAN / AFP via Getty Images)

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)

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)

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)