Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know

Juan Manuel Benítez
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Politics

"Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know" is a New York City-based interview podcast that gets inside the minds of the people shaping our world - from rising political heavyweights to policy architects to cultural influencers. Drawing on more than two decades of reporting experience on television and radio, and on his role as Columbia University’s Professor of Local Journalism, host Juan Manuel Benítez combines sharp policy questions with unexpected personal curiosity, exploring not just what his guests think, but how they think. Each conversation reveals the books, music, experiences, and obsessions that drive decision-makers, creating intimate portraits of public figures that satisfy both news junkies and anyone curious about the human side of power. It's journalism that remembers people are people first.

  1. May 14

    The Cover Story Is Politics — the Actual Subject Is People (Season 2 Recap)

    For the Season 2 finale, Juan Manuel Benítez revisits the moments that stayed with him — the candid answers, the unexpected turns, and the heaviest conversations of the year. Clips from Christina Greer, Luis Miranda, Micah Lasher, Ross Barkan, Julie Tighe, Frank DiLella, Grace Rauh and Zack Fink, Christine Quinn, Julie Menin, Carmen María Rey, Chuck Park, Erik Bottcher, Dr. Alister Martin, and Antonio Reynoso. Season 3 returns later this summer. Email Juan Manuel => juanmanyc@me.com

    32 min

  2. May 5

    Chuck Park Quit the State Department to Protest Trump. Now He's Running Against Grace Meng

    Chuck Park was born in Flushing to Korean immigrants who started out as street vendors on Canal Street, selling whatever they could find on the loading docks of Bloomingdale's. He grew up to become a U.S. diplomat under President Obama, serving in Mexico, Portugal, and Canada — until 2019, when he resigned with a Washington Post op-ed that called the Foreign Service not the "Deep State" but the "Complacent State." The breaking point was a photograph: Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his two-year-old daughter, drowned face-down in the Rio Grande. He drove back to Queens, moved into his parents' basement in Flushing with his wife and kid, and took a job at the MinKwon Center. Six years later, he is challenging seven-term incumbent Grace Meng in the Democratic primary for New York's 6th Congressional District. In this conversation from Columbia Journalism School, Chuck Park talks about why he believes Donald Trump won a second term, why he wants to abolish ICE, why he refuses money from corporate PACs, lobbyists, and AIPAC, and why he thinks "organized people" can still beat organized money — even when his opponent has roughly eight times more cash on hand. The primary is Tuesday, June 23. What he's reading: Los Detectives Salvajes / The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño The book he recommends about the Korean American experience: Human Acts by Han Kang Where he takes visitors in NY-6: The 74th Street–Roosevelt Avenue station under the 7 train, and Main Street Station in downtown Flushing. Last museum exhibit he liked: The Ancient Egypt galleries at the Met — including the reconstructed Temple of Dendur. "It's the one that everyone visits when they come to New York."

    39 min

  3. Apr 28

    Frank DiLella on Broadway's Affordability Problem (and Why It's Not Dying)

    Mounting a small play in London costs about £2 million. The same play on Broadway? Around $8 million. That's the math Frank DiLella lays out in this conversation about why Broadway tickets cost what they do — and what New Yorkers can actually do about it. Frank has covered Broadway for Spectrum News' On Stage for nearly 20 years. He teaches at Fordham University. He's a multiple New York Emmy winner. And he's the person this city calls when it wants to know what's happening on a Broadway stage. We get into the affordability question head-on: union costs, real estate, and the rush tickets, TDF memberships, and Broadway Week deals New Yorkers should actually be using. We talk about why the Public Theater keeps minting hits that change the form — from A Chorus Line to The Normal Heart to Hamilton to SUFFS — and why Frank says Broadway is not dying, even when it sometimes feels that way. Frank also walks through the Hillary Clinton and Julissa Reynoso sit-down he just landed, his pick for the most underrated show of the season heading into Tony nominations on May 5, and the Liza Minnelli memoir he's been listening to on a loop. A New York story about the beating heart of the city — and the people doing the work to keep it pumping. Book recommendation: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!: My Memoir by Liza Minnelli with Michael Feinstein Show pick: Liberation by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White

    32 min

  4. Apr 21

    "Still Worthy" — Alister Martin on Fathers, Patients, and the Next NYC Health Crisis

    Dr. Alister Martin is the 45th Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — an emergency physician, Harvard graduate, and former White House fellow who's been on the job for two months. In 72 days, roughly 450,000 New Yorkers lose their Essential Plan coverage. HR.1 hits Medicaid in January. The CDC has been gutted, the federal government has pulled out of the WHO, and childhood vaccination rates in New York are slipping. The World Cup arrives in June. Martin's answer on all of it is the same: New York is not waiting for Washington. But this conversation is also about who gets to be treated as worthy. The kid from Jackson Heights whose mother — a Haitian immigrant and public school teacher — couldn't afford to stay in the city, and moved them to Neptune, New Jersey. The 11-year-old who overheard someone ask where he'd go when his mother died of cancer, and decided then to become a doctor. The 16-year-old with a third-degree black belt who tried to stop a friend from getting jumped and got kicked out of high school for it. The 20-year-old who met his absent father for the first time, and the 25-year-old who got a Facebook message from a brother he didn't know he had telling him that father — also a Harvard graduate — was dying of cancer. The emergency physician who carries all of it into the exam room. Book recommendation Another B******t Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn — NYPL catalog.

