The Brian Lehrer Show

This week Mayor Adams said bystanders witnessing police interactions should stop filming cops at close range. Dean Meminger, reporter and anchor for NY1 covering crime, talks about this week's NYPD news, including the rollout of a new anti-gun unit, and takes calls from listeners on why they film police.

Preet Bharara, Former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and host of the podcast "Stay Tuned with Preet," talks about the latest political news. EVENT: See Preet LIVE at The Town Hall on March 31st at 7pm with guests Ben Stiller and Garry Kasparov. Tickets HERE.

Mike Lupica, columnist for the New York Daily News and author of several books including most recently The Horsewoman (Little, Brown and Company, 2022), co-authored with James Patterson, discusses the current vaccine mandate in New York City which would prevent unvaccinated baseball players from the Mets and Yankees from playing in home games. As a longtime Yankee fan and enthusiastic supporter of Aaron Judge, I urge him and any other unvaxxed Yankee to man up and get the shot. — Stephen Burrow (@stephenburrow) March 18, 2022 Pretty disrespectful behavior from people that are supposedly part of a 'team'. Particularly as the city hits 40,000 deaths. Istheir pay docked for missed games? — Skybreaker (@Skybreaker2) March 18, 2022

The New York State Senate and Assembly have passed their budget resolutions, now it's time for negotiations with the governor ahead of the April 1 deadline. New York State Senator Liz Krueger (D, WF - 28th, Manhattan's East Side), chair of the Finance Committee, details what's in the Senate version and where the sticking points are.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen, writer and director of the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Flee, talks about his film, which uses animation to tell the story of his friend Amin's journey from Afghanistan as a child and how that history impacts his life now. "Flee" is in theaters, available for at-home rentals, and streaming on Hulu.

Rents in New York rose 33 percent in the last year, nearly double the national rate. Listeners call in about whether they were getting a "pandemic deal" and whether their landlords have recently raised rents.

For St. Patrick's Day, Maeve Higgins, comedian and the author of Tell Everyone on This Train I Love Them (Penguin Books, 2022), talks about the Irish immigrants -- and Irish-Americans of today. Then WNYC's Gwynne Hogan, live from the parade, which is taking place for the first time in three years. 

Luke Broadwater, congressional correspondent for The New York Times, talks about the surprise Senate passage of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent next year and whether the House will follow suit, plus what the data, and history, have to say about making that change -- plus reactions in Congress to the speech by Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Alexander Vindman, retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, former director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council and the author of Here, Right Matters: An American Story (Harper, 2021), joins to respond to Pres. Zelensky's appeal to Congress and share his take on the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine.

Last week, the United States announced it was banning all imports of Russian oil and gas. Bill McKibben, educator, environmentalist, and co-founder of 350.org, and author of several books including Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (Henry Holt and Co., 2020), talks about why climate activists are saying this is a good time to pivot to a clean energy replacement. Read all of Bill's most recent reporting on Substack.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Jay Varma, MD, epidemiologist, professor of health sciences and director of the Weill Cornell Medicine's Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response, and former senior advisor on public health to Mayor de Blasio, talk about what the city needs to do as it responds to COVID moving forward.

The majority of the New York City Council members are new, and are part of a class that is the most diverse and progressive in city history. Over the next year Brian Lehrer will get to know all 51 members. This week, Councilmember Eric Dinowitz talks about his priorities for District 11.

The Brian Lehrer Show "Life By the Numbers" quiz is back for one more round as Brian quizzes listeners on numbers related to public opinion, population, climate change, TV ratings, New York City and infrastructure.

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, musician, songwriter, director of "Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)," talks about the Oscar nomination for his film, which was put together from long-forgotten footage of 1969's Harlem Cultural Festival. "Summer of Soul" is in theaters and streaming on Hulu.

Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, and Jack Turban, a chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, talk about the legal battle in Texas over Governor Abbott's order directing state officials to investigate parents for child abuse who seek puberty-suppressing drugs or hormones for their transgender children.