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The Brian Lehrer Show

Thursday, December 04, 2008
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    Goodwill to All

    Khaled Hosseini, author of two best-selling novels set in Afghanistan, talks about his role as a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Also, Fortune columnist and “Left, Right & Center” host Matt Miller explains how he “stopped worrying and learned to love trillion dollar deficits.”

Ravitch Report

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Tri-State Transportation Campaign executive director Kate Slevin will react to the Ravitch Commission proposals on the MTA.

Finance Guidance

The weekly December guest, Ramit Sethi, founder of iwillteachyoutoberich.com, a blog on personal finance and entrepreneurship, gives tips on how to approach your finances in this down economy.

Deficit Dove

Matt Miller, columnist for Fortune, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, host of KCRW’s Left, Right & Center and the author of the forthcoming The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity (Times Books, 2009) discusses his latest column "How to Love Trillion Dollar Deficits".

Goodwill to All

Khaled Hosseini, U.S. envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and author of A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, talks about his second novel and his work with the UNHCR in Afghanistan.

Ravitch Commission News Conference

WNYC reporter Matthew Schuerman discusses the plan for East River tolls and company payroll taxes to keep MTA viable.

Question of the Day:Are you a Brooklyn resident? Would you be willing to pay east river tolls to help the MTA budget crunch? Comment below!

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.

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

The Brian Lehrer Show

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