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The New Yorker Radio Hour

Profiles, storytelling and insightful conversations, hosted by David Remnick.

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

John Wilson is a documentary filmmaker, a comedian, and a contemporary philosopher. On his hit HBO show, “How To with John Wilson,” he wandered around New York City filming everyday life, pontificating, and asking strangers questions ranging from the mundane to the esoteric. The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz has written about Wilson, and recently met him at the independent movie theatre that he runs, Low Cinema, in Queens. They discuss Wilson’s newest film, “The History of Concrete,” which premières September 18th. Further reading:“How to Make a Movie House with John Wilson,” by Madeleine Wulfahrt“John Wilson’s Sewage-Treatment-Plant Adventure,” by Andrew Marantz“ ‘How To with John Wilson’ Offers a Martian’s-Eye View of Homo Sapiens’ Habits,” by Alexandra Schwartz New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John Wilson and “The History of Concrete”

Colin Kaepernick had a stunning rise as an N.F.L. quarterback after becoming a full-time starter, in 2012. He was a legitimate dual threat—as effective running the ball as he was throwing it. And, to this day, Kaepernick still holds the record for rushing yards by an N.F.L. quarterback in a playoff game. But his formidable skills as a player were quickly overshadowed by his decision—quiet at first—to engage in protest for social justice a decade ago. He knelt during the national anthem at games, and that generated an enormous amount of controversy, with everyone from his fellow-players to a future President weighing in on his decision. In the aftermath of his demonstrations, the San Francisco 49ers told him that they were going to cut him, and no other team would sign him. In his new memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” Kaepernick describes how this wasn’t even the full extent of the league’s efforts to punish him. He and David Remnick discuss his new book and the consequences of his political activism. “I had football taken away from me,” Kaepernick explains. “I didn’t get to leave on my terms. And I didn’t get to leave because, ‘Oh, you're not good enough to play anymore.’ It was because of the causes I was supporting and the change I was trying to effect. So that leaves a sour taste in your mouth.”Further reading: “The N.F.L.’s Change of Tone, and the Limits of Merely Listening,” by Louisa Thomas“Colin Kaepernick’s Contested Workout and the Power Plays of the N.F.L.,” by Louisa Thomas“Behind Nike’s Decision to Stand by Colin Kaepernick,” by Jelani Cobb“What Will Taking the Knee Mean Now?,” by Doreen St. Félix“The Racial Demagoguery of Trump’s Assaults on Colin Kaepernick and Steph Curry,” by David Remnick New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colin Kaepernick, Ten Years After Taking a Knee

For more than thirty years, Edwidge Danticat has written about the experiences of Haitians and Haitian Americans in fiction, memoir, and journalism. In The New Yorker, she has covered the ways in which the Trump Administration has targeted Haitian immigrants with lies and threats of deportation. In a new novel about a Miami real-estate broker, called “Dèy”—which means “grief” or “mourning” in Haitian Creole—Danticat considers the meaning of home “when home may not want you,” and when violence in Haiti may preclude returning there. She speaks with the New Yorker staff writer Doreen St. Félix about the novel, and what the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians means for the large Haitian American community. Further reading:“The Great Delegalization,” by Dara Lind“The World Cup and the Changing Psyche of the Haitian Diaspora,” by Doreen St. Félix“Miami’s Haitian Community Braces for Deportations,” by Edwidge Danticat“The Haiti That Still Dreams,” by Edwidge Danticat New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Edwidge Danticat on Haitian Americans in a Time of Peril

The political consultant Sarah Longwell runs focus groups of voters, and she has a lot of advice for Democrats seeking to wrest control of the government from MAGA. Longwell, a former Republican disaffected from Donald Trump’s party, presents her playbook to the New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos: go on the offensive talking about corruption; make a positive case for immigration; and adapt to a podcast-driven media environment. “You can go on ‘Joe Rogan’ or not go on ‘Joe Rogan,’ ” she says. “The question is: can you sit for a long period of time and talk to someone who doesn’t know that much about politics and have an engaging conversation? . . . This is how trust is built now, in this screen-to-screen environment.” Longwell’s new book is called “How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.” Further listening: “Can Trump Voters Still Change Their Minds?,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour“A G.O.P. Strategist on the Republican Voters Who Could Abandon Trump,” an episode of The Political Scene New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sarah Longwell, a Former Republican, on “How to Eat an Elephant”

Gloria Steinem, who died on September 2nd, at the age of ninety-two, was one of the most influential figures of our time in politics and feminism. Her work shaped the ideas of generations of Americans. Steinem was one of David Remnick’s very first guests after The New Yorker Radio Hour launched, in 2015; her autobiography, “My Life on the Road,” had just come out. Further reading and viewing:“A Feminist Fractal in ‘The Glorias,’ ” by Anthony Lane from 2020“Road Warrior,” by Jane Kramer from 2015“Glora Steinem Doesn’t Drive,” a short film by The New Yorker from 2015“Feminism 101,” by Rebecca Mead from 2013“Cover Woman,” by Hendrik Hertzberg from 1974“Liberation,” by Anthony Hiss, Jane Boutwell, and Hendrik Hertzberg from 1970 New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gloria Steinem in Conversation with David Remnick, from 2015

In the film “Coyote vs. Acme,” which was released this week, the ingenious but unlucky Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation for damages caused by its malfunctioning merchandise. That is also the premise of the New Yorker staff writer Ian Frazier’s original piece, which inspired the film. The screenwriter Samy Burch reimagined Frazier’s premise as a satire of legal thrillers. “What if Wile E. was actually like a Dustin Hoffman character?” Burch wondered. “This guy out in the desert, working on something obsessively, addicted. . . . If this were humans, would the plot make any sense?” The film features actors such as Will Forte alongside Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, and other “Looney Tunes” characters. Frazier talks with Burch, who was nominated for an Academy Award for “May December,” a drama starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. 
Further reading:

“Coyote V. Acme,” by Ian Frazier
“Toons Have Seldom Been Loonier Than in ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ ” by Justin Chang

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ian Frazier and Samy Burch on “Coyote vs. Acme”

During the height of Roy Cohn’s friendship with Donald Trump, according to the historian Kai Bird, “they were on the phone with each other a dozen times a day.” Bird’s new book, “American Scoundrel,” details Cohn’s profound influence on Trump—whom he met as a young real-estate heir in the nineteen-seventies—and how Cohn is “haunting” politics in our time. “I had written about Roy Cohn in [previous biographies] as this nefarious, minor, awful figure who was disruptive and divisive and unethical. And I suddenly realized that the establishment that I’d been writing about for forty years is gone. Their values and culture, the politics, the bipartisanship . . . that’s all gone,” he tells David Remnick. “Roy Cohn explains something about the dark side of America that I just didn’t understand.” They discuss Cohn’s early career as a prosecutor and his role as the “mastermind” of the McCarthy purges; his service as a lawyer and fixer for Mafia members, politicians, and celebrities; and an allegation of being involved in sex trafficking.
Further reading and listening: 

“How Roy Cohn Taught Donald Trump Everything,” by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
“The Mobster Cosplay of Donald Trump,” by David Remnick
“Adapting Oppenheimer’s Life Story to Film, with Biographer Kai Bird,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
“Roy Cohn and the Making of a Winner-Take-All America,” by Naomi Fry

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kai Bird on Roy Cohn, a Founding Father of Donald Trump’s America

Fox News’ “The Five” is the most-watched program on cable news. So there are millions of eyes on Jessica Tarlov, who occupies the liberal hot seat (alternating with Harold Ford, Jr.) on a panel featuring the diehard conservatives Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, and Jesse Watters. Her exchanges with fellow-panellists tend to get heated, but Tarlov is constantly aware of how she represents liberal views in front of a largely hostile audience—and of how liberal viewers may misunderstand her colleagues. Her new book, largely inspired by her work on Fox, is called “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends.” 
Further listening:

“Bret Baier on Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship with Fox News,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jessica Tarlov, a Lonely Liberal on Fox News’ “The Five”

In the 2026 midterm elections, close finishes in crucial swing states have put a spotlight on the divide between the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressive wings. Jon Lovett straddles that divide. He was a longtime speechwriter for Hillary Clinton and then for Barack Obama, but, as a host of the podcasts “Pod Save America” and “Lovett or Leave It,” he’s been critical of the Party’s establishment. Lovett sat down with David Remnick to answer listeners’ questions about the midterms and what they suggest about the 2028 Presidential election. In a “broad trend,” Lovett says, centrist Democrats “put up candidates, and they say, ‘Vote for us, or else.’ And [voters] just keep picking ‘or else.’ . . . Across the board, I don’t know what this establishment of the Democratic Party stands for, and neither does the country.”
Further listening: 

“ ‘Pod Save America’ ’s Jon Lovett on Trump: ‘The Threat of Jail Time Sharpens the Mind,’ ” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jon Lovett Answers Your Questions

Since a famous case against a California utility, the name Erin Brockovich has become synonymous with a fighter taking on big polluters. Earlier this year, Brockovich began receiving e-mails from people worried about the construction of A.I. data centers, which is happening at a frenetic rate all over the country. People expressed concerns about the loss of farmland and natural areas; disruptions to the water table; deleterious noise; and substantial usage of electricity and water, leading to rising utility bills. She speaks with David Remnick about her mapping project to document data-center construction and environmental complaints. “In my thirty years,” she tells Remnick, “I’ve never really seen the people show up like they are at a very local level.” 
Further reading:

“A.I. Is Now a Major Election Issue,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
“Inside the Data Centers That Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid,” by Stephen Witt

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erin Brockovich Takes on Data Centers

The data centers that power artificial intelligence are being built at a rampant pace, and are spurring resistance all over the country. Apart from public concerns about A.I.’s impact on jobs, privacy, and other aspects of life, data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water. New York has passed a moratorium on new data centers; fourteen other states have considered restrictions. The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is taking this fight to the national level. He and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation that calls for a nationwide moratorium on data centers to allow time for more research and public input on the issue. The furor, Sanders tells David Remnick, cuts across political divisions. The opponents “are conservatives, they are progressives, they are moderates,” he adds. “They’re saying, What the hell are we doing? What is this gonna contribute to? Is this gonna result in my kid not being able to have a job? Is this gonna result in my not having any privacy? Why am I aiding these large corporations owned by the wealthiest people in the world who [couldn’t] care less about me? Let’s stand up.”  
Further reading and listening: 

“When Bernie Sanders Headed for the Hills,” by Jill Lepore
“Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Fight the Oligarchy,” by Emily Witt
“Geoffrey Hinton: ‘It’s Far Too Late’ to Stop Artificial Intelligence,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bernie Sanders Takes on Data Centers

Sam Smith burst onto the music scene in 2014 with their début album, “In the Lonely Hour.” It was one of the best-selling albums of the decade and won Smith three Grammys, for Best Pop Vocal Album and both Record and Song of the Year, for the massive hit “Stay With Me.” Smith’s early hits were ballads of heartbreak and unrequited love, so their new album marks something of a change: it’s an album of love songs, requited in this case. Many were written about Smith’s fiancé, the fashion designer Christian Cowan. Smith talked about the writing process that led to their new album “Hazel Eyes,” which comes out August 21st, with New Yorker Radio Hour producer Jeffrey Masters.
Further reading:

