Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll do one of our occasional call-ins of ambivalence, call in and reveal your inner cognitive dissonance on any issue in the news at 212-433-WNYC. What's an issue on which you have both pros and cons in your own mind or heart, 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

We do these occasionally for those who haven't heard them before because politics are so polarized these days and the media can be such a cult of certainty on one side or another that we'd like to be one of the few places where ambivalence is allowed to be said out loud in public.

It's one of our occasional call-ins of ambivalence, call in and reveal your inner conflictedness on any issue in the news at 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692 or if you can do it in 280 characters, you can also tweet your ambivalence about something @BrianLehrer but what are the pros and cons that you're weighing on something you're not sure how you feel about it? We'll take your calls after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC with one of our occasional call-ins of ambivalence, call in on any issue on which you are torn, undecided, grappling with pros and cons, 212-433-WNYC. Dan in Orange County is going to start us off where we ended the last segment on the Olympics. Right, Dan? Don, I'm sorry. Hi, Don.

Don: It's Don. Hi, Brian. I'm torn because some of the events are just spectacular. The opening events were amazing in terms of I'm a graphic designer and I had a total appreciation for the things that were done.

I want to push back on one comment by the last caller, who's talked about the snowflake. It's the Winter Olympics. Snowflakes-- I design logos for one thing, and a snowflake is an appropriate logo, but I'm very torn about just the fact that just watching it is in any way supporting what's going on in China.

Brian Lehrer: Don, thank you very much. Sometimes a snowflake is just a snowflake, and we'll leave that there. John in The Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, John.

John: Thank you, Brian. I'm so happy to be on your program today. I have always struggled to call you, but I don't get through. What I have ambivalence about it's, one, that defend the police slogan today, I'm going to change it. We don't need defunding of the police. The city of New York, 10 million capacity city of New York need the numbers of the police to guarantee security for each and every one of us. I support President Biden and Mayor Eric Adams when they distance themselves-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: John, and forgive me, and I'm glad you got through, and I hope you call us again, but I think you're not calling with ambivalence, you're calling with a firm opinion, right?

John: I'm coming out with where I stand. I stand for retraining of police. I stand for retraining of police, and so I want you, Brian Lehrer, President Biden, Mayor Eric Adam to begin to trumpet that slogan, "retraining of police". Why am I saying this? I came across a situation, and I'm going to give it to you for you to understand why the police should be retrained.

I'm a cab driver. I pick somebody who was being chased with a gun. I did my best by talking to those who crossed my car to kill that guy and they stopped killing him. I went to his destination and dropped that guy who was swearing in my car, "I'm just going to pick my gun from the house and go and fight them," and I advised this guy to stop doing that because of his life because I've just saved his life.

When I dropped him, I called the police to inform them where the gunfight started and where I dropped this guy who is also saying, "I have a gun in my house, please take care of those two places." Do you know why?

Brian Lehrer: John, forgive me. I'm going to leave it there. It sounds like an intense story and a definitely sympathetic view and sorry that this happened to you. I hear the message that you're giving, "retrain the police," I hear you. Please do call us again, but I'm going to move on to some other callers so we keep the call-ins of ambivalence going. Beth on the Lower East Side, you're on WNYC. Hi, Beth.

Beth: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much. I adore your show. My issue, my ambivalence is about the New York State districting. As I told the caller, I've been screaming for the last decade about how Republicans have been gerrymandering and really just to their advantage. It seems like New York State, the Democrats have done it. We have a supermajority. Part of me wants to say, "Yes, they're doing it, we should do it," but I feel like so hypocritical because it just seems that the nonpartisan commission didn't get anywhere and so now the Democrats came in and put their own map and Kathy Hochul signed it. Part of me is like, "Yes, this is good," and part of me feels very hypocritical saying that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for articulating your ambivalence on how they're doing redistricting. The courts may wind up with a final say on that. Kristin in Basking Ridge you're on WNYC. Hi, Kristin.

