Fresh audio product: public monuments, Trump’s Gaza scheme, Mamdani’s run for NYC mayor
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): October 2, 2025 Erin Thompson on the politics of public monuments as Trump talks of restoring Confederate statues • Mouin Rabbani returns for a look at Trump’s dubious Gaza peace scheme • Ted Hamm, author of Run Zohran Run!, on Mamdani’s campaign for NYC mayor
Fresh audio product: transhumanism, fiscal politics
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): September 11, 2025 Émile Torres on the tech moguls’ dream of transcending the merely human (article written with Timnit Gebru here) • Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity, on the fiscal history of NYC, and how we could do better than subsidizing the rich
Fresh audio product: Zohran and the cops, the lies of AI
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): July 31, 2025 Alex Vitale on Zohran Mamdani, the NYPD, and policing generally (Nation article here) • Dwayne Monroe on the AI mania
NYC fiscal crisis: canonizing Felix once again
I’ve got a review on The Nation‘s site of a new documentary on the NYC fiscal crisis, co-directed and -produced by Michael Rohatyn, son of the chief imposer of austerity 50 years ago, Felix Rohatyn. It was one of the opening battles of the class war from above, and the role of liberals like Felix in engineering it should never be forgotten.
NYC murder count revisiting old lows
Donald Trump and his loyal army of right-wing blowhards like to scream, as he did back in 2023, that “MURDERS & VIOLENT CRIME HIT UNIMAGINABLE RECORDS!” in New York City. Of course he had a particular interest in making that claim—he was being prosecuted by both state and city back then, and he thought false claims about violent crimes would me him look innocent and prosecutors look unfairly obsessed. But despite being fictitious, this sort of bloviating did have broader unfortunate effects, scaring suburbanites and winning votes for right-wing politicians in and… Read More
A very useful crisis
This is the text of a talk I gave at New York City DSA’s night school, Socialists of NYC series, May 14, 2024 As the 1960s were turning into the 1970s, New York City was coming off a long economic boom. Sure, we’d lost 151,000 manufacturing jobs between 1950 and the 1969 peak, but that was almost exactly offset by a gain in finance, and overall employment in the city was up 391,000. There were signs of budgetary trouble starting in the mid-1960s, but those issues were patched over with a combination… Read More
NYC is not a killing field
I have a weakness for the New York Post. Their politics are odious, but damn, they’re very skilled practitioners of the tabloid arts. Right now, though, they’re trying to convince New Yorkers—with some success, alas—that we’re in the midst of a horrid crime wave. Just as I was typing that, I got a notification from the Post on my phone reporting that four students were slashed in a fight inside a high school. The paper is tireless in its fearmongering. In this campaign, they’re assisted by Donald Trump, who bellowed on his Truth Social platform… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): October 7, 2021 Nancy MacLean, author of this paper, on how Milton Friedman’s war on public education fit nicely with Southern massive resistance to desegregation • Klaus Jacob, a geophysicist, on how we can live with rising seas and heavier rains
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): June 25, 2020 Nikhil Pal Singh on race, class, policing, protest • Michael Kinnucan of Brooklyn DSA’s electoral committee on left victories in the NYC primary elections
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 18, 2018 Sandra Cuffe on Honduras after a stolen election and waves of official violence • Alexander Main on U.S. policy towards Latin America under Trump • Janet Capron, author of Blue Money, on drugs and prostitution (without regret) in 1970s NYC
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 11, 2018 Kaveh Ehsani on the reasons behind the protests in Iran • Franklin Zimring, author of The City That Became Safe, on the reasons behind the record-breaking decline in crime in NYC
Fitchian reflections on today’s news
This is my introduction for Ruthie Gilmore, who gave the third Robert Fitch memorial lecture at LaGuardia Community College in Queens on May 6, 2014. Many thanks to Karen Miller and her colleagues at LaGuardia for organizing the series. It’s always refreshing to visit LaGuardia College, where the buildings are named after letters. I went to a college where the buildings are named after slavers, financiers, and reactionary politicians. I’m very glad to be introducing the Third Robert Fitch Memorial Lecture. When I gave the first two years ago, I was worried… Read More
Bill de Blasio’s continuing evolution
I’ve been a little distracted the last few days so I’m only catching up with the news that Bill de Blasio named Anthony Shorris as first deputy mayor. The Daily News described him as “a seasoned city government hand and veteran troubleshooter,” which is certainly one angle. Another would be this: he worked in a couple of finance posts for Ed Koch, for Joel Klein at Bloomberg’s Board of Ed, and is now Vice Dean, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff of the NYU Langone Medical Center and board member of… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archives: August 22, 2013 Darius Charney of the Center for Constitutional Rights on the NYPD’s odious stop & frisk strategy • Philip Mirowski, author of Never Let A Serious Crisis Go To Waste, on the durable ideology of neoliberalism
LBO News from Doug Henwood 