International fans traveling to North America for the World Cup are experiencing wholesome "culture shock" by discovering everyday American staples like ranch dressing and large supermarket aisles. Listeners call in to share when they've experienced culture shocks, whether as immigrants or moving to another city or region.

Photo: Scotland fans walk on board a boat cruise in Miami ahead of their FIFA World Cup 2026 group match against Brazil on Wednesday. Picture date: Tuesday June 23, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)

 

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Brigid Bergin, WNYC's senior political correspondent, talks about the competitive congressional races in New York's primary, and what voter turnout is signaling so far. Jon Campbell, Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, talks about the Democratic primary in NY-17, where t...

Micah Loewinger, co-host of WNYC's On the Media, draws on his reporting from On the Media's series on FEMA to talk about the future of the agency, the Trump administration's new nominee to run it and how a weakened FEMA will affect New Yorkers just as the Atlantic hurricane season is beginning.

Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sign is displayed at their headquarters on May 30, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

 

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Isaac Butler, culture historian, critic, podcaster and the author of The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars (Bloomsbury, 2026) revisits the late 1980s start of the culture wars as the religious right took on the contemporary art world.

Photo: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - August 21: Banned books are chained to a table in "JD Vances Livingroom" at the Hotties For Harris party during the DNC in Chicago, Illinois on August 21, 2024. (Photo by Nick Oxford for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

 

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Listeners call in to share a news story from the country they’re cheering on at the 2026 World Cup.

Photo: An Indian (R) and Nepalese football player (L) vie for the ball during a qualifier match for the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 at Dasrath Stadium in Kathmandu on March 17, 2015. The teams drew 0-0. AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH MATHEMA (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP via Getty Images)

 

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Fred Kaplan, Slate's War Stories columnist, contributor to The iPaper and the author of many nonfiction books and his latest, a novel, A Capital Calamity (Miniver Press, 2024) offers analysis of what's in the Iran deal, and whether it will even hold up amid on-and-off violence.

Photo: TEHRAN, IRAN - JUNE 18: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY â" MANDATORY CREDIT - 'IRANIAN PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signs a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war between Iran and the United States, brokered by Pakistan, at his office in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2026. (Photo by Iranian Presidency/Anadolu via Getty Images)

 

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Catalina Gonella, WNYC and Gothamist reporter, talks about her investigation into an alleged real estate scammer, who allegedly took money from dozens of apartment hunters, and never refunded the deposits even when they didn't get the apartment. Plus, she offers tips on how ...

Alvaro Bedoya, senior advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project and former FTC commissioner, offers his opinion on how the Paramount - Warner Brothers Discovery mega merger will affect every day people and their jobs, and more on what he calls the pervasiveness of monopolies and their effects in the US today.

Photo: The Paramount Pictures logo is displayed on the water tower in Los Angeles, California, on February 17, 2026. Paramount Skydance attempts a hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. (Photo by Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

 

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Darby Saxbe, clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at the University of Southern California and author of Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men's Lives (Flatiron Books, 2026) discusses her research on how becoming a father changes men, from ...

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

[00:00] What Are Ultra-Processed Foods? 
[29:31] Ultra-Processed Foods and Colon Cancer 
[49:27] Ultra-Processed Foods Policy Proposals 

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

Photo: Packets of chips are on display at a supermarket in Mumbai, India, on September 7, 2025. (Photo by Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D GA), senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and the author of The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America (Penguin Press, 2026), draws on the book of Isaiah to offer lessons on the moral ...

As we enter the last weekend of early voting ahead of Tuesday's New York primary day, Ben Max, host of the "Max Politics" podcast and executive editor and program director at New York Law School’s Center for New York City Law, recaps the stories breaking out of competitive congressional races, the statewide comptroller race, and more. 

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 29: New Yorkers participate in early voting at a polling site in Brooklyn on October 29, 2024 in New York City. As Election Day approaches on November 5th, millions of Americans are casting their ballots early at polling sites or drop boxes. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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For Father's Day, listeners who didn't have a dad around growing up call in to talk about who taught them how to be a good dad. 

Photo: Indian father Shailesh throws up his son, Harish, at a park in Amritsar on June 19, 2016, on Father's Day, a day observed in many countries to celebrate fathers and fatherhood. (Photo by NARINDER NANU / AFP) (Photo by NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images)

 

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Ahead of World Refugee Day, David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, reports from Ukraine on the conditions there, and the state of refugees worldwide as the US has pulled back so dramatically on humanitarian assistance. Photo: KYIV, UKRAINE -...

