The Brian Lehrer Show

Chico Harlan, global climate correspondent at The New York Times, discusses the wildfires in Europe and the ways climate change is impacting the continent right now.

Photo: VIOTIA, GREECE - AUGUST 2: Volunteers battle a wildfire burning near Porto Germeno, 70 kilometres northwest of Athens in the region of Viotia, Greece, on August 2, 2026 (Photo by Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

 

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Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to Congress to testify on his role in the COVID-19 pandemic after Republican Senator Rand Paul released some of Fauci's diary entries from 2020. Chelsea Cirruzzo, Washington correspondent at STAT News, discusses Fauci's testimony and related news. 

Photo: WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci is sworn in before testifying to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. Fauci was expected to be questioned about his diary entries during his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

 

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Kathryn Jezer-Morton, writer of The Cut's Brooding newsletter and the author of The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything (Viking, 2026), talks about her reporting on and experience with the way social media is changing our lives.

Photo: BATH, UNITED KINGDOM - MARCH 29: In this photo illustration a 14-year-old boy holds an iPhone screen displaying various social media and messaging apps on March 29, 2026 in Bath, England. On top row left to right, the logo of social media platform Instagram is seen beside that of Meta’s Threads and Facebook. On the middle row from left is the logo of Donald Trump's Truth Social app, next to the logo of social media app TikTok and the logo of Elon Musk’s US online social media and social networking site 'X' (formerly known as Twitter). Along the bottom row, left to right is the messaging service WhatsApp, the logo for online video sharing and social media platform YouTube and the logo for the Bluesky app. In the UK, a ban on social media for under-16s has been backed by the House of Lords following the Australian law which aims to stop children under 16 from having social media accounts and social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram potentially being be fined for preventing children younger than 16 from having social media accounts. (Photo by Anna Barclay/Getty Images)

 

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A new private club is slated to open this month at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula. Dubbed "The Peoples Beach," the park has a long history as an informal gathering place for the LGBTQ community. Liam Quigley, parks and sanitation reporter for Gothamist/WNYC, unpacks the status of the project, whose opening has been delayed several times this summer, including why some beachgoers are unhappy with the plan; plus listeners weigh in with their thoughts on the club and the beach's storied history.

Photo: Jacob Riis Park is a seaside park in the New York City borough of Queens

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Despite no real progress, the U.S. war with Iran continues, and according to F. Gregory Gause, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University, author of The International Relations of the Persian Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2014), it has all been meaningless.

Photo: DOVER, DELAWARE - JULY 22: A U.S. Army carry team transports the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base for military casualties of the war with Iran on July 22, 2026 in Dover, Delaware. U.S. President Donald Trump attend the dignified transfer of Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Staff Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad and Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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