“Sam Smith’s Sugary Loneliness and the Choir Effect,” by Doreen St. Félix
“Getting the James Bond Song Right,” by Ian Crouch

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sam Smith on Their New Album, “Hazel Eyes”

One of the biggest stories of this election cycle is the emergence, for the first time in a long time, of socialism as a force on the national stage. Inspired perhaps by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani, D.S.A. candidates are running in congressional and state-level races all over the country. But some of those candidates, David Remnick thinks, talk more like F.D.R. Democrats than like students of Marx. How socialist is democratic socialism, and how does it square with the future of the Democratic Party? Remnick talks with a co-chair of the D.S.A., Megan Romer, who recently went viral for a lightning round of questions pitched at her on Fox News. Romer defends controversial D.S.A. positions on workers’ ownership of the means of production, U.S. support of Israel, the war in Ukraine, and defunding the police.  
Further reading: 

“Will Left-Wing Democrats Reinvent the Party or Hurt Its Chances in November?,” by Isaac Chotiner
“Which Way Should the Democratic Party Go Now?,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
“An Idea for Democrats to Keep It Together in 2028,” by Bill McKibben
“Can Zohran Mamdani Sway the Commie Corridor’s ‘Civil War’?,” by Naaman Zhou
“The Woman Who Made the Machine That Made Zohran Mamdani,” by Molly Fischer

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How Socialist Is the D.S.A.? Megan Romer Explains

An incumbent mayor of Los Angeles normally faces smooth sailing for reëlection, but for the Democrat Karen Bass her term has been marked by criticism of her handling of last year’s devastating wildfires and the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis. The city-council member Nithya Raman was a former ally of Bass who now faces her in a November runoff election. Raman is aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, and she talks with David Remnick about her frustration with Democratic leadership, which she says is  lacking “urgency around the issues that I felt mattered most, and, in some ways, a moving away from the direction that I felt L.A. needed to be moving.”
Further listening:

“Mayor Karen Bass on Marines in Los Angeles,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Democratic Socialist Running for Mayor of Los Angeles

Michigan’s Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats hoping to take control of the Senate in 2026. The midterms are reflecting a surge of energy behind left-leaning Democratic candidates—sometimes known as the Mamdani effect—challenging their party’s establishment and its tarnished image. Abdul El-Sayed, a former health official, firmly supports Medicare for All and the abolition of ICE. He’s ahead of his moderate Democratic rival, Haley Stevens, in most polls. But that has some Democrats worried that El-Sayed is too radical to win the general election in a state that narrowly voted for Trump in 2024. El-Sayed talks with David Remnick about being “radicalized in medical school,” the trap of expressing righteous anger as an Arab candidate, how Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-science views have taken such a hold on the public, and why AIPAC and other lobbying groups have spent sixty million dollars opposing him in this election.  
Further reading and listening: 

“Michigan Is the Next Big Test for the Democratic Party,” by Jason Zengerle
“Can the Democrats Get It Together?,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin
“Governor Gretchen Whitmer on COVID-19, Trump, and the Accusations Against Joe Biden,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed Is “Not a Burn-It-Down Kind” of Candidate

Though President Donald Trump came back to the White House with broad support for his border policies, his Administration’s immigration crackdown has been broadly unpopular. The staff writer Jonathan Blitzer spoke with two representatives in Congress about the blowback: Jason Crow, of Colorado, and María Salazar, of Florida. Crow is one of the Democratic Party’s recruitment co-chairs for the midterm elections, a role that entails helping candidates figure out what to say about issues that have proved controversial for their party. Salazar, whose district includes much of Miami, is a diehard Trump supporter, but many of her Republican constituents are outraged at how ICE has been operating, and she remains hopeful that the Administration might make a sharp turn. “Mr. President, you’ve got to change the way when it comes to immigration,” she’d like to tell him. “Otherwise, we’re not going to have a Republican Party.”
Further listening:

“A Member of the ‘Seditious Six’ on Reviving the Democratic Party,” an episode of The Political Scene featuring Jason Crow

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Democrat and a Republican in Congress on the Blowback from Mass Detention

In 2025, as ICE was struggling to meet an impossible goal of three thousand immigration arrests per day, the agency took an unprecedented step: picking people up when they arrived at immigration court. These were immigrants seeking legal status through appropriate channels. The staff writer Jonathan Blitzer, who has been reporting on immigration for over a decade, tells the story of one man detained this way, a Guinean refugee who was seeking asylum after a severe beating and death threats by his government. His first name is Alsainy, and his story exemplifies the ways that the Trump Administration is sabotaging the system of legal immigration. 
Further reading: 

“Inside ICE’s Largest Detention Center,” by Jonathan Blitzer
“For the Nation’s Birthday, Making It Harder to Become an American,” by Jonathan Blitzer
“Trump’s Mass-Detention Campaign,” by Jonathan Blitzer

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One Refugee’s Journey Through ICE Detention

The film critic Richard Brody talks with David Remnick about three notable films this summer: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” an epic adaptation of Homer’s poem, arriving amid buzz and huge advance ticket sales; the shoplifting comedy “I Love Boosters,” the second film from the sci-fi-inflected director Boots Riley; and “Remake,” the latest from the documentary legend Ross McElwee, in which he pays tribute to his late son, Adrian, an aspiring filmmaker.   
Further reading:

“Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Leaves the Gods in the Outtakes,” by Richard Brody
“ ‘Remake’ Confronts a Father’s Grief and a Filmmaker’s Responsibility,” by Richard Brody
“Why the Odyssey Keeps Defeating Filmmakers,” by David Denby
“ ‘I Love Boosters,’ Reviewed: A Socialist-Surrealist Shoplifting Fantasy,” by Richard Brody

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pick Three: Richard Brody on “The Odyssey” and Other Summer Films

Rahm Emanuel is a Democratic Party elder, having served in the Clinton and Obama Administrations and as mayor of his native Chicago for two terms. He’s a centrist known for valuing political wins over ideology, making it especially notable that Emanuel recently gave a blistering speech in Israel, calling the country’s path “not sustainable politically.” He says that the United States should no longer grant Israel unconditional military support, and explains his own plan for a diplomatic Middle East solution that he calls a “twenty-three-state solution.” Emanuel, who hasn’t formally announced but appears to have embarked on a campaign for the 2028 Presidency, defends his position on trans rights, which has angered many on the left, and his contention that the Democratic Party is overly concerned with identity politics. 
Further reading: 

“Trump and Rahm Emanuel Both Love a Fight, Especially Against Each Other,” by Susan B. Glasser.
“Rahm Emanuel’s Lessons for Hilary Clinton,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
“The Sudden but Well-Deserved Fall of Rahm Emanuel,” by Rick Perlstein
“Emanuel in Full,” by Lizzie Widdicombe

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rahm Emanuel Says Israel’s Path Is “Not Sustainable Politically”

The Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, has officially been terminated. Its July 4th sunset date was part of Donald Trump’s original executive order that created the agency, which Elon Musk ran. During his tenure, Musk oversaw the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D., which used to provide life-saving medical and nutritional programs around the world. Musk, who recently became the world’s first trillionaire, claims that there is no evidence that a single person died after DOGE cancelled more than eighty per cent of U.S.A.I.D.’s programs, cutting basic health-care access to some ninety-five million people. Atul Gawande disagrees. He was the assistant administrator for global health at  U.S.A.I.D. until he stepped down, the same week Trump ended U.S. foreign assistance. Gawande says an estimated seven hundred thousand people have already died as a result of the cuts. David Remnick speaks with the longtime New Yorker contributor about the profound effects of ending U.S.A.I.D.’s work abroad, Musk’s involvement in these decisions, and the deaths it all has wrought.   
Further reading, viewing, and listening: 

“The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands,” film by Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong, text by Atul Gawande
“Hundreds of Thousands Will Die,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
“Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance,” by Atul Gawande

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How an Estimated Seven Hundred Thousand People Have Died from DOGE’s U.S.A.I.D. Cuts

With all the sports news at play this summer, from the New York Knicks winning the N.B.A. Finals to Donald Trump having a direct impact on FIFA’s decisions during the World Cup, it’s time for a deep dive into the biggest sports moments of late. The New Yorker sportswriter Louisa Thomas and David Remnick talk about the most significant stories of the week, and what to keep an eye on in the days and weeks ahead.
Further reading, viewing, and listening:

“The U.S. Crashes Out of the World Cup,” by Louisa Thomas
“Serena Williams Returns to Wimbledon,” by Louisa Thomas
“The Knicks Win the N.B.A. Title: A Post-Game Conversation,” with David Remnick, Vinson Cunningham, and Louisa Thomas

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The World Cup, the Knicks, and LeBron James’s Fate: An All-Time Summer in Sports

The comedian Fred Armisen has a thing for sound: he’s a former punk-rocker who gets a lot of comic mileage from doing accents, and he released an album of sound effects—a modern update of a novelty genre from his youth. “100 Sound Effects” came out last year, on the venerable indie label Drag City. The track titles are themselves little punch lines: “Guitar Tuned but Still Somehow Out of Tune,” “Supportive Booing at a Speech,” and “Terrified Audience at an Authoritarian Nation Official Event.” Armisen talked with the staff writer Michael Schulman about sound effects and the origins of his love for accents, and they went out to do some sound recording of their own on the summer streets of New York.   
This segment was produced with assistance from John DeLore. 
This segment originally aired on August 29, 2025.
Further reading: 

“Fred Armisen Goes Bang! Zip! Zoop!,” by Michael Schulman
“Shakespeare, Off the Cuff,” by Mike O’Brien and Fred Armisen

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Sounds of Summer, with Fred Armisen

The unofficial anthem of New York City is “Empire State of Mind,” the Jay-Z song with that unforgettable hook, sung by Alicia Keys. So it was only fitting that when New York celebrated the Knicks’ N.B.A. Finals victory, Keys took the stage at City Hall to sing it. It was a classic New York moment, for an artist who is herself a true New Yorker. In her musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” Keys uses her songs to tell the story of a teen-ager growing up, like Keys, in the titular Manhattan neighborhood, near Times Square—a “place of the have-nots,” as she told David Remnick, with “this unique balance between that grime, and the potential of Broadway.” They spoke when “Hell’s Kitchen” was in previews; it went on to win two Tony Awards, and recently began a national tour. 
This segment originally aired on March 29, 2024.
Further reading: 

“‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Brings Alicia Keys’s Musical Power to the Public,” by Helen Shaw

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alicia Keys’s New York Musical Goes on National Tour

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experience, but does have a track record of going after the President’s perceived enemies. Plus, the panel discusses a recent Washington Post investigation that raised new questions about the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and her alleged ties to a religious cult. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From The Political Scene: Donald Trump’s Dangerous Politicization of America’s Spy Agencies

