The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The Democratic strategist Lis Smith joins the guest host Clare Malone, a New Yorker staff writer, to discuss the state of the Democratic Party, and how a decade of reliance on anti-Trump rhetoric has left Democrats reactive and directionless. They consider why groups that Democrats once counted on—from young people to communities of color—are shifting rightward, and what new strategies politicians from Gavin Newsom to Zohran Mamdani are testing to prove that the Democratic Party stands for more than opposition to Trump. This week’s reading * “The Trump Administration’s Efforts to Reshape America’s Past [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/01/the-trump-administrations-efforts-to-reshape-americas-past],” by Jill Lepore * “How Former Biden Officials Defend Their Gaza Policy [https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-former-biden-officials-defend-their-gaza-policy],” by Isaac Chotiner * “The Endless August Recess [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-endless-august-recess],” by Antonia Hitchens * “The Enormous Stakes of Trump’s Effort to Fire the Fed Governor Lisa Cook [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/the-enormous-stakes-of-trumps-effort-to-fire-the-fed-governor-lisa-cook],” by John Cassidy * “What’s Life Like in Washington, D.C., During Trump’s Takeover? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/whats-life-like-in-washington-dc-during-trumps-takeover],” by Margaret Talbot Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts [http://swap.fm/l/tny-tps-extref]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

Since the end of the Cold War, most Americans have taken U.S. military supremacy for granted. We can no longer afford to do so, according to reporting [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/21/is-the-us-ready-for-the-next-war] by the staff writer Dexter Filkins. China has developed advanced weapons that rival or surpass America’s; and at the same time, drone warfare has fundamentally changed calculations of the battlefield. Ukraine’s ability to hold off the massive Russian Army depends largely on a startup industry that has provided millions of drones—small, highly accurate, and as cheap as five hundred dollars each—to inflict enormous casualties on invading forces. In some other conflict, could the U.S. be in the position of Russia? “The nightmare scenario” at the Pentagon, Filkins tells David Remnick, is, “we’ve got an eighteen-billion-dollar aircraft carrier steaming its way toward the western Pacific, and [an enemy could] fire drones at these things, and they’re highly, highly accurate, and they move at incredible speeds. . . . To give [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth credit, and the people around him . . . they say, ‘O.K., we get it. We’re going to change the Pentagon procurement process,’ ” spending less on aircraft carriers and more on small technology like drones. But “the Pentagon is so slow, and people have been talking about these things for years. . . . Nobody has been able to do it.” Read Filkins’s “Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/21/is-the-us-ready-for-the-next-war]?” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts [http://swap.fm/l/tny-radiohour-eBFv3Y]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The Washington Roundtable speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, the president and C.E.O. of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit, about how America’s founders tried to tyrant-proof their constitutional system, how Donald Trump’s whim-based decision-making resembles that of the dictator Julius Caesar, and what we can learn from the fall of the Roman Republic. Plus, how the Supreme Court is responding to the Trump Administration’s broad claims of executive power.  Rosen, a professor at George Washington University Law School, hosts the “We the People [https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/podcasts]” podcast and is the author of “The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668002477].”  This episode originally aired on March 7th, 2025 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt for the latest installment of “How Bad Is It?,” a monthly series on the health of American democracy. Their guest is David D. Kirkpatrick, whose new investigation [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/the-number] details the many ways President Donald Trump has profited during his second term—from a reported private jet gifted by Qatar to soaring valuations of Trump Media and a flood of crypto ventures. They discuss whether these attempts at self-enrichment amount to ordinary political corruption or whether they represent tools for consolidating power which could accelerate democratic backsliding in the United States, much like in kleptocracies and oligarchies abroad. This week’s reading: * “How Much Is Trump Profiting Off the Presidency? [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/18/the-number],” by David D. Kirkpatrick * “Can Donald Trump Police the United States? [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/can-donald-trump-police-the-united-states],” by Christian Fairas  * “Pam Bondi’s Power Play [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/pam-bondi-profile],” by Ruth Marcus * “The Troubling Lines That Columbia Is Drawing [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-troubling-lines-that-columbia-is-drawing],” by Eyal Press * “The Texas Democrats’ Remote Resistance [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-texas-democrats-remote-resistance]” by Peter Slevin Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts [http://swap.fm/l/tny-tps-extref]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]

Mohammed R. Mhawish was living in Gaza City during Israel’s invasion, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack. He witnessed the invasion for months and reported on its devastating consequences for Al Jazeera, The Nation, and other outlets. After his home was targeted in an Israeli strike, which nearly killed him, he fled Gaza. In The New Yorker, he’s written [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/treating-gazas-collective-trauma] about mental-health workers who are trying to treat a deeply traumatized population, while themselves suffering from starvation, the loss of loved ones, their own injuries—and the constant, remorseless death toll around them. “They were telling me, ‘We cannot wait for the war to stop to start healing—or for ourselves to heal—to start healing others,’” Mhawish relates to David Remnick. “I understood they were trying to heal by helping others heal.” New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts [https://link.chtbl.com/XL9LVVAk]. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices [https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices]