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The Brian Lehrer Show / December 20, 2005

The Brian Lehrer Show

Tuesday, December 20, 2005
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  • subway (Christian Powers)

    Strike!

    New York City transit workers are on strike this morning, and buses and subways are at a standstill. All around town, New Yorkers are dusting off their maps, pulling on their hiking boots, and devising creative new ways to get to work.

Impasse!

Beth Fertig, WNYC Reporter
and
Andrea Bernstein, WNYC Reporter
and
Richard Hake, WNYC Reporter
and
Rob Snyder, director of the journalism and media studies program at Rutgers University-Newark, and author of Transit Talk: New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories(Rutgers, 1998)
and
Noah Budnick, programs director of transportation alternatives
and
Andrew Jacobs, New York Times reporter,
and
Wilma Consul, WNYC Reporter

» Transportation Alternatives
» "Proselytizer for Pedaling Acts on His Words" by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times (subscription)

About That Subway Alert...

Bob Hennelly, WNYC reporter covering City Hall and security issues,
and
E. J. McMahon, senior fellow for tax and budgetary studies at the Manhattan Institute,
and
James Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute,
and
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign,
and
Ron Shechtman, attorney at the firm Pryor, Cashman, teaches public sector labor law at New York University Law School,
and
Marian Swerdlow, high school social studies teacher in New York City, former subway conductor, and author, Underground Woman:My Four Years as a New York City Subway Conducto (Temple University Press, 1998)

» E. J. McMahon (The Manhattan Institute)
» The Fiscal Policy Institute
» The Straphangers Campaign
» Ron Shechtman (Pryor Cashman)
» Underground Woman:My Four Years as a New York City Subway Conducto (Temple University Press, 1998)

A person dressed as a bear to represent a bear market performs outside the New York Stock Exchange on October 6, 200 in New York. Wall Street tumbled after the opening bell as fallout from the credit crisis triggered concerns about the economy and the Dow fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years.

Uncommon Indicators

The Brian Lehrer Show

The Brian Lehrer Show wants to hear how the economy is affecting the little things in your daily life. Share your stories and photos of the downturn.

Just Launched! The Uncommon Economic Indicators Video Contest. All the details here!

Ray Young, General Motors Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

The Rocky Road Ahead

The Brian Lehrer Show

Ray Young, the chief financial officer of General Motors, talks about GM’s bankruptcy.

Then, Damon Lester, president of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, and Greg Williams, former owner of the recently closed Huntington Chevrolet in Huntington Station, NY., discusses the effect GM’s bankruptcy has had on dealerships and their employees.

paper trail small

Tweet If You Use Twitter

The Brian Lehrer Show

Farhad Manjoo, Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society talks about what Twitter means and how different groups use it.

What's your take on Twitter? How do you use it? Comment below!

(<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexerde/80417539/">alexerde</a>/flickr)

Don't Say That, Literally

The Brian Lehrer Show

John Flansburgh of the band They Might Be Giants discusses the running list the band keeps of "things we can no longer say." (a few examples: "my bad" "don't go there" "one hundred and ten percent" and "voted off the island")

What would be on your list of banned words or phrases? Comment below!

happiness

From Denmark with Love

The Brian Lehrer Show

Jesper Grunwald, senior managing editor with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, talks about the Danish economy, biking to work, and why the Danes are allegedly the happiest people in the world.

Judge Sotomayor

Squatting, Then and Now

The Brian Lehrer Show

As former squats in the East Village make the transition to coops, making homes from abandoned housing is again an issue. Andrew Reicher executive director of Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, Frank Morales an Episcopal priest involved in East Village/Lower East Side squatting and homelessness activism since the late '70s, and Rob Robinson, a leader of the Housing Campaign of Picture the Homeless, discuss the return of squatting.

Video Picks

The Brian Lehrer Show

Check out some recent video clips of interviews with guests and Brian Lehrer's weekly Web video picks.