WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show

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.

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.

Columbia University agreed to the Trump administration's demands in order to restore $400 million dollars in federal funds, leading some faculty members to protest, and take legal action. David Graham , staff writer at The Atlantic and an author of the Atlantic daily newsletter, plus author of the forthcoming book The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2025), reports on the latest in the school's relationship with the administration, and what it might mean for academic freedom at schools across the country, plus the latest on the Trump administration.

A recent legal judgment could force Greenpeace to pay $667 million in defamation and vandalism-related damages, from the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline leading environmentalists to worry that the ruling could have a chilling effect on climate activism. Michael Gerrard , professor of law at Columbia Law School and the founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, shares his legal analysis of the case, and what it could mean for the environment.

New York Times congressional correspondent Annie Karni and White House reporter Luke Broadwater , co-authors of Mad House: How Donald Trump, Maga Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby and a Man with Rats in his Walls Broke Congress (Random House, 2025), discuss their new book about dysfunctional House Republicans—and the extent to which the GOP-led Congress has provided a rubber stamp to President Trump's agenda.

On Friday, Columbia University's administration agreed to demands from the Trump administration over the institution's responses to pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Columbia faculty members Joseph Howley , associate professor of Classics, followed by Ester Fuchs , professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, weigh in. Then, senior editor Sarah Brown and staff reporter Kate Bellows , from The Chronicle of Higher Education, bring their reporting on the situation at Columbia and at other colleges and universities around the country where Trump has attempted to exercise control over issues including campus speech, DEI and Title IX. Plus, listeners who are part of the Columbia community call in with their thoughts and questions.

Last week, Americans learned that ICE sent 238 Venezuelan migrants to the CECOT mega prison in El Salvador under the unsubstantiated pretense that all were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Annie Correal , reporter at the New York Times , shares her reporting on the conditions at this prison, why Donald Trump and El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele have partnered on this endeavor, and the Venezuelan family members who fear their loved ones have been disappeared.

As our centennial series continues, Liza Donnelly , writer and cartoonist at The New Yorker and the author of Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists, 1925-2021 (Prometheus, 2022) and the Substack "Seeing Things ", talks about the evolution of the "New Yorker cartoon" now on display in an exhibit at the Society of Illustrators.

=>See Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration curated by Liza Donnelly at The Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, through May 3.

=>To see the cartoons, check out the slideshows here:
https://societyillustrators.org/event/the-history-of-the-new-yorker-a-conversation-with-liza-donnelly-and-michael-maslin/ https://societyillustrators.org/event/drawn-from-the-new-yorker-a-centennial-celebration/
https://www.newyorker.com/gallery/a-centenary-cartoon-collection

After Chuck Schumer voted last week to prevent a government shutdown, Democrats have been deeply divided on whether he made the right decision or not, largely along generational lines. Philip Bump , national columnist for The Washington Post and the author of The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America (Viking, 2023) reports on how polls are showing voters are feeling about the episode and Charlie Mahtesian , senior politics editor at Politico , offers analysis of Schumer's decision and the Democrats' response to President Trump.

Derek Thompson , staff writer at The Atlantic , author of the "Work in Progress" newsletter and host of the podcast "Plain English," and Ezra Klein , New York Times opinion columnist and host of their podcast, the "Ezra Klein Show," co-authors of Abundance (Simon & Schuster, 2025), discuss their new book that argues limits placed by past generations to protect jobs and the environment are preventing solving shortages today.

As our centennial series continues, Jane McManus , sportswriter, an adjunct professor at New York University at the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport and the editor of The Year's Best Sports Writing 2024 (Triumph, 2024) and author of the forthcoming The Fast Track: Inside the Surging Business of Women's Sports (Temple University Press, 2025), talks about early attempts to organize women's sports and its post-Title IX growth.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detailed Mahmoud Khalil—a legal permanent resident with a green card and prominent student-activist-turned-negotiator in pro-Palestine demonstrations at Colombia University. Peter Markowitz, professor of law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the founding faculty member and co-director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, offers legal analysis of the detention.

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. Topics include the mayor's response to Columbia-grad pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil and how it may impact the Democratic primary election in June, developments in Adams' corruption case, plus why the mayor's stopped reading the news.

Autism rates are rising but Paul Offit , MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the author of Autism's False Prophets (Columbia University Press, 2008) and most recently Tell Me When It’s Over: And Insider’s Guide to Deciphering COVID Myths and Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World (National Geographic, 2024), says scientists have already debunked theories linking the rise to childhood vaccinations.

As our centennial series continues, Elaine Tyler May , professor emerita of American Studies and History at the University of Minnesota and the author of several books, including America And The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation (Basic Books, 2010) and Fortress America: How We Embraced Fear and Abandoned Democracy (Basic Books, 2017), reviews the history of birth control, from Margaret Sanger to Dobbs.

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

A hundred year history of the Equal Rights Amendment (First) | How potential cuts on the federal level would affect housing in New York City (Starts at 17:20) | Michelle Singletary's tips for planning group trips (Starts at 31:25)

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A new study found that the human brain may contain up to a spoon’s worth of microplastics. Carolyn Kormann , writer with The New Yorker and New York Magazine , breaks down her latest reporting for New York Magazine, which shows that the amount of microplastics in the human body has been increasing over the past few decades, and explains what that means for health and how to minimize exposure.

As our centennial series continues, Julie Suk , a law professor at Fordham University and the author of We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020), reviews the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, from its introduction by Alice Paul in 1923 through its current disputed status, following passage by a 38th state and President Biden's declaration that it's the "law of the land."

Prison guards at upstate New York prisons have walked off the job in an illegal strike to protest working conditions, and a state law that restricts solitary confinement. Jimmy Vielkind , New York State issues reporter for WNYC, reports on what the corrections officers are demanding, conditions for inmates inside the prisons and the tentative deal the state and the union have reached to end the strike.

Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post , recently announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section, saying that it would now advocate for “personal liberties and free markets." Paul Farhi , former reporter at The Washington Post , where he reported on the news media for 13 years, explains what the new directive means and walks through the history of opinion editorials and their purpose.