Americans tend to see the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as milestones in world history that inaugurated the era of modern democracy. But the British, unsurprisingly, see these events quite differently. David Remnick talks with the historians who host the popular podcast “The Rest Is History,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. Growing up in Britain, Sandbrook explains, the Revolution seemed like “a parade of quite boring men talking very earnestly about liberty, [with] battles that involved twenty people in a field somewhere. . . . It’s not Waterloo!” The King was “annoyed” to lose the thirteen colonies to the new nation, but, for his government, “it could have been a lot worse.” Sandbrook and Holland discuss historical events that overshadow the American Revolution in the British mind; the 1619 Project and the subject of slavery; the “colossally consequential” Presidency of Donald Trump; and the fate of the British monarchy. 
Further reading and listening:  

“The American Revolution Wasn’t the Main Event,” by Daniel Immerwahr
America at 250, a special issue of The New Yorker
“Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?,” by Jill Lepore
“Scandal, Protest, Goofiness, and Grandeur at the U.S. Bicentennial,” by Jill Lepore
“We Could Have Been Canada,” by Adam Gopnik 

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

America at 250: A View from Britain, with “The Rest Is History”

When “Jaws” hit theatres in 1975, no one—neither the studio executives involved nor the film’s twenty-six-year-old director, Steven Spielberg—was betting on its success. But it dominated at the box office and promptly revolutionized the way movies were promoted, distributed, and merchandised. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz trace how Spielberg inaugurated a new phenomenon in Hollywood: the blockbuster. He would tap his own playbook again and again with such hits as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.,” and “Jurassic Park,” all of which drew impressive audiences and profits. The hosts talk through his filmography, culminating in his new release, “Disclosure Day,” which both replicates and iterates on themes and techniques found in his earlier work. Though other directors may share his capacity for spectacle and action-packed set pieces, much of his appeal lies in his profound earnestness. “What Spielberg is so good at is bringing the human to the fore in these extreme, sci-fi circumstances,” Schwartz says. “And that’s what makes a great blockbuster.”
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From Critics at Large: Steve Spielberg's Blockbusters

The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with David Remnick at the 92nd Street Y, in New York, on Monday evening, after the Trump Administration announced a memorandum of understanding to end its war in Iran. Remnick asked whether the United States lost this war. “Yes,” Clinton replied. “The United States has come out weaker. Iran has come out stronger.” According to Clinton, Israel repeatedly tried to pressure the Obama Administration into backing a similar action in Iran, but she didn’t take the bait. “They would say things like ‘Our planes are on the tarmac,’ ” Clinton recalled. “And I’d say, ‘Well, good luck. Great. Why are you doing this?’ ” They also discuss Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term, and its fateful consequences. “He made a terrible mistake,” she said. Had Biden stayed with his plan of serving for one term, “I believe whoever emerged . . . would have beaten Donald Trump.”
 
Further reading and listening: 

“Hillary Clinton on the Psychology of Autocrats,” an episode of The Political Scene 
“Hillary Clinton Explains What Happened,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
“The Broadway Life of Hillary Clinton,” by Michael Schulman
“Curtis Sittenfeld’s ‘Rodham’ Offers the Catharsis of Uncomplicated Regret,” by Nora Caplan-Bricker

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hillary Clinton on How Donald Trump Lost the Iran War

The sports journalist Pablo Torre recently won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting for an investigation on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Torre talks with David Remnick about the challenge of investigative reporting in professional sports—where leagues, owners, players, and sometimes even fans don’t welcome hard questions. “As much as I am doing that and urging people to join me in the pool,” he says, “it kind of feels like I’m the guy who is the proverbial turd” in that pool. But as private equity invests massive sums in teams, he says, the work is even more necessary—and that fans do care when misdeeds are revealed.
Further reading: 

“Lessons in Fanhood from the Knicks,” by Vinson Cunnigham
“The Knicks: The Only Game in Town,” by David Remnick

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Sports Journalist Pablo Torre Has a Pulitzer, but Still Feels Like the “Turd” in the Pool

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, she became a prominent spokesperson for the families of Israeli hostages. Throughout Hersh’s captivity, and then after his murder, Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Chicago and emigrated to Israel in 2008, argued that Israel’s priority should be to bring the hostages home, and that the killing of all innocents, Israeli and Palestinian, must stop. She advocated with Israeli politicians, Pope Francis, and other leaders, and she addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2024. She recently spoke with David Remnick about her new book, “When We See You Again,” and how she has continued her work as a public figure despite unending grief. “People are desperate for us to be angry . . . to feel things that I think that they assume they would feel if they were in the position that we are in. But the truth is, I’m open to feeling anything,” she reflects. “I put Hersh in the ground on September 2, 2024. After that, I’m in a completely different universe.” 
Further reading: 

“Gaza’s Broken Politics,” by Mohammed R. Mhawish
“The End of Israel’s Hostage Ordeal,” by Ruth Margalit
“Why Hamas Agreed to Release the Hostages,” by Isaac Chotiner
“Hope and Grief in Israel After the Gaza Ceasefire Deal,” by Ruth Margalit

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin on Losing a Son in Gaza

In April, the four crew members of NASA’s Artemis II mission were the first humans to ever glimpse something that cannot be seen from Earth—the so-called dark side of the moon. The mission’s commander, the former Navy captain Reid Wiseman, is fifty years old, which also makes him the oldest person ever to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Wiseman sat down recently with the New Yorker contributor David W. Brown. They talked about the challenge of NASA returning to the moon after many decades, Wiseman’s struggle to parent his two daughters while training, and the strangeness and beauty of returning to Earth. “One thing that really did surprise me was how quickly Earth gets so small out the window,” Wiseman explains. “It’s like a fingernail, almost; the size of a quarter. It’s just impossibly tiny out there. There’s a little tiny super-bright crescent of an Earth.” 
Further reading and listening: 

“The Leader of NASA’s Artemis II Mission Is Still Moonstruck,” by David W. Brown
“What Will the Artemis II Moon Mission Teach Us?,” by David W. Brown
“A New Era of Moon Exploration Is Upon Us,” by David W. Brown

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Seeing the Dark Side of the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II Mission

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, was one of a number of Kennedy family members who spoke out against the policies and the character of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Schlossberg became a public figure on social media, often trolling the right, doing his imitation of Vladimir Putin, or claiming that Usha Vance was carrying his baby. But, when Schlossberg decided to run for an open seat in Congress, critics pointed to his lack of experience in governing, or even holding a job. In some ways, Schlossberg seems a test case for how social-media influence may translate into electoral politics. “I understand that content creation is a new profession, and that it’s not synonymous for many people with a quote-unquote real job,” Schlossberg tells David Remnick. “I think that my experience is exactly what the Democratic Party needs right now from candidates.” 
Further reading: 

“How a Congressional Primary Became a Proxy Battle Over A.I.,” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
“ ‘Love Story’ Is a Forgettable Elegy for Gen X,” by Doreen St. Félix
“A Battle with My Blood,” by Tatiana Schlossberg

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jack Schlossberg, the Kennedy Running for Congress in New York

In a guest appearance on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” David Remnick, who hosts the New Yorker Radio Hour, discusses the Democratic Party’s identity crisis and the candidates vying in the midterm elections; the late newspaper magnate Donald Newhouse, and the importance of editorial independence in journalism; Remnick’s upcoming live taping at the Tribeca Festival, with “Pod Save America” ’s Jon Lovett, on June 10th; and, most important of all, the Knicks. 
Join David Remnick and Jon Lovett at the Tribeca Festival.
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bonus: David Remnick Takes Calls on the Midterms and the Media

Colson Whitehead is one the few novelists, and the only still alive, to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction—for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys.” Whitehead’s protagonist in the Harlem trilogy is Ray Carney, a small-time crook who fences stolen goods while working as a furniture salesman. Ray first appeared in “Harlem Shuffle,” and the final book of the trilogy, “Cool Machine,” will be published in July. David Remnick and Whitehead discuss the trilogy’s second book, “Crook Manifesto,” and how David Bowie inspired Whitehead’s genre-hopping approach to fiction.
This segment originally aired on July 21, 2023.
Further reading and listening: 

“The Theresa Job,” by Colson Whitehead
“Colson Whitehead on Historical Heists,” by Deborah Treisman
“The Match,” by Colson Whitehead

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colson Whitehead on His Harlem Trilogy

As control of the Senate hangs in the balance, many eyes are on Dan Osborn, of Nebraska. He’s a dream candidate for the Democrats: a mechanic in the food-processing industry, a former president of his local union, and a veteran of the Navy and the Army National Guard. But Osborn isn’t a Democrat; he’s running as an independent. Polls show a close or tied race with the Republican incumbent, Pete Ricketts, an heir to a financial fortune. David Remnick talks with Osborn about leading a strike at a Kellogg’s plant; how Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting voters in an agricultural state; and Osborn’s decision to not caucus with either party if he wins the seat.
Further reading: 

“Can the Democrats Take Back the Senate?,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dan Osborn, the Independent Senate Candidate Who Could Tip Nebraska

The Trump Administration has made little secret of its desire to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency and give states the responsibility to respond to all manner of natural disasters on their own. FEMA has endured tremendous internal strife over leadership, and reports have suggested its mission has been compromised by partisan decision-making: President Trump—the sole arbiter of who ultimately gets FEMA relief—has rejected aid for Democratic-led states at the highest rate in the agency’s history.  This has led to accusations of emergency aid being used as a “political cudgel,” and has had a chilling effect on some of the rank-and-file staff at the agency. The New Yorker Radio Hour’s Adam Howard speaks to a longtime employee of FEMA about what’s going on behind the scenes, and whether it could have a negative impact on the agency’s ability to respond to the next emergency. 
The subject of this interview is currently working for FEMA, a federal agency, and he asked to remain anonymous. His voice has been digitally regenerated for the audio of this interview.
Further reading and listening: 

“American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA,” by “On the Media”
“Outrage and Paranoia After Hurricane Helene,” by Jessica Pishko
“For the Victims of Florence, Trump Needs to Prove that He Can Get Hurricane Recovery Right,” by Doug Bock Clark and Charles Bethea
“Inequality and Hurricane Harvey,” by Ben Taub

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A FEMA Insider Says Morale Has Never Been Lower at the Embattled Agency

There will be a variety of celebrations to honor America’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary this year. Much of it is to be expected: fireworks, red, white, and blue lights, even a military parade. But something else is happening, something that probably wouldn’t occur if anyone other than Donald Trump were President. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier league for mixed martial arts, is staging a fight at the White House. The U.F.C. was founded in 1993, and exploded in popularity after Dana White took over as president of the company, in 2001. He’s also been friends with Donald Trump for a quarter century, and spoke on the President’s behalf at all three Republican National Conventions where Trump was the nominee. He’s stumped for him at rallies, and Trump even called him up to speak at his victory celebration on Election Night in 2024. David Remnick and White discuss his remarkable rise to prominence, and his relationship with the increasingly unpopular President. “He’s not a racist,” White tells Remnick. “He’s not a fascist. He loves this country. And if you’re an American—race, religion, whatever it is—President Trump is on your team, that I guarantee you.”
Further reading: 

