This fall, the Brian Lehrer Show is marking 25 years of Brian at WNYC with a year-by-year look at stories that mattered from 1989 to 2014. Find the full schedule and lots more here.

This fall, the Brian Lehrer Show is marking 25 years of Brian at WNYC with a year-by-year look at stories that mattered from 1989 to 2014. Find the full schedule and lots more here.

This fall, the Brian Lehrer Show is marking 25 years of Brian at WNYC with a year-by-year look at stories that mattered from 1989 to 2014. Find the full schedule and lots more here.

TWU Local 100 went out on strike right before Christmas in 2005.  Steven Greenhouse, New York Times labor and workplace correspondent, and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (Anchor, 2009)  looks at how organized labor has fared since --the roll-back of public worker benefits in Wisconsin in 2011 vs. the election of union-backed Bill de Blasio in NYC last year, the decline of private sector unions and the recent push to organize service workers.

A week after his arrest during protests in Ferguson, Dr. Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary professor, and author of (in dialogue with and edited by Christa Buschendorf) Black Prophetic Fire (Beacon Press, 2014), talks about his latest work, a reexamination of the lives and legacies of leading black activists Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells – and what today’s civil rights activists need to remember about them.

Lots of women complain it's hard to meet like-minded mom friends, so Hillary Frank, host of WNYC's podcast The Longest Shortest Time, will help match moms up with other moms looking for new friendships. Give us a call if you're a mom looking for friends, 212-433-WNYC.

→ Event: Speed Dating for Mom Friends at the Bell House in Brooklyn | Wednesday, October 22 | tickets and info here

Andrea Bernstein, senior editor for politics and policy for WNYC News, looks at the ads paid for out of the New York State Democratic Committee "housekeeping account"-- and how closely they skirt the line between Cuomo campaigning and "party building."

Subways and buses shut down for a few days just before Christmas in 2005 when workers went on strike. 25 years in 25 days continues as New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse discusses how labor unions have fared since. Plus: campaign finance loopholes may be helping Governor Cuomo’s campaign; speed dating for mom friends; and Princeton professor Cornel West reexamines the legacies of leading black activists.

Even for New Jersey, 2004 was a particularly corrupt year. Mike Kelly, columnist at The Bergen Record of New Jersey, and author of Bus on Jaffa Road: A Story of Middle East Terrorism and the Search for Justice (Globe Pequot Press 2014), and David Cruz, correspondent for NJTV,  remembers the scandals, from a disgraced fundraiser for then-Governor McGreevey and his eventual resignation to the many smaller instances of tax fraud and embezzlement, and what all of that meant for the state of New Jersey politics.

We're convening a family meeting on 2004: It was a big year for restaurants in New York City - Shake Shack, Momofuku Noodle Bar, The Spotted Pig and Per Se all opened. Shake Shack’s owner Danny Meyer and Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, talk about the rise of foodies. Plus: NYC hosted the Republican National Convention; Facebook debuted and a decade of social media was born; and a look at a particularly corrupt year for New Jersey politics. 

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

Robert Reich on Glass-Steagall (First) | We're Making Robocalls (Starts at 21:00) | David Sedaris on Selected Shorts (Starts at 39:00)

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