The Brian Lehrer Show

Nicholas Kristof, opinion columnist for The New York Times and author of several books, including the forthcoming memoir Chasing Hope (Penguin Random House, 2024), shares his critique of how he says President Biden has mishandled the United States' role in Israel's war in Gaza, what he sees as Biden's reasoning, the political implications and what the United States could do moving forward to end the war.

Listeners call in to share an honest assessment of the single-use plastics in their lives and Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics, professor at Bennington College and former EPA Region 2 administrator, rides along to share tips and trick on how to reduce plastic use.

Claire Thornton, USA Today breaking news reporter, talks about the calls by pro-Palestinian student protesters for their colleges and universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

For National Poetry Month, we open up the phones for listeners to recite lines from their favorite poems.

In honor of National Arab American Heritage Month, Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a non-profit, nonpartisan, national civil rights advocacy organization, comes back on the show to tick through the long timeline of Arab-American immigration (and migration around the country), which shows the diversity of the community and where they landed throughout the country.

On today's show: Melissa Murray, NYU law professor, co-host of the "Strict Scrutiny" podcast and the co-author (with Andrew Weissmann) of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), previews the oral arguments the Supreme Court will hear on former President Trump's immunity case.

Erica Orden, Politico reporter, talks about the media diets of the jurors on the Trump "hush money" trial. Plus, she recaps the testimony of David Pecker, the former publisher for the National Enquirer, who talked about that publication's "catch and kill" strategy, which suppressed negative stories about people like Donald Trump.

With teachers and students off of school this week, we open up the phones to hear stories from local classrooms that would otherwise be missed if not for the vacation.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics, university professor at Columbia University, chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute, and author of The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (W.W.Norton, 2024), argues the neoliberal idea of freedom has led to economic crises and social unrest and argues for a more humane, 21st-century reframing of the concept.

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 when the NYPD intervenes on campus protests and the pushback on his reported selection of attorney Randy Mastro to lead NYC's legal department.

This Earth Week, Liz Moran, policy advocate for Earthjustice's Northeast office, talks about the ways the new New York State budget does, and does not, address climate change.

Jane McAlevey, labor organizer, columnist for The Nation and the author of several books, including (with Abby Lawlor) Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations (Oxford University Press, 2023), reflects on her life's work in organizing and recent wins for labor, and what she sees as crucial for workers to do if they want to continue the positive streak for unions.

Listeners who protested on their college campuses in the turbulent years around 1968 reflect on that time, and share their thoughts on today's young protesters on campuses here in NYC and around the country.

Kate Hidalgo Bellows, staff reporter covering campus health and safety at The Chronicle, reports on how administrations at colleges here in New York and across the country are struggling to respond to ongoing, and growing protests over the Israel-Hamas War.

As Passover begins, Noah Feldman, Harvard law professor, founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, and the author of To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People (Macmillan, 2024), talks about his new book, inspired by his conversations with his children and even more relevant since 10/7, that tries to define what all Jews have in common.