Kristin: Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. I'm very, very conflicted about the recent rise of trans individuals in women's sports. On one hand, absolutely, I believe that you get to identify as who you are, and you should be allowed to celebrate that and it's important for you to be recognized that way, but on the other hand, there is some level of advantage having gone through puberty of the other gender that may be enhancing your ability to an unfair degree, and I'm just very internally conflicted about that.

Brian Lehrer: Kristin, thank you very much, Adam, in the Bronx you're on WNYC. Hi, Adam, what are you ambivalent about?

Adam: Good morning, Brian. I'm surprising myself that I'm ambivalent about Biden's decision to appoint only a Black woman to the Supreme Court. On the one hand, I don't believe in quotas, I don't believe in affirmative action or diversity for diversity's sake. I very much believe in the traditional liberal idea of judging people solely by the content of their character and viewing all people as part of the human race. I don't see color. These ideas that are no longer in vogue, I still subscribe to, but on the other hand, it is true that Blacks have been excluded from consideration for the Supreme Court for the vast majority of the history of the court.

It is true that women have been excluded from consideration for the vast majority of the history of the court. Given the central importance of the court to the lives of all Americans, it does make sense to ensure that we have the viewpoint of a segment of the population that has never been represented before. Of course, it isn't limited solely to Black women. There have never been any Asian judges. There have never been any Native American judges, but I'm surprising myself in considering race to be a reasonable factor, at least with this particular issue because it's so central.

Brian Lehrer: Adam, thank you so much for articulating your ambivalence. Judith on the Upper West Side, you're on WNYC. Hi, Judith.

Judith: Thank you so much. I'm so ambivalent about the Democratic Party being just too reactionary for my value system. All these years, political prisoners have been totally ignored, and there were many opportunities for Democratic presidents to release, for example, Leonard Peltier. Everyone knows he's innocent. I'm just so upset, and I'm thinking of voting for third party next time round.

Brian Lehrer: Judith, thank you very much, ambivalent about the Democratic Party. Phillip in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Philip, what are you ambivalent about?

Philip: Hi, I'm very conflicted about the COVID-19 home testing kits. I think it's great that individuals can test at home. I think it's really important to have as many people testing as often as possible, but I don't think that the CDC will be able to track the new COVID cases. In the last week, we've seen a drop in the number of COVID cases in the US, but in the last week, we've also seen a huge increase in the availability of the home testing kits so I'm very torn about the idea of testing at home and not having anybody tracking the new COVID cases.

Brian Lehrer: Phillip, thank you very much. It's an interesting question. With the positivity rate going down so much, it's really only the positivity rate on outside the home tests and if people are testing so much more now inside the home, what does the positivity rate really mean? So interesting to be ambivalent about that. Joy in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joy.

Joy: Hi, how are you? I'm really ambivalent about whether I should be working with groups like, say, Braver Angels that are all about talking to people we disagree with and understanding their viewpoints, and trying to come to ground or whether I should just fight against the people I disagree with because what they're doing is so awful that I can't imagine trying to talk to them. I sometimes talk to my friends about this because half of me says, "No, we all have to understand each other and reduce polarization." My friends go, "We can't."

It's almost like what you see in the discussions about Stephen Breyer resigning from the Supreme Court where the other people on the court who are more to the left are saying, "We can't be the intelligent, analytical voice in the middle anymore, we have to fight from as far to the left as we can go." I'm really ambivalent about that.

Brian Lehrer: Ambivalent about whether to try to find common ground or just to fight your ideological enemies because you see them as so dangerous, really, really interesting. One more from Twitter. A listener writes, "I'm ambivalent over the Whoopi Goldberg Holocaust issue. I don't agree with her but the collective anger seems misplaced since the conversation over banning books and/or teaching the Holocaust and slavery in 14 states has been ignored."

We're going to end it there. That one maybe serves as a little bit of a inadvertent promo for tomorrow's show because we're going to have Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League, talking about the Whoopi Goldberg issue and more.

That ends our call-in of ambivalence today, we got some really interesting conflicting that's on the table and I know we don't solve anything by talking about our ambivalence, but we have to be allowed not to just be certain about everything in the media.

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