WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show

Law and Politics

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:53:49 -0400

Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer for The New Yorker, CNN legal analyst, and author of (soon in paperback) The Oath: the Obama White House and the Supreme Court (Anchor, 2013) talks about the stop-and-frisk lawsuit, the IRS vs. 501(c)(4)'s, Eric Holder on the hot seat, and other national legal news.

On The Path to City Hall

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Brigid Bergin, WNYC reporter, talks about the latest in the mayoral race, including campaign finance and talks of whether Anthony Weiner might become an official candidate. Also, Andrew Wolf, contributing editor for The New York Sun, and Editor and Publisher of the Bronx Press Review and Riverdale Review newspapers in Bronx County, talks about his piece urging Anthony Weiner to run and his view that Weiner will add energy to the Democratic ticket for mayor.

Obituary of the Day

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald joins us every day during the drive to discuss one life featured in the obit page.

Nominate Your Library

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The "NYC Neighborhood Library Awards" nomination process gets underway with Charles H. Revson foundation president Julie Sandorf and chairman Reynold Levy. Today through July 1, New Yorkers can share why their NYC branch library should win one of the five $10,000 awards as The Brian Lehrer Show explores the issues facing public libraries today with a range of guests.

Survey Below Not Displaying Correctly? Answer online here.

Jeffrey Toobin; 2013 Mayoral Race; NYC Library Awards

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker talks about the federal stop and frisk trial and the legal issues raised by the case here in New York City, as well as other national legal news. Then, WNYC’s Brigid Bergin talks about the latest in the mayoral race, including Anthony Weiner’s status. Plus: the launch of the nomination process for the “NYC Neighborhood Library Awards”; and a life featured on today’s New York Times obit page.

Sen. Gillibrand: Military Justice; Food Stamps Cuts; More

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:35:23 -0400

Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Senator (D), talks about her proposed legislation to deal with the crisis on military sexual assault and fighting cuts to food stamps.

.@sengillibrand says recent rise sexual assault in military may mean more incidents, or that spotlight on issue has allowed more to report.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 17, 2013

Men are victims in more than half of sexual assaults in the military, per @sengillibrand wny.cc/10VBa78
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 17, 2013

Does Sheldon Silver need to go? @sengillibrand doesn't take stance, but says she is "disappointed" + "angry" over handling of Lopez case.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 17, 2013

Brian: If Hillary Clinton doesn't run for president, any chance of you running in 2016? @sengillibrand: "No. And I think Hillary will run."
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 17, 2013

Obituary of the Day: Geza Vermes

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:12:19 -0400

New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald joins us every day during the drive to discuss one life featured in the obit page. Today's person is the religious scholar Geza Vermes.

From the Obituary of Geza Vermes

Dr. Vermes had long been frustrated that only a handful of scholars had direct access to the scrolls, and he eventually made his frustrations public. In 1977, he said that their handling was “likely to become the academic scandal par excellence of the 20th century.” More than a decade passed, but the scrolls eventually became more easily accessible in their original form and through photographs.

The scrolls helped deepen Dr. Vermes’s interest in Judaism and in how perceptions of Jesus changed as Christianity spread. He argued that the messianic Jesus worshiped by modern Christians was largely created in the first three centuries after he died. In 1973 he wrote “Jesus the Jew,” the first of several books in which he placed Jesus in the tradition of Jewish teachers.

“When it came out, it sounded like a very provocative title,” Dr. Vermes recalled in 1994 of “Jesus the Jew.” “Today it is commonplace. Everybody knows now that Jesus was a Jew. But in 1973, although people knew that Jesus had something to do with Judaism, they thought that he was really something totally different.”

-- Read the full obituary here.

Context and a TV Show: The Office

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:53:07 -0400

NBC's "The Office" comes to an end. We talk to cultural critic Linda Holmes, culture blogger for NPR's Monkey See, and management expert Tim Sullivan, editor at Harvard Business Review and author of The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office, about the show's impact.

Screening Room: Some of the Best Office Moments

Joe Nocera on Dow 15,000 and Gun Death 4,000

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:45:12 -0400

Joe Nocera, op-ed columnist at the New York Times and Money Talking contributor, discusses the implications of the Dow hitting 15,000 and his continuing series focusing on gun violence.

Gatsby From Afar

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:24:06 -0400

Evan Osnos, China correspondent for The New Yorker, talks about what international readers and movie-goers learn about the U.S. from The Great Gatsby. LISTENERS: Did you read The Great Gatsby before moving here? Does what it says about American culture still hold true? Call 212-433-9692, or leave a comment here.

