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The Brian Lehrer Show

Friday, March 16, 2007
  • Chuck Schumer
    Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

    Get Your Irish Up

    Charles Schumer is leading the charge among Democrats for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign over the US attorney scandal. Hear the senior senator from New York make his case. Plus: the pros and cons of marrying someone with similar status to you in the workplace and why trouble with sub-prime mortgages is dangerous for the housing market.

Schumer's Subpoenas

Chuck Schumer, Senator (D-NY) and author, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family At a Time (Rodale 2007), talks about the effects of the troop surge, why he thinks Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign--and who can expect to receive a subpoena to testify in the upcoming hearings.

Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family At a Time is available for purchase at Amazon.com

The Week That Was

Jen Chung, editor of Gothamist, and Clyde Haberman, metro columnist for the New York Times, talk about New York news of the week--a last-minute witness appearing before the Sean Bell grand jury, the shooting at a Greenwich Village pizzeria, and hundreds exposed to tuberculosis at a Bronx hospital.

Subprime Subpar

Ruth Simon, senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal, and Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist at Miller Tabak & Co., an institutional trading firm, discuss how problems in the subprime mortgage industry caused the stock market to plummet this week--and may yet have further economic repercussions.

Marriage of Equals

Barbara Risman, professor and head of the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, executive officer of the Council on Contemporary Families, and author of Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition (Yale University Press, 1999), on the pros and cons of marrying someone who shares your professional status and income level.

Getting Her Irish Up

Christine Quinn, City Council speaker, on why she's going to Ireland and boycotting the St. Patrick's Day parade. Then we go to Montserrat to look at why the country is the only one outside of Ireland to make St. Patrick's Day a public holiday, with Ernestine Cassell, director of the Monserrat Tourist Board.

Uncommon Indicators

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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.

Cast your vote for our video contest semi-finalists.

The Rocky Road Ahead

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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