“Donald Trump’s U.F.C. Victory Party,” by Sam Eagan
“Cage-Fighting During a Pandemic: Is This the Future of Sports?,” by Kelefa Sanneh
“Fighting for Trump: The U.F.C. Comes to New York City,” by Kelefa Sanneh

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The U.F.C. President, Dana White, on Donald Trump: “He’s Not a Racist”

The staff writer and historian Jill Lepore is an admirer of the Federal Writers’ Project, and the man-on-the-street form of documentary it helped to pioneer. This type of journalism, she thinks, is integral to the democratic project. As part of a special episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour, Lepore collaborated with the audio-storytelling group Transom to create a new documentary on how Americans perceive their country on the eve of its two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary. Producers conducted interviews in Illinois, California, Louisiana, Vermont, and Utah, in gas stations, city parks, and malls, on street corners and dairy farms, asking people how they see themselves in the American story, how they feel about America at two hundred and fifty, and what they imagine the tricentennial of independence will be like. 
The New Yorker Radio Hour’s collaboration with Transom was produced by Sophie Crane. It was recorded by Eve Abrams, Scott Carrier, Erica Heilman, Yohance Lacour, and David Weinberg. Mixing and sound design by Josh Crane. Music by Jon Evans and Matthias Bossi at Stellwagen Symphonette. It was created as part of Transom’s Listeners Project, an experiment in hyperlocal documentary storytelling. 
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

America at 250: A View from the Streets

The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence arrives during intense disputes about American history, as the Trump Administration demands a more glorifying view of the nation’s past at federally run historical sites and in federally funded projects. The staff writer Jill Lepore (who won the Pulitzer Prize in History this month for her book “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution”) guest-hosts a special episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour about this fraught moment, reflecting on the responsibility of academic historians to shape the public debate. She compares our moment with the bicentennial—which fell in the wake of the Vietnam War and the scandals of Richard Nixon’s Presidency—in a conversation with the Yale historian Beverly Gage. Lepore looks at the nature of the country’s war over history with Jelani Cobb, the dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer at The New Yorker. They discuss the Donald Trump-approved “Freedom 250” projection on the Washington Monument, and talk about how Americans can meaningfully participate in the semiquincentennial. If “we’re sitting around waiting for the occupant of the White House to tell us what American history means,” Lepore says, “you just kind of want to walk into traffic.” 
Further reading: 

America at 250, a special issue of The New Yorker
“Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?,” by Jill Lepore
“Scandal, Protest, Goofiness, and Grandeur at the U.S. Bicentennial,” by Jill Lepore
“Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Complicated Commemorations,” by Jelani Cobb
“This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History,” by Beverly Gage

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The History Wars and America at 250, with the Historian Jill Lepore

Harriet Clark’s novel, “The Hill,” is one of the most anticipated works of fiction of the year. It’s a story of a girl growing up visiting her mother, who is serving a life sentence in prison for a politically motivated crime. And although “The Hill” is a work of fiction, it follows the contours of Clark’s own life closely: her mother is Judy Clark, who drove a getaway car after a robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed. One of “The Hill” ’s enthusiastic admirers is Rachel Aviv, a staff writer at The New Yorker. She spoke with Clark about the power of fiction, her mother’s life story, and the power of narrative when thinking about how to confront carceral systems.
Further reading: 

“Harriet Clark’s Début Is a New Kind of Coming-of-Age Novel,” by James Wood
“The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s Rapists United France and Fractured Her Family,” by Rachel Aviv

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Growing Up with a Mother in Prison

The contributing writer Peter Slevin met with Barack Obama at the new Obama Presidential Center, which opens next month, in Chicago, and asked him the question on a lot of Democrats’ minds: Where is he, and why isn’t he doing more to help the country in a moment of crisis? Slevin shares excerpts from his interview, during which Obama explains the limits of his role, and why he should no longer be the figurehead for his party. Slevin also speaks with David Remnick about why the famously optimistic President has lost some of his confidence in the American prospect. “I would be dishonest if I didn’t acknowledge that,” Obama admitted. 
Further reading: 

“Barack Obama Considers His Role in the Age of Trump,” by Peter Slevin
“Presidents’ Days: From Obama to Trump,” by David Remnick

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Barack Obama in the Trump Era

Most basketball fans first took note of Steve Kerr when he played for the Chicago Bulls in the nineteen-nineties, but it’s through coaching that Kerr really came to the fore in the N.B.A. For more than twelve years, he’s led the Golden State Warriors to four titles, and a record seventy-three-win season, in 2016. He also took home an Olympic gold medal as the coach of the U.S. men’s team in 2024. Kerr has used his platform, at times, to wade into politics. He’s spoken at the Democratic National Convention, and his name comes up in conversations about candidates for higher office. He’s also been vocal about President Donald Trump, which is not without some risk. “Calling the President a buffoon? I kind of regret that, even though I felt it in my heart, even though a lot of people agreed with me,” Kerr tells the staff writer Charles Bethea.
 
Further reading: 

“Has Steve Kerr Had Enough?,” by Charles Bethea
“U.S.A. Basketball Is Still an Awkward Fit at the Olympics,” by Louisa Thomas

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The N.B.A. Legend Steve Kerr

In the governor’s race in California, the leading Republican candidate appears to be Steve Hilton, a British-born political consultant and former Fox News contributor. Hilton has been endorsed by Donald Trump, which may not help him in the heavily Democratic state. His lead may owe something to California’s unusual primary system, but it’s not the first time a Republican has had a strong showing in the state: former Republican governors include Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hilton is running on a platform emphasizing affordability, cutting waste in the government, and increasing oil and natural-gas production. He talks with David Remnick about how a Republican might win this election, and how he would govern with a minority of Californians supporting him.
 
Further reading: 

“Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game,” by Nathan Heller
“California Strikes Back in the Redistricting War,” by Jon Allsop

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How a Trump-Endorsed Republican Could Become California’s Next Governor

Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of a new collection of short stories entitled “Fat Swim.” Her work questions body image and the suppression of fatness in contemporary culture; Eisenberg recently paid for a billboard over a busy highway in Philadelphia bearing the slogan “Your gut is a terrible thing to lose.” Eisenberg talked with The New Yorker’s Jennifer Wilson about using fiction to explore body image, and the fatphobia that she finds in literature by some of today’s acclaimed writers.  
  
Further reading: 

“Fat Swim,” by Emma Copley Eisenberg

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“Fat Swim” and Literature’s Fatphobia Problem

One of Donald Trump’s few critics within his party is the libertarian-leaning senator Rand Paul, from Kentucky. Paul was recently the sole Republican to vote in favor of restricting the President’s power to make war in Iran. He also opposed Trump on tariff policy, and on his budget bill in 2025. “He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything,” the President fumed. Paul ran for President in 2016, and is considering another run for the White House in 2028. He talks with David Remnick about how he would differentiate himself from J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio; about his opposition to the attack on Iran; and about Pete Hegseth invoking Christianity in the war. “People quoting the Old Testament about smiting the enemy” concerns Paul greatly: “If this becomes Christians versus Muslims, I don’t see a quick end to a war.”
 
Further reading: 

“The End of Limits on a President’s Wars,” by Ruth Marcus
“Why Rand Paul Ran Aground,” by Kelefa Sanneh

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why Senator Rand Paul Voted to Limit Donald Trump’s War Powers

When Patrick Radden Keefe was living in London while shooting the TV adaptation of his book “Say Nothing,” he heard about a teen-ager who fell from a luxurious apartment tower in mysterious circumstances. As he looked into it, he learned that the boy, Zac Brettler, had assumed an alternate identity as the son of a Russian oligarch, and had connected with dangerous people—just as mysterious. His story in The New Yorker, “A Teen’s Fatal Plunge into the London Underworld,” became the basis of his new book “London Falling.” “It’s not crime, per se, that interests me,” Radden Keefe tells David Remnick, “but the intermingling of the licit and illicit worlds, and the ways in which people deviate from a kind of conventional morality by degrees—and then the stories that they tell themselves about doing that.” He shares recordings from Brettler’s parents of conversations that they had as they sought to uncover what had happened to their son.

  
Further reading: 

“London Falling,” by Patrick Radden Keefe
“A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

 
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Patrick Radden Keefe on “London Falling,” His Book About a Teen-Ager’s Mysterious Life and Death

Omer Bartov is an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. He grew up in a Zionist home and served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, but he has long been concerned about Israel’s use of military power. In a new book called “Israel: What Went Wrong?,” Bartov argues that Zionism has morphed into an ideology of extremism that led to genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7th. “There is growing criticism of American support for these kinds of Israeli policies, both on the American left and on the American right,” Bartov tells David Remnick. Bartov believes that Israel requires “shock therapy” because “it has not still come to identify the limits of its own power, because those limits are in Washington, DC and it's there that those limits have to be set.” “For Israel, that would be good, because I think Israel needs to be liberated from that kind of dependence on American power. I think, for American society and for American Jewry, that’s a very bad thing because there is a rise of . . . antisemitism from the Tucker Carlsons of the world, who are a rising force right now.”
 
Further reading: 

“Israel: What Went Wrong?,” by Omer Bartov
“A Holocaust Scholar Meets with Israeli Reservists,” by Isaac Chotiner
“How to Define Genocide,” by Isaac Chotiner

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Genocide Scholar Asks “What Went Wrong” in Israel

Anna Wintour graces the cover of Vogue’s May issue alongside her theatrical double: Meryl Streep in the role of Miranda Priestly, from “The Devil Wears Prada,” whose much-anticipated sequel comes out on May 1st. Wintour and David Remnick spoke last fall on the day that a sea change took place at Vogue: it was announced that Chloe Malle would take over the editorial direction of the American edition of the publication. They discussed her storied career; her decision to wear Prada to the premiére of “The Devil Wears Prada”; and how Remnick might up his fashion game: “Forgive me, David, but how boring would it be if everybody was just wearing a dark suit and a white shirt all the time?”
This segment originally aired on September 5, 2025.
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anna Wintour as Vogue Icon

At the end of February, OpenAI’s C.E.O., Sam Altman, made headlines by swiftly cutting a deal with the Pentagon for his company to replace Anthropic, which had balked at the Trump Administration’s bid to use its A.I. technology to power autonomous weapons and aid in mass surveillance. Days earlier, Altman had publicly supported Anthropic’s position in the dispute. Altman’s rise to power and his founding of OpenAI were predicated on placing safety above other concerns in developing artificial general intelligence. Why did he change his stance on such a fundamental issue? The New Yorker writers Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz spoke with Altman multiple times and interviewed more than a hundred people for their investigation into the leader of one of the most powerful companies in the world, comparing Altman to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Although there is no smoking gun in Altman’s hand, the writers find that persistent allegations about his conduct underscore the danger of entrusting him to wield such vast power over the future. 
 
