The Brian Lehrer Show

Rick Seltzer, reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, talks about the latest news in the escalating fight between Harvard University and the Trump administration, including what the frozen government funds pay for at the wealthy institution, why it matters that Harvard is standing up to the government's demands and more.

Ethan Crenson, president of the New York Mycological Society, talks about the many underappreciated mushrooms dotted on the sticks and branches of New York City.

The New York State budget is now almost three weeks late. Jon Campbell, Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, reports on the disagreements that are holding it up, including changes to the state's criminal discovery laws.

As our centennial series continues, Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of history of education at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books, including a new edition of Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2022), looks at the past 100 years of American publicly financed education.

Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, explains his work preserving digital history in the face of fewer companies preserving their web content and the White House directives to take down government web pages. Plus, Annie Rauwerda, who runs the Depths of Wikipedia social media accounts, weighs in.

Faith Hill, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks about the reliance of working parents on grandparents for childcare and when it gets to be too much.

Adrienne Adams, New York City Council speaker, talks about her campaign to be the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor and the issues facing the city.

Emily Bazelon, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast, Truman Capote fellow for creative writing and law at Yale Law School and author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration (Random House, 2019), talks about the latest developments in the stand-off between a federal judge and the Trump administration over deportations, and other national news.

Jennifer Toh, MD, practicing allergist and immunologist at ENT and Allergy Associates, and member of the executive committee of the New York Allergy & Asthma Society, answers questions about diagnosing and coping with spring allergies.

Anna Louie Sussman, freelance journalist covering gender, economics, health, and reproduction, discusses her three-part series for The New York Times about human embryos, which explores the legal and ethical considerations people have to manage when they create embryos as part of the IVF process.

Andrew Cuomo's campaign has hit some road bumps this week, but recent polls still have the former governor in strong first place. Elizabeth Kim, Gothamist and WNYC reporter, and Brigid Bergin, WNYC's senior political correspondent, explain why Cuomo's campaign didn't receive any matching funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board this week, who gave him a big check instead, and more of the latest news from the mayoral race.

Hamed Aleaziz, reporter covering the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The New York Times, shares his reporting on the Trump administration's immigration policies, including what he and his colleagues at the Times found in their investigation into the deportation of 238 migrants to a prison in El Salvador.

Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News and host of the What the Health? podcast, breaks down the headlines from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s so-called "Make American Healthy Again" tour, designed to highlight Kennedy’s plan to fight chronic disease and promote a healthy diet, amid cuts to chronic disease prevention programs and widespread layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration.

Cristiano Lima-Strong, associate editor at Tech Policy Press, offers analysis of the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Meta, where they will argue that the social media giant maintained a monopoly after it bought Instagram and WhatsApp.

Allan Wernick, legal advisor to CUNY Citizenship Now! - CUNY's free immigration law service program, offers guidance to tourists, visa-holders and permanent residents with green cards on their rights at the U.S. border.

Samantha Maldonado, senior reporter for THE CITY, where she covers climate, resiliency, housing and development, explains how recent Trump administration cuts to Federal Emergency Management Agency threatens over $300 million in climate resiliency for New York City-specific efforts, plus a new executive order that takes aim at state programs meant to charge polluters in order to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.

Catie Edmondson, congressional correspondent for The New York Times, offers political analysis of the budget blueprints passed by Congress last week, including what tax and spending cuts might look like, and why Republicans were far from united on this.

As our centennial series continues, Dominic Preziosi, editor of Commonweal, talks about the 100-year history of the magazine and American Catholicism, in general.

Andy Phillips, vice president of the Tax Institute at H&R Block in Kansas City, MO, offers advice and answers questions on this day before the deadline to file income tax returns.

Even with a 90-day pause on President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs, Greg David, who covers fiscal and economic issues for THE CITY and directs the business and economics reporting program and the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, argues that local economy—supported in part by Wall Street and tourism—will worsen, and how state and city budgets will respond to the economic turmoil.