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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

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Join The New Yorker’s writers and editors for reporting, insight, and analysis of the most pressing political issues of our time. On Mondays, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, presents conversations and feature stories about current events. On Wednesdays, the senior editor Tyler Foggatt goes deep on a consequential political story via far-reaching interviews with staff writers and outside experts. And, on Fridays, the staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos discuss the latest developments in Washington and beyond, offering an encompassing understanding of this moment in American politics.

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New York, NY

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Join The New Yorker’s writers and editors for reporting, insight, and analysis of the most pressing political issues of our time. On Mondays, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, presents conversations and feature stories about current events. On Wednesdays, the senior editor Tyler Foggatt goes deep on a consequential political story via far-reaching interviews with staff writers and outside experts. And, on Fridays, the staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos discuss the latest developments in Washington and beyond, offering an encompassing understanding of this moment in American politics.

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@newyorker

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English

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Episodes
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John Fetterman on Trump’s “Raw Sewage,” and What the Democrats Get Wrong

2/24/2025
Since the election, Senator John Fetterman—once a great hope of progressives—has conspicuously blamed Democrats for the electoral loss. Fetterman tells David Remnick that the Democratic Party discouraged male voters, particularly white men. He has pursued a lonely course of bipartisanship by meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago before his Inauguration, joining Truth Social, and voting to confirm Pam Bondi as Attorney General—the only Democrat to do so. But, despite Trump’s relatively high approval ratings, he lambasts the Administration for the “chaos” it is currently sowing in America. Fetterman sympathizes with voters’ widespread disgust with contemporary politicking. “Unlimited money has turned all of us in some way into all OnlyFans models,” he says. “We’re all just online hustling for money.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:34:02

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What Stops Democracy from Backsliding?

2/21/2025
The Washington Roundtable discusses with the Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond about President Trump’s attempts to claim broad powers, why most Republican lawmakers have fallen into line out of fear, and whether the United States has already tipped over into authoritarian territory. Plus, how the courts, Congress, and ordinary citizens might course-correct American democracy. This week’s reading: The Crisis of Democracy Is HereTrump’s Putinization of AmericaPulling Our Politics Back from the BrinkMonth One of Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Age,’We’d Never Had a King Until This WeekThe Trump Administration Trashes Europe and NATOThe Second Trump Administration’s New Forms of Distraction To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:30:33

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Elon Musk’s A.I.-Driven Government Coup

2/19/2025
The New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Elon Musk’s seizure of power within the U.S. government, the tech industry’s slide into right-wing politics, and how the ideology of techno-fascism is taking root in Silicon Valley. Can the populists and the technologists coexist in Donald Trump’s Washington? This week’s reading: Elon Musk’s A.I.-Fuelled War on Human AgencyThe Second Trump Administration’s New Forms of DistractionMake South Africa Great Again?Elizabeth Warren Fights to Defend the Consumer Protection Agency She Helped CreateA Fistfight Over Donald Trump at the Evangelical Version of Harvard To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:38:35

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The A.C.L.U. v. Trump 2.0

2/17/2025
In Donald Trump’s first term in office, the American Civil Liberties Union filed four hundred and thirty-four lawsuits against the Administration. Since Trump’s second Inauguration, the A.C.L.U. has filed cases to block executive orders ending birthright citizenship, defunding gender-affirming health care, and more. If the Administration defies a judge’s order to fully reinstate government funds frozen by executive order, Anthony Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director, says, we will have arrived at a constitutional crisis. “We’re at the Rubicon,” Romero says. “Whether we’ve crossed it remains to be seen.” Romero has held the job since 2001—he started just days before September 11, 2001—and has done the job under four Presidents. He tells David Remnick that it’s nothing new for Presidents to chafe at judicial obstacles to implement their agendas; Romero mentions Bill Clinton’s attempts to strip courts of certain powers as notably aggressive. But, “if Trump decides to flagrantly defy a judicial order, then I think . . . we’ve got to take to the streets in a different way. We’ve got to shut down this country.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:32:48

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What Does It Mean to Resist Trump in 2025?

2/12/2025
The essayist and cultural critic Brady Brickner-Wood talks with Tyler Foggatt about the opposition Donald Trump encountered in his first Presidential term, why many liberals are feeling a sense of resignation, and the Democratic Party’s struggle to present a unifying message. Plus, the political commentary embedded in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. This week’s reading: What Happened to the Trump Resistance?The War on Diversity, Equity, and InclusionThe Fears of the UndocumentedThe Madness of Donald TrumpElon Musk and Donald Trump Are Not Fixing U.S. Foreign Aid but Destroying ItElon Musk’s A.I.-Fuelled War on Human AgencyWhat Happens if Trump Defies the Courts To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:37:36

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Trump’s Boogeyman: D.E.I.