Sen. Gillibrand; Joe Nocera; The End of "The Office"; Gatsby Abroad

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

U.S. Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, discusses her push for legislation to address the sexual assault crisis in the military. Plus: New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera on the latest out of Washington; analysis of the impact and the end of the show "The Office"; the New Yorker's China correspondent, Evan Osnos, on reading The Great Gatsby abroad; and another installment of the obituary series with Bill McDonald, the obituaries editor of the New York Times.

Obituary of the Day: Thomas M. Messer

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:22:26 -0400

New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald joins us every day during the drive to discuss one life featured in the obit page. Today: museum director Thomas M. Messer.

→ From the WNYC Archives: Thomas Messer Interviewed on "Views on Art" (1967)

From the Obituary of Thomas M. Messer

"It was due to Tom’s charm, grace, diplomacy and — and this is a point that none of us should ever forget — his love of great art that Peggy gave her collection and palazzo to the Guggenheim and not to the Tate,” Peter Lawson-Johnston, who was the Guggenheim’s president during Mr. Messer’s directorship, said at a celebration of Mr. Messer’s 90th birthday in 2010. He added: “Here we are, three decades later, with Guggenheims in Bilbao, Berlin, Venice, and soon to be Abu Dhabi. The foundation for all this was laid by Tom Messer. And I can tell you, he laid that foundation under budget.”

-- Read the full obituary.

Who's Spying on Whom? Bloomberg, AP and Justice Dept.

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:36:45 -0400

Eric Holder was grilled on Capitol Hill yesterday about Benghazi, prosecuting leakers, and more. Amidst the testimony, he also clarified his position on prosecuting banks. Heidi Moore, finance and economics editor at The Guardian, rounds up some of the latest economic news, from Holder's comments, Bloomberg terminal "snooping," JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon on the hot seat, and what the Justice Department's handling of the AP's phone records means for journalism in general.

Legal Weed: Science of Marijuana

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:46:48 -0400

A May series on marijuana continues with a look at the science of the drug. Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, marijuana legalization consultant for Washington State, and co-author of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press), talks about the science of THC and cannabinoids and their effects on marijuana users.

Cloning for Embryonic Stem Cells

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:32:39 -0400

Arthur Caplan, professor and the director of the division of medical ethics at the NYU School of Medicine, discusses the news that scientists have successfully used cloning to produce human embryonic stem cells--and discusses the ethical issues it raises.

Four Freedoms Park: New York's Newest Monument

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:34:40 -0400

William vanden Heuvel, Chairman of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and head of the board of directors for the Four Freedoms Park, discusses the new monument to FDR on Roosevelt Island's southern tip.

Stem Cell Development; Four Freedoms Park; Science of Weed

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

A group of scientists have successfully created embryonic stem cells from skin cells. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan of NYU explains the development and the questions is raises about human cloning. Plus, The Guardian’s Heidi Moore sorts through two “snooping” stories: Bloomberg’s and the AP’s; our May series on marijuana legalization continues with the science behind the drug and what it means for public policy; the details on the new tribute to FDR on Roosevelt Island; and one person’s life featured on the obit page in the Times today.

Obituary of the Day: Billie Sol Estes

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:56:18 -0400

New York Times obituaries editor, Bill McDonald, discusses one person's life featured on today's obit page. Today: Texas con man Billie Sol Estes.

From the Obituary of Billie Sol Estes

The rise and fall of Billie Sol Estes was one of the sensations of the postwar era: the saga of a good-ol’-boy con man who created a $150 million empire of real and illusory farming enterprises that capitalized on his contacts in Washington and the gullibility and greed of farmers, banks and agriculture businesses.

He was a Bible-thumping preacher who gave barbecues for governors and senators, rode his bike to work in Pecos, Tex., and his airplane to Washington, and was named one of America’s 10 outstanding young men of 1953 by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. Later, autographed photos of John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and others lined his walls.

-- Read the full obituary here.

Mars and Venus at Work

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:17:24 -0400

Author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, John Gray, and workplace gender expert, Barbara Annis, talk about their new book Work with Me: The 8 Blind Spots between Men and Women in Business and the likely suspects for gender-based misunderstandings in the workplace.

In the studio, @barbara_annis and John Gray (author of Men are from Mars...) taking gender and the workplace. twitter.com/BrianLehrer/st…
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 15, 2013

Excerpt: Work with Me by Barbara Annis and John Gray

Excerpt Work With Me (PDF)Excerpt Work With Me (Text)

The IRS Scandal, In Context

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:27:39 -0400

The FBI has launched an investigation into IRS agents targeting certain conservative 501(c)(4) groups that had words like "tea party" and "patriot" in their name. Some see a politically-motivated scandal, some see efforts to reign in improper use of the "social welfare" designation. NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley discusses the mounting pressure on the Obama administration and what comes next.