Further reading:

"Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?,” by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz
“The Dangerous Paradox of A.I. Abundance,” by John Cassidy
“The A.I. Bubble Is Coming for Your Browser,” by Kyle Chayka

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sam Altman’s Trust Issues at OpenAI

The New Yorker staff writer Louisa Thomas, who writes the Sporting Scene column, talks with David Remnick about the biggest basketball stories this season: how LeBron James embraced a new late-career persona as a great supporting player for the Los Angeles Lakers; the coaching genius of the Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla; and the ongoing scandal over teams deliberately tanking games to secure better prospects in the N.B.A. draft. 
Further reading: 

“How Much Is a Home Team Worth?,” by Louisa Thomas
“LeBron James Is Making His Last Great Adjustment,” by Louisa Thomas

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pick Three: Spring Sports News

In 2021, when Olga Rudenko and other journalists launched the English-language news outlet the Kyiv Independent, they were committed to making a publication that wouldn’t face political pressure from an owner. A few months later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the Independent began reporting breaking news from the front lines, and conducting investigations of the Ukrainian government. David Remnick talks with Rudenko, the Independent’s editor-in-chief, about the challenges of reporting in wartime; President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pushback on independent journalism; how Iran and Russia have been providing military aid to one another; and why Ukraine cannot accept the peace deal with Russia that Donald Trump is insisting that it take.
Further reading: 

“The Assault on Ukraine’s Power Grid,” by Michael Holtz
“What Are Putin’s Ultimate Demands for Peace in Ukraine?,” by Joshua Yaffa
“Ukraine Has ‘Irrefutable Evidence’ of Russia Providing Intelligence to Iran, Zelensky Says,” by Asami Terajima, of the Kyiv Independent
“China, Iran Help Russia Prop Up Economy in Occupied Ukrainian Territories, Report Says,” by Yuliia Taradiuk, of the Kyiv Independent
“Ukraine Heads to US with Drone Proposal Trump Dismissed Before War with Iran,” by Tim Zadorozhnyy, of the Kyiv Independent
“We Interviewed Iran’s Envoy to Ukraine and It Was Absolutely Wild,” by Polina Moroziuk, of the Kyiv Independent

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How Donald Trump’s War on Iran Helps Vladimir Putin’s War on Ukraine

Thousands of federal prosecutors have been fired or have resigned from their roles since Pam Bondi took over as Attorney General. She has made no secret of weaponizing the Justice Department to pursue Donald Trump’s vendettas. One of those prosecutors is Troy Edwards, who quit a senior national-security position in the Eastern District of Virginia. As an assistant U.S. attorney in DC, Edwardshad won convictions against members of the Oath Keepers for January 6th-related offenses. Edwards is also the son-in-law of the former F.B.I. director James Comey, and, when the Justice Department indicted Comey on grounds widely seen as flimsy, Edwards knew he had reached his red line. (The charges were quickly dismissed, though without prejudice.) The New Yorker’s legal correspondent Ruth Marcus talks with Edwards about his decision to leave, how he broke it to his family, and why he thinks other prosecutors should not follow his lead. 
Further reading: 

“Pam Bondi’s Contempt for Congress,” by Ruth Marcus
“The Flimsy, Dangerous Indictment of James Comey,” by Ruth Marcus
“Pam Bondi’s Power Play,” by Ruth Marcus

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Former Federal Prosecutor on Why He Quit Donald Trump’s Department of Justice

The new play “Giant,” on Broadway, dramatizes the scandal around Roald Dahl, the beloved children’s-book author who, in the nineteen-eighties, began making antisemitic statements and invoking stereotypes about Jewish influence. John Lithgow portrays Dahl as he faces off against his American publisher, who presses him to retract his statements. The events that the show focusses on took place more than forty years ago, but they couldn’t be more relevant today, as antisemitism surges during a war in the Middle East. Lithgow joins David Remnick to discuss the question of whether to separate the art from the artist—and about his own hesitation regarding his role as the wizard Dumbledore in HBO’s new “Harry Potter” series, because of J. K. Rowling’s history of anti-trans statements.   
Further reading: 

“‘Giant’ Takes on Roald Dahl and his Antisemitism,” by John Lahr

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John Lithgow on the Controversial Authors Roald Dahl and J. K. Rowling

Julio Torres got his big break as a writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and went on to make the cult favorites “Los Espookys” and “Fantasmas” for HBO. He also wrote and directed the film “Problemista,” about a toy designer facing deportation. There’s a particular kind of surrealism to Torres’s humor; “I just don’t think his mind works quite like anyone else’s,” the staff writer Michael Schulman says, comparing Torres to “a guest lecturer at an art school . . . laying out his very particular way of seeing the world.” They met in New York to discuss the unique, synesthetic ideas about color which Torres describes in a new HBO special, “Color Theories,” and to check out a few hues at a nearby dollar store.  
Thanks to Home in Heven and Third Avenue Dollar and More.  
 
Further reading:
“The Otherworldly Comedy of Julio Torres,” by Michael Shulman
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Julio Torres Makes Everything Funny—Including Color Theory

The staff writer Jon Lee Anderson has reported from Cuba for many years, and recently wrote about the deteriorating economic conditions on the island. His newest piece for the magazine dives into the potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s desire to pursue regime change. Anderson explores the economic impact of the United States blocking Venezuelan oil from reaching Cuba, which could be a death knell for the Communist government. Anderson and David Remnick discuss the current negotiations between the two countries, Marco Rubio’s strategy, and what cards the Cuban government might still hold. “They’re going to go into this,” Anderson suggests, “like maybe a canny poker player.”
Plus, the historian Ada Ferrer won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2022 book, “Cuba: An American History,” and she has one of the clearest views of the long and vexed relationship between the island and its giant neighbor. Ferrer left Cuba as an infant, coming to the United States with her mother in 1963 when Fidel Castro’s regime was arguably at its peak. David Remnick talks with Ferrer about the impact of U.S. sanctions, the economic collapse of Cuba, and what Donald Trump’s threat of a “takeover” means to the Cuban people and to Cuban Americans in the U.S. 
 
Further reading: 

“Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?,” by Jon Lee Anderson
“What’s Behind Trump’s New World Disorder?,” by Daniel Immerwahr

 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is Cuba Trump’s Next Target?

Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, for 2020’s “Nomadland,” and she is nominated once again for “Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, the film follows a young William Shakespeare and his wife, and their grief at the loss of their only son. “Hamnet” is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, and five other awards.  Speaking with Michael Schulman, Zhao talked about the origins of “Hamnet,” the centrality of nature imagery in her work, and how the I.P. in a Marvel film is not so different from adapting a literary novel.  
This segment originally aired on December 5, 2025.
Further reading:
“Chloé Zhao Has Looked into the Void,” by Michael Schulman
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chloé Zhao on “Hamnet,” Which Is Nominated for Eight Academy Awards

In the book “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, argues that social-media platforms are detrimental to youths’ well-being, and that society needs to treat them as literally addictive. It has spent nearly a hundred weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and has helped galvanize a movement seeking limits to social media in legislatures, in school districts, and in the courts. David Remnick speaks with Haidt about an Australian law to verify the age of social-media users, the first of its kind in the world, and about lawsuits in California that are aiming to pin liability for harms on social-media companies themselves. 
Further reading: 

“World Happiness Report 2026,” featuring a contribution from Jonathan Haidt and other researchers 
“Mountains of Evidence,” by Jonathan Haidt

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Social Media Goes to Court

When the Oscar nominations were announced this year, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” set a record. It received sixteen nominations, the most for any film ever. The fact that it’s, in part, a vampire movie, made by a director who’s not yet forty, makes that feat all the more remarkable. Coogler—who previously directed “Creed” and “Black Panther”—sat down with the New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb to discuss the recurrent themes of history, faith, and race in his work, and how he refracted them through the lens of horror in “Sinners.”
This segment originally aired on April 11, 2025.
 
Further reading: 
“Ryan Coogler’s Road to ‘Sinners,’ ” by Jelani Cobb
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ryan Coogler on “Sinners,” His Epic Film about Race, Music, and the Undead

As Iran’s retaliation hit American allies throughout the Middle East this week, David Remnick was joined by two New Yorker writers with decades of experience reporting from the region. Robin Wright has reported from Iran extensively, and she met with Ali Khamenei before he became the Supreme Leader of Iran; Dexter Filkins covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he has been reporting on the Pentagon and military readiness. Filkins and Wright discuss the possibilities for future leadership in Iran; the Administration’s chaotic statements in regard to its goals and time frame; and the economic impact of the war, which is already being felt around the globe. 
 
Further reading:
“What Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Meant to Iran, and What Comes Next,” by Robin Wright
"How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler,” by Dexter Filkins
“The Forever War,” by Dexter Filkins
 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Global Fallout of Donald Trump’s War on Iran

David Remnick sits down with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the creators of a show he loves, “Industry,” which is currently airing its fourth season. The show is centered on the financial and personal dramas of junior employees at a fictional London investment bank. Down and Kay are old friends who both did unsuccessful stints in banking. “Before we could formulate our own identities, we allowed the institution to make them for us,” Down tells Remnick. But, having left finance for television, he says, “I still feel like I want to make money. . . .  I’m never content with my career. The reason our show feels like it’s constantly changing and vibrating with electricity is because me and Konrad are, in terms of our careers. And, you know, we want to be successful. We were finance bros in the first instance.”
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Failed “Finance Bros” Find Success with HBO’s “Industry”

As Donald Trump and his Administration threaten to attack Iran, their motivations remain unclear. Does the President want to force Iran to make a nuclear deal, to replace the one that he scrapped in his first term, or is he really seeking regime change? To understand how this all might play out, David Remnick speaks with Karim Sadjadpour, a policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who writes about the Middle East for Foreign Affairs and other publications. Citing the disastrous precedents in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sadjadpour notes, “the last two decades has proven that we don’t have the ability to dictate . . . who comes to power the day after a military attack.”
Plus, After protests over the economy erupted across Iran late last year, reports emerged that the regime was killing protesters. Donald Trump threatened to intervene, but did not. Estimates vary widely, but some note that thirty thousand people or more may have been killed. Now, as the U.S. sends a huge military force to the Gulf, Iranians are waiting for war—and many in the country are in the shocking position of hoping for conflict, if it will end the Ayatollah’s government. The reporter Cora Engelbrecht has been recording her conversations with sources on the ground about what that could mean. Their voices were altered or overdubbed for our story, to protect them from reprisal.
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What Could Go Wrong, or Right, in a War with Iran

Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs have had a major impact in their short time on the market—currently, one in eight Americans say that they have been on GLP-1 drugs. As tens of millions of people take these medications, anecdotal evidence has emerged that they have a positive effect on alcohol abuse and drug addiction. Researchers are starting to run trials of the drugs for these purposes, and some speculate that GLP-1 drugs could even affect addiction behaviors such as gambling and online shopping. The physician and New Yorker medical correspondent Dhruv Khullar spoke with scientists and patients. “Over the course of my reporting,” he tells David Remnick, “I became more and more bullish on the idea that these are actually going to be really important molecules for the treatment of addiction.”
Dhruv Khullar’s “Can Ozempic Cure Addiction?” was published on February 9th.
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Evidence on Ozempic to Treat Addiction