2/10/2025
Many of the most draconian measures implemented in the first couple weeks of the new Trump Administration have been justified as emergency actions to root out D.E.I.—diversity, equity, and inclusion—including the freeze (currently rescinded) of trillions of dollars in federal grants. The tragic plane crash in Washington, the President baselessly suggested, might also be the result of D.E.I. Typically, D.E.I. describes policies at large companies or institutions to encourage more diverse workplaces. In the Administration’s rhetoric, D.E.I. is discrimination pure and simple, and the root of much of what ails the nation. “D.E.I. is the boogeyman for anything,” Jelani Cobb tells David Remnick. Cobb is a longtime staff writer, and the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. “If there’s a terrible tragedy . . . if there is something going wrong in any part of your life, if there are fires happening in California, then you can bet that, somehow, another D.E.I. is there.” Although affirmative-action policies in university admissions were found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, D.E.I. describes a broad array of actions without a specific definition. “It’s that malleability,” Cobb reflects, that makes D.E.I. a useful target, “one source that you can use to blame every single failing or shortcoming or difficulty in life on.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:25:59

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Why Trump Is Targeting Foreign Aid, with Atul Gawande

2/7/2025
The Washington Roundtable is joined by Atul Gawande, the former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, to discuss Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s rapid-fire dismantling of the agency. They explore the life-and-death implications of the Trump Administration ending foreign aid, why the agency was targeted, and which federal agencies might be next. This week’s reading: Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal AssistanceElon Musk’s Revolutionary TerrorDonald Trump’s Madness on GazaHow Donald Trump Is Transforming Executive PowerWhat Happened to the Trump Resistance?Donald Trump’s Anti-Woke Wrecking BallTrump’s Trade War Is Only Getting Going To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:30:05

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Is Flying Actually Becoming Less Safe?

2/5/2025
Matthew L. Wald joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the political aftermath of last week’s horrific collision between an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter. They look at the current state of airline safety, the changes afoot at the Federal Aviation Administration, and President Trump’s wild pronouncements that somehow diversity initiatives were to blame for the crash that claimed sixty-seven lives. “The culture warriors, with such a vengeance, are now turning to the F.A.A.—it’s something new and it’s not healthy,” Wald says. This week’s reading: How to Understand the Reagan Airport CrashHow Donald Trump Is Transforming Executive PowerThe U.S. Military’s Recruiting CrisisDonald Trump’s Anti-Woke Wrecking BallKash Patel’s Political-Persecution Fantasies To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:32:57

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Bill Gates on His New Memoir and Dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

2/3/2025
In the nineteen-eighties and nineties, Bill Gates was the best known of a new breed: the tech mogul—a coder who had figured out how to run a business, and who then seemed to be running the world. Gates was ranked the richest person in the world for many years. In a new memoir, “Source Code,” he explains how he got there. The book focusses on Gates’s early life, and just through the founding of Microsoft. Since stepping away from the company, Gates has devoted himself to his foundation, which is one of the largest nonprofits working on public health around the globe. That has made him the target of conspiracy theories by anti-vaxxers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has asserted that Gates and Anthony Fauci are together responsible for millions of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gates views the rise of conspiracy thinking as symptomatic of larger trends in American society exacerbated by technology. “The fact that outrage is rewarded because it’s more engaging, that’s kind of a human weakness,” he tells David Remnick. “And the fact that I thought everybody would be doing deep analysis of facts and seeking out the actual studies on vaccine safety—boy, was that naïve. When the pandemic came, people wanted some evil genius to be behind it. Not some bat biology. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:31:45

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on What Democrats Should Do Next

1/31/2025
The Washington Roundtable discusses the fallout of the White House releasing, and then rescinding, a memo intended to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. The incident, as well as this week’s Senate confirmation hearings for controversial Cabinet nominees such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Kash Patel, offers Democrats an opportunity to seize control of the narrative—if they can get organized, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator from Rhode Island, says. “If what Democrats are doing is running around calling them chaotic and incompetent, that’s not going to win the day unless those charges are connected to actual harms happening to regular people.” This week’s reading: Donald Trump’s Cabinet of RevengeTrump’s Orders Sow Chaos Inside the Nation’s Enforcer of Equal OpportunityKash Patel’s Political-Persecution FantasiesBehind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal AssistanceThe Junk Science of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.How Donald Trump Seizes the Primal Power of NamingTrump’s Attempt to Redefine America Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:36:14