The Impact of the Roberts Court

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:45:27 -0400

Marcia Coyle, chief Washington correspondent for The National Law Journal, frequent guest on the PBS NewsHour, and author of The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution, looks at the ideological divides on the Supreme Court and how they play out on cases involving guns, health care, corporate "citizenship" and racial preferences.

IRS Scandal; Roberts Court; Gender at Work; Daily Obit

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The White House is on the defensive this week. Hear about the latest on the various controversies in Washington. Plus: Supreme Court watcher Marcia Coyle on her new book The Roberts Court; John Gray, author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and his co-author Barbara Annis of the new book on gender-based misunderstandings in the workplace; and New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald on the obituary of the day.

Obituary of the Day: Dr. Joyce Brothers

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:38:51 -0400

New York Times obituaries editor, Bill McDonald, discusses one person's life featured on today's obituary page. Today's person is Dr. Joyce Brothers.

JR Inside Out: The Power of Public Street Portraits

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:04:30 -0400

The artist "JR" is known for his large-scale close-up photo portraits, plastered on walls around the world from Times Square to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Now he's launched "Inside Out," a project that allows participants from around the world to make their own street portraits. JR discusses the project, made possible by the TED prize, and the new documentary about his work, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

→ Screening: Inside Out: The People’s Art Project airs May 20th at 9pm ET/PT on HBO. More Information

How to Make Responsible Clothing Purchases

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:20:32 -0400

The building collapse in Bangladesh that killed over a thousand garment workers has led to renewed attention to international standards for textile factories. Steven Greenhouse, New York Times labor and workplace correspondent and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, talks about what options are available to clothing manufacturers and consumers that ensure fair treatment of the workers employed by contractors and subcontractors.

Listeners: Have you taken any action as a result of the building collapse in Dhaka? How do you try to ensure that your clothing purchases are responsible? Call 212-433-9692 or post your comments and questions here.

The Dept. of Justice Probes AP Phone Records

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:14:13 -0400

Caroline Little president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America discusses the Department of Justice's subpoena of Associated Press phone records as part of a criminal investigation, and what it means for freedom of the press.

Master Planner Daniel Libeskind

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:38:09 -0400

Architect Daniel Libeskind, talks about the spire of One World Trade Center reaching the symbolic height of 1776 feet, one part of his Master Plan for the site.

Architect Daniel Libeskind; AP Phone Probe; Artist JR

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Daniel Libeskind is the architect behind the 1,776-foot tower for One World Trade Center. He talks about his process, the symbolism behind the design, and his thoughts on architectural trends today. Plus: the Justice Department and the AP phone records; Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times on what lessons can come from the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh; and the artist JR on his Inside Out project that’s been in Times Square; and we kick off our series on obituaries.

Explainer: Mammograms

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:33:13 -0400

The Brian Lehrer Show and Clear Health Costs are collaborating on a project to gather the cost of routine mammograms. That data is still being collected, but one common question has already come up: Just what are the different kinds of mammograms, and what is supposed to be "routine"? Freya Schnabel, MD and professor in the Department of Surgery and Division of Breast Surgery at the NYU Cancer Institute, explains the different kinds of mammograms and the latest medical recommendations.

Monday Morning Politics: Benghazi Emails; IRS Targeting; Obamacare

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:17:40 -0400

Last Friday was not the calmest day at the White House, as reporters and Republican lawmakers continued to press on the details of the Benghazi embassy attack. Plus, revelations that the IRS was targeting conservative groups. Ben Smith, Buzzfeed editor in chief, talks about the latest from Washington.

. @buzzfeedben to WNYC on the IRS scandal: "I think this is a huge story."
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) May 13, 2013

Below: The Benghazi Talking Points Email Trail (From ABC News)

How You Know You're A Grown A$$ Woman

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:08:37 -0400

Lindy West, Jezebel staff writer and author of How to Be a Person, talks about the Greene Space event How to Be a Grown A$$ Woman tonight--and takes your calls on how you know you're grown.

A Grown Woman Manifesto

The starting points for tonight's event.

Know your checking account balance
Stop apologizing
Wash your bras
Take care of your things
Own your achievements
"Do You"

What else would you add to the list? Comment here or call 212-433-9692 at 11:40am

After Sandy: A Tale of Two Transit Systems

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:22:23 -0400

WNYC News metro editor Andrea Bernstein and Kate Hinds, producer/reporter with Transportation Nation, discuss their reporting on the differences between the MTA's and NJ Transit's preparations for Sandy and level of damage the two systems suffered from the storm.

WNYC and The Record asked, separately, for documentation of NJ Transit’s hurricane preparedness plans. Both news organizations received the same reply: a three-and-a-half page document with the words “New Jersey Rail Operations Hurricane Plan” atop the first page.

Everything else was blacked out.

