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 hi...

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)

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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.

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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)

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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

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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)

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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)

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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

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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.

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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 ...

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 t...

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 Pre...

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)

 

 

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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)

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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)

 

 

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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)

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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)

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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 Commons CC 2.5)

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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)

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Michael Sol Warren, New Jersey reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, recaps last week's Ask Governor Sherrill and provides an update on the New Jersey state budget.

Photo: Governor Mikie Sherrill. Credit: State of New Jersey, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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

White Collar Workers, Unite!  (First) | The Push for Junk Food Warning Labels (Starts at 27:40) | Last Mile Deliveries (Starts at 49:23)

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

 

Photo Credit: Todd Van Hoosear, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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Miranda Nazzaro, senior technology reporter for The Hill, talks about her reporting on Anthropic's Mythos model, which is unnerving some big businesses over cybersecurity concerns.

Photo: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, delivers remarks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. (Credit: TechCrunch via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0)

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"Fibermaxxing" is the latest social media nutrition trend. Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Institute for Gut-Brain Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the “Ask A Doctor” columnist for The Washington Post and the author of the new book You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong (PRH/Avery, 2026), talks about the major health benefits of eating plenty of fiber, and how to do it.

Photo: A bowl of cereal with berries. (Credit: U.S. Food and Drug Administration via Wikimedia Commons)

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Mayor Mamdani announced plans this week to expand the pedestrian corridor of the notoriously chaotic Grand Army Plaza, which advocates have been pushing for for years. Liam Quigley, parks & sanitation reporter for Gothamist and WNYC, unpacks the latest announcement, plus digs into the city-wide decline in composting.

Photo: A market at Grand Army Plaza pictured in 2003. (Credit: Alex756 via Wikimedia Commons CC 3.0)

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Steven Erlanger, chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for The New York Times, discusses his reporting on how European leaders are trying to keep the focus on helping Ukraine, even as the war with Iran is diverting attention and resources.

Photo: A pro-Ukraine demonstrator raises a sign outside the Finnish Parliament House on April 8, 2022. (Credit: rajatonvimma/VJ Group Random Doctors via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0)

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Sarah Stillman, staff writer at The New Yorker and director of the investigative reporting lab at Yale, discusses her latest reporting on how President Donald Trump, in his second term, launched a series of executive actions that directed immigration enforcement against kids and how children in ICE custody are being harmed.

Photo: People protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they march toward the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. Credit: Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images

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Eliza Shapiro, reporter covering New York City for The New York Times, discusses her series on how New Yorkers afford life in the increasingly unaffordable city and takes listener calls on how they make it work.

Photo: Day 287, Money Mug, Taken in Syracuse, New York in 2013 (Michael Scialdone, Wikimedia Commons). 

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