It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Well, it's the first week of Pride Month

2026. Happy Pride. And we will turn now to Pride Month sponsorships heading into this year.

You know, the Wall Street Journal reported the other day a new trend for the second consecutive year

pride organizations nationwide are facing budget shortfalls as companies including PepsiCo, Nissan,

MasterCard, Citibank, and others have pulled back or withdrawn entirely.

The recent piece written by reporter Patrick Coffey cites economic pressures and fear of political

backlash from the Trump administration's anti-DEI stance. So what does this all say about

corporate allyship and what does it reveal about how

businesses navigate political risk or maybe what's going on in the broader political moment?

And why does what corporations do or don't even matter to human rights?

Joining us now is Riley Steele, Associate Professor of Law at the Columbia University

Law School. Riley's research focuses on the intersection of business and law and politics. He published a

major peer-reviewed 2025-26 study in the American Political Science Review that used empirical data on nearly 100,000

corporate directors and executives to track how corporate America's political orientation has shifted

over two decades with a specific focus on how individual ideology drives firms' public stances on LGBTQ-related legislation.

I know that it's a lot, but it really, really spotlights the current moment.

Hey, Riley, thanks for coming on.

Welcome to WNRC.

Hey, Brian.

Thanks so much for having me.

Delighted to be here.

So your research tracks the political preferences of tens of thousands of corporate directors and other executives.

...