The Brian Lehrer Show

Gov. Hochul wants to revise the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to exempt smaller housing development projects from the review. Annemarie Gray, executive director of Open New York, a group advocating more housing construction, talks about why housing advocates, and even some environmental groups, support the reforms.

Photo: Views of the Gowanus neighborhood, where dozens of large housing construction projects along the Gowanus Canal on December 24, 2024 in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. (Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Last week, book publisher Hachette canceled the forthcoming U.S. publication of the horror novel “Shy Girl” after it was flagged for sounding like the author used artificial intelligence. Andrea Bartz, novelist, author of The Last Ferry Out (Ballantine Books, 2025), discusses her latest guest op-ed in The New York Times on the controversy and what its like being a writer in the A.I. age.

Photo: Barnes And Noble bookstore in Manhattan, New York, United States of America, on July 5th, 2024. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The St. John's University Red Storm men's basketball team are into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the 10th time in the program's history. Jason Gay, sports columnist at the Wall Street Journal, talks about the long career of St. John's coach Rick Pitino, and Katie Honan, senior reporter at The City, co-host of the podcast FAQ NYC and massive St. John's basketball fan, claims her bragging rights about the team's great season so far. 

Photo: Bryce Hopkins #23 of the St. John's Red Storm drives to the basket during the first half of the 2026 Big East Men's Tournament - Quarterfinal game against the Providence Friars at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2026 in New York City. (Credit: Ishika Samant/Getty Images)

Kian Tajbakhsh, Iranian-American scholar, visiting professor of international relations at New York University, fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University and former political prisoner, and William Christou, Middle East reporter for The Guardian, break down the latest on U.S.-Iran negotiation efforts, and offer analysis and insight into the state of the war.

Photo: A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke as it rises from a site targeted by Israeli artillery in the village of Zawtar El Charkiyeh on March 25, 2026. Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Lev Facher, addiction reporter at STAT News, reports on how opioid overdose deaths began to fall in mid-2023 and have continued to decline.

Photo: An emergency opioid overdose kit at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. (Credit: Chris Woodrich via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0)