Hosting the Academy Awards ceremony is a notoriously tricky gig, but Conan O’Brien nailed it in 2025, and he will return for this year’s event. Since leaving late-night television, in 2021, O’Brien has been busy: his hit podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” commands perhaps a larger audience than he had on late night; he launched the travel series “Conan O’Brien Must Go”; and he’s played a therapist in the 2025 film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” O’Brien talks with David Remnick about the things that have gone wrong at the Oscars; why he won’t get too “sentimental” about the gradual collapse of late night; and his shock at the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner, who had been at O’Brien’s house on the night they were killed. 
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Conan O’Brien on What Can Go Wrong at the Oscars

Every year, ahead of Oscar night, the film critic Richard Brody joins the New Yorker Radio Hour to discuss his picks for the year’s best films. David Remnick sits down with Brody and the staff writer Alexandra Schwartz to discuss the movies that didn’t get enough credit, the ones that got too much, and the lesser-known gems among the year’s releases.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Richard Brody Presents the 2026 Brody Awards

In January, the Justice Department released over three million documents, including many redacted e-mails, related to Jeffrey Epstein. “Should we share the Julie Brown text with Alan [Dershowitz],” Epstein wrote in one note to a lawyer. “She is going to start trouble. Asking for victims etc.” Brown’s reporting on Epstein for the Miami Herald, and her revelations about the federal plea deal he received, had an enormous impact on public perception of Epstein and his ties to Trump. Brown joins David Remnick to discuss the latest tranche of redacted e-mails, which show, as she reported, that Trump knew about his friend’s crimes far earlier than he has admitted. Brown and Remnick also talk about Epstein’s relationship with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and why she does not believe that Epstein died by suicide. New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What Donald Trump and “Everyone” Knew About Jeffrey Epstein

Jenin Younes rose to prominence on the right by defending medical professionals like Jay Bhattacharya who claimed that they were being censored over opposition to vaccination and masking mandates. Younes worked for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group described as libertarian, and appeared at events with the Federalist Society. As the political winds have shifted, she says that the Trump Administration’s attacks on free speech are worse than anything that she saw during the Biden Administration. Younes is currently the national legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. David Remnick speaks with her about her unlikely trajectory and about how her commitment to free speech—regardless of which side of the aisle the issue arises from—has left her in a uniquely lonely political position. New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jenin Younes on Threats to Free Speech from the Left and the Right

Ben Shapiro, the host of his eponymous podcast and the co-founder of the conservative website the Daily Wire, has lambasted the left and the Democratic Party for decades. Recently, though, Shapiro has taken to criticizing some of the loudest voices in the MAGA universe, including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly. The rift is over the acceptance and promulgation of conspiracy theories and, in particular, the normalization of antisemitism. Shapiro discusses the Epstein files and what they show—and do not show—about the powerful people connected to Jeffrey Epstein. The belief in conspiracies of the élite reflects “people’s desire to abdicate control over their own lives,” Shapiro tells David Remnick. They discuss Shapiro’s adherence to the conservative value of personal responsibility, and how he squares that with MAGA and its champions.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ben Shapiro Is Waging Battle Inside the MAGA Movement

The staff writers Emily Witt and Ruby Cramer discuss the situation in Minneapolis, a city effectively under siege by militaristic federal agents. “This is a city where there’s a police force of about six hundred officers [compared] to three thousand federal agents,” Witt points out. Cramer shares her interview with Mayor Jacob Frey, who talks about how Minneapolis was just beginning to recover from the trauma of George Floyd’s murder and its aftermath, and with the police chief Brian O’Hara, who critiques the lack of discipline he sees from immigration-enforcement officers. Witt shares her interviews with two U.S. citizens who were detained after following an ICE vehicle; one describes an interrogation in which he was encouraged to identify protest organizers and undocumented people, in exchange for favors from immigration authorities. Ruby Cramer’s “The Mayor of an Occupied City” was published on January 23rd. Emily Witt’s “The Battle for Minneapolis” was published on January 25th. New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The City of Minneapolis vs. Donald Trump

Last October, Bari Weiss—best-known as a contrarian opinion writer who launched the right-leaning Free Press—was appointed the new editor-in-chief of CBS News. Donald Trump has called her new regime “the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.” The New Yorker staff writer Clare Malone wrote about Weiss’s hostile takeover of CBS for the January 26, 2026, issue of the magazine. In a conversation with David Remnick, Malone discusses her reporting on Weiss: how resigning from the New York Times launched Weiss to prominence as a crusader against what she has characterized as woke groupthink; how Weiss gained the support of Silicon Valley titans who had their own political grievances; and the headlines about Weiss’s rocky beginning as head of a news network, including the on-air travails of her new anchor, Tony Dokoupil.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How Bari Weiss Is Changing CBS News

Tucker Carlson has long been a standard-bearer for far-right views, such as the racist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” He recently did a chatty interview with the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, an admirer of Hitler. And yet, Carlson started out as a respected, well-connected, albeit contrarian, political journalist. Jason Zengerle, who recently joined The New Yorker as a staff writer, talks with David Remnick about his new book, “Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.” They trace how Carlson’s sense of personal resentment toward the establishment grew; how launching his own website radicalized his politics in the years before MAGA; and his political ambitions as a potential heir to Donald Trump. “I think, if Tucker Carlson concludes that J. D. Vance can’t get elected President, maybe he has to do it himself,” Zengerle says. “So much of politics now is just being a media figure and being an entertainer. And Tucker does those things very well. . . . I think our politics are at a place where that really doesn’t seem as outrageous as it would have even just a couple years ago.” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How Tucker Carlson Became the Prophet of MAGA

Danny Funt has been reporting on the gambling boom for The New Yorker, which has generated startling recent headlines, including the arrest of a former N.B.A. coach and the indictment of two M.L.B. pitchers—not to mention the Polymarket user who won four hundred thousand dollars wagering on the seizure of Nicolás Maduro. The legalization of sports gambling, combined with the accessibility of betting apps, has made gambling so pervasive that children in elementary school are routinely placing bets, Funt tells David Remnick. Funt’s new book is “Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling.”  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How Betting Took Over Sports

Before becoming a podcaster, Jennifer Welch had a successful career as an interior designer and co-starred in a reality show on Bravo. But, since 2022, she and Angie Sullivan, her co-host on the podcast “I’ve Had It,” have gained millions of fans as a sounding board for left-leaning political frustrations. These aren’t only concerns about MAGA but also about the Democratic establishment that she views as captive to a corporate agenda. Welch talks with David Remnick about her contentious interviews with Cory Booker and Rahm Emanuel, her belief in “dark woke,” and how a white Oklahoma woman in her fifties emerged as one of the most provocative voices on today’s left.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With the Podcast “I’ve Had It,” Jennifer Welch Goes “Dark Woke” on Politics

Prenups have gone from a tool of the ultra-wealthy, carrying a whiff of scandal, to a more widespread request for aspirational young couples with few assets. Wilson spoke with celebrity divorce attorney Laura Wasser, and found that generations who grew up in the era of universal no-fault divorce “just don’t trust marriage” as their elders did; “they want it in writing,” and they have developed apps that make it easy. Clauses calling for nondisparagement on social media are a common feature. But the boom in prenups, Wilson tells David Remnick, has led to couples trying to negotiate even intimate issues such as frequency of sex and body-mass index. Jennifer Wilson’s “Why Millennials Love Prenups” appeared in the December 29, 2025 & January 5, 2026 issue of The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Does Every Marriage Need a Prenup?

U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Miller goes back to the nineteenth century. Immerwahr is a professor at Northwestern University and the author of the 2019 best-seller “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” He discusses Trump’s disdain for international law; tensions between the U.S. and Russia and China; and the historical link between imperialism and appeals to masculine pride. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trump’s New Brand of Imperialism

Since she reëmerged as a star in the 2024 film “The Substance,” Demi Moore has been very busy. She has a major role in the current season of Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” series, and she has two highly anticipated films coming out this year: a science-fiction film directed by Boots Riley, and “Strange Arrivals,” alongside Colman Domingo, about a couple who claimed to have been abducted by aliens. She sat down at The New Yorker Festival in the fall with the staff writer Jia Tolentino to discuss her varied career and how she has dealt with the pressures of the industry.This episode was recorded live at The New Yorker Festival, on October 25, 2025. New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Demi Moore Talks with Jia Tolentino

For roughly half a century, the singer Rubén Blades has been spreading the gospel of salsa music to every corner of the globe. “You could say that Blades did for salsa what Bob Marley did for reggae,” says The New Yorker’s Graciela Mochkofsky. “He brought it into the global consciousness.” This year, Blades’s record “Fotografías” is up for a Grammy Award; should he win, it would be his thirteenth. Blades once ran for President of Panama and later served in the country’s cabinet; he’s also notable for bringing social commentary to the dance floor, from his earliest work to the recent “Inmigrantes,” a song about the impact of the climate crisis on refugees. And yet, he tells Mochkovsky, songwriters should beware of political messages. “Political songs are propaganda by definition. If you start singing about political ideology, you’re not an artist—you’re doing propaganda, basically. I try to be as close to a newspaper [reporter] as I can.”This segment originally aired on October 6, 2023.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Salsa Star Rubén Blades on Acting, Politics, and the Power of Music

Thirty years ago, David Remnick published “The Devil Problem,” a Profile of the religion scholar Elaine Pagels—a scholar of early Christianity who had also, improbably, become a best-selling author with “The Gnostic Gospels,” from 1979. Pagels’s latest book, “Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus,” is a summation of her lifetime of research on Christianity, as it takes on some of the central historical controversies of Christianity, including the stories of immaculate conception and the resurrection. She tells Remnick how she found and lost faith in the evangelical movement, but retained a lifelong interest in religion. “I have a sense that what we think of as the invisible world,” she feels, “has deep realities to it that are quite unfathomable.”This segment originally aired on March 28, 2025.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Elaine Pagels on “The Historical Mystery of Jesus”

Across the country, data centers that run A.I. programs are being constructed at a record pace. A large percentage of them use chips built by the tech colossus Nvidia. The company has nearly cornered the market on the hardware that runs much of A.I., and has been named the most valuable company in the world, by market capitalization. But Nvidia’s is not just a business story; it’s a story about the geopolitical and technological competition between the United States and China, about what the future will look like. In April, David Remnick spoke with Stephen Witt, who writes about technology for The New Yorker, about how Nvidia came to dominate the market, and about its co-founder and C.E.O., Jensen Huang.  Witt’s book “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip” came out this year.   This segment originally aired on April 4, 2025.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Company Behind the A.I. Boom