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How Trump’s Federal-Aid Fiasco Is Testing the Separation of Power

1/29/2025
On Tuesday, the Trump Administration sent out a memo attempting to put a blanket pause on most federal funding, sowing confusion about financing for student loans, SNAP benefits, nonprofits, and more. The next day, after a backlash, the Administration rescinded the memo, while maintaining that a freeze remains in “full force and effect.” The order created chaos across the federal government, threatening a power struggle between the President, Congress, and the courts. The New Yorker contributor and Harvard Law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss how Trump’s directives are testing how far a President can go. This week’s reading: Trump's Attempt to Redefine AmericaThe Unchecked Authority of Trump's Immigration OrdersDonald Trump Throws the Doors to the Patriot Wing OpenTrump Is Already Drowning Us in OutragesBritain’s Foreign Secretary Braces for the Second Trump Age To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:29:34

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A Spirit of Vengeance in Trump’s First Week

1/24/2025
The Washington Roundtable discusses President Trump’s first week in office, during which he broke a record for the most executive orders any modern-day President has signed on Day One. The President’s inaugural address and barrage of orders seemed driven by a sense of grievance, accrued in the course of four years out of office, four criminal prosecutions, and a deep desire for revenge. Will an apparatus of rage, taking form as vengeance, ultimately inhibit the government from performing its functions? Plus, they discuss the Episcopal Bishop Marianne Buddy’s remarks at the interfaith prayer service, and the importance of speaking truth to power. This week’s reading: Trump Is Already Drowning Us in OutragesThe Unchecked Authority of Trump’s Immigration OrdersThe Big Tech Takeover of American PoliticsWhy Is the Mastermind of Trump’s Tariff Plan Still Sitting at Home in Florida?How Much Power Does President Trump Have?Donald Trump Invents an Energy EmergencyWhat Trump 2.0 Means for Ukraine and the World To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:45:06

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David Remnick on the Dawn of Trump’s Second Term

1/22/2025
Within hours of his Inauguration, and shortly after proclaiming that his victory had been preordained by God, Donald Trump signed dozens of executive orders. These included exiting the World Health Organization, attempting to end birthright citizenship in the United States, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico. He also issued pardons for hundreds of the January 6th convicts. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss what Trump’s first days back in office portend for the next four years. “[Trump] hasn’t changed one iota,” Remnick says, “except that his confidence has increased, and his base has increased, and the obedience of the Republican Party leadership is absolute.” This week’s reading: Donald Trump’s Inaugural Day of VindicationDonald Trump Plays Church‘An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape,’What Trump 2.0 Means for Ukraine and the World“Donald Trump Returns to Washington“Donald Trump Invents an Energy EmergencyTo discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:35:12

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Big Money and Trump’s New Cabinet

1/17/2025
The Washington Roundtable discusses this week’s confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Pam Bondi as Attorney General, and the potential for a “shock and awe” campaign in the first days of Donald Trump’s second term. Plus, as billionaires from many industries gather around the dais on Inauguration Day, what should we make of President Biden’s warning, in the waning days of his Administration, about “an oligarchy taking shape in America”? This week’s reading: “The Trump Effect”: On Deal-Making and Credit-Claiming in Trump 2.0The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense SecretaryWhy the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Is Happening Now‘An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape,’How Much of the Government Can Donald Trump Dismantle?The Shock of a Gaza Ceasefire Deal To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:36:15

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How the Blazes in L.A. Got Swept Into the Culture War

1/15/2025
The Eaton and Palisades fires continue to wreak destruction across Los Angeles. They are predicted to become the most expensive fire recovery in American history. As the fires have burned, a torrent of right-wing rage has emerged online. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Charlie Kirk have attacked liberal mismanagement and blamed D.E.I. programs and “woke” politics for the destruction. Meanwhile, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has expressed concerns that the future Trump Administration may add conditions to federal financial-assistance relief for California, something that Republican Congress members have already floated. The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss what happens when disaster relief is swept up in the culture war. This week’s reading: The Insurance Crisis That Will Follow the California FiresOn the Ground During L.A.’s Wildfire EmergencyAn Arson Attack in Puerto RicoElon Musk’s Latest Terrifying Foray Into British PoliticsThe Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:30:01

