The New Yorker Radio Hour

In California, progressives have crafted a ballot initiative that calls for a wealth tax—a one-time, five-per-cent tax on wealth above a billion dollars, earmarked to shore up the state’s health-care system after drastic federal cuts. Wealth inequality is a vast concern, especially among Democrats, and taxes on substantial wealth are broadly popular. Yet, as the New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Lemann reports in “The Battle to Pass a Billionaire Tax,” many prominent Democratic politicians, including Elizabeth Warren, have declined to support it publicly. Lemann talks with David Remnick about why this bellwether progressive issue faces such an uphill battle.
Further reading and listening:
“On Not Being a Homeowner,” by Anna Holmes
“Can California Actually Make Billionaires Pay?,” an episode of The Political Scene
“How a Trump-Endorsed Republican Could Become California’s Next Governor,” 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.

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The economic punishment and threats of aggression that Donald Trump has launched against Canada are so severe that its government has looked at how to prepare for U.S. military action. David Remnick sits down with a former senior Canadian politician, Chrystia Freeland, to talk about the disintegration of a rock-solid partnership. Freeland served as the Deputy Prime Minister under Justin Trudeau, and has also held the roles of Minister of International Trade and Minister of Foreign Affairs; she helped negotiate a trade deal in Trump’s first term, which he subsequently broke. Freeland’s new book about the U.S.-Canada relationship is called “Unreliable Boyfriend,” but that title may soft-pedal it. “The vast majority of Canadians see this as a rupture” that will be permanent, she tells Remnick. “They think America is toxic and broken and can never be trusted again. . . . I actually am an outlier, because I think we shouldn’t write America off quite yet.”
Further reading:
“What If Canada Joined the E.U.?,” by Ishaan Tharoor
“Canada, the Northern Outpost of Sanity,” by Bill McKibben
“The Historical Roots of Donald Trump’s Aggressive Nationalism,” 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.

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In 2023, Evan Gershkovich was working as a young reporter in Moscow for the Wall Street Journal, when he was arrested by Russian authorities. He was eventually convicted on blatantly false charges of espionage and spent nearly five hundred days in imprisonment. Gershkovich recounts the experience in a new memoir, “This Cursed Beautiful Land,” and in an essay in The New Yorker. He spoke with David Remnick about life inside a Russian prison, the international prisoner swap that freed him, and why the difficult process of reacclimating to his former life complicated how he viewed his incarceration.
Further reading and listening:
“The Russian Prisoner Who Didn’t Want to Be Freed,” by Joshua Yaffa
“Evan Gershkovich Is Finally Coming Home,” by Joshua Yaffa
“The Unimaginable Horror of a Friend’s Arrest in Moscow,” by Joshua Yaffa
This segment was recorded live at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Centers, in New York City.

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In Aaron Sorkin’s latest film, “The Social Reckoning,” the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg deals with multiple federal investigations and a whistle-blower’s revelations about the damage that the company was causing young people. It’s a dark sequel to the 2010 film, “The Social Network,” and, this time around, Zuckerberg is played by Jeremy Strong, who’s best known as Kendall Roy on “Succession” and as Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.” Strong undergoes an unusually intense level of preparation to inhabit his roles; he tells David Remnick that he would send Sorkin e-mails, while in character as Zuckerberg, at night after shooting. They discuss why Strong was rankled by The New Yorker’s 2021 Profile of him, and his interest in playing characters who are “right on the fault line of everything that’s going on in our world right now.”
Further reading:
“On ‘Succession,’ Jeremy Strong Doesn’t Get the Joke,” by Michael Schulman
“ ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ Tamps the Boss Down,” by Richard Brody
“ ‘The Apprentice,’ Reviewed: The Immoral Makings of Donald Trump,” by Richard Brody
“Masterstroke Casting in ‘An Enemy of the People,’ ” by Vinson Cunningham
“Farewell, Kendall Roy,” 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.

Min Jin Lee gave up climbing the ladder of conventional success by quitting her corporate-law job and then spending more than a decade working on her début novel, “Free Food for Millionaires.” Ten years later, in 2017, she published “Pachinko,” a historical epic that was translated into more than thirty languages. Nearly another decade later, she released “American Hagwon,” which follows a family as they move from Seoul to Sydney to Southern California in pursuit of the best possible education for their children. Lee talks with David Remnick about the institution of the hagwon, her love of research, and making Korean experiences legible to readers around the world. “It’s my job to make everybody Korean, David,” she says. “I think Koreans are awesome. I want you to be Korean.”
Further reading and listening:
“Min Jin Lee Reads Wendy Kaufman,” an episode of the Fiction Podcast
“Testing,” by Min Jin Lee
“Min Jin Lee on Exams and Hagwons,” by Deborah Treisman
“What Min Jin Lee Wants Us to See,” by Michael Luo
“Stonehenge,” by Min Jin Lee
“After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Healing the Deepest Fracture,” by Min Jin Lee

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.