William C. Rhoden, columnist for Andscape and former longtime sports columnist at The New York Times, talks about the New York Knicks' road to the 2026 NBA championship as the city hosts a victory parade. Then, Brian and William continue with special coverage ahead of the ceremony at City Hall, which you can watch in full here.

Photo: SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - JUNE 13: Fans wave a large flag that reads Believe during Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images)

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Barbara Barker, Newsday sports columnist and features writer, and Brittany Kriegstein, WNYC and Gothamist reporter, talk about the City's celebrations of the Knicks NBA championship, from the ticker-tape parade to the City Hall awarding of the Keys to the City.

Photo: Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani marches in National Puerto Rican Day Parade on 5th Avenue in Manhattan on Sunday, June 14, 2026. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

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Reid Epstein, national political correspondent for The New York Times, talks about the results in this week's primary elections, including how President Trump's influence was felt, and more news related to the midterm elections. Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 17: Voting st...

In the last few weeks of the Supreme Court term, Kate Shaw, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, co-host of the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny, and a contributing opinion writer with The New York Times, breaks down the latest news including recent rulings and legal news on President Trump's $1.776 billion so-called "Anti-Weaponization Fund."

Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 11: The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on June 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court released rulings today in Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd., and Abouammo v. United States. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

 

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David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times and the author of New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West (Crown, 2024), discusses the details of an agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war in Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

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The federal government has issued new work requirement rules for some people on Medicaid, which will go into effect in January, 2027. Ginny Shubert, co-founder of Housing Works, talks about how the new rules will affect New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS.

Photo: US Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz takes questions from reporters during a press briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House, in Washington, DC, on June 2, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

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S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder of URL Media and CEO and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, talks about the themes coming up in the primary campaigns in Queens, where the issues in many of the races are representative of the citywide political conversation right now. 

Photo: Queens, New York. October 26, 2020. People lining up for early voting in Astoria. (Credit: Massimo Giachetti)

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Katie Thornton, host of The Divided Dial, a Peabody Award-winning series on WNYC's On the Media and a freelance print and audio journalist, talks about Esperanto, its history as a language invented to bring people together across borders, and who is speaking it today. "Love ...

Katy Tur, host of MS NOW's "The Moment with Katy Tur", discusses her new show focusing on breaking news and tying the headlines of the day to the upcoming midterm elections.

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 15: Katy Tur speaks onstage during the Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit presented by Paramount + at Second on August 15, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Variety via Getty Images)

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Each year WNYC hosts a "health convening," with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as an opportunity for healthcare experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, the topic is ultra-processed foods and how they affect our health.  Kevi...

Each year WNYC hosts a "health convening," with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as an opportunity for healthcare experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, the topic is ultra-processed foods and how they affect our health.  Fang...

Each year WNYC hosts a "health convening," with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as an opportunity for healthcare experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, the topic is ultra-processed foods and how they affect our health. 

David Kessler, MD, former FDA Commissioner, breaks down a citizen petition he filed with the Food and Drug Administration last summer which would, among other things, declare that some of the core ingredients in ultra-processed foods were no longer “generally recognized as safe (GRAS)” -- a classification that means ingredients are exempt from strict premarket approval process.

Photo: US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website detail, by MarioGuti.

 

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drops in to talk about the Knicks' win and the city's celebrations.

Photo: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani ascends Knicks-themed subway steps (via @NYCMayor/X)

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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 the latest national and local political news.

Photo: New York Knicks fans celebrate winning Game 4 of the NBA Finals between New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, on June 10, 2026 in New York City. Madison Square Garden canceled its planned Game 4 watch party outside the arena after New York Knicks owner Jim Dolan criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch over security requirements for the event. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)

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On July 1, a new law will go into effect in New Jersey that aims to regulate e-bikes. Larry Higgs, commuting and transport reporter at NJ Advance Media and the Star-Ledger, reports on what riders need to know, the confusion surrounding the new rules and why some advocates are pushing back on the law.

Photo: Row of parked Citi Ebike rentals, Brooklyn, New York, USA. (Photo by: Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

 

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Cory Turner, NPR education correspondent and senior editor, shares what's changing for student loan borrowers on July 1.

=> "July 1 brings big student loan changes. Here's what you need to know" (NPR.com, 6/10/26)

Photo: Students outside the dining hall on the Siena College campus Tuesday Nov. 14, 2017 in Colonie, NY. (Photo by John Carl D'Annibale /Albany Times Union via Getty Images)

 

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