WNYC President LaFontaine Oliver On The Campaign To Defund Public Broadcasting

Why does one legal analyst say that the current Supreme Court is operating under a doctrine akin to “no law, just vibes?”On Today's Show:Leah Litman, professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk, co-host of the podcast "Strict Scrutiny" and the author of Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2025), offers her take on the current Supreme Court, the major decisions coming this term.

New York City's CUNY system  recently lost federal funding for more than 70 research grants.On Today's Show:Denis Nash, professor of epidemiology at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and executive director of CUNY’s Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health, talks about the funding he recently lost on research related to COVID vaccine uptake, plus comments on the changes coming to how the COVID vaccine is rolled out for the next season.

Today, we revisit a conversation about the Equal Rights Amendment, and its current status.On Today's Show:Julie Suk, a law professor at Fordham University and the author of We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020), reviews the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, from its introduction by Alice Paul in 1923 through its current disputed status, following passage by a 38th state and President Biden's declaration that it's the "law of the land."

This morning, the House passed a spending bill after many long late nights of negotiations. Now it moves on to the Senate.On Today's Show:U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) talks about her work in Washington, and her view of the Trump and GOP budget proposal.

As President Trump attempts to get the House's new budget bill to pass, lawmakers met overnight to pursue amendments that could lead to compromise. On Today's Show:Marianna Sotomayor, congressional reporter for The Washington Post, where she covers lawmakers and debates on Capitol Hill, offers commentary on the bill's status.

On Sunday, House Republicans released their package of proposals that would cut federal spending on Medicaid and Obamacare.On Today's Show:U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ6), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, discusses what's in the bill, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would cause 8.6 million Americans to lose their health insurance.

We unpack SCOTUS's decision to continue to prohibit the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members.On Today's Show:Emily Bazelon, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate's "Political Gabfest" podcast, Truman Capote fellow for creative writing and law at Yale Law School and author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration (Random House, 2019), offers legal analysis on how the courts are limiting executive power (or not).

Trump's administration has aimed to pare back federal funding to various parts of civic society.On Today's Show:Brian Boucher, contributor for Artnet News and journalist covering the New York art world, talks about how arts organizations are reacting to the Trump administration starting to cut their grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The federal government is aiming to take steps to reduce public funding to public media sources through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.On Today's Show:LaFontaine Oliver, president and CEO of New York Public Radio, talks about the executive order President Trump signed regarding federal funding for public media and what comes next for the NYPR and the broader system.

A Democratic senator outlines his critiques of the Trump administration, and outlines his prescription for protecting the guardrails of democracy.On Today's Show:Chris Murphy, U.S. Senator (D-CT), author ofThe Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy (Random House, 2020) talks about his critique of DHS and the effect of Trump administration policies in Connecticut.