Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, discusses the latest news as Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman attempts to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul to be the next governor of New York.

Photo: US President Donald Trump greets New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman on stage as he delivers remarks at the Nassau County Police Academy Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York, on August 14, 2026. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)

 

 

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Ralph Thomassaint Joseph, Caribbean communities correspondent for Documented, recaps Brooklyn's annual West Indian Day Parade and how the immigration crackdown targeting Haitian New Yorkers affected the festivities. Plus, Councilmember Rita Joseph, representing parts of Flatbush and Crown Heights, calls in to share how her constituents have been dealing with the changes.

Photo: Parade participants attend the 59th annual West Indian American Day Parade on September 07, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)

 

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Asma Khalid, co-host of the BBC's The Global Story and former NPR White House correspondent, talks about the rise in Islamophobia following the 9/11 attacks and how it has changed over 25 years.

Photo: Children counter-protesting a rally organized by people opposed to Park51, the so-called Ground Zero mosque, Sunday, August 22, 2010. (Photo by: David Shankbone)

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Listeners call in to share how heading back to school is going, including any preparatory rituals they observe and kids’ attitudes about going back if they’re old enough to remember lockdown.

Photo: Students arrive at PS 36 on Amsterdam Avenue on the first day back to school for New York City public school students September 8, 2003 in New York City. (Photo by Monika Graff/Getty Images)

 

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Jonathan Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MS NOW, writer for MS NOW and staff writer for The Atlantic, talks about the latest developments in national politics, including the state of the Iran war and the midterms.

Photo: US Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan Abdul El-Sayed attends the Labor Day parade in Detroit, Michigan on September 7, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

 

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New York Times science and global health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli talks about the new CDC director's challenge of Pennsylvania's report of two measles deaths in the state.

Photo: The exterior of CDC′s Tom Harkin Global Communications Center in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by: James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Wikimedia Commons)

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As we approach the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Peter Bergen, national security analyst for CNN, a vice president at the New America Foundation and the author of All the Presidents' Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America's War on Terror (WW Norton, 2026), reviews the history of the U.S. War on Terror.

Photo: UAF 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City during the September 11 attacks. Photo by:  Flickr user TheMachineStops (Robert J. Fisch) via Wikimedia Commons.
 

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For Labor Day, we've put together some of our favorite recent interviews, including: As the Democratic Socialists of America rack up electoral wins during primary season, the group is pushing an expansive definition of who counts as working-class. Gothamist and WNYC report...

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

Extreme Weather and El Niño (First) | Back to School Report (Starts at  :30) | Goodbye, WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon (Starts at 1:03)

If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

 

Photo: Higher-than-normal sea surfaces (red) are visible in the central and eastern Pacific on June 8, 2026, a few days before El Niño was declared. (NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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On this Summer Friday, we've put together some of our favorite recent interviews, including: Katie Gaddini, sociologist, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, an associate professor of sociology at the Social Research Institute, University College London (UCL) and a ...

Jessica Gould, education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about the newly announced NYC AI policy for schools, plus other back-to-school issues.

Photo: Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels announce a moratorium on student-facing generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in schools. Brooklyn STEAM Center. Wednesday, September 2, 2026. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

 

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Gloria Steinem died yesterday at age 92. Carolyn Maloney, former Manhattan congresswoman, president of the NYS chapter of the National Organization for Women and founder of Sign4ERA reflects on the feminist icon's life and legacy, and talks about the work they did together on the Equal Rights Amendment.

photo: Gloria Steinem attends Equality Now 30th Anniversary Gala at Guastavino's on November 15, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)

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Amidst rising inflation, ongoing wars in Iran and Israel, and the U.S. national debt climbing to a record $40 trillion, the global bond market is rattled. Mary Childs, host of the talk show podcast Mary in America, author of The Bond King, and former co-host of Planet Money, explains why bond yields are so high right now and what it all means for the global economy, and for your wallet.

c/o: Blue Arauz, via Pexels

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Caitlin Moscatello, author and contributor to New York Magazine, talks about the expense of youth sports and the investors who profit.

Photo: Members of the Guilderland travel team arrive to play a home game against Queensbury as Guilderland Youth Baseball starts up using safety procedures at Keenholts Park on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 in Altamont, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)

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Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About History and Don't Know Much About Mythology, quizzes listeners on how well they know their Labor Day history.

Kenneth's blog
Kenneth's YouTube channel

image: Labor Day Parade, Union Square, New York, 1882 (Lithographie), 16 September 1882 (Author not known, but more than 100 years old, Image edited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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Theodore Schleifer, covers billionaires and their impact for the New York Times, talks about the impact of dark money on the 2026 midterms, why the spending source is growing, and where it's being spent.

