Trump's D.C. Crackdown, Putin Summit, and Cuomo's Mamdani Jabs

Support for the show comes from Attio. Attio is an AI native CRM built for the next era of companies. Its powerful data structure adapts to your business model, syncs in all of your contacts in minutes, and enriches your business with actionable data. Atio also allows you to create email sequences, real-time reports, and powerful automations, all to help you build what matters, your company.

Join industry leaders including Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and more. You can go to attio.com slash pivot and you'll get 15% off your first year. That's attio.com slash pivot. Support for this show comes from Robinhood. Wouldn't it be great to manage your portfolio on one platform? With Robinhood, not only can you trade individual stocks and ETFs, you can also seamlessly buy and sell crypto at low costs.

Trade all in one place. Get started now on Robinhood. Trading crypto involves significant risk. Crypto trading is offered through an account with Robinhood crypto LLC. Robinhood Crypto is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Crypto Health through Robinhood Crypto is not FDIC insured or CIPIC protected.

Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Securities trading is offered through an account with Robinhood Financial, LLC. Member CIPIC, a registered broker dealer. Support for this show comes from strawberry.me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Or are you stuck in one you've outgrown? Or never wanted in the first place?

Sure, you can probably list the reasons for staying, but are they actually just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me to claim a special offer.

This whole thing is so, we are in a simulation, David, just so you know. None of this is real. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. Welcome back to... Godfrey August. That was explosive. I like that. I know. Well, that's for Scott. And while Scott is off gallivanting who knows where, I have yet another brilliant co-host joining me, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and host of The New Yorker Radio Hour. He's a pod...

Now, David, welcome.

Oh, it's great to be here, Cara, since we've known each other for about 242 years. 242 years at our old alma mater, The Washington Post. How is it going? How's The New Yorker going? We're doing okay. There's wood here, so I can knock on it, but... Editorially, we're doing great. And, you know, despite everything, I mean, we could be frank. Yeah. We're doing all right. You just had a shakeup, yeah. Business is okay. Yeah. Are you going to be in The Devil Wears Prada, too? I am not. Okay.

I'm just asking. I am not. If I can reveal this, I got a phone call to be an extra in it, and I decided maybe it's better to watch the film. Oh, really? Interesting. You don't want to wear nice clothes and everything else? Do you get to keep it?

I don't think so. All right, then forget it. You'd be playing David Remnick, so whatever David Remnick wears. I can think of better things to play. What is David Remnick's fashion sense? You're looking at it. You're looking at it. If you had to name the style, what would it be? I think it would be late middle-aged slouchy. Like cool dad? Not even cool dad, just dad or, you know, awaiting senescence. Senescence.

You're wearing a Guinness T-shirt. I could easily rock that. Oh, yes, I am. I have so many T-shirts, I don't even know what I'm wearing. I like to send messages with my T-shirts sometimes. What are you telling me now with the Guinness thing? Nothing. Drunk in the morning? It was a clean one. I almost wore my old Twitter. I still have the t-shirt that I was wearing in July of 1998 with Leon Russell on it. I came into work to write a piece.

Tina Brown had told us the day before that she was leaving The New Yorker. And I came to work the next day in a Leon Russell t-shirt that even then had some holes in it, had some hole problems. And I was called in to see Cy Newhouse, the owner of... Oh, and you were given a job. For what reason, I had no idea, and that was destiny. Oh, wow. What did he say, anything about your outfit?

Not very Condé Nast, that's for sure. Your cafeteria upsets me every time I go there because I feel like a homeless person or something. Like I look like, hi, I'd like some free food. And then everyone's eating tiny little things. Yeah, egg whites. Egg whites, yeah. Anyway, we have so much to talk about. David has been a long time. When was that? 19? What year did you join? You said 19. It was the last century. The New Yorker? Yeah. I left the Washington Post. I'd been in Moscow and...

Came home, wrote a book for, took me a year. And then in 1992, Tina Brown became the editor of The New Yorker and asked me to come be a writer there. And I was thrilled. yeah and you became editor in six years later something like that yeah wow so it's a long time yeah yeah are you gonna outlast anna

Well, she started before I did. I know, I know, but, you know, it'll be a fight to the death. I have to tell you, my relationship with her, which is longstanding, and I don't think anybody would mistake me for her or vice versa, we get along. terrifically well. She's actually incredibly smart as a business person and obviously as an editor.

I remember asking, what makes Anna Wintour a great editor? And this person said, she knows what she wants. And it was actually, the scales fell from my eyes, because I think editors who... don't know what they want confuse everybody and make everybody else crazy. Oh, that's interesting. Did you use that? Do you feel that way, Kara?

I wasn't much of an editor. I mean, I was because I ran the thing, but I guess I do. I did know what I wanted. I did. I wanted people to, yes, when I started running All Things D, yes, I wanted them to tell you what they actually were telling each other. It doesn't mean you're not...

filled with uncertainty or bound to make mistakes, but you do have to make a call at a certain point. Right. One of the things Tina Brown had told me is you can teach someone how to write, but you can't teach them how to see. Like, in terms of getting the stuff that you need to report on. I thought that was smart. I couldn't agree more. You know, you go out into the world, you go to the Middle East or New York City, and you're going to write a quote-unquote story.

And you feel like one of those quarterbacks in a video game that a lot of commotion is happening in the field of life in front of your eyes and finding a way to locate a story that's both honest, accurate. depending on the circumstances, entertaining or serious, that is a skill. I think that's what she meant. It is. I think she said what to see. I can't teach you what to see. Yeah.

That's what it was, which I thought was very, very canny, actually. Well, she's also a canny editor, as are you. So I want to ask you about your latest piece in The New Yorker called The Politics of Fear.

Very serious, speaking of not entertaining, but it is. It's beautifully written. It's all about Donald Trump's lifelong bullying tactics. You write specifically about the us versus them mentality and that he's using in his second term to intimidate people and bend them to his will. And you call his cabinet.

a quivering collection of yaysayers. Nice. Well done. Well, look at Pam Bondi. Yeah, I know. I know. But yaysayers, I just like the word. Though you do say cartoon bullies do not inevitably prevail. You say pushback like the South Park creators, but talk about how well it's worked, actually. It may not be effective, but it's worked well. You know what? Maybe I'm trying to gird my own...

