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The Brian Lehrer Show

Thursday, February 07, 2008
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    But Was It Good For Democracy?

    Super Tuesday saw heavy turnout at the polls, but revealed a patchwork of primaries, caucuses, and confusing delegate counts. Robert George, Benjamin Barber, and David Epstein join us to discuss whether our primary system is damaging our Democracy. Plus: A new series celebrating black history month, and Fred Kaplan discusses his book on the foreign policy missteps of the Bush Administration.

    Watch Brian's Online Video Picks and other WNYC videos.

...But Was It Good For Democracy? Parsing Super Duper Tuesday

Robert George, New York Post editorial writer and Ragged Thots blogger, David Epstein, professor of political science at Columbia University, and Benjamin Barber, professor of civil society at the University of Maryland, senior fellow at the think tank Demos and author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (Norton, 2007), take a look at the primary process.

Talking History

Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, joins us on Thursdays in February to talk about African American history. This week: the bicentennial of New York's Abyssinian Baptist Church.

The Bicentennial of the U.S. Abolition of the Slave Trade Exhitbition & Programs
The Abyssinian Baptist Church Bicentennial Exhibition

Our Foreign Policy Daydream

Fred Kaplan, author and "war stories" columnist for Slate.com, discusses his new book Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power.

Fred Kaplan profiles Defense Secretary Robert Gates in this weekend's New York Times Magazine

Free, Yet Enslaved

James McBride, musician and author of Song Yet Sung, talks about Harriet Tubman, contemporary black culture, and--perhaps--why Holiday Inn cures his writer's block.

Song Yet Sung is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Event
James McBride will be reading tonight at Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe (2319 Frederick Douglass Boulevard @ 125th Street) at 6PM.

Junior Senator

The Brian Lehrer Show

Glenn Thrush, senior Congressional correspondent for Politico.com, talks about potential replacements for Hillary Clinton in the Senate, once she's confirmed as Secretary of State.

Mumbai Monday

The Brian Lehrer Show

The Mumbai terrorist attacks have caused shockwaves that reach communities here in New York. How are south Asian immigrants coping with the crisis? Plus, on January 20th, Barack Obama will become the first black president, but he’s already the most prominent black father in America. Is he setting a new standard for African-American parenthood?

Baby Blues

The Brian Lehrer Show

Alex Kuczynski, New York Times style writer and the author of Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery (Doubleday, 2006), talks about her recent NYT Magazine article "Her Body, My Baby" and her experience having a child through a surrogate.

Maya Angelou

The Brian Lehrer Show

Poet-activist Maya Angelou, author of Letter to My Daughter (Random House, 2008), on the significance of the Obama presidency and more.

Digesting Politics

A weekly podcast with Brian Lehrer and Andrea Bernstein

New Episode Posted November 13
Eavesdrop on Andrea Bernstein and Brian Lehrer, two of the most political savvy minds around, as they eat lunch and break down the week’s political activities.

Video Picks

The Brian Lehrer Show

See video highlights from The Brian Lehrer Show plus Brian's weekly video picks.