Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

Given the tragic frequency of school shootings, is the GOP's position on gun control at odds with its "pro-life" position on abortion rights? On Today's Show:U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), member of the Foreign Relations committee and author of The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy (Random House, 2020), talks about his long-time work on gun regulations, plus the latest developments with the pandemic and Senate partisanship.

Democrats aim to pass the 'Build Back Better' bill by Christmas. New York's junior senator discusses what might be in the final version, including paid family leave. On Today's Show:Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Senator (D NY), talks about her work in the Senate, and more of the latest from Congress.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled on a section of Texas's anti-abortion law. What does that have to do with the streak of violent Trumpism at the heart of Congress's Jan. 6 probe? On Today's Show:Dahlia Lithwick, who covers courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast Amicus, and Jim Newell, senior political writer for Slate, break down the latest news from the Supreme Court and national politics.

The conservative group ALEC is taking aim at laws aimed at addressing climate change, calling them 'energy discrimination.' On Today's Show:Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic and author of Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet - And How We Fight Back (Bold Type Books April 20, 2021), talks about her latest piece, "Conservatives Have a New Bogeyman: Critical Energy Theory," which found some conservative interest groups are trying to stop climate policy from being implemented around the country by claiming it unfairly discriminates against fossil fuel companies.

A new analysis suggests that the press is treating Biden similarly to how it treated Trump, despite the stark contrasts in these two presidencies. On Today's Show:Dana Milbank, columnist for The Washington Post, talks about his recent column, which found that the press coverage of President Biden has been as negative, or even more negative, than press coverage of Trump through most of 2020.

President Biden recently had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as tensions flare along the Ukrainian border. What does a conflict halfway around the globe have to do with U.S. politics? On Today's Show:Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker, CNN global affairs analyst, joins to talk about the latest in national politics headlines, including the latest on Russia, as it mobilizes its military at the Ukrainian border.

With the possibility that SCOTUS overturn Roe v. Wade, we discuss the Democrats approach to judicial appointments, and whether they could have fought harder to safeguard abortion rights. On Today's Show:Rebecca Traister, writer at New York Magazine and author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger (Simon & Schuster, 2018), discusses how the current Supreme Court case is just the latest in a decades-long weakening of Roe v. Wade, with Democratic leadership partially to blame.

Nurses are leaving the profession in droves, driven by extremely difficult pandemic-related working conditions. We invited nurses to call in and talk about the state of their profession. On Today's Show:Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, discusses some of the reasons why nurses are quitting and what can be done to retain, and recruit, more.

In the current phase of the COVID pandemic, marked by the omicron variant and still-rampant misinformation, we wanted to take stock of where we are, and what the science tells us . On Today's Show:Following World AIDS Day Wafaa El-Sadr, Columbia University professor of epidemiology and medicine and director Columbia World Projects and International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, draws connections between work tracing and treating HIV and research on coronavirus, including the omicron variant which was discovered in part because of robust sequencing systems in southern Africa.

Today, lawyers argued before the Supreme Court in a case that casts uncertainty on the right to have an abortion. If you missed the arguments, we've picked out some important exchanges.