    33 min

  5. Apr 14

    He Hired Mamdani to Run His Campaign. Now Ross Barkan Is Writing His Book

    DESCRIPTION Ross Barkan covered New York City politics for years before running for office himself. He lost. His campaign manager was a little-known political operative named Zohran Mamdani. That man is now the mayor of New York City. Barkan is one of the sharpest journalists covering the Mamdani administration — and he reveals in this conversation that he is writing the definitive book on Mamdani's election and early months in office, due out in October from Random House. He is also the author of Colossus, a new novel out April 28th about a MAGA pastor in rural Michigan who built a perfect life on a lie. He calls it a novel for the Trump age. We talk about Mamdani's first hundred days, the Albany budget fight, why Barkan thinks the Jessica Tisch alliance was a mistake, what it's like to interview the man you once employed, and why he believes fiction is the last line of defense against a world that wants to outsource thinking to machines. SHOW NOTES Ross Barkan's Books ColossusGlass CenturyThe Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New YorkBooks Ross Is Reading Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York, by Ronen GivonyThe Ritz of the Bayou, by Nancy LemannMeet Me in the Bathroom, by Lizzy GoodmanRoss Barkan Online Political CurrentsThe Metropolitan Review

    38 min

  6. Apr 7

    What Congestion Pricing Proved — Julie Tighe, the Accidental Environmentalist

    DESCRIPTION Two weeks before Earth Day, Juan Manuel Benítez sits down with Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. They take stock of what's being dismantled in Washington — clean air and water rules, offshore wind projects, the bedrock "endangerment finding" for climate policy — and what's worth fighting for at the state and local level. Tighe breaks down the stalled New York state budget fight over the CLCPA, makes the case for cap and invest, and defends congestion pricing as the rare policy win that changed minds once people felt the results. She also shares how she became an "accidental environmentalist," what she's reading, and where New Yorkers should go to remember why any of this matters. 📚 What Julie is reading: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai State of Wonder by Ann Patchett Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley 🎙️ Podcast Julie listens to every week: The Daily (New York Times). And yes — she was a loyal listener of Off Topic On Politics with Juan Manuel, Grace Rauh, and Zack Fink. 🏔️ Three places in New York State Julie says every New Yorker should visit: Adirondack Park — Bigger than the six largest national parks combined. Lake George is the gateway; the 46 High Peaks are the challenge.The Catskills — Closer to the city, and full of reward. North-South Lake, Hunter and Tannersville, and Catskill Falls are worth the drive (stay on the trail).Minnewaska State Park — For hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, and swimming. Julie competed there in high school. It holds up.

    42 min

  7. Mar 31

    Micah Lasher on Trump, Iran, Columbia, and the Fight for NY-12

    DESCRIPTION State Assembly Member Micah Lasher is running to replace Jerry Nadler in New York's 12th Congressional District — one of the most-watched Democratic primaries in the country. He talks about the US-Israel war on Iran, Columbia University's 116th Street, Michael Bloomberg's money, AI regulation, and why Democrats need to stop negotiating and start fighting. Plus: his roommate Aziz Ansari, his teenage magic act on the Today Show, and a Javier Marías novel he swears he's not recommending just to impress his Spanish-born host. SHOW NOTES Guest: Micah Lasher, New York State Assembly Member (Upper West Side) and candidate for New York's 12th Congressional District Primary date: June 23, 2026 🏛️ Cultural institutions mentioned New-York Historical SocietyThe Metropolitan Museum of ArtMoMA – Museum of Modern ArtLincoln Center for the Performing ArtsSt. Ann's Warehouse (Anna Christie)Ragtime at Lincoln Center (described as extraordinary — check current listings) 📚 Book mentioned Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías — NYPL catalog

    27 min

  8. Mar 17

    "You Are Light" — Antonio Reynoso on Congress, Mamdani, and What's at Stake for the Democratic Party

    DESCRIPTION / SHOW NOTES Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is running for Congress — and this race is more complicated than it looks. He's trying to succeed Nydia Velázquez in NY-7 after 33 years. His opponents include a DSA-backed Assembly member endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — the same Mamdani that Reynoso championed loudly when he ran for mayor. We asked him about all of it. In this episode: the Mamdani endorsement he knew was coming (and what that conversation actually looked like), why he thinks this race is about the future of the Democratic Party — not just his career, what he'd actually do in Congress as part of a minority, and why after borough president, he thinks he's done with politics. Also: outdoor dining, anime, a wife who watches too many murder shows, and a closing answer about a kid growing up in Los Sures that we didn't see coming. 📚 Books & recommendations mentioned in this episode: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing — Borrow free from Brooklyn Public LibraryManual del Guerrero de la Luz by Paulo Coelho — Borrow free from Brooklyn Public Library (Spanish) / English editionDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Stream on Crunchyroll Antonio Reynoso is the Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District. The primary is June 23, 2026. Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

    37 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

"Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know" is a New York City-based interview podcast that gets inside the minds of the people shaping our world - from rising political heavyweights to policy architects to cultural influencers. Drawing on more than two decades of reporting experience on television and radio, and on his role as Columbia University’s Professor of Local Journalism, host Juan Manuel Benítez combines sharp policy questions with unexpected personal curiosity, exploring not just what his guests think, but how they think. Each conversation reveals the books, music, experiences, and obsessions that drive decision-makers, creating intimate portraits of public figures that satisfy both news junkies and anyone curious about the human side of power. It's journalism that remembers people are people first.

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