Loins. Loins there when I say that to myself and to the reader, because if you're being honest with yourself, horrible things do happen. Democratic systems have disintegrated under pressure historically. Maybe I'm being only three-quarters honest there, but I don't think it's inevitable. I don't think it's inevitable that the project that Donald Trump has set out on, which I think at its heart is authoritarian.

and anti-rule of law and all the other things that you discuss on this show quite a lot, I don't think it's inevitable that it prevails. is has it been corrosive you bet has he won lots of victories you bet has he intimidated all kinds of institutions including our own business um with terrible consequences. That has all happened. And I guess it's important on all kinds of media and all kinds of circumstances to...

rally people's spirits as best as you can. I'm not deluded that a common piece in The New Yorker is suddenly going to cause truth, justice, and the American way to prevail. But I look at the place where you and I worked.

The Washington Post. The Washington Post. I was there for 10 years as a young guy. Me too. I was a young guy too. And I'm watching this drama with a broken heart. With a broken heart. The idea that the Washington Post was... not just mutable but that could be undermined to this degree so that so much of its talent runs screaming from the from the building um to see a gazillionaire like Bezos do the right thing when he first had the Washington Post and then turn tail is really chilling.

I don't think he did much of anything. He kind of left it alone, which is one of the problems. They didn't do anything post-Trump. Do no harm, right? It's like being a doctor. Yes. Yes, I wouldn't call him particularly like he said a lot of tech stuff, but I don't think he was. I mean, he brought Fred Ryan kind of like sailed along under the Trump.

Fred Ryan might not have been the most inspiring leader on the business side. And there was all kinds of things that they could have done better, I guess. But Marty Baron is an editor. had the same long leash as the editors of the New York Times and all the places that were doing their job well in the first Trump administration, including our place. Can I ask you, I think about, someone's asked me, why is he doing it? What's the point?

I have not answered that question. I'm not sure. I think he was like that before because I've never particularly liked him. I think he's tough and aggressive. Is he tough? Yes, he's not a nice. I never thought he was a nice person. I don't mean nice person. I mean the ability to say, look, I have power too. I can stand up. to this. And he has made a decision for, I think, business reasons first and foremost.

Look, the Washington Post is hardly his biggest business. It's his smallest. I don't think he really likes journalists. That was always my experience with him. Then you have to ask yourself, why buy it? I don't know. That's the part. What do you think, Kara? I think he got guilted into it by Mrs. Graham, and he thought it was interesting. I think his ex-wife was interested in it, too. And she's distinguished herself since, like with her giving and everything else. I think she...

He was not under her influence, I wouldn't say that. He was in that world, and then now he's in a different world. Let's take over Venice and be very performative in our outfits. I think that's what he was actually like versus... what he he was cosplaying like friend of liberty kind of guy before i don't i think before was not what he was so it's not it's not a lack of self-awareness i think he's doing but i but what i want to understand at least for being there is

He's not even being bullied in this case. He just is doing it, right? He's anticipating bullying or wants more of the space game or whatever it happens to be. I want to, like, what's the point? Where's the end game here? Because I can tell you, the people that have left, I hear from all of them every day. There's so many more leaving. And so...

How do you run an institute? Maybe that's the point, to hollow it out, to fill it with who you want. I don't know. If you have any thoughts, I don't. I don't think he cares that much, number one. Don Graham, Catherine Graham, for whatever, I think there was always an illusion that somehow these were lefties. That actually is not the case.

Catherine Graham was great friends with Nancy Reagan. She was an establishmentarian. But when the push came to shove, to do the right thing, on the Pentagon Papers, on Watergate, and much smaller decisions along the way, they did the right thing. And they made the staff feel, and I'm not talking just about star reporters and editors, I'm talking about people in the press room. They felt like they were part of something, part of something important. Not just an instrument of a billionaire's...

multi-multi-billionaires, a power complex. Yeah. It's inexplicable at this point because now it's just like suicidal, it feels. But one of the things you say, the quivering collection of yaysayers at the Trump, like the tech people have become yaysayers. You saw Tim Cook do this the other day with the golden.

the golden statue. What the hell was that? I don't know. I can't even write him. I also was like, are you fucking kidding? But I get it. I get it. He wants no tariffs. Man, you get one chance on this earth. I agree. I had someone say that. Yeah, well, shareholders is his goal. Shareholders, that's all he talks about. I know, great. But when you say, yes, talk about the Trump cabinet, because it's particularly...

I don't think they even have to bend. They've bent. They've started off bent. The first Trump cabinet in the first term was not my idea of my politics, obviously, but these were... These were kind of establishmentarians from the business world in defense, in intelligence, and the rest. They were, by the way, not absolutely top rate, all of them. But they had some sense of what too far was. They had some sense along the way of limits, of the law, of what is just, shame is a good word.

I don't see many people in this cabinet who are possessed of shame or a sense of what's... what a limit is. When you look at the press secretary, there's nothing she will not say. When you look at the attorney general, there's no limit she will not break. Her client is not the law. Her client is... the president of the united states she's the personal lawyer she's behaving as if she's the personal lawyer for the president united states that is that is an immense difference um

You know, you could argue that maybe John Mitchell did the same when he was under Nixon. But here it's across the board. And also there's a competency problem. Pete Hegseth, I don't know. Kurt, would you hire him to run a grocery store? No, I wouldn't hire him to watch my kids. I wouldn't. Well, yeah. And you could say that about a lot of people in the White House and the top of the federal bureaucracy. Do you see anyone in the writing of this that you thought, okay, possibly good?

Or possibly. I mean, Marco, Rubio was considered competent by many before, but now everyone who was close with him is like, we don't understand what happened to this person. Well, Marco Rubio seems to have been kind of... put in a corner i mean he does things but he knows his limits let's look remember marco rubio is a guy who was insulted so many times in in the 2015 2016 presidential race i don't know how

At what reach of one's character you can say, you know what, that's just between friends. Now I'll be the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor. It's a signal to the...

trump that i will do anything you ask without limits and that's not what these people in those jobs are supposed to do how does pushback become a larger and more successful moment. It can be South Park. That's certainly satire is often a way that happens. Very funny, very tough satire. You see it a lot from comedy. And you see it, I've just got Chris Eisgruber's, who's the head of Princeton's book.