NJT Rail Operations Hurricane Plan (PDF)NJT Rail Operations Hurricane Plan (Text)

The Future of Penn Station

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:51:22 -0400

There's a movement to reimagine Penn Station.Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society, talks about the push for a redesign of the station and what would happen to Madison Square Garden.

Any Good From Evil?

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:12:59 -0400

James Dawes, professor of English and director of the Program in Human Rights and Humanitarianism at Macalester College in St. Paul, talks about what he learned about evil in a series of interviews with men convicted of war crimes during the Sino-Japanese War and asks whether there's anything of value to find in such studies or only sensationalism.

Excerpt: Evil Men by James Dawes (Harvard University Press, 2013)

Atrocity both requires and resists representation. The argument that we must bear witness to atrocity, that we must tell the stories, is the core of the catechism of the human rights movement. We gather testimony, we investigate and detail war crimes, because we are morally bound to do so. Our obligation is acutely urgent in cases where legal prosecution is a realistic possibility, but it is also powerful long after the call for trials has faded into history--especially when there is a robust practice of denial and historical revision, as there is in Japan. We are creating a collective moral archive of our time for future generations. We are making public history intelligible to survivors who have seen their deepest personal truths denied daily. And sometimes, as the soldiers I spoke to believed, we are using the safe-to-imagine past as a way of making visible what we are doing in the present.

In recent decades, Japanese government officials, scholars, and former military officers of all ranks have denied and downplayed the atrocities committed by Imperial Japan. In 1994, Minister of Justice Shigeto Nagano described the 1937 Nanking Massacre--in which an estimated 300,000 civilians were murdered--as a "fabrication." In the carefully worded apology that followed, he continually referred to the "Nanking Incident." In 2007, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied that Korean women were coerced into becoming military sex slaves. In 2001, the Ministry of Education approved for use a revisionist school history textbook that glossed over war crimes, including the Nanking Massacre, the widespread use of sex slaves, and experimentation with germ warfare on Chinese civilians. In 2005, a book by a Japanese scholar was translated into English (and personally sent to me by the publisher) that lambasted the late author Iris Chang for perpetuating "the myth of a massacre's having been perpetrated in Nanking." The list could go on. If Elie Wiesel is right in saying that to forget is to kill twice, then the Second Sino- Japanese War never ended. It just shifted to the landscape of memory.

So all of us--the photographer, the interpreter, and I--began this project with the same assumption: bearing witness to atrocity, in this case and in general, is a good unto itself. Whether it's telling the story of the crime as it's happening or collecting and sharing the testimony years later as we were doing, the struggle for human rights and the battle of memory requires a single clear moral position: either speak out or be silent, either resist or be complicit.

I am not so sure anymore.

Washington News; NJ Transit During Sandy; Mammograms; Evil Men

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith discusses the latest news out of Washington. Plus: WNYC's Transportation Nation team discusses New Jersey Transit's performance during Sandy; a new vision for Madison Square Garden and Penn Station; an explanation of the different kinds of mammograms; war crimes and the evil men who perpetrate them; and How to Be a Grown A$$ Woman with Jezebel's Lindy West.

Stopping the (Biological) Clock

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:19:03 -0400

Sarah Elizabeth Richards, science journalist and the author of Motherhood, Rescheduled: The New Frontier of Egg Freezing and the Women Who Tried It(Simon & Schuster, 2013) explains the science behind freezing eggs and tells the stories of four women who tried it, including herself.

from: Motherhood, Rescheduled: The New Frontier of Egg Freezing And The Women Who Tried It

By Sarah Elizabeth Richards

Simon & Schuster

Introduction

There was one time in my life when I was grateful for the biological clock. I was thirty –two years old and summoning the courage to leave a relationship. After nearly eight years of living with a man I deeply loved, I wasn’t miserable. I just wasn’t happy.

We had been doing the stuff advice books say you’re never supposed to do. We punished each other with silence, criticized each other’s driving, made separate holiday plans, argued in public, and butted heads so fiercely about meals, budgets, sex, housework, exercise schedules, movie choices, and vacation destinations that it became easier to spend most of our free time apart.

We tried the standard fixes: we went to couples counseling, swapped lists of behaviors we were willing to change, and spoke in “I feel” statements. There were brief improvements, but the tension always returned, and I became increasingly certain that I did not want children with him. How could we agree on how to take care of another human being if we couldn’t decide when to do laundry? I made sure never to miss my birth control pills.

I knew we had no future, but I also felt no urgency to overturn my life with a crushing, consuming breakup. There never seemed to be a good time, either. Who wanted to be alone during the holidays, the Fourth of July, the first day of fall? I would give it six more months, I told myself. Maybe we could read more books. Maybe we could try a new therapist. Maybe we could go on a long vacation. It wasn’t all bad, I reminded myself.

