The New Yorker Radio Hour

Latest Episodes:

Has MAGA Lost Faith in Donald Trump? Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

A growing portion of the electorate appears to recognize the mayhem President Donald Trump has instigated since returning to the Oval Office. That segment includes some of the people who put him back into office, including Rich Baris, who goes by the People’s Pundit on social media. Baris runs Big Data Poll, and appears regularly on “The Charlie Kirk Show” and other right-wing outlets. But he concurs with nonpartisan pollsters that MAGA is fracturing, and he talks with David Remnick about how the President lost the trust of his base; the contempt MAGA voters have for the old Republican Party; and who might take the reins after Trump.

Further reading:

“The Week Republicans Finally Panicked About Trump,” by Susan B. Glasser
“A Never Trumper and a Democrat on Beating MAGA for Good,” by Isaac Arnsdorf
“How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens
“Tucker Carlson’s Nationalist Crusade,” by Jason Zengerle
“Does MAGA Have Ideas?,” by Joshua Rothman

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 Reporter Nicholas Lemann on California’s Battle to Pass a Billionaire Tax Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada’s Plans for Donald Trump Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An American Journalist Imprisoned as a Spy in Russia Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

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:

“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

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 on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko” Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

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:

“Ari Emanuel Takes on the World,” by Connie Bruck

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grandmaster Flash on “Birth of a Culture” Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Grandmaster Flash has been an innovator in the art of d.j.’ing since he was practically a child growing up in the Bronx. As a young man named Joseph Saddler, he spent his days trying to figure out how to make the drum breaks in his favorite songs last longer and longer. Now in his late sixties, Flash remains as devoted to the art of the turntable as ever. In a new memoir, “Birth of a Culture,” he looks at hip-hop’s earliest days, as the music made its way from outdoor parties to huge venues like the Audubon Ballroom. He tells David Remnick how his creative innovations were born of an obsession with electronics, and why he views his group’s biggest hit, “The Message,” as the beginning of the end of a glorious moment in hip-hop culture.

Further reading:

“Grandmaster Flash’s Remix of Hip-Hop History,” by Vinson Cunningham

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Malcolm Gladwell on “The American Way of Killing” Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

Malcolm Gladwell, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, often uses ideas from the social sciences and epidemiology and applies them to surprising topics. But his new book tackles an issue that’s in the headlines every day. The book is called “The American Way of Killing,” and the subject is America’s unique association with gun violence. Death statistics, he says, fail to convey the scale of the problem because advances in medical care save countless lives that are nevertheless scarred by violence. Gladwell talks with David Remnick about how gun-control advocates have got the problem wrong, and why he thinks that a persistent dynamic of under-policing and over-incarcerating is at the root of America’s problem. “I can’t even utter the phrase ‘defund the police,’ ” Gladwell says, “without nearly blowing a gasket.”

Further reading:

“What We Get Wrong About Violent Crime,” by Malcolm Gladwell
“Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and the Modern Whistle-Blower,” by Malcolm Gladwell
“Thresholds of Violence,” by Malcolm Gladwell

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: The Journey Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

A woman who acts as a surrogate, carrying a child for someone else, is said to be going on a “journey.”

Kayla Elliott started her surrogacy journey at the age of twenty-six. She gave birth to a baby girl for a wealthy couple living in a mansion in L.A. County. The couple told her that they already had one child, who desperately wanted a sibling. But nothing about the situation was as it appeared.

Kayla soon learned that the couple already had twenty other children, most of them under the age of three, who had also been carried by surrogates. After one of the children was taken to an emergency room with head injuries, the police got involved, and then the F.B.I. As the scandal unfolded, the surrogates for the couple began to find one another.

Who was this mysterious couple, and why had they collected so many children?

“The Journey,” a five-part audio series, unravels what was going on inside the couple’s mansion and exposes a scheme that threatens the surrogacy industry.

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.