Tough book, like he's writing, you know, pushing back. You see it in different law firms. You see it in different reporters, certainly. How do you make that larger? I think people, regular people, you see when you see these videos of people on the street stopping ICE from arresting people, you see it there. It's civil society in various forms. It can't be underestimated, but it isn't.

absolutely everything i mean finally we have a congress that's completely in its majority obedient to a president who is by instinct an authoritarian and a court that is suspect in many ways as well. So finally, political power can be influenced by and may be limited by civil society, and it's essential. You know, it's exactly what Russia does not have. Civil society has been all but crushed in very, very limited corners of civil society still exist in today's Russia.

It's infinitesimal. We still have that. And if we squander it, whether it's, you know, managing partner of a law firm or university president or... boards of trustees of universities if we keep squandering it the picture will get worse and worse and worse and and people seem to be changing their minds too look at harvard university Harvard University seemed to be standing up, and they had all the money in the world to do so. Now it looks as if they're going to make a deal.

And you could say, well, I don't blame them. You know, would they be losing all their research money? And, and, and. I get it. These are complicated positions. Otherwise, they wouldn't be moral quandaries in the first place. But if we keep backing up, bending down, you use whatever metaphor you like, the sum total of that.

will be the gradual and then accelerating erasure of civil society. Civil society. Yeah. Well, speaking of Russia, we've got a lot to get to today, but I want to move to several stories on the politics of fear on full display. So let's get to it. Trump and Putin are set to meet in Alaska this week for a summit. You can see Russia from Alaska. I don't know if you know that. As Trump pushes for the end to the Russia-Ukraine war after announcing the summit, Trump said there will be some swapping.

of territories to the betterment of both, very Chamberlain-esque. Ukraine's President Zelensky, who's not attending the summit as of this recording, called decisions made without Ukraine decisions against peace. European leaders are backing Zelensky, saying that Ukraine and... Europe's security must remain a top priority. And Trump just said a little while ago that the next meeting will be him, Putin, and Zelensky. So talk a little bit about...

Trump is now calling it a feel-out meeting, which sounds kind of creepy. It's a little gross, yeah. Yeah, a little Epstein-y. And what realistically is going to, I had to, are going to come out of it. You wrote this back in 2022 ahead of Russia invading Ukraine.

Ukraine. Few leaders have leveraged inscrutability the way Putin has, but his general imperative is obvious, the preservation of power. Talk a little bit about this summit, this feel-out situation. Well, it's more than just the preservation of power. It is the... resurrection of russian supremacy in as much of the old soviet union as can be mustered not because of communism communism is you know went out the door even before the fall of the soviet union

But I mean, just in terms of great power relations. Trump is, I don't know if this is news, I don't know if it will require a flash across our phones, but it's a pretty ins...

person, and this changes his mind and his temperament from hour to hour. So the spectacle of his berating Zelensky in the Oval Office was one of the most depressing moments of the past six months it was just inc it was the opposite of what an american president should be should be doing to a leader like zielinski who's been nothing but

brave and tireless and an advocate for his people and incredibly shrewd. And he just sold them out. Then he seemed to, and then lo and behold, Russia kept... kept up its attacks on doing what it does best and killing lots and lots of people and destroying lots and lots of ukrainian infrastructure And lo and behold, Trump said, this guy is bullshitting me, meaning Putin. So who knows? I think it's...

If we ascribe to Trump some sort of, that he's Talleyrand or Metternich and has some sort of grand strategy, and all along he's thinking ahead. Metternich and Trump don't go together. Not really, no. I'll go for it. or anybody else possessed of a strategic mind, then you're kidding yourself. Now we're showing off our college education. Whatever. I've just exhausted it. Yeah, exactly. So the other truth, though,

is that Putin has lost a lot. This adventure has lost him one million Russian casualties, deaths and people wounded combined. It has expanded NATO, which is exactly what he didn't want. in his northern, northwestern region. It's isolated Russia and Russians. Russian life is not... economic life is more perilous, although they've survived better than one would have thought. So this adventure is not great. It's not great.

Now, he's gained some territory, about 20% of Ukrainian territory, Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and he wants to hold on to it as much as possible. This is the Donbass region, correct? Yeah, I think he'd like to call it a day, but with maximal gains so he can come back. and declare a great victory and have lots of parades. The question is, is the United States going to let him do that? So? Is? Well, I think we'll see. What are you looking for from this?

meeting besides a lot of performative nonsense? I don't think it's performative nonsense. I think you need some clarity from Donald Trump. It may be asking too much. Some sense of that.

Russia cannot just have what it wants. And also, Russia has lost Ukraine. It may have gained territory in the east. It may have gained Crimea maybe for the foreseeable future, which it... took in 2014 but if you think ukrainians are now more sympathetic to russia that want to be part of russia and its sphere of influence you're crazy right they want to be part of europe

They want to be part of Europe even more intensely than ever. So what should he do here? If Trump listened to everything you said to David, what should I say exactly? What would you think the best thing? Should Zelensky be there from the start? There needs to be a process in which Zelensky and Putin and Europe and the United States are involved. It cannot be a situation in which...

Trump, in all his bluster and weakness, is alone in a room to the end with Vladimir Putin. If this meeting sets off a process that becomes one that's wider, I don't think Zelensky is going to get back everything he wants, which is a horrific tragedy, but a reality. But if Trump goes to Alaska and just... sees everything um zielinski will be in a horrific shape and we will have committed a strategic and moral blunder uh the likes of which we haven't seen for quite some time

Do you have any guesses of which way that's going to go? And where is Europe? I mean, Europe's been obviously pressuring. Europe is, you know, it's complicated, but Europe is much more stalwart in Zelensky's corner without question. Yes. So what does it do here? Because this will affect them. Right, exactly. Who's threatened more than Europe? If you're sitting in Estonia, Poland, Lithuania,

You're watching this a lot more carefully, necessarily, than if you're in New York or North Dakota or California. Do you think Putin would do that at this point? Does he have a sell-by date at all? I think the one provided by God. Oh, wow. Mortality. You know how long Lenin is still sitting there, right? Well, Lenin died of a stroke. I went and saw that. No, I know, but I went to see him dead. I did. Well, I don't think Putin is going to be followed by the living incarnation of Navalny, though.

I mean, he has set up a system that's both personalist and highly, highly, highly nationalist and authoritarian. And I don't think, unless you're a fantasist. you'll suddenly revert to the flux of 1991-92. Right, right. Where is Boris Yeltsin when you need him? Well, Boris Yeltsin is not a pure picture either. Boris Yeltsin...

