U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D, NJ) talks about his record-breaking speech on the Senate floor last week and the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's agenda, Saturday's "Hands Off" nationwide protests and more.

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Elaine Godfrey, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about this weekend's protests against the Trump administration, which drew thousands of people in all fifty states. Plus: Listeners share their experiences and why they protested. 

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

Tariff Chaos (First) | When Family Members Believe Conspiracy Theories (Starts at 41:36) | How to Compost in NYC (Starts at 1:05:21)

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Mayor Eric Adams made news on Thursday when he announced he'll be seeking a second term as an independent, bypassing the Democratic primary in June. Sally Goldenberg, senior New York editor at Politico, discusses her interview with the mayor, and other developments in the race including Andrew Cuomo's significant lead and progressive candidates' attempts to garner attention in a crowded race.

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John McWhorter, Columbia University linguistics professor, host of the Lexicon Valley podcast, opinion writer at The New York Times, and the author of Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words (Avery, 2025), talks about his new book that digs into the cultural and linguistic history of pronoun usage in English and what light that sheds on today's controversies.

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The MTA released a new subway map that harkens back to the colorful 70s-era Vignelli version. Stephen Nessen, transportation reporter for the WNYC newsroom, talks about the change.

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Global markets are in turmoil after President Trump announced his long-promised tariffs. Kathryn Anne Edwards, economist and economic policy consultant, offers analysis of the market reaction and explains how they will hit consumers' wallets—plus how the overall economy may fare in the weeks and months ahead as other countries respond.

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Experts anticipate deep cuts to federal food assistance programs by the Republican-led Congress in this year's budget negotiations set to take place in September. Karen Yi, WNYC and Gothamist reporter covering homelessness and poverty, explains how potential cuts will affect 1.8 million New Yorkers, including more than half a million children, who are reliant on SNAP.

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Allie Volpe, senior reporter at Vox, talks about some of the common misunderstandings of boredom.
→ How to be less afraid of boredom | Vox

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Zach Mack, host of Alternate Realities, a series from NPR's Embedded, talks about his three-part podcast on how he spent a year trying to save his father from conspiracy theories.

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Katie Glueck, political reporter at The New York Times, offers analysis of the Democrats' very good week, with strong showings in special elections in Florida and a big win in Wisconsin, plus Sen. Cory Booker's record-breaking speech on the senate floor.

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Margaret Talbot, staff writer at The New Yorker, breaks down her latest reporting on how Wikipedia, through its increasingly stringent standards for reliability, has become a source to counter disinformation spread by the Trump administration and rightwing media.

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Colleges and universities made their acceptances at the end of March, now students have a month to decide. Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, talks about the what goes into that decision and how the Trump administration actions might factor in.

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Mayor Adams holds one off-topic press conference per week, where reporters can ask him questions on any subject. Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, recaps what he talked about at this week's event, including his sharp criticisms of his primary opponent Andrew Cuomo — plus she offers analysis of the political ramifications of big news that the corruption charges against the mayor have been dropped.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi has told federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing a UnitedHealthCare executive on a midtown street last year. Samantha Max, reporter covering public safety for WNYC/Gothamist, talks about Bondi's priorities on the issue and how Mangione's status as a folk hero to some figures in - plus she reports on the dismissal with prejudice of the corruption charges against Mayor Adams.

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With the Final Four just ahead, Jonathan Cohen, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Senior Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling (Columbia Global Reports, 2025), talks about the explosive growth of legalized sports betting and its effect on public health, beyond the games and the money.

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Brian Lehrer shares his plans for today, April 1, with guest host Matt Katz.

...note: This is part of our yearly April Fool's coverage.

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When 23andMe declared bankruptcy last week, attorney generals in multiple states including New York advised users to delete their data. Max Eddy, writer at Wirecutter covering privacy, security, and software, explains how to do it and why this kind of data is particularly important to keep private.

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Steve Sweeney, former New Jersey state senator and state senate president, now running for governor of New Jersey, talks about his run to be the Democratic nominee for governor and the issues the matter to voters in the state.

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Felix Salmon, chief financial correspondent at Axios, host of the Slate Money Podcast, and author of The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal (‎Harper Business, 2023), talks about President Trump's plans to impose "reciprocal tariffs," which he says will boost US manufacturing.

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Both the Mets and Yankees have had their first few games of Major League Baseball's 2025 season. Deesha Thosar, MLB writer for Fox Sports who covers the Mets and Yankees, recaps what happened on the off season, and how New York's teams are doing so far.

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Everyone in NYC is supposed to be composting already, but starting Tuesday, the city will start issuing fines to property owners for violations. Liam Quigley, parks and sanitation reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, shares how compliance is going so far (spoiler alert: not well!) and explains how to compost according to the city's rules.

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As our centennial series continues, John Strausbaugh, author of The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village (Ecco, 2013) and most recently, The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned (PublicAffairs (2024), takes us through the rich history of Greenwich Village.

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Jim Newell, Slate's senior politics writer, breaks down the latest national politics headlines from over the weekend, the latest on President Donald Trump's remarks on a potential third term, "Signalgate" and more.

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

Clay Risen, New York Times reporter and the author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America (Scribner, 2025), on his new book (First) | Andrew Marantz, staff writer at The New Yorker, on why young men are shifting to the Right (Starts at 31:05) | Avery Trufelman, host of the podcast Articles of Interest, delves into the last 100 years of preppies and their clothes (Starts at 59:10)

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A doctoral student at Tufts University was detained in an arrest that was caught on video and shared widely and accused of supporting Hamas by the Department of Homeland Security. Lindsay Nash, associate and clinical professor of law at Cardozo Law and co-director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, offers legal analysis of this and other arrests of pro-Palestinian immigrants.

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Mohana Ravindranath, reporter covering longevity, aging and brain health at The New York Times, breaks down her latest reporting on how to stay mentally sharp and healthy through the major transition of going into retirement.

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New York City's outdoor dining season officially begins on Tuesday. Ryan Kailath, WNYC/Gothamist arts and culture reporter, reports on the confusing and expensive new process restaurants must go through to be approved, and how this year's outdoor setups will compare to the pandemic-era boom in outdoor dining.

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Young men broke heavily for Trump in November, Andrew Marantz, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation (Viking Press, 2019), discusses the reason behind this phenomena and how the left can make gains in this demographic.

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Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation magazine and host of the podcast, Contempt of Court with Elie Mystal, and author of Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America (The New Press, 2025), talks about the 10 laws he calls a "Bill of Wrongs" - like felony murder and immunity for gun manufacturers.

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