Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

President Biden has big plans for economic recovery, from the 1.9 trillion-dollar COVID relief package to green jobs creation, and polls show most Americans approve, but his plans face skepticism from deficit hawks and workers in the fossil fuel industry.  On Today's Show:U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D KY 3rd, Louisville), chair of the House Budget Committee; William Spriggs, Howard University economics professor, chief economist to the AFL-CIO, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy (2009-2012); and Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute talk about clawing ourselves out of the pandemic economy, and fashioning it into a sustainable system that works for everyone.

Social media giants have a lot of power over our behavior and information access, and attempts to regulate them raise complicated questions about speech and censorship. On Today's Show:Tom Malinowski, U.S. Representative (D NJ-7) who served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor in the Obama administration, joined us to discuss the recent congressional hearings into regulating social media.

Despite how the economy has looked during COVID, this Nobel Prize-winning economist says that once it's over, he actually has high hopes for the future. On Today's Show:Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics, New York Times columnist, distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and the author of (now in paperback) Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future (W. W. Norton & Company, 2020), offers his analysis on Pres. Biden's economic recovery plans and why deficits shouldn't be a big concern.

With the percentage of fully vaccinated people starting to climb, how should we adjust our calculus around risk to ourselves, and our risk to others? On Today's Show:Dhruv Khullar, M.D., contributing writer at The New Yorker and a practicing physician and an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, talks about the latest COVID-19 news including why vaccine hesitancy still exists in healthcare settings, updated CDC guidance, and how the vaccine and new variants of the virus change how we think about risk.

Now that Trump is out of office, and now that he's been acquitted by Congress of inciting an insurrection, what do we do about the white supremacist movement that embraced him? On Today's Show:Kai Wright, host of WNYC's "The United States of Anxiety", talks about what happens to the white supremacy movement without President Trump in the White House.

On Saturday, 7 Republican senators voted to disqualify Trump from future office. Others voted to acquit, but condemned Trump. Still others said he was innocent. On Today's Show:Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine joins us to discuss what's next for the GOP.

After the Democrats wrapped up their impeachment case yesterday, Trump's lawyers make their case today. One of the nations preeminent legal minds brings his analysis of the Senate trial. On Today's Show:Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, host of the CAFE podcast Stay Tuned and Doing Justice, based on his book Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law (Knopf, 2019), offers analysis of the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. NOTE: This podcast is taken from live conversations that take place prior to noon, when the Senate begins its proceedings. Please be mindful that by the time you listen, events may have developed beyond what's discussed in the interview.

Ahead of day 2 of Trump's second impeachment, we look at new evidence presented in the Senate yesterday, and how it changes how we understand what happened on Jan. 6. On Today's Show:Elie Honig, CNN legal analyst and host of the CAFE daily impeachment podcast Third Degree, talks about the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump, including how new evidence presented by House managers yesterday changes what we know about the Capitol insurrection. NOTE: This podcast is taken from live conversations that take place prior to noon, when the Senate begins its proceedings. Please be mindful that by the time you listen, events may have developed beyond what's discussed in the interview.

It's Day 1 of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Beyond both sides' opening arguments, what can we expect by way of evidence that proves what we all saw with our own eyes? On Today's Show:Ari Melber, chief legal correspondent for MSNBC and host of "The Beat with Ari Melber", joins to preview the Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump, and offers legal and political analysis. NOTE: This podcast is taken from live conversations that take place prior to noon, when the Senate begins its proceedings. Please be mindful that by the time you listen, events may have developed beyond what's discussed in the interview.

For those struggling in the pandemic economy, any form of relief would be welcome. So what's the most effective way to make sure COVID doesn't keep people from making ends meet? On Today's Show:Claudia Sahm, economist, founder of Stay-at-Home-Macro Consulting, and contributing writer to Bloomberg Opinion and New York Times Opinion, discusses the latest developments in the push for more COVID relief and the path to a robust economic recovery.