I guess you could say he peaked in August of 1991 with his strength of standing up to the coup. So you're going to be watching, what would be, give everybody one sign of good or bad. If we don't get a repeat. Trump coming out, as he did in Helsinki years ago, and say, I believe Putin, I don't believe my own intelligence agencies. Remember that incident? Yes, I do. If we don't get a repeat...

of the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky where he just humiliated him and he went out of his way to do so with the help of J.D. Vance, then we'd have to count it as a small victory. In other words, if he doesn't entirely sell out Ukraine. That would be nice. Yeah. Well, he wants that Nobel Prize, doesn't he? He's joking. So, we'll see. Listen, if he settles the thing with a modicum of like…

not losing everything he could possibly get it. Okay, David, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Trump cracks down on D.C. Support for pivot comes from another podcast.

August 2025 marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans forever. There have been many accounts of the storm's devastation and what it took to rebuild, but behind those headlines is another story, one that impacted the lives of thousands of children. Where the schools went... is a new five-part podcast series about what happened to the city's schools after the levees broke and how it led to the most radical education experiment in American history.

Hosted by Ravi Gupta, a former school principal, Where the Schools Went traces the decades of dysfunction before Katrina and how the high-stakes decisions that followed transformed the city's school system. On the podcast, you'll hear from the voices of the people who lived it, from veterans.

educators who lost their jobs and idealists and outsiders who rushed in to students and families who lived through it all. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or someone who cares about how communities and public systems can work together, where the schools went is a story you need to hear. partnership with The 74 and Midas Touch, Where the Schools Went, is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

Support for the show comes from constant contact. So you own a business. Congrats on already making it this far. But unfortunately, you know your business can't stagnate. And when it comes to growing your business, engaging with your customers is crucial. but effective marketing takes a lot of time, skill, and money. It's time to be introduced to Constant Contact, your very own mini marketing team.

Constant Contact's marketing platform is here to make marketing way easier and way more effective for small business. The best part, you don't need to know anything about marketing. With their all-in-one platform, you can create and manage attention-grabbing campaigns in just a few clicks, email, text, social media events, landing pages,

you name it, it's all in one place. No more juggling dozens of different tools with the help of their AI tool, which helps you turn a rough idea into a ready-to-go message faster than ever. You also get automated sending, real-time reporting, and tools that actually help drive sales. So you're not just marketing your business, you're growing it. Get a free 30-day trial when you go to constantcontact.com. Try Constant Contact free for 30 days at constantcontact.com.

constantcontact.com. Support for this show comes from Mint Mobile. This summer, don't get burned, and I'm not just talking about sunburns or grill burns or getting burned by last year's summer fling.

What I'm saying is don't get burned with an overpriced wireless bill. With Mint, you can get coverage and speed you're used to, but for way less money. And for a limited time, Mint Mobile is offering three months of unlimited premium wireless for just 15 bucks a month. You can even keep your old number and all your existing contacts when you switch to Mint. So while your friends are sweating over data overages and surprise charges, you'll be chilling literally and financially.

This year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank and get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash pivot. That's mintmobile.com slash pivot. Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for the first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

David, we're back with more news. Another thing about the politics of fear. President Trump says the police department in D.C. will be placed under federal control because of, quote, totally out of control crime. Let me tell you, as a citizen of the District of Columbia, things are not totally out of control here. It's actually a very safe city.

The U.S. military is preparing to activate several hundred National Guard troops in the city on Monday as we tape. Let's listen to a clip of this speech on the matter on Monday morning. Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people. And we're not going to let it happen anymore. We're not going to take it.

Actually, all those people work at the White House. But I got to tell you, anyone who lives in D.C. is like, what are you talking about? Crime is down. And meanwhile, he's trying, we'll get to marijuana in a minute, but what do you take for this? He did it in California. The governor resisted.

But still he did it. In D.C. is under a really unusual situation where the government can take over the city or has much more purview over the city, including its elected officials. Sorry, this is the oldest tactic authoritarians have. drugged out maniacs or, you know, robbing your houses and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Fear, politics of fear. And...

And then he wants to show that in his own backyard, it's a swamp, and he's going to clean it up. This is a repeat of L.A. in some way, right? Where the governor and the mayor, I think, they... Karen Bass. In a way, the mayor of Los Angeles, after having a rough time during the wildfires, I think reasserted her reputation and her authority.

by pointing out very clearly in various interviews and news conferences. We had an interview with her in the New Yorker Radio Hour that was very good. And she made it very plain that this was just absolute... bullshit and a manipulation by the federal government in the name of Donald Trump to make it seem like drug-addled maniacs, in this case immigrants, were just running roughshod over.

the ability of the LAPD to control the situation in an isolated spot in downtown L.A. Yeah, there was a small spot. And I have to think, and also cable television didn't help. by 24 hours a day, focusing its camera on one burning car. I'm not saying that, you know, violence in the streets is a great thing, but a sense of what it actually was, and it's... What was reality and what was exaggerated and the ability of this president to manipulate that situation made it...

Hell of a lot worse. Why DC? Obviously, the Epstein stuff is another distraction from the Epstein stuff. But what can the mayor do here? Because at one point, remember, after Trump. really had those troops downtown with the bible the whole thing um

You know, they painted the plaza. They painted the plaza right near the White House to mock him. She has since gotten rid of that to try to please him and work with the Trump administration. And now, of course, this is what she's getting, right? This is what... cooperation yields you. And of course, it started with this guy named Big Balls who worked for Elon Musk. We are in a simulation, David, just so you know. None of this is real. This guy named Big Balls, this kid was working for Elon Musk.

musk he got beaten up i'm sorry big balls it's really terrible thing to happen to you but You know, living in this city, the crime is down. All kinds of major crimes are done. It's a very safe city. Same thing with San Francisco is now on the upswing and everything's looking great and everything else. So trying to paint it as this. We have this in New York City.

Well, it's coming for you. Of course it is. And by the way, Andrew Cuomo, in his rhetoric, is participating in this. Right, exactly. So I'm going to get to him in a second. So, the boxer. What do you do here? What could happen here? You've been in... Russia, you've been in lots of hotspots like this of authoritarian rule. Is this just posturing just so you can make a speech and get the things away from what's really happening in this country?

