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The Brian Lehrer Show

Recreational Cannabis in NJ; Puerto Rico's Rights; Radical Change to Fight Racism; Why We Love Puzzles

4 segments
A woman waves the flag of Puerto Rico during a news conference on Puerto Rican statehood on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 2, 2021.

Coming up on today's show: 

  • Caroline Lewis, reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, joins to talk about how the very first weekend of legal recreational cannabis sales in New Jersey went and listeners call to share their stories.

  • In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress can exclude residents of Puerto Rico from some federal disability benefits that are otherwise granted to U.S. citizens. Yarimar Bonilla, professor of Puerto Rican Studies and Anthropology at the City University of New York, monthly columnist at El Nuevo Dia, and incoming director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, talks about the implications of that ruling and what it might mean for the future of statehood for the island.

  • Andre Henry, musician, activist, columnist for Religion News Service and the author of All the White Friends I Couldn't Keep: Hope--and Hard Pills to Swallow--About Fighting for Black Lives (Convergent Books, 2022), talks about his new book and his call for radical change.

  • A. J. Jacobs, NPR contributor, contributing editor at Esquire, and the author of The Year of Living Biblically, It's All Relative and his latest The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life (Crown, 2022), talks about his new book that tries to find the solution to why we like puzzles and whether they teach us valuable skills or are just for fun.

Transcripts are posted to each segment as soon as they are available.