The Brian Lehrer Show

On this Summer Friday, we've put together some of our favorite recent interviews, including:

Each year WNYC hosts a "health convening," with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as an opportunity for healthcare experts and practitioners to inform WNYC's health reporting. This year, the topic is ultra-processed foods and how they affect our health. 

First, Kevin Hall, Ph.D., former senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) , discusses his groundbreaking, tightly controlled metabolic ward trials and mathematical models tracking how human bodies respond to ultra-processed foods. Then,

Fang Fang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., cancer epidemiologist and chair of the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, discusses her population‑based research on how ultra-processed foods influence cancer prevention, cancer survivorship and long‑term health outcomes. Then,

David Kessler, MD, former FDA Commissioner, breaks down a citizen petition he filed with the Food and Drug Administration last summer which would, among other things, declare that some of the core ingredients in ultra-processed foods were no longer “generally recognized as safe (GRAS)” -- a classification  that means ingredients are exempt from strict premarket approval process.

Plus,

Ilan Stavans, publisher of Restless Books, professor of humanities and Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College and the author of A Nation Wrestles with God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands (Restless Books, 2026), talks about the broad spectrum of American religious thought, from Cotton Mather to Lana Del Rey.

 

These interviews were lightly polished up and edited for time, the original versions are available here:

What Are Ultra-Processed Foods and What Are They Doing to Us? (June 16, 2026)

Ultra-Processed Foods and Colon Cancer (June 16, 2026)

Ultra-Processed Foods Policy Proposals (June 16, 2026)

American Believers (July 9, 2026)

photo: Potato chips and other junk food in Walmart, Wenatchee Washington (Thayne Tuason, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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It's been more than 50 years since President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9th over the Watergate scandal. Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst, former Watergate special prosecutor, co-host of the podcasts "#Sistersinlaw" and "Just the Facts" and the author of The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President (Henry Holt and Co., 2020), reflects on that time versus today and efforts to downplay the crimes of Watergate.

Photo: View of US President Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994) talks on the telephone at his desk in the White House's Oval Office, Washington DC, June 23, 1972. Visible behind him are family photos and a bust of Abraham Lincoln. (Photo by the White House Photo Office/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

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Ciarán Donnelly, senior vice president for International Programs at International Rescue Committee talks about the ongoing war and displacement crisis in Sudan, plus Mark Townsend, senior global development reporter at the Guardian and the author of No Return: The True Story of How Martyrs Are Made (Guardian Faber Publishing, 2020), explains the role of the UK and the United Arab Emirates in the conflict.

Photo: KHAZAN TUNJUR, JEBEL MARRA, NORTH DARFUR, SUDAN — FEBRUARY 26, 2026: A Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) soldier walks past dead donkeys on the outskirts of a remote village. Residents say a livestock disease has killed animals relied on to transport food, water and firewood. In this isolated, SLA-held area, where many displaced civilians have sought refuge from surrounding violence and remain largely cut off from markets and aid routes, the loss has compounded already severe hardship. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Avaaz via Getty Images)

 

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Joshua Mitts, Columbia Law School professor specializing in corporate, business, and transactional law, talks about New York State's suit against the prediction market platform Kalshi for allegedly "running an illegal gambling operation.”

==> "From Iran to Taylor Swift:  Informed Trading in Prediction Markets" (April 6, 2026)

Photo: Kalshi's logo is displayed on a smartphone placed on a reflective surface onto which a betting curve is projected in Creteil, France, on March 9, 2026, during a major scandal and a $54 million lawsuit concerning bets related to recent strikes in Iran. (Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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As summer begins its slow wind down, listeners call in to share what's still on their summer bucket lists.

Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 15: A beachgoer sits in the shade under an umbrella at the beach at Coney Island in Brooklyn on July 15, 2026 in New York City. New York City is under an Air Quality Health Advisory as the Canadian and Great Lakes wildfire smoke gradually moves through the area, creating a thick haze in the heat. New York City and much of the East Coast are experiencing temperatures with the heat index over 100 degrees as the region confronts another heat wave. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

 

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