What's the danger here? Like, it's a citizen. I'm like... disturbed that there would be u.s military on the street when i whenever i'm in a country where that's the case i'm like i don't like this country so much i've arrived in a banana republic right exactly well one thing traditionally that's been in the authoritarian playbook is not just the use of troops, but it's the taking, either staging or taking an incident in which there is a clash and using that as an excuse for

a crackdown that's even greater. You saw this in the Soviet Union. You've seen it all over the world. You know that something will be, I remember in Lithuania, for example, was still Soviet times. Troops went in where they were not needed because there were demonstrations, there were nationalist demonstrations. And the next thing you know, 13 people were dead and the crackdown became more.

And the central authorities, particularly in that case, the KGB, were delighted. Delighted. They exploited it, they staged it, and the whole thing. Now, how sophisticated and what kind of forethought is going into this? I don't know. I couldn't say because I'm not in those rooms. But I dare say that we'll find out soon enough.

I think the more adjectives they use, the stupider it is. Violent crimes, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs, and homeless people. Homeless people didn't get a qualifier. But look, things will always happen in cities that are terrible. You know, it is a bad thing that Big Balls or whatever his real name is gets beaten up. It is a horrible thing when there's a murder in the Bronx or in whatever part of New York City. That's always going to happen.

And it's never completely satisfying to say that the statistics are down because... one sentence is filled with life and loss and bloodiness and the other feels cold and statistical. But in fact, but in fact, it's a huge accomplishment in... your city and mine, that crime, violent crime is down.

And you don't feel unsafe. I don't feel unsafe in New York or D.C. And I have felt unsafe in both places. Look, when I was a kid applying for college, my parents, I grew up in New Jersey, my parents said the one place I couldn't apply was Columbia. it was on 116th and to them sitting in suburban new jersey just seemed very dangerous and probably the 70s it wasn't so great but i think it would have been fine if i'd gone but and um

Now nobody would dream of saying that about Columbia. There are other things to say about Columbia, but not that. Yeah. You know what's interesting is that there was a shooting in Montana. Should he send the national troops there? It's just, it's like, it doesn't matter. It's the same. It's just such... No, we know what it's about. Yes, we do. But his ability to change the subject, as you said, Kara, is amazing. Three weeks ago, the Epstein situation was going to be yet another end of...

Donald Trump. I think the Epstein situation still has legs. That's my feeling. I do. What will take place that will deepen it? If you go to the... places I read on the internet with the MAGA people, it illuminates them. It still does. And I don't think they've let Donald Trump, I think they're trying to let Donald Trump off the hook, but they're still...

He's trying to sideline it, and that particular thing won't be sidelined. But what could they find out that they don't know already that would turn them against Trump? Oh, I don't think they would turn against Trump. 47% of Republicans would still vote for Trump, even if he was implicated in Epstein's activities, which is disturbing. So, I don't know. I think that something like that could happen.

I think something like that. This is part of the whole, too, this whole business that, you know, the phenomenon that seems to stun liberals all the time, that evangelicals will vote. for donald trump even though they know x y and z about his character that it's quote and this is the this is the phrase that's always used in in washington talk that it's baked in uh that they know that about trump where if they heard it about say obama

They'd be shocked, shocked, shocked and shield their eyes. Yeah, it's true. But he is going to, he may take marijuana, reportedly considering reconsidering marijuana as a less dangerous drug after companies in the industry have donated millions to his political groups. That's fine.

That one, I'm okay. I'm fine. I'm going to move on from that. So last thing on this segment, Governor Greg Abbott says the registering fight in Texas could literally last years as he defends his push to arrest Democrats who fled the state to block GOP efforts. I think they popped up in California this week. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, by the way, please Google Ken Paxton.

divorce, has also asked the state Supreme Court to room 13 of those Democrats from office. As registering battles spread across the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing for a special election to get a new House map approved by 2026, and Trump is now calling for a new census. that excludes undocumented immigrants, a move he's tried before. A new census.

So it would reshape congressional acts and impact federal, state, and local fundings if it were to happen. Talk a little bit about redistricting. Redistricting is nothing new, and it's something that's... Look, Barack Obama's district as a state senator, as a state senator in Illinois, was an absurdity. a little strip along the north side and it kind of came down and then went into Hyde Park. And these congressional districts historically have been shaped in ways that are congruent.

with all kinds of political interests, early on racism and to this day racism and anxiety about so many other subjects. So both parties and American politics has been given to redistricting for less than high motives for a very long time. But as usual, In the Trump administration, they're taking it to its very heights. To do this in the way they're doing this, this is not something that has clear precedent that I can see.

Yeah, no, he's doing it because he thinks he's going to lose the house. Of course. And then it is kind of game over for him in many ways. He'll just spend his time trying hard to do executive orders that won't be. Well, I think this was the illusion of some people. on in the democratic party that after an initial explosion of activity and noise and all the rest that this term like the last term would see him

have his interest flag, and maybe he's getting older and he'd play a lot more golf. But I think we have to admit that in numerous ways, maybe too many to count, this term is not only much worse than the first term, But the dark sophistication that he's gone about so many things, some of them collapse like Doge, has been a surprise to a lot of people. Yeah.

No, he's a lively old man. Have you ever gone to my mom's assisted living? There's a guy in every assisted living home that's like this. Real animated. There's like the Biden guy who's wheeling around who's actually a little more with it than he seems. And then there's the Trump guy and he's really crazy and really irritating and definitely like walks in the walls. It's not just the usual Trump character that we've known for so many years.

He's surrounded by people where age isn't an issue. Stephen Miller's a young man. He is. And he is filled with all kinds of impulses. And he is, so far, in a dark way, good at it. Right, he is. Absolutely. Is that the person you would focus most on? Would you consider him a quivering yaysayer? I think that's a good question. No, I think he isn't an actor. From what I understand, especially in terms of domestic policy, but not only, he is the most essential figure in that building.

And in fact, what we learned from that chat group that Jeff Goldberg was invited on inadvertently, but what you learned there in that discussion, that it wasn't the Secretary of State. or the defense secretary that was in charge of the conversation. It was Stephen Miller who brought things to a conclusion, who said, okay, we've discussed this enough, enough. President Trump. Very interesting. He was clearly the one speaking in Trump's name.

He was, absolutely. And Jeff pointed that out. It was clear, you know, Hegseth was sort of performatively playing the Secretary of Defense on television kind of thing. Like, look, I have some dates and times and stuff like that. He was surprised. Vance was quite against it, which was interesting to see that part of it. But nobody cared. Nobody cared. Nobody cared in that conversation. Miller came in and wiped this floor with everybody.

