The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker
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  • POLITICS
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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.

  1. 1D AGO

    How Bari Weiss Is Changing CBS News

    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.  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.  Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    23 min

  2. 4D AGO

    How Trump Brought Us to a “Rupture in the World Order”

    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 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.  Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    34 min

  3. 5D AGO

    Should Progressive Organizers Lean More on the Church?

    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  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.  Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    44 min

  4. JAN 19

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

    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.  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.  Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    32 min

  5. JAN 16

    A Stark Warning About the 2026 Election, with Robert Kagan

    The Washington Roundtable is joined by Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, for a conversation about the pressures facing American democracy, the security of elections, and how these domestic tensions interact with the collapse of international norms. Nearly a decade after his prescient 2016 column for the Washington Post, “This is How Fascism Comes to America,” Kagan contends that the U.S. has moved beyond the warning and into a full democratic crisis. “There is no chance in the world that Donald Trump is gonna allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that will be the end of his ability to wield total power in the United States,” Kagan says. This week’s reading: “The Minnesota War Zone Is Trump’s Most Trumpian Accomplishment,” by Susan B. Glasser “What It’s Like to Be Trump’s Closest Ally Right Now,” by Sam Knight “A D.H.S. Shooting Puts Portland Back Under the Microscope,” by James Ross Gardner  “Jay Powell, the Prepster Banker Who Is Standing Up to Trump,” by John Cassidy “How Donald Trump Has Transformed ICE,” Isaac Chotiner “How Colombia’s President Reached an Uneasy Détente with Donald Trump,” by Jon Lee Anderson  “Iran’s Regime Is Unsustainable,” by Robin Wright “The Supreme Court Gets Back to Work,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin “The Lights Are Still On in Venezuela,” by Armando Ledezma “How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler,” by Dexter Filkins  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.  Tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    42 min

  6. JAN 14

    Is Everything Going According to Marco Rubio’s Plan?

    The New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Marco Rubio’s reëmergence as one of the most powerful, and most transformed, figures in Donald Trump’s second term. They talk about Rubio’s unlikely ascent to the dual roles of Secretary of State and national-security adviser, his journey from outspoken Trump critic to loyal enforcer, and what that evolution reveals about how power operates inside the Administration. They also examine Rubio’s central role in the U.S. abduction of the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, the dismantling of the State Department’s foreign-aid infrastructure, and the department’s growing reliance on coercion over diplomacy.  This week’s reading: “How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler,” by Dexter Filkins “Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump,” by Margaret Talbot “Iran’s Regime Is Unsustainable,” by Robin Wright “The Supreme Court Gets Back to Work,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin “What Comes After the Protests,” by Jay Caspian Kang  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.  Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    47 min

  7. JAN 12

    Trump’s New Brand of Imperialism

    U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Miller goes back to the nineteenth century. Immerwahr is a professor at Northwestern University and the author of the 2019 best-seller “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” He discusses Trump’s disdain for international law; tensions between the U.S. and Russia and China; and the historical link between imperialism and appeals to masculine pride.  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.  Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    31 min

  8. JAN 9

    Is Donald Trump Creating the Conditions for Another World War?

    The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s use of force in Venezuela, his desire to take over Greenland, and the historical echoes of the Administration’s new imperialist projects. The panel also considers Trump’s brand of “narcissistic unilateralism” and the increased risks of global conflict when foreign policy is based on one man’s whims. “Donald Trump wants to write his name into history,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. “He wants every single person in the world to have to exchange their map for one of the United States that looks different, that looks bigger, and that everybody for all eternity will say, ‘Donald Trump did this.’ ”  This week’s reading: “Why Donald Trump Wants Greenland (and Everything Else),” by Susan B. Glasser “Minneapolis Grieves, Again,” by E. Tammy Kim “Mr. Mamdani’s (New) Neighborhood,” by Molly Fischer “The Aggressive Ambitions of Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine,’ ” by Robin Wright  “What Will Become of Venezuela’s Political Prisoners?,” by Stephania Taladrid “J. D. Vance’s Notable Absence on Venezuela,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells “The Dramatic Arraignment of Nicolás Maduro,” by Cristian Farias “The Former Trump Skeptics Getting Behind His War in Venezuela,” by Isaac Chotiner “Jack Smith’s Closing Argument,” by Ruth Marcus “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Big Breakup,” by Charles Bethea  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.  Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    44 min
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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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