The Republican Susan Collins has held one of Maine’s Senate seats for nearly thirty years, and Democrats, in trying to take it away from her, have a lot at stake. Graham Platner, a combat veteran, political activist, and small-business owner who has never served in office, seemed to check many boxes for a progressive upstart. Platner, who says he and his wife earn sixty thousand dollars a year, has spoken passionately about affordability, and has called universal health care a  “moral imperative.” He seemed like a rising star, but then some of his past comments online directed against police, L.G.B.T.Q. people, sexual-assault survivors, Black people, and rural whites surfaced. A photo was published of a tattoo that he got in the Marines, which resembles a Nazi symbol, though Platner says he didn’t realize it. He apologized, but will Democrats embrace him, despite ugly views in his past? “As uncomfortable as it is, and personally unenjoyable, to have to talk about stupid things I said on the internet,” he told David Remnick, “it also allows me to publicly model something I think is really important. . . . You can change your language, change the way you think about stuff.” In fact, he frames his candidacy in a way that might appeal to disappointed Trump voters: “You should be able to be proud of the fact that you can turn into a different kind of person. You can think about the world in a different way.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race

Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s most recent collection, “The New Economy,” was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry this year, and one of their poems was included in “A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker,” an anthology volume published this year on the occasion of the publication’s hundredth anniversary. The magazine’s poetry editor, Kevin Young, spoke with Calvocoressi about their creative process, how poetry can help with grief, and the inspirations behind their work. This segment mentions suicide and suicidal thoughts. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Poetry as a Cistern for Love and Loss

In the course of his long career, Leon Panetta was a lieutenant in the Army, a congressman from California, Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff, Barack Obama’s director of the C.I.A., and later, his Secretary of Defense. David Remnick talks with Panetta about the current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the legality of the ongoing Navy strikes targeting civilian boats off the coast of Venezuela, and the problem with using the military as “the President’s personal toy.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Leon Panetta on the Trump Administration’s Venezuelan Boat Strikes

This year marked a hundred years since the birth of The New Yorker, and a documentary about the magazine’s past and present, “The New Yorker at 100,” is now streaming on Netflix. The director is the Academy Award winner Marshall Curry, and Judd Apatow served as an executive producer. They sat down to talk about the process behind the film with Jelani Cobb, a longtime staff writer for the magazine and the dean of the Columbia Journalism School. The trio discussed how they approached depicting a century of journalism history on film, their own relationships to The New Yorker, and what makes David Remnick so hard to interview. This interview took place at the 2025 New Yorker Festival.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marshall Curry and Judd Apatow on “The New Yorker at 100,” a Documentary

Chloé Zhao was the second woman to ever win an Oscar for Best Director, for her 2020 film “Nomadland.” After taking a wide turn to create the Marvel supernatural epic “Eternals,” Zhao has taken another intriguing change of direction with “Hamnet,” based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about how William Shakespeare coped with the death of his only son. In conversation with the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman, Zhao discusses the role that nature plays in her filmmaking, from the American West to the forests of Britain; the process of adapting manga to film; and how neurodivergence informs her creative process.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chloé Zhao on “Hamnet,” Her Film About William Shakespeare’s Grief

As a California congressman, Adam Schiff was the lead manager during the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. He later served on the January 6th committee. Trump has castigated him as “Shifty Schiff” and demanded that the Justice Department investigate him. In a conversation with David Remnick, Schiff discusses the current inquiry into his mortgage by federal authorities; the Supreme Court’s primary role in enabling this Administration; and why he thinks the rule of law in America is “hanging by a thread.” Unlike some Democrats, Schiff is not sanguine that the release of the Epstein files will damage Trump politically. “If there are ruinous things in the files . . . Bondi and company will make sure they never reach the public eye,” Schiff says. But also, “I think he’s almost impervious to dirt.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Senator Adam Schiff on How the Trump Administration Targets Its Opponents

The filmmaker Noah Baumbach can recall when he may have fallen out of love with his craft. He was shooting “White Noise,” based on Don DeLillo’s novel, “on a deserted highway in Ohio at 4 A.M. with a rain machine.”  “Oh, God, I don’t know that I like doing this,” he recalls thinking. “Am I doing this”—making movies—“only because I do it?” He channelled that angst into his new film “Jay Kelly,” a Hollywood comedy of manners starring George Clooney as a very famous movie star who suddenly wonders whether it was all worth it, and why people keep offering him cheesecake. In October, Baumbach spoke with The New Yorker’s articles editor, Susan Morrison, at The New Yorker Festival about working with his wife, Greta Gerwig, on “Barbie,” and why the first lines of his movies can tell you everything.  New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Noah Baumbach on “Jay Kelly,” His New Movie with George Clooney

In his latest novel, Ian McEwan imagines a future world after a century’s worth of disasters. The good news in “What We Can Know” is that humanity still exists, which McEwan calls “nuanced optimism.” He and David Remnick discuss the tradition of the big-themed social novel, which has gone out of literary fashion—“rather too many novels,” McEwan theorizes, hide “their poor prose behind a character.” But is the realist novel, Remnick wonders, “up to the job” of describing today’s digital life? It remains “our best instrument of understanding who we are, of representing the flow of thought and feeling, and of representing the fine print of what happens between individuals,” McEwan responds. “We have not yet found a compelling replacement.” And yet he does not care to moralize: “the pursuit has also got to be of pleasure.” McEwan spoke with David Remnick at a public event organized by the 92nd Street Y in New York.  New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ian McEwan on Imagining the World After Disaster

Only thirty per cent of the American public identifies with the MAGA movement, according to a recent NBC poll, but that coalition remains intensely loyal to Donald Trump in the face of scandals and authoritarian measures. Defections seem rare and come with the risk of reprisal, even from the President himself. Rich Logis is trying to make them less rare with his advocacy organization, Leaving MAGA. The nonprofit’s  website features testimonials from former adherents, and offers advice for how friends and family can reconnect after ruptures over politics. Logis himself had been a true believer: he worked on Trump’s campaign, wrote articles, released a podcast, and called Democrats “the most dangerous group in the history of our Republic, foreign or domestic—more than Islamic supremacists, more than the Nazis.” He didn’t view MAGA as reactionary, but “very progressive and forward facing.” But somewhere along the way, Logis hung up his red hat. “Even today, talking about my past, the feelings are conjured—those feelings of being welcomed and feeling like you’re part of something, and the exhilaration that comes from that,” he tells the New Yorker Radio Hour’s Adam Howard. Logis emphasizes that leaving MAGA is difficult because, as much as it’s a political ideology, it’s also an identity that meets emotional needs. “I think that there’s a lot of trauma within the MAGA base, whether it’s political or economic. . . . I’m not qualified to make any kind of diagnosis. I’m not a therapist or a clinician, but there’s a lot of pain within MAGA. And I think that a better question [instead] of asking ‘What’s wrong with you?’ is ‘What happened to you?’ ” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why Is Leaving MAGA So Difficult?

Both major parties are experiencing a crisis of leadership in Washington. President Trump’s flip-flopping on the Epstein files acknowledges that, on this issue, at least, he has lost control of MAGA. For the Democrats, the collapse of their consensus on the government shutdown deepens a sense that the current leadership is ineffective. For all the talk of unity, the Party is profoundly divided on what message to convey to voters. “Some people argue that we should just—no matter what Donald Trump does or says—just always come back to the economy and prices,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, tells David Remnick. “And, of course, we should be very focussed on the economy and prices and rising health-care costs, as we have been. But to suggest that we should look the other way in the face of all these other outrages is, I think, a mistake, because I think the American people are tiring of Donald Trump. I think the polls indicate that.” Van Hollen is trying to pave a path between his party’s left and the establishment. He’s used the word “spineless” to describe colleagues in Congress who refused to endorse Zohran Mamdani in his mayoral campaign, but he has not called for Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership, as others have. Van Hollen wants “to be very much part of the debate as to where the Democratic Party goes.” Would that extend, Remnick wonders, to running for President? “My goal at this moment really is to stiffen the spine of the Democratic Party. But that means not just resistance to Trump. It also means taking on very powerful special interests that I think have had too much sway in both the Republican Party for sure, but also in the Democratic Party.” Remnick replies, “I’ve heard firmer nos in my time.”  New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Senator Chris Van Hollen on the Epstein Files, and the Leadership Crisis in Washington

The curator Thelma Golden is a major presence in New York City’s cultural life, having mounted era-defining exhibitions such as “Black Male” and “Freestyle” early on in her career. Golden is the Ford Foundation director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, an institution, founded in 1968, that is dedicated to contemporary artists of the African diaspora. But, for a significant portion of her tenure, this singular institution has been closed to the public. Golden led the initiative to create a new, purpose-built home—requiring the demolition of an old building and reconstruction on the same site. To mark its reopening, David Remnick tours the new space with Golden, discussing some key works and the museum’s mission. He notes that this triumphant moment for the Studio Museum comes during a time of broad attacks on cultural institutions, particularly on expressions of identity politics. “I take a lot of inspiration from our founders, who opened up in a complicated moment,” Golden reflects. “My own career began in the midst of the culture wars of [the nineteen-nineties]. Understanding museums as a place that should be, can be, must be where we engage deeply in ideas. In this moment, that has to offer some hope as we consider a future.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rewriting Art History at the Studio Museum in Harlem

When President Donald Trump began his tariff rollout, the business world predicted that his unprecedented attempt to reshape the economy would lead to a major recession, if Trump went through with it all. But the markets stabilized and, in recent months, have continued to surge. That has some people worried about an even bigger threat: that overinvestment in artificial intelligence is creating a bubble. Andrew Ross Sorkin, one of today’s preëminent financial journalists, is well versed in what’s happening; his début book, “Too Big to Fail,” was an account of the 2008 financial crash, and this year he released “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation.” He tells David Remnick that the concern lies in the massive borrowing to build the infrastructure for a future A.I. economy, without the sufficient revenue, currently, to pay off the loans. “If I learned anything from covering 1929, [and] covering 2008, it is leverage,” Sorkin says, “people borrowing to make all of this happen. And right now we are beginning to see a remarkable period of borrowing to make the economics of A.I. work.” Sorkin is the co-anchor of “Squawk Box” on CNBC, and he also founded the New York Times’ business section, DealBook.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andrew Ross Sorkin on What 1929 Teaches Us About 2025

Patti Smith’s album “Horses” came out fifty years ago, on November 10, 1975, launching her to stardom almost overnight. An anniversary reissue came out this year, to rapturous reviews. Yet being a rock star was never Smith’s intention: she was a published poet before “Horses” came out, and had also written a play with Sam Shepard. Music was an afterthought, as she tells it, a way to make her poetry readings pop. “I didn’t want to be boring,” she tells David Remnick. In recent years, it may finally be that more people know Smith as a writer than as a musician. Her memoir “Just Kids,” about her friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, won a National Book Award. “M Train” reflected on her withdrawal from music as she raised a family. In her newest memoir, “Bread of Angels,” Smith writes intimately about the loss of her husband, her brother, and close friends; she also shares a startling revelation about her family and past. It’s a book that was challenging for her and took her years to write. “I write profusely—fiction, fairy tales, all kinds of things that aren’t even published—without a care,” she says. “Writing a memoir, bringing other people into it, one has to really be prudent, and search themselves and make sure that they’re presenting the right picture.” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Patti Smith on Her Memoir “Bread of Angels,” Fifty Years After Her Début Album, “Horses”

