The Brian Lehrer Show

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's lessons for Mayor Zohran Mamdani  (First) | Journalism in the common good: Michelle Adams on her Hillman Prize-winning book 'The Containment,' which charts the fight over school integration in the suburbs of Detroit (Starts at 53:15) | Jodi Kantor's advice for young people at the start of their careers (Starts at 1:15:50)

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Two so-called "buffer zone" bills passed the New York City council last month, and lawmakers in Albany have similar proposals on the table, too. Jimmy Vielkind, New York State Issues reporter for WNYC, talks about whether the bills, which would require a buffer zone for protesters outside houses of worship and health care facilities, will make it into the state budget, and Sahalie Donaldson, City Hall reporter at City & State New York reports on the bills' status in New York City, plus they both discuss the disagreements between Democrats over the issue.

Photo: New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin delivers remarks on Jan. 21, 2026. (Credit: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit)

With over fifty days into the U.S.-Iran war, the world has lost 550 million barrels of Gulf crude oil. Matthieu Favas, commodities editor at The Economist, explains how this is impacting global energy markets in European and Asian countries that rely on that supply.

Photo: Coryton Oil Refinery by Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Dan Lambe, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, and Ben Osborne, assistant commissioner of forestry and horticulture at NYC Parks, talk about Arbor Day and NYC's new Urban Forest Plan for expanding the tree canopy.

 

Photo: Blossoming trees by the road in Prospect Park (Taty Sena, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Michael Valdovinos, a clinical psychologist, veteran, trauma expert and the author of Moral Injuries: When Good Conscience Suffers in a World of Hurt (Harper, 2026), talks about recognizing and healing "moral injuries" that occur not from physical trauma, but from acts that violate the conscience.

Photo: A United States Marine Corps rifleman completes a field exercise in Finland. (Credit: Sgt. Mason Roy/U.S. Marine Corps via Wikimedia Commons)