Then that terrifying book came out. In the spring of 2002, Sylvia Ann Hewlett was detonating bombshells on nearly every talk show with Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children. The message was clear: your fertility fades much sooner than you think; your eggs deteriorate dramatically after thirty-five and are pretty much fossils by your early forties. So listen up, all you clueless careerists! You’ve got to make having a family a priority. You’d better think twice about all your indulgent plans for advanced degrees, foreign postings, and after-work cocktails. Otherwise you’re going to break your heart and the bank pursuing futile in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments in an attempt to “snatch a child from the jaws of menopause.” That’s not to mention the increased risk of having a baby with Down syndrome if you manage to get pregnant.

I joined my generation in a collective gasp. “Now?” I whined to myself. I had just finished graduate school and was trying to launch my career as a freelance journalist. Plus, I still had to break up, grieve, find a new apartment, move out, lose ten pounds, acquire new relationship skills, and try to meet someone else. Then I had to get engaged, marry, and make a baby. That left very little contingency for rebounds, bad judgment, and trouble becoming pregnant.

If everything went as planned, I could have my first baby at thirty-seven and maybe fit in a second by thirty-nine. “My God!” I exclaimed to my girlfriend over the phone. “I’ve already lost my third child!”

Before Hewlett’s book, I had assumed that I would be a mother, just as I knew I would marry, buy a home, and at some point fit into those Oshkosh B’Gosh short overalls I bought two seizes too small in college. I sleepily went about my life and took comfort in the pleasant stupor that was someday. I had little sense there was an actual deadline and that it was looming. Life was challenging enough without God suddenly setting a timer.

Without knowing it, I had become a Clock Ticker, and my pleasant stupor was replaced by the loud hum of the clichéd biological clock, which began to torment me like a clunky old air conditioner. My friends started having babies, and I was suddenly behind. I overheard my parents making excuses for me to their friends: She’s busy with her job. She’s a late bloomer. She’s picky. In the most discouraging sign, relatives stopped asking me when I planned to get married and start a family, as if I had been relegated to being the Crazy Aunt at family gatherings.

There were statistics to prove you were not alone, and that you were a member of a swelling demographic of women who had delayed marriage and motherhood. Supposedly one in five women was waiting to start her family until after age thirty-five, a percentage that had increased nearly eight-fold since 1970. And for the first time in history, more children were born to women over thirty-five than to teenagers.

You saw enough older new mothers in your neighborhood to know the statistic was true, but secretly you still wondered if there was something wrong with you because life hadn’t worked out for you the way it had for Everyone Else. You told yourself that there was nothing wrong with being the Last One Left. You were simply on a different path and would make good decision for your future. But you still felt a little twinge of sadness every time you saw your single-line listing on a family reunion attendance list. Or shopped for boxed Christmas cards of New York City snow scenes because it seemed ridiculous to write a holiday letter about yourself. Or realized that you were one of a few friends from high school holiday get-togethers available to go out after 8 p.m.

I wish I could say that I trusted everything would work out and that I carried myself with a Secret-like confidence that made me wildly attractive. I didn’t. I spent the majority of my thirties alternately freaking out and talking myself down. I paid thousands of dollars for therapy, drank too much wine, and harassed my busy friends and family with distraught phone calls. I often repeated their encouraging words in my head before I went to sleep: I still have time. There are lots of good guys out there. I am in a better place now to choose a mate than I was in my twenties. I have learned a lot of relationship lessons. I still have time. But only one thing gave me real comfort. If I actually did run out of time, I had a list of motherhood options taped to my desk lamp: donor eggs, foreign and domestic adoption, other couples’ leftover IVF embryos, stepchildren. I knew the alternatives came with their own complications, but I thought they were ones I could live with. And if I had to live with them in the same house as my fabulous new husband, all the better.

So why did I still feel so awful?

Open Phones: Rental Ad Glossary

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:02:48 -0400

When a rental ad says "cozy apartment with laid back roommates" does that actually mean “closet for rent in apartment full of potheads?” Help us create a glossary to decipher rental ad language. In your search for decent affordable housing in New York, what have you learned about what certain language in the ads really means? We want your definitions based on your horror stories of misleading rental ads for all those people scouring Craigslist for decent place to live. Call 212-433-9692 or comment here. (h/t: We were inspired to talk about the world of misleading ads by the viral tumblr page "The Worst Room" - if you haven't seen it, you should!)

When "Cozy" Means Small: An NYC Apartment Ad Glossary

Here are some of our favorite submissions that came in on-air, online, and though social media. Keep posting yours in the comments section!