Photo: Stock image by fStop Images - Antenna via Getty Creative

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Eileen Markey, assistant Professor of journalism at Lehman College CUNY, longtime journalist covering the Bronx and author of the forthcoming book, All They Had: How The Bronx Survived a Death Sentence (Duke University Press, 2027), talks about the recent news of layoffs, shutdowns and shrinking of local news outlets in the Bronx, and how that impacts the borough.

Photo: The final issue of Norwood News (Courtesy Norwood News) 

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Many gaming companies have been moving towards subscription payment models and away from the sale of physical games, to the dismay of many players. Jason Schreier, reporter for Bloomberg News covering the video-game industry and co-host of the podcast Triple Click, unpacks what the death of physical games means for consumers, and what it can tell us about the future of the quarter billion-dollar industry.

Photo: A Nintendo 64 game console with the game "Mario Kart." (Jan Woitas/dpa via Getty Images)

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WQXR's longtime morning show host Jeff Spurgeon is retiring at the end of this week. He joins us to reflect on his long career at New York Public Radio's classical music station and what he hopes listeners will keep learning about classical music.

Photo: WQXR host Jeff Spurgeon (WNYC staff photo)

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John Cassidy, staff writer at The New Yorker talks about how analysts, politicians, and every day people are calculating the cost of the Iran War.

Photo: A pedestrian walks past a billboard depicting US President Donald Trump inside a catering container, installed on a building along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026. Iran attacked US military targets in the Middle East on August 31 in retaliation for American strikes on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, the first exchange of fire for a month in a war that has engulfed the region. (ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)

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David Gelles, reporter on The New York Times climate team and leader of the Times' "Climate Forward" newsletter and events series, talks about his reporting on the economic effect of this summer's strong storms, and the weather effects of El Niño, which is happening but hasn't yet peaked.

Photo: Operator monitoring wind speed and direction in the Pacific at the Peruvian National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) regarding preparations for the arrival of El Niño and national multi-hazard drills. (Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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Jon Ronson, journalist, filmmaker, "This American Life" contributor and the author of The Psychopath Test and his latest, The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men (‎Riverhead Books, 2026), talks about his new book, an exploration of the crisis in masculinity.

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Samantha Delouya, CNN Business reporter, shares her reporting on young New Yorkers moving in with seniors, nuns, and other unlikely roommates as the city's median asking rent hits $4,200.

Photo: Christina Vögerl (r) sits with her convent sisters in the convent of the order "Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family" at the laid table. (Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Dan Kaufman, journalist and author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018), reports on the movement against data centers in Wisconsin, a major hub for the centers, and how it's turning into a major issue there and elsewhere ahead of the midterms.

Photo: Protesters gather for a statewide data center day of action at the Wisconsin State Capitol on February 12, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Joe Timmerman/Catchlight/Wisconsin Watch via Getty Images)

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The Brooklyn Democratic Party passed a series of rule changes last week which reformers are calling a 'power grab' by the old guard, aimed at keeping the party's existing leaders in power, despite the protest of several prominent democrats. Gwynne Hogan, senior reporter at The City Reporter, and Jeff Coltin, editor-in-chief of City & State NY, unpack the saga, and what it tells us about the role of local party chapters in the city's changing political landscape.

Photo: Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn delivers remarks. (Ben Fractenberg at The City Reporter)

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Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, talks about how the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have re-shaped the First Amendment and press freedom in the United States, and how this is still affecting speech today.

Photo: A salesman in an electronics store in Mexico City watches the World Trade Center in New York City collapse September 11, 2001. (Susana Gonzalez/Getty Images)

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Suresh Shahi, editor for Khasokhas, talks about how the Nepalese community in Queens is coping with devastating floods in Nepal, and how they are helping friends and family members back home.

Photo: People salvage belongings from their home following flash floods at Devighat in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 31, 2026. Nepal was burying on August 31 some of the hundreds of bodies retrieved after a deadly, tsunami-like flood crashed through the Himalayan region, sweeping away villages and leaving thousands still missing. (Arun SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images)

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Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

Inside Meta's settlement over social media addiction (First) | The big business of sports grows even bigger (Starts near 49:30) | Tributes to the late Dolly Parton (Starts near 1:12:40)

If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

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Nick Taylor-Vaisey, Politico’s Ottawa bureau chief and the lead author of Canada Playbook, talks about the escalation in the trade war with Canada.

Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference in Ottawa, Ontario, on August 22, 2026 after trade talks with the US collapsed. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)

 

 

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Karen Yi, WNYC and Gothamist reporter covering homelessness and poverty, talks about the lawsuits against the Mamdani administration by a group representing minority-owned grocery stores, which argue that the city's plan to open city-owned grocery stores will hurt their busi...