So is it a good idea for Gavin Newsom to do this? Or, you know, now a Republican governor in New Hampshire said, absolutely not, I'm not going to redistrict, even though she's under pressure to do so. You know, this is the dilemma that... stretches out to a lot of areas. I just had on our own podcast a conversation between Ruth Marcus and Jeannie Suk Gerson. They were talking about the Supreme Court and how it...

should deal with certain things. And the dilemma is, do you answer in kind in a way that feels extra legal or goes outside the bounds of normal politics? And that's the tough thing. And I think Gavin Newsom is basically saying, we can't afford to just let Trump and the Trumpists do whatever they want, and we have to answer in kind, otherwise too much will be lost, even though we know these tactics are ugly.

You know California a lot better than I do. You think he has a shot in the end as a presidential candidate? It depends on the atmosphere. It depends on the 2026 elections. If he sort of wins and pushes Trump back and... Yeah, I suppose he could. Yeah, I suppose he could. He's got a lot of negatives, but yeah, he's tall. I think we're going to elect a tall, handsome white guy for sure as the president. So not a short, handsome white guy. So Pete Buttigieg, no. No.

No. Why? Because I think the gay thing is still a problem for many people. I'm sorry. I think he's terrific. I think he's incredibly well-spoken. thoughtful uh i just don't wes moore is the other person i would just think this could be an interesting character he's not he's not a white guy so far as i can say he's not but he's he's

so fantastic looking. And he's got, you know, he's got just, I think he's got a lot of attributes. You know, you look, maybe it's someone from, we don't know, David. I don't know. I have to say, anyone who has any charm against J.D. Vance, if J.D. Vance is there. I find J.D. Vence charmless and repellent to voters, ultimately. The one thing, though, that gave me real pause is his performance in the vice presidential debate was extremely skillful. Yeah, but as president, that's different.

If he's the man, he's not really the man. He did give a speech recently. I don't know if you caught this at Claremont. I always listen to him. Whoa, whoa, whoa. In other words, Trump is an instinctual authoritarian. Right. J.D. Vance is a very sophisticated nationalist authoritarian ideologist. I mean, he is a different set of qualities.

He absolutely does. And we're going to be paying for the fact that his mama didn't love him enough for the rest of our lives if he wins. I'll tell you that. I mean, he's classic. It's just 100%. Mama didn't love him, didn't hug him. I find him charmless. I think the voters, most voters find him.

charmless. And the fact that South Park made him tattoo kind of said everything to me. Plain. It's amazing that South Park, how long has South Park been on the air? 26 years. And that it still has the juice. Well, it goes in and out. My kids love it, have loved it since they were small kids. But yeah.

It does. It has the juice. Yeah. You still have the juice, David. Oh, you're so sweet. You still have the juice. You do. You actually do. Thank you. Every now and then you come up with a story, I'm like, oh, look at that guy. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Cuomo comes after Mom Donnie in what he calls a... Heavyweight bout. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to.

Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros. See price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Support for this show comes from Pure Leaf Iced Tea.

You know that point in the afternoon when you just hit a wall? You don't have time for self-care rituals or getting some fresh air, so maybe you grab a beverage to bring you back. but somehow it doesn't do the trick or it leaves you feeling even worse. What you need is a quality break.

a tea break. And you can do that with pure leaf iced tea. Real brewed tea made in a variety of bold and refreshing flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. With a pure leaf iced tea in hand, you'll be left feeling refreshed and revitalized with a new motivation to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a pure leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break, time for a pure leaf.

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. You.

David, we're back with more news. In New York City, your home, in the mayoral race, Andrew Cuomo is targeting frontrunner Zoran Mamdani in a series of social media texts. And I use that. term broadly because they're really stupid. Cuomo is now framing the race as a heavyweight bout, which is what someone who still lives in the 1980s when Rocky was hot would use. Cuomo slammed Mom Donnie for living in a rent-stabilized apartment, calling him rich and saying he

should move out. I'll note Cuomo moved to the city about a year ago and pays about $8,000 in rent. And New York Times also reported last week that Cuomo recently spoke with Donald Trump about the mayoral race, though both men have denied that. It's very sad.

to say that he is proof positive that there is a such thing as a sell-by date. When you saw him in the debate, Mamdani, Cuomo, and some other figures, Brad Lander and so on, and I have never seen... a clock cleaned so efficiently as mamdani cleaned cuomo's clock he i he just cuomo had lost it this was a guy who really had prided himself on a certain kind of

I get things done. Tough guy. Tough guy, but I'm your tough guy. That mode. Very different from his old man. Eye of the tiger. Very eye of the tiger. And Mamdani, who's very young. right and he just came in very cool funny engaged you look we there's all kinds of things we can discuss and argue and and it's he's a fascinating figure But just on raw politics as a boxing match, that was the kind of decision where the, you know, you win by 10 points. You win every round.

Besides when it was terrible boxing, though, using that metaphor feels so dated at this moment. I don't know why. I bet the Youngs are like, what? Yeah, boxing is not exactly the center of attention. Here's the thing. We live... In a very, it's a young city, it's a city where certain constituencies have been totally overlooked. We have in this city between 750,000 and a million Muslim voters.

We have a city filled with young people who are deeply depressed by national politics and see no hope in it and are fed up. with all kinds of versions of the familiar and feel that they've been there they're not going to have the kind of life care that you and i have been privileged to have um And so I think they look at somebody like Cuomo as just worn out and cynical. And it matters, his ads and his social media are just very...

20 years ago. Eric Adams comes across as, you know, at this point, not very confident. I vote for Eric Adams over Cuomo at this point. I can't believe I just said that. I understand, but... But you also have this hilarious phenomenon that Adams and Cuomo are waiting for one or the other to drop out, even though they're neck and neck in the polls. And I bet you that neither one of them do. No, Adams would have a better chance against Mamdani, actually.

actually, if I had to choose. That Adams has a better chance. Right. I think that's absolutely right. He could still get a substantial African-American vote. There might be some people who see Mamdani as that comes from a privileged background, no matter what the ethnic.

background is or some people feel rightly or wrongly alienated by his views on the middle east even though the mayor of new york very rarely uh controls foreign policy um but they may feel alienated by that but i think mom danny's gonna win

Right. No, he's way up. But for people to know, right now the polls are showing him doing very well. And we're forgetting Curtis Sliwa, who I first covered as a young Washington Post reporter. And he lives up the street from me, I think in a studio apartment with about... 15 cats and his wife. He's an odd bird, but he's getting some votes. He is, actually. You know, actually, of all the people presenting, he's actually somewhat funny. And he's himself.