"Old-world" = Old.
"Cozy" = Small.
"Prefer someone who works during the day" = You should never be home. (caller Mary)
"Into community living" = I will drink your milk. (caller Mary)
"Clean and Quiet" = Control Freak. (usually) (caller Mary)
"Please provide pay-stubs" = No artists. (caller Mary)
"Much much more!" = There's nothing else. (Jenny on FB)
"Classic" = Old and uncomfortable in snotty neighborhood. (Rose on FB)
"Courtyard View" = View of the back of another building with small concrete enclosure below. (Tristan on FB)
"Loft Room Share" = You better be okay with hipster partying
"Luxurious Heating and Air Conditioning" = Working heat and a/c
"420 Friendly" = We smoke pot.
"I am a 32yr old professional, very clean and neat, very respectful of you and your space and extremely easy going. I cook great if you don't mind doing the dishes! I have a very friendly personality and get along with anyone. The place comes with: Free wi-fi, HDTV w/HBO, Landline and use of the place like it's yours (within reason of course)!" = "I'm a serial killer." (Sean on FB)

Legal Weed: Addiction

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:48:45 -0400

A May series on marijuana continues with a look at addiction. Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, marijuana legalization consultant for Washington State, and co-author of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2013) talks about the drug's effects and how legalization might address treatment. He's joined by WNYC senior reporter Marianne McCune who talks about her piece on abuse and dependence of marijuana, as part of the "Weed Next Door" series.

.@markarkleiman says "addiction" isn't useful term w/ pot - "a very powerful bad habit."Risk smaller than alcohol/cigs, but it's there.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 10, 2013

The Online Sales Tax Debate

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:17:12 -0400

Congress is debating whether to change the way sales taxes work for online purchases. Jodi Schneider, Bloomberg News Congress editor, discusses the bill and who would win and lose. Business owners: What's your take on online sales tax? How would this bill affect your bottom line? Your customers'? Call 212-433-9692 or post your take here.

Candidate Catsimatidis

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:56:23 -0400

Our second round of interviews with candidates for New York City mayor continues. John Catsimatidis, CEO of Red Apple Group and Gristedes Foods, talks about his run for the Republican nomination.

Explainer: A Murder Charge in the Cleveland Kidnapping Case?

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:54:24 -0400

Prosecutors say they may charge Ariel Castro with aggravated murder (and seek the death penalty) for forcing a miscarriage in one of the women he'd held captive for 10 years in his suburban Cleveland home. Deborah Denno, professor of law at Fordham University and expert on rape and assault law, explains how the case may be built, and how laws differ throughout the country.

Online Sales Tax; John Catsimatidis; Marijuana Addiction

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill to require online retailers to collect state sales taxes if they make $1 million or more. We’ll hear about its status in the House and take calls from business owners. And a May series on marijuana legalization continues with a look at addiction and health. Plus: John Catsimatidis on his bid to be the Republican candidate for mayor; a science journalist talks about making the decision to freeze her eggs; and the secret language of Craigslist real estate postings.

The Worst Nurse

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:13:14 -0400

Charles Graeber, journalist and author of the new book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, tells the story of homicidal nurse Charlie Cullen, and how he slipped through regulatory cracks.

Reading and Events

Tonight 5/9: Charles Graeber at Book Court, Brooklyn (Info)
Monday 5/20: Reading at The Half King, Manhattan (Info)

Excerpt: Chapter 1 of The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber

October 3, 2003

Charlie considered himself lucky. The career had found him, by accident or fate he couldn’t say. After sixteen years on the job, Charles Cullen was an accomplished veteran, a registered nurse with a GED and bachelor of science in nursing. His Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump, and Critical Care Unit certifications earned him a healthy $27.50 an hour in hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There was always work. Even within the rotted cores of Allentown or Newark, medical centers were still expanding profit centers, each proliferating with new specialties and services, and each locked in desperate competition to attract experienced RNs.

By 4:40 p.m., Charles Cullen was in his car, shaved, gelled, and dressed in his whites—white top and bottom with a soft yellow cardigan and a stethoscope draped across his neck, such that anybody might guess the handsome young man was a hospital professional, possibly even a doctor, despite his baby-blue Ford Escort station wagon, ten years old and freckled with rust. After a decade living in a basement apartment in New Jersey, Charlie’s commute now started from across the border, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His new girlfriend, Catherine, had a cozy little cape there, which she’d dress up with little card-shop knickknacks—red paper hearts or singing jack-o-lanterns or accordion turkeys, depending on the season—and though Charlie was growing bored with Catherine and her two teenage sons, he still liked being at her place okay, especially the little plot out back where he could putter on warm days, pinching deadheads or staking tomato plants. He also appreciated the five easy minutes it took to cross the Lehigh River to the familiar slipstream of I-78 East, the aortal artery pumping thousands of workers to shifts at labor-starved hospitals across the Garden State, only five or six of which were, unofficially, closed off to hiring him.

