Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

This week's Democratic Convention will be unlike any in history. But before this unconventional convention begins, we look at what it means in the context of that history. What's at stake? On Today's Show:As the DNC gets underway, Dan Rather, former news anchor for the CBS Evening News, president & CEO of "News & Guts" and now author of the Audible Original Dan Rather: Stories of a Lifetime, looks back on his years covering conventions, including being roughed up by security guards on the convention floor in Chicago in 1968, and offers current analysis. 

Coronavirus has made this a pretty strange election cycle. But with some campaign norms on the chopping block, why not take look at whether debates or conventions are good for democracy? On Today's Show: Elizabeth Drew, long-time journalist and author of Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall (The Overlook Press, 2014), and Molly Ball, Time Magazine's national political correspondent and the author of Pelosi (Henry Holt and Co., 2020), talk about how campaigns are different this year — and Elizabeth Drew's call to end the presidential debates.

Biden tapped Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman to appear on a major party ticket. Was it the right choice for the Biden campaign? On Today's Show:Jonathan Swan, national political reporter for Axios, and Jami Floyd, WNYC legal editor, talk about the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris (D CA) as Joe Biden's running mate. Plus, Swan discusses the experience of conducting a much-watched interview with President Trump on "Axios on HBO."

As workplaces and schools and other public spaces re-open, could good airflow help keep us safe indoors? On Today's Show:Dr. Linsey Marr, the Charles P. Lunsford professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, discusses what scientists know about how COVID-19 moves through the air and how ventilation could help lower the risk of spread.

After besting Bernie in the primary, Biden has his work cut out for him with young voters. Will they protest at the ballot box? Will his VP pick change minds? On Today's Show:Juana Summers, political reporter for NPR covering demographics and culture, on the latest political news and previews next week's Democratic Convention, Biden's VP pick, and whether young people will even tune in to conventions.

What if thinking about race and class in this country isn't enough? What if we considered the distribution of political power in terms of caste instead? On Today's Show:Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns and her latest, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Random House, 2020), argues that beyond race and class, America is structured in a caste hierarchy and how that shapes individuals' lives.

With negotiations stalled in the Senate over the next phase of federal COVID relief, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand talks about what's on the table, and her plan for the post office in a vote-by-mail year.

As Congress works on another round of COVID-19 relief, many are looking for them to extend unemployment benefits. But there's a spate of other issues that workers should keep an eye on. On Today's Show:Millions of Americans are unemployed and waiting for the federal government to come to an agreement on the next coronavirus relief bill. Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, and Ana María Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, talks about where lawmakers are on negotiating this deal, and what they'd like to see come through for workers.

The federal government let the $600 supplemental unemployment benefit expire earlier this week. We check in on Congress's negotiations, and on listeners who needed that money to get by. On Today's Show:Lawmakers remain at an impasse over what to include in the fifth coronavirus relief bill. Emily Cochrane, reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times, covering Congress talks about what's on the table, and listeners' calls on what the end of the $600-a-week unemployment benefit means for your life

This isn't the first time a President with authoritarian tendencies has sent in federal troops to quash protest and unrest. The last time was May 1, 1971. We look at the parallels. On Today's Show:Lawrence Roberts, investigative journalist and the author of Mayday 1971: A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), talks about the anti-war protests of 1971 when President Nixon called in federal troops in D.C.