How Zohran Became Possible

Our guest is Jonathan Mahler, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and author of the new book, Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990. With New York on the verge of electing a socialist, Muslim, anti-Zionist mayor, I asked Jonathan how the city has changed over the last three decades, and how those changes enabled the rise of Zohran Mamdani.

Topics include:

• The nature of the anxiety of Mamdani’s opponents

• What a Mayor Mamdani could and couldn’t do to effect change

• New York racism, past and present

• The evolution of black politics in New York

• What Mamdani’s ascent tells us about the future of the Democratic party and the DSA

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