Over the course of his sixteen years, Charles Cullen had been the subject of dozens of complaints and disciplinary citations, and had endured four police investigations, two lie detector tests, perhaps twenty suicide attempts, and a lock-up, but none had blemished his professional record. He’d jumped from job to job at nine different hospitals and a nursing home, and been “let go,” “terminated,” or “asked to resign” at many of them. But both his Pennsylvania and New Jersey nursing licenses remained intact, and each time he filled out a new application, Nurse Cullen appeared to be an ideal hire. His attendance was perfect, his uniform pristine. He had experience in intensive care, critical care, cardiac care, ventilation, and burns. He medicated the living, was the first code responder when machines screamed over the dying, and exhibited origamilike artistry when plastic-wrapping the dead. He had no scheduling conflicts, didn’t seem to attend movies or watch sports, and was willing, even eager, to work nights, weekends, and holidays. He no longer had the responsibilities of a wife nor custody of his two children, and his downtime was spent primarily on Cathy’s couch flicking through channels; a last-second sick call or an unexpected patient transfer could have him dressed and on the highway before the commercial break. His fellow nurses considered him a gift from the scheduling gods, a hire almost too good to be true.

His new job at Somerset Medical Center took forty-five minutes each way, but Charlie didn’t mind the drive. In fact, he required it. Charlie considered himself a talker, and he was quick to share cringingly intimate details of his showdowns with Cathy or his comically crumbling home life, but there were some privacies he could never talk about—secret scenes that looped through his head, replayed for him alone. Between shifts, only the commute allowed Charlie to ruminate.

His little Ford hiccupped as it crossed from the cheap Pennsylvania asphalt to the smooth New Jersey tar. Charlie stayed in the left lane until the signs for exit 18, a fierce little one-way toward US 22 Somerville and Rehill Avenue. This was the nice New Jersey, wealthiest state of the union, the Jersey nobody ever joked about—suburban streets, lined with grand trees, well-tended yards uncramped by abandoned bass boats or broken trampolines, pristine driveways featuring leased Saturns rather than old Escorts. He killed the engine in the parking garage, early as usual, and hurried toward the hospital’s back entrance.

Beyond the double doors lay a thrumming twenty-four-hour city lit by humming overhead fluorescents, the only place Charlie ever truly knew he belonged. He felt a thrill of excitement as he stepped onto the shining linoleum, a wave of familiarity as he breathed in the scents of home: sweat and gauze and Betadine, the zing of astringent and antibacterial detergent and, behind it all, the florid note of human decay. He took the back stairs two at a time. There was work to do.

The nursing profession had welcomed Charlie as few other aspects of life ever had, starting with childhood. Charlie described it as “miserable.” He’d been a late-life mistake that his working-class Irish-Catholic parents could hardly afford, arriving soon before his father died and long after most of his eight siblings had grown up and moved out. Their wooden row house in West Orange was a dark, unhappy, place haunted by drug-addicted brothers, adult sisters who drifted in and out on tides of pregnancy or need, and strange, rough men who came at all hours to visit them both. Only Charlie’s mother shielded him from the chaos of those upstairs rooms. He fed desperately on her affections, but there were never enough to go around. When she was killed in a car crash during his senior year in high school, Charlie was truly alone. He was furious with the hospital that had taken her body, and beyond consolation. He tried suicide, then the Navy, failing at both. Finally, he returned to the very same hospital at which his mother had died, and discovered his life’s true calling.

In March 1984, Charles Cullen was the only male student at the Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing in Montclair, New Jersey. He was bright and did well. The coursework suited him, as did the uniform, and the sisterly dynamic was familiar and comfortable. When the honorary class president dropped out two weeks into the first semester, one of Charlie’s classmates insisted he run in her place. He was a natural choice for leadership, she told him: Charlie was bright, handsome, and, most important, male. Charlie was flattered, but running for president didn’t sound much like him. The more he demurred, the more adamant she became. He wouldn’t have to risk anything, she told him—she’d do it all. Charlie found himself surprisingly happy in the passive role of grudging candidate, and even happier when he won. It was only a symbolic position, but it seemed to signal the arrival of a new Charlie. Six years after losing his mother to the Mountainside hospital morgue, Charlie was Mountainside’s chosen son, crowned and confirmed by a white-uniformed navy of professional nurturers. For the first time in his life, he was special. It was as close to love as Charlie could imagine.

Charlie paid for his schooling with anonymous franchise shift work, racking up hours pushing powdered donuts or shoveling piles of shaved meat. He restocked boxes or filled condiment bars and mopped floors in between—there was always mopping to be done. He found it ironic that, just as the recruiter had promised, his military experience so neatly translated into civilian skills. And just like the Navy, each of his civilian jobs required a uniform. For Dunkin’ Donuts, it was the orange-and-brown shirt and a visor. For Caldor, the uniform was also orange and brown but the stripes were different. Charlie had to be careful to grab the right one from the pile from the floor. Roy Rogers required a rust-colored shirt seemingly designed to hide barbeque sauce the way casino carpets hide gum. It was a hideous garment, except when Charlie’s manager, Adrianne, wore it. He especially liked the way her name tag hung.

