Banned books are visible at the Central Library, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system, in New York City on Thursday, July 7, 2022.

Examining Free Expression and Protecting the Marginalized

The Brian Lehrer Show | May 8, 2023

In a preview of their PEN World Voices dialog, Ayad Akhtar, president of PEN America, playwright and novelist and the author of Homeland Elegies: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company, 2020), and Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America and the author of We Need To Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy (Beacon Press, 2022), now in paperback, talk about the tension between protecting marginalized groups and freedom of expression.

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'It's chaos': LIRR commuters face shutdown, workarounds on first weekday of strike

The MTA says backup shuttle buses can carry only a fraction of regular LIRR riders.

Gothamist |

The History Wars and America at 250, with the Historian Jill Lepore

Three prominent historians discuss a national milestone arriving in the midst of a politically charged conflict over how Americans see the past. It’s a “goat rodeo,” Lepore says.

The New Yorker Radio Hour |

10-Question Quiz: American History

Author Kenneth C. Davis quizzes listeners on American history.

The Brian Lehrer Show |

Democrats make a run for Stefanik's seat

WNYC News |

On an off-Broadway stage, actors bring immigrant stories alive and spark public debate

Immigrants' stories have been unfolding on an off-Broadway stage in an uncommon way. One is of a doctor in her 40s who fled Zimbabwe. Another featured a Colombian woman who regretted leaving her homeland for the United States. A third entered into a marriage of convenience with an American after overstaying her visa, and then suffered a violent assault in the subway.