As he awaits a court ruling on the Trump administration's attempt to deport him, Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian activist, co-founder of the Columbia Palestinian Student Union and former president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association, and his attorney, Nate Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, talk about his studies, the state of the pro-Palestinian movement and the prospects of a peaceful solution in the region and worldwide.

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Every year, The Brian Lehrer Show asks you to submit the best photo you took that is sitting on your phone – and every year, you deliver with some breathtaking shots. This year, you submitted over 700 photos! Our partners at Photoville, along with a special guest judge, jour...

Philip Bump, MSNOW contributor, author of the How to Read this Chart newsletter and the author of The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America (Viking, 2023), talks about the latest national political news, including the release of the Epstein files, divisions in the GOP and more.

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

Meet the Likely New City Council Speaker  (First) | IRC on the Countries at Risk in 2026 (Starts at 28:40) | Remembering Rob Reiner (Starts at 1:07:21)

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Pope Leo announced that Ronald Hicks, a Midwesterner, will replace Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the leader of the Archdiocese of New York. Daniel Rober, associate professor and department chair of the Catholic Studies department at Sacred Heart University, talks about the new archbishop, whom observers have said has a style more akin to the new pope than the outgoing cardinal, and what it will mean for the 2.5 million Catholics he will lead.

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Yesterday, out-going mayor Eric Adams appointed four members to the Rent Guidelines Board, creating a major obstacle to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's key campaign promise to freeze the rent for rent stabilized tenants. David Brand, housing reporter at WNYC and Gothamist, discusses the Adams appointees, Mamdani's appointment of Leila Bozorg as his housing czar, and reports back on the outcome of several housing bills voted on by the City Council yesterday. 

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Jonathan Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNOW; writer for MSNOW and contributing writer to The Atlantic talks about the national political news of the week, including Vanity Fair's extensive piece about President Trump's closest aides, the administration's blockade on Venezuela and more.

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Erik Maza, editor-at-large at New York Magazine discusses some of the reasons to love New York right now, and listeners call in to share their own reasons.

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Listeners call in to share what makes a fun office holiday party, and share stories from parties, either from this year or in the past. 

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James Solomon, mayor-elect of Jersey City, talks about his plans and priorities for when he takes office as mayor of Jersey City this January. 

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Errol Louis, political anchor of Spectrum NY1 News, host of Inside City Hall and The Big Deal with Errol Louis, New York Magazine columnist and host of the podcast You Decide, talks about his new podcast where he explores the impact of the former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, locally and nationally, and why she's not more well known. Plus, the latest local political news.

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Susan Page, USA Today Washington bureau chief and the author of the forthcoming book The Queen and Her Presidents (Harper/Collins April 2026), talks about the latest national political news, including President Trump's primetime address, the ongoing fight over ACA subsidies and the Vanity Fair profile of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that is ruffling MAGA feathers. Then, U.S. Representative Mike Lawler (R, NY-17) talks about the vote on ACA subsidies pushed through by four Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Lawler.

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Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, talks about the latest news from City Hall and Mayor-elect Mamdani's transition plans.

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Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future, discusses his organization's new report documenting the importance of the creative sector to New York City's economy, the affordability challenges the city's artists are facing, and solutions that would revive the community.

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Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Deep Shtetl, about the intersection of politics, culture, and religion, offers analysis of anecdotal and survey data that show a generational divide on antisemitism.

 

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Richard Rushfield, chief columnist at The Ankler, discusses the legacies of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who were found dead in their Hollywood home on Monday, and listeners offer their tributes.

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David Miliband, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee, shares the countries on the IRC's "watchlist," or the countries they determine are most at risk for humanitarian emergencies, and what the IRC is doing to prepare.

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Andrew Chow, technology correspondent at TIME, talks about the choice of the people behind AI for their annual "Person of the Year" selection.

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Shop Listener is back for the 2025 holiday season. Listeners call in to shout out the children's holiday gifts they sell for a Brian Lehrer Show listener-sourced gift guide.

==> Submit your information for our Shop Listener online guide at wnyc.org/shoplistener and check out all the entries!

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Peggy Shepard, co-founder & executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Paul Onyx Lozito, deputy executive director of the Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice,  talk about the city's report on environmental justice issues, which covers the disparate exposure to pollution and the effects of climate change, and explain the type of community input they are seeking as they begin work on an Environmental Justice NYC Plan.

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Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent at KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast, discusses the latest over the battle in Congress over the fate of the Affordable Care Act

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City Councilmember Julie Menin,  (D-5, Manhattan's Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill and Roosevelt Island) talks about her priorities for City Council, as she is about to take over as speaker, and how she foresees her relationship with the incoming Mamdani administration will be.

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"Rage bait." "Parasocial." "6-7." Ben Zimmer, linguist, language columnist, and chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, discusses what the words of the year chosen by various dictionaries like Oxford and Dictionary.com, and what the choices say about our language and culture. To submit your nomination for word of the year to the American Dialect Society, go to https://americandialect.org.

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Franklin Schneider, writer based in New York City, discusses his recent piece in The Atlantic, "When Did the Job Market Get So Rude?"

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

City Politics: Mamdani's Emerging Opposition; Lander's Congressional Bid (First) | Trump's Effort to Ban State AI Laws (Starts at 40:34) | Shop Listener 2025: Under $50 (Starts at 1:00:24)

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

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Tess Bridgeman, co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, former Special Assistant to the President, Associate Counsel to the President and Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) during the Obama administration, and William LeoGrande , professor of government at American University and specialist in U.S.-Latin America relations, discuss the latest Trump administration escalation in Venezuela, where the United States seized several additional oil tankers, and analyze the legality of those moves and the boat strikes against alleged drug cartels.

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After years of stalled plans and unfulfilled promises of affordable housing near the Barclays Center, David Brand, housing reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, reports on a new plan for housing at Atlantic Yards.

 

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Gilbert Cruz, editor at The New York Times Book Review shares the five fiction and five non-fiction books from this year that made it into The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2024. 

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Jessica Grose, opinion writer at The New York Times, reflects on her family's interfaith holiday traditions, and listeners offer their own.

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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), discusses recent Trump administration moves to define The United States' relationship with The European Union and why the U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday.

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