The Brian Lehrer Show

Talk radio these days is so overwhelmingly polarized—or polarizing—that The Brian Lehrer Show can seem more like an artifact than an anomaly. But it’s very much in the present, reuniting the estranged terms “civil” and “discourse” five mornings a week like no other show on the air. Lehrer makes the most of New York’s enormous, sometimes fractious diversity. He takes on the most nettlesome issues of the day, from immigration to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to cops-and-minorities, and deftly keeps his studio guests and his call-in contributors both on point and respectful. On his show, New Yorkers of vastly different backgrounds and circumstances get to know each other. In 2007, Lehrer and his production team experimented with new features such as “Follow-Up Friday,” in which an issue from earlier in the week was reconsidered, and “Democracy’s Living Room,” a two-day event during which listeners of all political stripes took turns explaining their stances. Another feature, dubbed “Crowdsourcing,” included such practical applications as using listeners’ reports to expose wild disparities in the price of milk, lettuce and beer from neighborhood to neighborhood. For facilitating reasoned conversation about critical issues and opening it up to everyone within earshot, a Peabody Award goes to The Brian Lehrer Show.