Few Democratic officials have been more outspoken in opposition to the Trump Administration than J. B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois. He seems almost to relish antagonizing Trump, who has suggested Pritzker should be in jail. Meanwhile, ICE and Border Patrol have targeted Chicago, and elsewhere in Illinois, with immigration sweeps more aggressive than what Los Angeles experienced earlier this year; they refused to pause the raids even on Halloween. The President has called Chicago a “hell hole,” but, in Pritzker’s view, immigration sweeps do nothing to reduce crime. “He’s literally taking F.B.I., D.E.A., and A.T.F.—which we work with all the time—he’s taking them out of their departments and moving them over to ICE, and they’re not . . .  helping us catch bad guys,” Pritzker says in an interview with the reporter Peter Slevin. “He’s creating mayhem on the ground because you know what he wants? He wants troops on the ground in American cities, and the only way he can get that done is by proving that there’s some sort of insurrection or revolution or rebellion.” And yet, as Slevin tells David Remnick, a governor’s power to resist the federal government depends largely on the courts. Thus far, “the district courts have acted quite favorably toward the plaintiffs in various lawsuits against these actions by the federal government.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What Resistance Means to Governor J. B. Pritzker

The New Yorker contributing writer Heidi Blake has been investigating a new story for the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast In the Dark. This season is about one of the most notorious crimes in modern British history: the Whitehouse Farm murders, in which five members of a family were killed at a rural estate in England in the mid-nineteen-eighties. Jeremy Bamber—brother, uncle, and son to the victims—was convicted of the crimes. Decades later, Blake got a tip that led her to interview key figures in the case and scour hundreds of thousands of evidence files. What she found brings the official story of the case into question, and challenges the very foundations of the U.K.’s legal system. This is Episode 1 of Blood Relatives. You can hear more episodes and subscribe to In the Dark here.  New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From In the Dark: “Blood Relatives”

Jon Stewart has been a leading figure in political comedy since before the turn of the millennium. But compared to his early years on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”—when Stewart was merciless in his attacks on George W. Bush’s Administration—these are much more challenging times for late-night comedians. Jimmy Kimmel nearly lost his job over a remark about MAGA supporters of Charlie Kirk, after the head of the F.C.C. threatened ABC. CBS recently announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s program. And Stewart now finds himself very near the hot seat: Comedy Central is controlled by David Ellison, the Trump-friendly C.E.O. of the recently merged Paramount Skydance. Stewart’s contract comes up in December. “You’re going to sign another one?” David Remnick asked him, in a live interview at The New Yorker Festival. “We’re working on staying,” Stewart said. “You don’t compromise on what you do. You do it till they tell you to leave. That’s all you can do.”  Stewart, moreover, doesn’t blame solely Donald Trump for recent attacks on the independence of the media, universities, and other institutions. “This is the hardest truth for us to get at, is that [these] institutions . . . have problems. They do. And, if we don’t address those problems in a forthright way, then those institutions become vulnerable to this kind of assault. Credibility is not something that was just taken. It was also lost.” In fact, Stewart also directs his ire at “the Democratic Party, [which] thinks it’s O.K. for their Senate to be an assisted-living facility.” “In the general-populace mind, government no longer serves the interests of the people it purports to represent. That’s a broad-based, deep feeling. And that helps when someone comes along and goes, ‘The system is rigged,’ and people go, ‘Yeah, it is rigged.’ Now, he’s a good diagnostician. I don’t particularly care for his remedy.”This episode was recorded live at The New Yorker Festival, on October 26, 2025.  New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jon Stewart on the Perilous State of Late Night and Why America Fell for Donald Trump

“Sometimes a term is so apt, its meaning so clear and so relevant to our circumstances, that it becomes more than just a useful buzzword and grows to define an entire moment,” the columnist Kyle Chayka writes, in a review of Cory Doctorow’s book “Enshittification.” Doctorow, a prolific tech writer, is a co-founder of the tech blog Boing Boing, and an activist for online civil liberties with the Electronic Frontier Foundation—so he knows whereof he speaks. He argues that the phenomenon of tech platforms seemingly getting worse for users is not a matter of perception but a business strategy. For example, “the Google-D.O.J. antitrust trial last year surfaced all these memos about a fight about making Google Search worse,” Doctorow explains, in a conversation with Chayka. A Google executive had suggested that, instead of displaying perfectly prioritized results on the first search attempt, “what if we make it so that you got to search two or three times, and then, every time, we got to show you ads?” But, Doctorow argues, there is hope for a better future, if we can resist complacency; big internet platforms all depend on forms of “surveillance” of their users. “The coalition [against this] is so big, and it crosses so many political lines,” Doctorow says, “that if we could just make it illegal to spy on people, we could solve so many problems.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s Not Just You: The Internet Is Actually Getting Worse

Since Zadie Smith published her début novel, “White Teeth,” twenty-five years ago, she has been a bold and original voice in literature. But those who aren’t familiar with Smith’s work outside of fiction are missing out. As an essayist, in The New Yorker and other publications, Smith writes with great nuance about culture, technology, gentrification, politics; “There’s really not a topic that wouldn’t benefit from her insight,” David Remnick says. He spoke with Smith about her new collection of essays, “Dead and Alive.” “The one thing about talking about essays,” she notes, ruefully, “is you find yourself saying the same thing, but worse—without the commas.” One of the concerns in the book is the role of our devices, and social media in particular, in shaping our thoughts and our political discourse. “Everybody has a different emphasis on [Donald] Trump and what’s going on. My emphasis has been on, to put it baldly, mind control. I think what’s been interesting about the manipulations of a digital age is that it is absolutely natural and normal for people to be offended at the idea that they are being manipulated. None of us like to feel that way. And I think we wasted about—whatever it’s been since the invention of the Iphone—trying to bat away that idea, calling it a moral panic, blaming each other, [and] talking about it as if it were an individual act of will.” In fact, she notes, “we are all being manipulated. Me, too. . . . Once we can all admit that, on the left and the right, then we can direct our attention to who’s been doing this and to what advantage.”New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Zadie Smith on Politics, Turning Fifty, and Mind Control

Richard Linklater is one of the most admired directors working today, and yet moviegoers may admire him for very different things. There are early comedies such as “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused”; there’s the romance trilogy that started with “Before Sunrise,” starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy; and the crowd-pleasers like “School of Rock” and “Hit Man.” Linklater’s “Boyhood,” a coming-of-age story shot in the course of twelve years as its protagonist grew from child to young adult, is almost without precedent. This month, Linklater has two new movies releasing almost simultaneously, both dramatizing historical moments in the lives of creative geniuses. In “Blue Moon,” Hawke plays the Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart at the moment his career is being eclipsed by a rival, Oscar Hammerstein II. “My tagline for this movie, that they’re not going to use on any posters, but it’s my tagline: ‘Forgotten, but not gone,’ ” Linklater tells our film critic Justin Chang. “It’s so heartbreaking . . . to do a film about the end of someone’s career.” In “Nouvelle Vague,” which is almost entirely in French, Linklater depicts the unconventional filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” his triumphant 1959 début. “The most important film,” Linklater says, “is the one you make in your head.” Justin Chang’s article about Richard Linklater was published on September 27, 2025. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Richard Linklater on His Two New Films, “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague”

The swiftness and severity with which the Trump Administration has tried to impose its will on higher education came as a shock to many, not least university presidents and faculties from Harvard to U.C.L.A. But for conservatives this arena of cultural conflict has been a long time coming. The staff writer Emma Green has been speaking with influential figures in the current Administration as well as in the larger conservative movement about how they mapped out this battle for Donald Trump’s return to power. “There’s a recognition among the people that I interviewed,” Green tells David Remnick, “that the Administration cannot come in and script to universities: this is what you will teach and this is the degrees that you will offer, and just script it from top to bottom. First of all, that would be not legally possible. And it also, I think in some ways, violates core instincts that conservatives have around academic freedom, because a lot of these people have been on élite campuses and had the experience of being told that their views weren’t acceptable.” Green also speaks with James Kvaal, an education official who served in both the Biden and Obama Administrations, and May Mailman, a conservative education-policy activist who worked in the Trump White House and coördinated its attacks against universities. “When you have federal grants, you do not need to be funding racism and racial hierarchies and violence and harassment,” Mailman told Green. “I think that line is: do what you wanna do, but we don’t want to have to fund it.” Emma Green’s “Inside the Trump Administration’s Assault on Higher Education” was published on October 13, 2025. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How the Trump Administration Made Higher Education a Target

The filmmaker John Carpenter has a whole shelf of cult classics: “They Live,” “The Thing,” “Escape from New York,” “Halloween,” and so many more. And while he hasn’t directed a new movie in more than a decade, Carpenter has continued working in the film industry, composing scores for other directors (Bong Joon Ho recently approached him about a horror movie). He has also released albums of cinematic music—no film required—often working with his son, Cody Carpenter, and the musician Daniel Davies, his godson. The New Yorker Radio Hour producer Adam Howard talks with Carpenter ahead of the launch of his new small tour, just in time for Halloween, and they discuss the unusual shift he made from directing to composing. “It’s a transition from pain to joy. Directing movies is very, very stressful,” Carpenter explains. “Playing music in front of a live audience—it’s joy. It’s just joy.” Carpenter suggests three inspirational scores from film history: Bebe and Louis Barron’s electronic music for “Forbidden Planet”; Bernard Herrmann work on Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”; and Hans Zimmer’s music for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John Carpenter Picks Three Favorite Film Scores

Next month, New York City may elect as its next mayor a man who was pretty much unknown to the broader public a year ago. Zohran Mamdan, who is currently thirty-three years old and a member of the State Assembly, is a democratic socialist who won a primary upset against the current mayor, Eric Adams, and the former governor Andrew Cuomo, who was trying to stage a political comeback. Mamdani now leads the race by around twenty percentage points in most polls. His run for mayor is a remarkable story, but it has not been an easy one. His campaign message of affordability—his ads widely tout a rent freeze in the city—resonates with voters, but his call for further taxing the top one per cent of earners has concerned the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul. In Congress, Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have yet to even endorse him. “There are many people who will say housing is a human right, and yet it oftentimes seems as if it is relegated simply to the use of it as a slogan,” Mamdani tells David Remnick at his campaign headquarters, in midtown Manhattan. “It often comes back to whether you’re willing to fight for these ideals that you hold.” Donald Trump, for his part, dubs Mamdani a Communist, and has threatened to withhold federal funds from New York if he’s elected, calling such a vote “a rebellion.” An attack by the President “will be an inevitability,” Mamdani says, noting that the city’s legal department is understaffed for what may be an epic battle to come. “This is an Administration that looks at the flourishing of city life wherever it may be across this country as a threat to their entire political agenda. And New York City looms large in their imagination.” Zohran Mamdani’s campaign was chronicled by Eric Lach, a staff writer covering New York politics and life for The New Yorker. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.