The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker staff writer Molly Fischer joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Zohran Mamdani’s first hundred days as mayor of New York. They talk about how Mamdani has carried his highly disciplined, media-forward messaging style into office—and how his governing style combines practical city management with a focus on visible and public-facing execution. They also explore the status of his core initiatives, including universal child care and other affordability measures, whether he has scaled back or recalibrated some campaign promises, and how he has navigated relationships with figures such as Governor Kathy Hochul and President Donald Trump as he tries to harness his political momentum into durable results.
This week’s reading:

“Zohran Mamdani, Perpetual Student of the City,” by Molly Fischer

“ ‘The Peace President’ Gets Belligerent with Iran and the Pope,” by Robin Wright

“What Brought Down Eric Swalwell,” by Jon Allsop

“TMZ Gets Political,” by Paul Mejía

“The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose,” by Andrew Marantz

“The Extremes of Israeli Public Opinion,” by Isaac Chotiner

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 
Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

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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

 
The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 
Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Washington Roundtable discusses Vice-President J. D. Vance’s week on the world stage: stumping for the Kremlin-aligned Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán and being tasked with leading American negotiations in Pakistan to resolve the war with Iran, a conflict he reportedly opposed. The panel explores the events and people that shaped Vance, and how his political evolution toward MAGA may not be enough to make him the Republican Presidential nominee in 2028. “Anyone who comes after Trump is going to have a really hard time inheriting a cult of personality and turning that back into a party,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. Vance is “not this kind of charismatic movement leader.”
This week’s reading:

“The Costs of Trump’s Iran-War Folly,” by Susan B. Glasser

“Trump’s Strategic and Moral Failure in Iran,” by David Remnick

“The Global Stakes of Hungary’s Pivotal Election,” by Kapil Komireddi

“A U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Is Here, but Trump’s Stone Age Mentality Endures,” by Ishaan Tharoor

“How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens

“Israel’s War in Lebanon Has Not Stopped,” by Isaac Chotiner

“An Economist’s Quest to Solve America’s Wage Problem,” by John Cassidy

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 
Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The New Yorker contributing writer Ruth Marcus joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Pam Bondi’s removal from her post as Attorney General. They examine the series of missteps and failures that led to her firing—from her continued mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files to her inability to effectively carry out Donald Trump’s efforts to target his political enemies. They also explore the long-term damage Bondi has done to the Department of Justice, and whether her ouster—alongside Kristi Noem’s dismissal as Secretary of Homeland Security—signals a new era of shakeups within the Trump Administration.
This week’s reading:

“Pam Bondi’s Legacy of Flattery and Destruction,” by Ruth Marcus

“A U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Is Here, but Trump’s Stone Age Mentality Endures,” by Ishaan Tharoor

“Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?,” by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz

“How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens

“The Forest Service—a Force Across Rural America—‘Reorganizes’ Under Trump,” by Bill McKibben

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 
Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 
Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices