The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Latest Episodes:

Ben Shapiro Is Waging Battle Inside the MAGA Movement Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

Ben Shapiro, the host of his eponymous podcast and the co-founder of the conservative website the Daily Wire, has lambasted the left and the Democratic Party for decades. Recently, though, Shapiro has taken to criticizing some of the loudest voices in the MAGA universe, including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly. The rift is over the acceptance and promulgation of conspiracy theories and, in particular, the normalization of antisemitism. Shapiro discusses the Epstein files and what they show—and do not show—about the powerful people connected to Jeffrey Epstein. The belief in conspiracies of the élite reflects “people’s desire to abdicate control over their own lives,” Shapiro tells David Remnick. They discuss Shapiro’s adherence to the conservative value of personal responsibility, and how he squares that with MAGA and its champions.

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.

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How to Protect the 2026 Elections from Donald Trump Feb 07, 2026

Show notes

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s threats to “nationalize” elections in fifteen states, the recent F.B.I. raid to seize 2020 voting records at an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia, and the ways in which the Administration might meddle with a free and fair vote in 2026. Their guest, Richard Hasen, is the director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at U.C.L.A.’s School of Law. “I actually think that now is the time to be preparing for this,” Hasen says. “I think states and localities should think about getting injunctions from federal courts against Donald Trump to prevent him from interfering with the tabulation of ballots.”

This week’s reading:

“Donald Trump Already Knows the 2026 Election Is ‘Rigged,’ ” by Susan B. Glasser
“Dan Bongino’s Podcast Homecoming,” by Jon Allsop
“Why the D.H.S. Disaster in Minneapolis Was Predictable,” by Jonathan Blitzer
“Is ICE Leading Us Into a Constitutional Crisis?,” by Isaac Chotiner
“How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post,” by Ruth Marcus
“ ‘Melania’ Is a Forty-Million-Dollar Journey Into the Void,” by Lauren Collins
“How Trump Is Debasing the Dollar and Eroding U.S. Economic Dominance,” by John Cassidy
“Russia Is Swarming Europe with Young Agents,” by Ian Crouch

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The “Melania” Documentary Offers an Intimate Look at Very Little Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

The New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss a new documentary about Melania Trump, which chronicles her life during the twenty days leading up to Donald Trump’s second Inauguration. They talk about the film’s glossy yet superficial portrait of the First Lady, who served as an executive producer, as well as its troubled rollout and poor critical reception. They also explore Melania’s tenure as First Lady and the contradictions at the center of her political identity as an immigrant married to a President whose anti-immigration rhetoric and policies have come to define both his Administration and the moment of the film’s release.

This week’s reading:

“ ‘Melania’ Is a Forty-Million-Dollar Journey Into the Void,” by Lauren Collins
“What a ‘Melania’ Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish,” by Isaac Chotiner
“How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post,” by Ruth Marcus
“Why the D.H.S. Disaster in Minneapolis Was Predictable,” by Jonathan Blitzer
“Trump’s Profiteering Hits $4 Billion,” by David Kirkpatrick

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The City of Minneapolis vs. Donald Trump Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

The staff writers Emily Witt and Ruby Cramer discuss the situation in Minneapolis, a city effectively under siege by militaristic federal agents. “This is a city where there’s a police force of about six hundred officers [compared] to three thousand federal agents,” Witt points out. Cramer shares her interview with Mayor Jacob Frey, who talks about how Minneapolis was just beginning to recover from the trauma of George Floyd’s murder and its aftermath, and with the police chief Brian O’Hara, who critiques the lack of discipline he sees from immigration-enforcement officers. Witt shares her interviews with two U.S. citizens who were detained after following an ICE vehicle; one describes an interrogation in which he was encouraged to identify protest organizers and undocumented people, in exchange for favors from immigration authorities.

Ruby Cramer’s “The Mayor of an Occupied City” was published on January 23rd. Emily Witt’s “The Battle for Minneapolis” was published on January 25th.

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From 9/11 to Minneapolis: How ICE Became a Paramilitary Force Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

The Washington Roundtable is joined by the journalist and historian Garrett Graff to trace how post-9/11 immigration policy, which led to a surge in Border Patrol hiring, set the stage for today’s crisis in Minneapolis. The panel examines how ICE and C.B.P., created to protect Americans from outside threats, have been unleashed in America’s cities as what Graff calls "a fascist secret police." “The Border Patrol has never been intended to be a force that is routinely interacting with American citizens,” Graff says. “Full stop, period, let alone routinely patrolling American cities.”