He's himself. And actually, some of the things he says, I'm like, that's a fair point. I literally love him with the hat and from when he used to control the subway. He's not wearing the hat. No, he had the hat. He gives it up here and there because he wants to look, you know, mayoral. I think he should go with the hat. That's why we know who he is. Yeah, exactly. It's like Groucho without the mustache and the cigar. I actually literally was like, okay, this is my stack rank. I'm Donnie.

Sliwa, Curtis Sliwa. Whatever, him, the hat guy. Adams. Cuomo. Literally, that's how I go. And it's like, I cannot believe I'm saying this. I don't live in New York. Do you talk a little bit about Mondani's weaknesses, though? Because my son has just recently left New York. He was at NYU. Love Mondani. So does my husband.

their older son. And it's not for, you know, he knows that some of the stuff is like he can't do grocery stores necessarily but he likes the idea that he's talking about it he's not sure he can do he's like well he's thinking about people's food he's thinking about like he goes i don't know if he'll do it but everyone else says shit that they don't do part of it is

it costs a fortune to live decently in new york city period and so forget the poor for a moment but to live a middle-class life on an income in much of the rest of the country would seem quite comfortable is really, really hard. And one of the truisms of politics is parents want to know that their kids are going to live slightly better than them. And here, the numbers are the opposite for a big part of the...

At first, Mamdani's support seemed to be isolated in what's called, you know, the brownstone belt. You know, comfortable, young creatives who are... whose politics are left and who are struggling to make it work in Bed-Stuy or Park Slope, which is wealthier and so on. In fact, that's not the limitation. He's not limited to that vote. He has done quite well on the west side of Manhattan and downtown and other, in Queens.

So I think he's just going to romp. I think he's going to win by a lot. I think he's going to win by a lot and Cuomo not by a lot. What's his biggest weakness? If you were Cuomo and not... living in the rocky period, rocky one period of the world. What would you tell Cuomo to do? Well, there are three areas of conversation. I don't know if there are weaknesses, but three areas of angles of attack that we've seen.

One is the false accusation that he's somehow an anti-Semite. It's just really nonsense. There's no question that he's... pro-palestinian rights and that was an energizing issue in his even in his college days and some of the vocabulary that comes along with that alienates some voters some of them jewish that's one area

The other area is he comes from a background where his father is a very distinguished Columbia professor and his mother is a movie maker. And while not wealthy in the New York sense, they're wealthy and privileged in every sense elsewhere, and certainly to the majority of New Yorkers. So there's one thing like that. So he's the privileged kid of the left, that sort of thing. Yeah. Then the third thing is, well, he can't do what he's promising.

So he's talking about grocery stores. I think maybe when it comes to grocery stores, what he's talking about is having some models of how this would work. It's not like he's going to return us to the Soviet Union of empty state grocery stores in 1970.

And how you go about affecting rent prices and limiting raises in rent prices and how you... have an effect on the really radical income differences in New York City and elsewhere depends on the state legislature, as Kathy Hochul has pointed out a number of times. And it's likely that he's certainly not going to win every battle. But what a lot of people see is that he's, and I hate to use the new agey, he sees them in a way that...

You know, Eric Adams is too weird to do, and Cuomo has passed his sell-by date. Passed his sell-by date. Do you worry about Donald Trump coming in if he wins? They're going to use it, the win as something. Of course. You know, it's unpredictable. Clearly, Donald Trump sees himself as a New Yorker, even though he's mainly abandoned New York for the delicious tax comforts of Florida.

Yeah, so he will come in. In some way or another. He's doing this in Washington. Now, to what degree and how much of it is a show and there to just prove that he can... do this with swagger like he's done to universities and any number of other institutions, it's hard to say. Yeah, the battle for New York. That was a movie with Kurt Russell. Yes, that movie is amazing. He plays Snake. Escape from New York. There was Escape from L.A. too, but he plays...

Oh, right. That's his name. I think his name is Snake. And New York becomes sort of a bad place, and then a rich guy's daughter gets, plane crashes there, and then he has to go in and get her. Can Kurt Russell run for mayor? Trust me, you and your... You and Esther watch it tonight. Okay, we will. You'll thank me. Okay. All right, David, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. My name's Sean Ramos for him.

For today, explain. I'm outside the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. with one question. Do you think we should go to Mars? I don't think you should live on Mars, no. I don't know why just Mars. I think as Earthlings, we are a nosy group of people. And I really don't think that we have any business going to Mars. Our knowledge about the solar system and the universe will grow substantially. I think maybe we should just leave Mars alone. Just...

Stay with Earth. So many innovations are going to come out of it because so many different companies are going to be fighting to get that first ticket to Mars. So I feel like we should. But at the same time, we should solve some problems here first. I think we need to expand what we know. What do we see? Honestly, for our own benefit. We should go way beyond. Today Explained from Vox is taking a summer sojourn on Mars. Join us!

I'm Jesse Dave Fox, senior writer at Vulture and host of Good One, a show with the best interviews with your favorite comedians ever. And this week on our podcast from Severance, the Meet the Parents movies, Zoolander, Cable Guy. Ben Stiller. Yes, the Ben Stiller. The believability of the world I think I care a lot about. That whatever reality you're creating, there's enough of a grounding in some sort of identifiable reality.

And you believe it. You can watch Good One every week at youtube.com slash vulture or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop on Thursdays. Have a good one. Hey, this is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, the show about what happens when tech and media get mashed up. And this week I'm talking to comedy journalist Jesse David Fox about the comedy boom.

and why it's fueled by a combination of TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, and podcasts, which, as Jesse reminds us, should rhyme with stories we've heard before. The thing about comedy, because it is the cheapest to produce platform, in my opinion, whenever new technology exists, they're the first ones there. That's This Week on Channels, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Okay, David, wrapping up, let's hear some wins and fails. Why don't you go first? Can I be patriotic in my win? Sure. David Kirkpatrick, who came to this magazine first as a fact checker many years ago when I first got here.

and then returned here from a career at the new york times to be a writer at the new yorker has published this week a huge piece in the new yorker called the number and what it is is a meticulous fair-minded non-jumping to conclusions, accounting of how much money, of how much money Donald Trump and his family has made off of the president in six months. 2.5 billion. It's $3.5 billion, which is a lot in six months. And I will say that he's, if anything, Kirkpatrick bends over backwards.

to be conservative in his accounting by nature and by what I can see in the reporting and the fact-checking. So I think that's, it's a win, it's a tragic win because of what it's telling you, but there's that.