Adrianne Baum was a different class of girl from the ones Charlie had known in West Orange, an ambitious, newly minted college grad with a business degree and student loans to pay. Charlie watched her, mooning over his mop handle as he worked cleanup in her West Orange Roy’s location. But Adrianne had a boyfriend and was scheduled to be transferred. Charlie quit, and doubled his hours at the Caldor next door, but he still took his lunch breaks at Roy’s, just in case. When Adrianne was transferred back a month later without the boyfriend, Charlie was there, waiting.

The relationship moved as quickly as Charlie could accelerate it. He needed her attentions and pushed for it every way he could, showering her with gifts and playing the model boyfriend for her family. Adrianne was surprised to discover that hidden inside the shy, wide-eyed boy she’d watched wiping the sauce station was a surprisingly confident man. Charlie obsessed on gaining her affection, and he kindled its flame with constant gifts, flowers, or candy, little things from the mall. Any little thing Adrianne mentioned liking, Charlie needed to get her, until Adrianne finally had to tell him to stop. She pretended to be annoyed—but really, how could she be? She was aware how many girls would have killed to take her place. The boy was a catch. That Charlie seemed to be constantly quitting or getting fired could be chalked up to his high standards and busy schedule. Adrianne told her girlfriends, wow, here was a guy working three jobs, president of his nursing school class, as serious about his career as she was about hers. Yes, so, he was a goy—he wasn’t perfect. But he was close enough.

Soon, whatever spare time the young couple could winnow between their respective shifts and Charlie’s schooling was spent together. They were a unit, complete but closed. They called it love, and six months after their first date they were engaged. They married the week after Charlie graduated nursing school. The rented hall in Livingston, the tuxedos, the honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls—it was like a fairy tale to Adrianne. They returned a day early so her prince could start on his new job in the Burn Unit at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey. The hospital was willing to allow him extra time, but Charlie was adamant. It had to be that day; he didn’t want to be late. Adrianne waved good-bye, and she felt the future rolling out before her like a strange red carpet.

From the book THE GOOD NURSE: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder. Copyright (c) 2013 by Charles Graeber. Reprinted by permission of Twelve/Hachette Book Group, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Following Up: Activists on the East Ramapo School Cuts

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:10:45 -0400

A group of concerned parents and students say that decisions made by the East Ramapo School Board are not in the best interest of most students. Peggy Hatton, co-host of East Ramapo Underground, a radio program broadcast on AM 1300, talks about the Rockland County controversy. And Olivia Castor, Spring Valley high school senior and leader of the East Ramapo Student Coalition, talks about her school experience and what budget cuts mean inside the school.

The Case Against Intervention in Syria

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:17:56 -0400

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, discusses what we learned at yesterday's hearings on Benghazi, and why she believes the situation in Syria needs diplomacy, not military intervention.

.@katrinanation says military intervention in Syria would lead to "nation-building" - characterizes it instead as humanitarian issue.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 9, 2013

The Sequester's Real: Head Start

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:38:20 -0400

Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, director of the Office of Head Start, explains how sequestration cuts are affecting the program and the children enrolled in it.

→ Reading List: FAQ on Sequester Impact | Roundup of Media Coverage (By State)

Open Phones: Best and Worst Advice from Mom

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

What is the best piece of advice your mom has ever given you--and what's the worst? Call us at 212-433-9692 or tell us in the comments. And don't forget, it's Mother's Day on Sunday.

Reform in Albany?

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

As the wire taps yield more unsavory stories from Albany, Gerald Benjamin, associate vice president for regional engagement and director of the Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach, and author of The Oxford Handbook of New York State Government and Politics, talks about the chances of reform, but also asks if prosecutors have too much leeway.

Benghazi Hearing; Sequestration Cuts; Albany Corruption; The Worst Nurse

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

There was another hearing yesterday on the Benghazi attack last year. We'll discuss the implications. Plus: yet another corruption case in Albany begs the question about what kind of reforms are needed and if prosecutors should have more or less leeway; sequestration impacts; and journalist Charles Graeber tells the story of The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder.

State of the World's Mothers

WNYC, New York Public Radio — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:57:20 -0400

Dr. Joy Lawn, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the lead researcher for Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers report, on Save the Children's new report out about the differences around the world for new mothers and babies.

"Around the world, 1 million babies die on the day they're born." -- hearing about @savethechildren report on "State of the World's Mothers"
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 8, 2013