This week’s reading:

“Operation Trump Rehab,” by Susan B. Glasser
“The Green Monster,” by Garrett Graff for Politico, 2014
“Why Minnesota Can’t Do More to Stop ICE,” by Garrett Graff for Wired
“The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis,” by Emily Witt
“What ICE Should Have Learned from the Fugitive Slave Act,” by Jelani Cobb
“Do Federal Officials Really Have ‘Absolute Immunity’?,” by Isaac Chotiner
“Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis,” by Vinson Cunningham
“The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center,” by Oren Peleg
“Maybe the United States Can Be One of Mark Carney’s ‘Middle Powers,’ ” by Bill McKibben
“Trump’s Greenland Fiasco,” by Joshua Yaffa
“What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting,” by Charles Duhigg

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What the Democrats Can Learn from MAGA Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

The New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss why Republicans have been more successful than Democrats at building durable political coalitions. They talk about the difference between short-term mobilization and long-term organizing, why large-scale protests often fail to translate into lasting power, and how conservative groups have quietly built local infrastructure that may sustain the MAGA movement beyond Donald Trump’s Presidency. They also examine how the left’s efforts are impeded by debates over ideological purity, and whether a renewed focus on community-based organizing and pragmatic coalition-building could reshape progressive politics in the coming years.

This week’s reading:

“What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting,” by Charles Duhigg
“Witnessing Another Public Killing in Minneapolis,” by Vinson Cunningham
“Do Federal Officials Really Have ‘Absolute Immunity’?,” by Isaac Chotiner
“The Battle for Minneapolis,” by Emily Witt
“The Cruel Conditions of ICE’s Mojave Desert Detention Center,” by Oren Peleg

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How Bari Weiss Is Changing CBS News Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

Last October, Bari Weiss—best-known as a contrarian opinion writer who launched the right-leaning Free Press—was appointed the new editor-in-chief of CBS News. Donald Trump has called her new regime “the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.” The New Yorker staff writer Clare Malone wrote about Weiss’s hostile takeover of CBS for the January 26, 2026, issue of the magazine. In a conversation with David Remnick, Malone discusses her reporting on Weiss: how resigning from the New York Times launched Weiss to prominence as a crusader against what she has characterized as woke groupthink; how Weiss gained the support of Silicon Valley titans who had their own political grievances; and the headlines about Weiss’s rocky beginning as head of a news network, including the on-air travails of her new anchor, Tony Dokoupil.

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How Trump Brought Us to a “Rupture in the World Order” Jan 23, 2026

Show notes

The Washington Roundtable discusses President Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland and his subsequent retreat. At Davos this week, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, characterized the episode as “a rupture in the world order.” To analyze how Trump’s rhetoric has heightened concerns about the durability of the transatlantic alliance, the Roundtable is joined by Carl Bildt, the co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and the former Prime Minister of Sweden. “I think what we need to do as Europeans is to do our own thing,” Bildt says. “We now have a United States that, from our point of view, is unpredictable.”

This week’s reading:

“It’s Time to Talk About Donald Trump’s Logorrhea,” by Susan B. Glasser
“An Unhappy Anniversary: Trump’s Year in Office,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin
“The Overlooked Deaths of the Attack on Venezuela,” by Oriana van Praag
“The Ice Curtain,” by Ian Frazier
“How Europe Can Respond to Trump’s Greenland Imperialism,” by Isaac Chotiner
“The Congresswoman Criminalized for Visiting ICE Detainees,” by Jonathan Blitzer

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Should Progressive Organizers Lean More on the Church? Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the role the church has played in sustaining protest movements—and whether effective political dissent in the United States is possible without involvement from religious institutions. They talk about how churches have historically provided moral authority, infrastructure, and community to movements for social change, why those qualities have been difficult to replicate in the age of social media and mass protest, and what is lost when dissent becomes sporadic or primarily digital. They also examine whether churches still have the widespread credibility and organizing capacity to anchor protest today, and what it would take for religious institutions to once again embrace a central place in modern political life.

This week’s reading:

"Can American Churches Lead a Protest Movement Under Trump?," by Jay Caspian Kang
"Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News," by Clare Malone
"An Unhappy Anniversary: Trump’s Year in Office," by Amy Davidson Sorkin
"The Overlooked Deaths of the Attack on Venezuela," by Oriana van Praag
"Why Trump Supports Protesters in Tehran but Not in Minneapolis," by Benjamin Wallace-Wells

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With the Podcast “I’ve Had It,” Jennifer Welch Goes “Dark Woke” on Politics Jan 19, 2026

Show notes

Before becoming a podcaster, Jennifer Welch had a successful career as an interior designer and co-starred in a reality show on Bravo. But, since 2022, she and Angie Sullivan, her co-host on the podcast “I’ve Had It,” have gained millions of fans as a sounding board for left-leaning political frustrations. These aren’t only concerns about MAGA but also about the Democratic establishment that she views as captive to a corporate agenda. Welch talks with David Remnick about her contentious interviews with Cory Booker and Rahm Emanuel, her belief in “dark woke,” and how a white Oklahoma woman in her fifties emerged as one of the most provocative voices on today’s left.

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