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Representative Ro Khanna on Elon Musk and the Tech Oligarchy

1/13/2025
Representative Ro Khanna of California is in the Democrats’ Congressional Progressive Caucus. And although his district is in the heart of Silicon Valley—and he once worked as a lawyer for tech companies—Khanna is focussed on how Democrats can regain the trust of working-class voters. He knows tech moguls, he talks with them regularly, and he thinks that they are forming a dangerous oligarchy, to the detriment of everyone else. “This is more dangerous than petty corruption. This is more dangerous than, ‘Hey, they just want to maximize their corporation's wealth,’ ”he tells David Remnick. “This is an ideology amongst some that rejects the role of the state.” Although he’s an ally of Bernie Sanders, such as advocating for Medicare for All and free public college, Khanna is not a democratic socialist. He calls himself a progressive capitalist. Real economic growth, he says, requires “a belief in entrepreneurship and technology and in business leaders being part of the solution.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:34:51

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What the End of Meta’s Fact-Checking Program Means for the Future of Free Speech

1/10/2025
The Washington Roundtable discusses Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to end its fact-checking program across Meta’s social-media sites. Instead, Meta will release a tool that allows readers to add context and corrections to posts, similar to the way one can leave a “community note” on X. What does this choice mean for truth online in the coming Trump Administration, and have “alternative facts,” as they were dubbed by Kellyanne Conway in 2017, won out? Plus, free speech in the era of Donald Trump, lawsuits brought against the mainstream media, and how journalists will cover President Trump’s second Administration. This week’s reading: King Donald and the Presidents at the National CathedralWhy the MAGA Fight Over H-1B Visas Is Crossing Party LinesLauren Boebert’s Survival Instincts Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:32:40

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Will Justin Trudeau’s Resignation Lead to the MAGA-fication of Canada?

1/8/2025
After nearly a decade as Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has resigned from office. His stepping down follows a years-long decline in popularity, which stands in sharp contrast to his meteoric rise in 2015. It now seems likely that the Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, whose far-right populist support some have likened to Trump’s MAGA movement, will attain Canada’s highest office. The New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik joins the show to discuss Trudeau’s descent, Poilievre’s ascent, expectations for the upcoming parliamentary election, and what the future of Canadian politics may hold. This week’s reading: Why Justin Trudeau Had to Step DownHow Much Do Democrats Need to Change?Bourbon Street After the TerrorHow Sheriffs Might Power Trump’s Deportation MachineNew Mexico’s Nuclear-Weapons Boom To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:28:47

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From Critics at Large: The Modern-Day Fight for Ancient Rome

1/3/2025
The Political Scene will be back next week. In the meantime, enjoy a recent episode from The New Yorker’s Critics at Large podcast. Artists owe a great debt to ancient Rome. Over the years, it’s provided a backdrop for countless films and novels, each of which has put forward its own vision of the Empire and what it stood for. The hosts Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the latest entry in that canon, Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” which has drawn massive audiences and made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. The hosts also consider other texts that use the same setting, from the religious epic “Ben-Hur” to Sondheim’s farcical swords-and-sandals parody, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Recently, figures from across the political spectrum have leapt to lay claim to antiquity, even as new translations have underscored how little we really understand about these civilizations. “Make ancient Rome strange again. Take away the analogies,” Schwartz says. “Maybe that’s the appeal of the classics: to try to keep returning and understanding, even as we can’t help holding them up as a mirror.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: “Gladiator II” (2024) “I, Claudius” (1976) “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1966) “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988) “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” (1979) “Cleopatra” (1963) “Spartacus” (1960) “Ben-Hur” (1959) “Gladiator” (2000) “The End of History and the Last Man,” by Francis Fukuyama “I, Claudius,” by Robert Graves “I Hate to Say This, But Men Deserve Better Than Gladiator II,” by Alison Willmore (Vulture) “On Creating a Usable Past,” by Van Wyck Brook (The Dial) Emily Wilson’s translations of the Odyssey and the Iliad New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:44:10

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Why Banning TikTok Could Violate the First Amendment

1/1/2025
The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss efforts by the U.S. government to rein in social media, including the latest attempt to ban TikTok. While Kang agrees that society should be more conscientious about how we, especially children, use social media, he argues that efforts to ban these apps also violate the First Amendment. “Social media has become the public square, even if it is privately owned,” he says. This episode was originally published in March, 2024. This week’s reading: The Misguided Attempt to Control Tiktok To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Duration:00:34:25