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The Brian Lehrer Show

Wednesday, December 13, 2006
  • (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/42539475@N00/296885602/" target="_blank">Sue70</a>/flickr)
    (Sue70/flickr)

    Working Underground

    Economic statistics don’t count the transactions that take place on the street. Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh spent ten years looking at the wheeling and dealing of a ghetto in Chicago's South Side. He talks about his findings and his new book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Also: the evidence so far in the Queens police shooting.

2030 Vision

Chris Jones, vice president of research at the Regional Plan Association
and
Michael Goodwin, Daily News columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner and the News' former Executive Editor and Editorial Page Editor
and
Jill Gardiner, City Hall reporter for the New York Sun
on Mayor Bloomberg's plan for development New York by 2030

Kentucky's 3rd District

John Yarmuth Congressman (D) Kentucky District 3
- on being a freshman Congressman

Working Underground

Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, professor of sociology and African-American studies and director of research at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University
-on his in-depth study of the underground economy in a Chicago slum

Open Phones

listeners call in on when they give to panhandlers

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.