Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast WNYC Studios

A book about a Holocaust survivor's granddaughter is one of about 20 books by author Jodi Picoult banned by a particular county in Florida. On today's show, Jodi Picoult and Suzanne Nossel, PEN America chief executive officer, explain what's at stake as states and local governments continue to ban books.

Congress grilled TikTok's CEO at a hearing on Thursday over the tech company's relationship with China's government, and the app's impact on teen mental health. On today's show, Louise Matsakis, tech reporter for Semafor, recaps the hearing and talks about why members of Congress are so concerned about the wildly popular app.

During the midterms, crime rates and public safety were a hot-button issue, even as discourse around police reform and anti-Black violence continues. On today's show, Neil Gross, sociology professor at Colby College in Maine, former police officer, and author of Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture (Metropolitan Books, 2023), argues police culture can become more humane and effective using the examples of three departments whose chiefs made it happen—in Stockton, California; Longmont, Colorado; and LaGrange, Georgia.

With the Manhattan DA poised to announce an indictment (or not) of former President Trump, here's some background, and what to expect from the possible charges. On today's show, Andrew Weissmann, professor of criminal and national security law at NYU School of Law, lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel's Office, and the author of Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation (Random House, 2020), shares his legal analysis of the case and what may happen next.

Amid questions about how to tackle inflation, and how to mitigate ripple effects from issues in the banking sector, a member of the House Financial Services committee has updates. On today's show, U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D, CT-4) brings us the latest from the Fed on inflation, congressional regulators on banks, and national security related headlines from Ukraine to Jan. 6.

A COVID-era food security expansion of SNAP benefits has expired, returning to pre-pandemic levels. On today's show, Janet Poppendieck, professor emerita of sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York, a co-founder of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College and a senior fellow at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy, discusses the history of SNAP, benefits that used to be known as "food stamps," which first began back in the 1930s.