The Brian Lehrer Show

Every Thursday from 1 to 2 PM on WNYC, through Election Day, WNYC senior political reporter Brigid Bergin hosts a pop-up local politics call-in show called Who's Running This Place. You can find out more on WNYC.org, and stay tuned to this podcast feed. We'll be sharing Brigid's conversations here every Thursday evening.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani discusses this years midterm elections, including the measures and candidates on the ballot , the issues they stand for and what it means for NYC. Then, WNYC/Gothamist reporters Liz Kim and Jon Campbell bring their reporting and political analysis to Mayor Mamdani's conversation, and to the election, for which early voting is underway.

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Jared Bernstein, economist and former United States chairman of Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, talks about the rising national debt and why candidates are -- or aren't -- discussing it on the campaign trail ahead of election day.
Photo: A view of a bus shelter at 18th and K St's NW where a poster and electronic billboard displays the current U.S. National debt per person and as a nation at 40 Trillion dollars on August 30, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation)

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An ex-cop allegedly shot and killed a driver on the George Washington Bridge in an apparent road rage incident. Samantha Max, reporter covering public safety for WNYC/Gothamist, reports on what prosecutors say happened on the bridge and what is happening in the courts, as the charges have changed a couple times from murder, to manslaughter and back to murder.

Photo: A 46-year-old man was fatally shot while driving on the George Washington Bridge on October 20, 2026. (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Anna Louie Sussman, New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty, talks about her new book that explores, through analysis and personal stories, the reasons for the falling birthrate.
Photo: Inside a lab at a clinic in Tbilisi, Georgia, Doctor Jordan from Spain, is doing an artificial insemination into an egg that later will be planted into a Georgian surrogate mother. The country of Georgia has become a hub for the international surrogate industry, driven by the poverty of domestic surrogate mothers and the desire of foreign customers to have a child. (Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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The New York City marathon is this Sunday, and it's the 50th anniversary of the five-borough version of the race. Rob Simmelkjaer, New York Road Runners CEO, talks about how the race has changed over the past half century, and what to know for this year if you are running or cheering.
Photo: Runners cross the Verrazano Bridge as they compete in the New York Marathon in New York on November 2, 2025. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images)

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