Yeah, the grift. Do you have a winner or should I go to fail? No, go ahead, go to fail. And this is sentimental, but also I think important. It's what we started our conversation with. I think Jeff Bezos' behavior. with the Washington Post. I don't care how he gets married. He wants to take over, you know, the city of Rome or Albania to get married, as we say on my blog, Zygesund. You know, fine.

Maybe that pays a lot of catering bills and wonderful. But to take an institution, and what we're discovering in recent years to our pain is that institutions are fragile. Things that seem like they'd last forever. and were a good thing in their sum total, they're fragile. And to watch really earnest, good reporters and editors have to live through this.

is really painful, not just because I worked there a million years ago, but it's a big deal to have the news outlet in the capital of the country.

be put in this kind of deeply uncertain position at best. I'm glad to see that the Wall Street Journal in many ways has shown itself up lately. Emma Tucker proves to be a terrific editor. And that's good for... the competition with the times and others but to see this happen to the post is is on jeff bezos and that's a fail it's a real fail i just it's a stop you should buy it with me david he won't meet with me he might meet with you you're a white guy

You got the dough, I'm the white guy. Together we can conquer worlds. Worlds. The dough and the white guy. That's like a reality show. That would be such a good movie. Kurt Russell would play me. Who would play you? Yes, with a patch. Kurt Russell would also play me.

All right. My fail is, I got to say, the story in the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg was running a private school for his two daughters and a dozen other children out of his house in a compound in Palo Alto, and it's in violation of city code. the school he and his wife established for low-income families in East Palo Alto, announced it would be shutting down in April because he stopped funding it.

The idea of this private school for his children and a few other rich kids in the area, or rich friends or whatever, is grotesque. These people already go away from people and reality, and now they're... even further raising their children to do so, to be out of... They should be in schools in Palo Alto. They have excellent public schools in Palo Alto. And to do this is really, I find it grotesque. And so to do this just in a high-handed way is already taking over great swaths of...

of this area. Now, Paleto has always been a rich place, but he's grotesquerized it in a way. It's just icky that this is what he's doing with his children. Kids should not be... sequestered like this. I like that word, grotesquerise. Grotesquerise, yeah. It's a word for our age. It is, it is grotesquerise. And speaking of phantasterise.

The season finale of The Gilded Age was so good. Is it? Oh, my God. Have you seen it yet? I watched like an episode when it began. Oh, no. Stop. Stop. All right. I'll dig in. Just start with this season. I'll dig in. Start with this season. You'll pick it right up. It's rich people. You know, this is a different version of rich people. And there's Train Daddy, who is Vanderbilt, who's playing the character. His name is Russell. But no exploding vehicles?

Oh, it's the same guy who did Downton Abbey. So yes, there's things that happen. That guy. That guy. And so it's great. It's really great. The costumes are great. I got to say, Carrie Coons. who plays Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Bertha Russell, is just fantastic. Such a groping, grasping, it's billionaires I get behind. Like, I love these billionaires.

They're so fantastic and awful, but they're in the greatest of American ways. And at one point in the finale, I'm not going to give away stuff, but she goes, she's letting divorced women into the balls. And so one woman says to her, you know, it's really important that we move into the future. And the woman, Carrie Coons, is fantastic and deserves every Emmy in the book, goes.

This is the future, and the future is America. And it's so MAGA. It's so good. I'm sold. I am sold. At the same time, they've really doubled down. They're showing this sort of upcoming. black upper class and upper middle class in a really beautiful way. And they juxtapose these balls.

Just wonderful. Just really. And the first people thought it was the most low stakes show ever. Like they're worried about whether someone crosses the street to go to a party. It's actually really, it's turned into something very heartfelt. So fantastic. Fantastic.

finale and i'm excited for season four i'm there much yeah i'm there and and i wanted one thing is it's not a fail but sarah jessica parker is going to finally do her final show this week of uh which is essentially sex in the city uh the franchise and i have to say pound for pound and she doesn't weigh that much she's given a lot speaking of new york city you can have all your criticism of that show but really well done over the many many many years and lots of i personally like her a lot me too

Yeah, she's a lovely person. And it's gotten really good the last scene. So it's one more episode, and she deserves all the kudos, too. So to both of those ladies. Bertha! And SJP. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. And before we go this week and on with Kara Swish.

I spoke with Gary Ginsberg and Carol Razawil about America's enduring fascination with JFK Jr., also a New Yorker before he died. Let's listen to a clip of Gary Ginsberg, a former senior editor at George Magazine, talk about JFK Jr.'s. political stance he had a vision about politics that i think is really important for today

He thought of himself as kind of a post-partisan. He didn't believe in partisan politics. Even though he was a lifelong Democrat, his family embodied the Democratic Party. He really thought that effective policymaking would be done through post-partisanship. As it turned out, he was wrong about that, but he was very pressing about that magazine and entertainment and politics and celebrity. Really interesting is a series on CNN that's really interesting and, of course, a tragic...

early death of JFK Jr. But it's full of fantastic photos of JFK. The entire thing is handsome JFK wandering through it. It'd be interesting to know what he would have been. Do you think he would have run for office? Absolutely. Oh, God.

Why would anybody? I know, but he would have, don't you think? I think probably, yeah. Impossibly handsome. Quite smart, actually. Very interesting. Yeah, he probably would have. He probably would have been better off with someone like him. You think? Rich person who tried, yeah. I like rich people who try. They're getting thinner on the ground. I agree. If we're going to have them, let's have the ones that try. And again.

Bertha Russell. Okay. And please watch that and Escape from New York. David, I've given you two assignments for you and your wife for this weekend. I think I know which one I'm going toward first. All right. Okay. But Gilded Age is so good. Anyway. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on...

Friday, and I'll read us out. David, thank you so much. What a pleasure, Cara. What a pleasure. You're always a pleasure. Great fun. You are one of the finest editors in the land, I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. You do an amazing job, and you still have the juice. Today's show was produced by Lara Nath.

Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Enderdot engineered this episode. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Thank you, David, again. My pleasure.