The New Yorker Radio Hour
Episodes
Isabel Wilkerson on America’s Caste System
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this moment of historical reckoning, many Americans are being introduced to concepts like intersectionality, white fragility, and anti-racism. Isab...
Jeffrey Toobin Explores Donald Trump’s “True Crimes and Misdemeanors”
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Mueller Report documented enough crimes and scandals in Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign and in his Administration to sink the career of any...
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Violence in Chicago, and William Finnegan on the Power of Police Unions
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Before she became the mayor of Chicago, last year, Lori Lightfoot spent nearly a decade working on police reform. Now Lightfoot is facing civil unrest...
Black Italians Fight to Be Italian
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, most of us take it for granted that every person born on American soil is granted citizenship; it’s been the law since 1868, w...
Emily Oster on Whether and How to Reopen Schools
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The decision about whether to reopen schools may determine children’s futures, the survival of teachers, and the economy’s ability to rebound. Emi...
Podcast Extra: André Holland on Shakespeare’s “Richard II”
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, the Public Theatre, in New York, is putting on Shakespeare’s history play “Richard II.” Because most theatre was cancelled, even ou...
The Perils Prison Reform, and the Vision of a Visually Impaired Artist
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few years, there has been a growing bipartisan demand to reduce the extraordinarily high rate of incarceration in the United States, on bo...
Chance the Rapper’s Art and Activism
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
My generation was taught that the civil-rights movement ended in the sixties, and that the Civil Rights Act put things as they should be,” Chance th...
Michaela Coel on Making “I May Destroy You”
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The protagonist of “I May Destroy You,” a young woman named Arabella, has her drink spiked at a party and discovers afterward that she has been as...
The State of the Biden Campaign
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Biden all but locked up the Democratic Presidential nomination just as the coronavirius crisis began triggering national lockdowns. Now he faces a...
Laura Marling, a Briton in Los Angeles
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The thirty-year-old British singer/songwriter Laura Marling has produced seven albums of dense but delicate folk music, starting when she was only eig...
Hasan Minhaj and Kenan Thompson
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The 2019 New Yorker Festival was the twentieth edition of the annual event, and it was particularly star-studded. This program features interviews wit...
Keeping Released Prisoners Safe and Sane
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Starting this spring, many states began releasing some inmates from prisons and jails to try to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But a huge number of in...
Hilton Als’s Homecoming and the March for Queer Liberation
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1967, a young black boy in Brooklyn was shot in the back by a police officer. The writer Hilton Als recalls the two days of “discor...
Live at Home Part II: Phoebe Bridgers
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Phoebe Bridgers’s tour dates were cancelled—she was booked at Madison Square Garden, among other venues—so she performs songs from her recent al...
Live at Home Part I: John Legend
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Like everyone in the United States, John Legend has spent much of the past three months in lockdown. He has been recording new music (via Zoom), perfo...
The Supreme Court Weighs the End of DACA
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the Supreme Court is expected to decide a case with enormous repercussions: the Trump Administration’s cancellation of DACA, a policy th...
Getting White People to Talk About Racism
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
George Floyd’s killing has prompted a national outcry and a wide reassessment of the ways in which racist systems are intrinsic to America. The anti...
Josephine Decker’s “Shirley”
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The film critic Richard Brody regards Josephine Decker as one of the best directors of her generation, and picked her 2018 film “Madeline’s Madeli...
Can Police Violence Be Curbed?
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“To look around the United States today is enough to make prophets and angels weep,” James Baldwin wrote, in 1978. This week, the staff writer Jel...
Mark Cuban Wants to Save Capitalism from Itself
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Cuban identifies as a capitalist, but the billionaire investor, “Shark Tank” star, and Dallas Mavericks owner has been advocating for changes...
Life After Lockdown, and the Politics of Blaming China
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since January, Peter Hessler has reported from China under quarantine. Now, as restrictions lift, he tells David Remnick about his return to normal li...
Reading “The Plague” During a Plague, and Memorial Day by the Pool
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When schools were closed owing to the coronavirus outbreak, the English teacher Petria May did the most natural thing she could think of: she assigned...
Larissa MacFarquhar on a Potentially Deadly Experiment, and Jelani Cobb on the Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Abie Roehrig, a twenty-year-old undergraduate, has put his name on a list of volunteers for a human-challenge trial to test the efficacy of a COVID-19...
Perfume Genius Talks with Jia Tolentino, and Anthony Lane Examines Outbreaks in the Movies
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino has been following the artist Mike Hadreas, who records as Perfume Genius, since his first album; he has just release...
Jill Lepore on How a Pandemic Ends
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jill Lepore discusses the “stay at home” campaigns that ran on radio stations during the polio years, devised to keep children indoors; she is esp...
The Pandemic and Little Haiti, Plus Thomas McGuane and Callan Wink Go Fishing
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For more than fifteen years, the fiction writer Edwidge Danticat has called Miami’s Little Haiti home. The neighborhood is full of Haitian émigrés...
Governor Gretchen Whitmer on COVID-19, Trump, and the Accusations Against Joe Biden
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michigan is the tenth-largest state by population, but it has the third-largest number of COVID-19 deaths. Governor Gretchen Whitmer enacted some of t...
The Pandemic Is Wreaking Havoc in America’s Prisons and Jails
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Three months ago, Kai Wright, the host of WNYC’s the United States of Anxiety, joined David Remnick for a special episode about the effects of mass ...
The Economic Fallout of COVID-19; plus Mike Birbiglia, and Chika
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As of the end of April, thirty million people have filed for unemployment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet many believe that this is only ...
Bonus Episode: Why COVID-19 Is Killing Black People
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As black people die from COVID-19 at disproportionate rates, the disease is highlighting health disparities we’ve long known about. Kai Wright, the ...
A City at the Peak of Crisis
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Experts predicted that Wednesday, April 15th would be a peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, its epicenter. On that day, a crew of New York...
Rachel Carson Dreams of the Sea
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Before she published “Silent Spring,” one of the most influential books of the last century, Rachel Carson was a young aspiring poet and then a gr...
Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert on the Pandemic and the Environment
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert join David Remnick to talk about the twin crises of our time: the coronavirus pandemic and the climate emergency. ...
War and Peace and Pandemic, and Roger Angell on Baseball Seasons Past
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The contributor Yiyun Li is a fiction writer who also teaches creative writing at Princeton University. “The campus is empty,” she tells Joshua...
Amid a Pandemic, Catharsis at Seven O’Clock
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Remnick on the hope and catharsis that he finds in New York City’s daily mass cheer, which celebrates all those who are keeping the city alive...
Exploitation in the Amazon
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, ignored the advice of his own health minister, and went for a walk in the capitol, declaring “We...
Why We Underestimated COVID-19, and DJ D-Nice’s Club Quarantine
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the warnings of politicians and health-care professionals, many have failed to treat the coronavirus pandemic as a serious threat: the spring ...
Alcoholics Anonymous Goes Remote, and Jia Tolentino on Quarantine
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An old Alcoholics Anonymous slogan goes, “Seven days without an A.A. meeting makes one weak.” But COVID-19 has made in-person meetings impossible ...
E.R. Doctors on the COVID-19 Crisis, and the Politics of a Pandemic
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Across the country, doctors and nurses are being forced to care for an increasing number of COVID patients with dwindling supplies and no clear end to...
The Shock Wave of COVID-19
20 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the coronavirus pandemic brings the country to a standstill, David Remnick and New Yorker writers examine the scope of the damage—emotional, phys...
Astrid Holleeder’s Crime Family
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
All her life, Astrid Holleeder knew that her older brother Willem was involved in crime; in their tough Amsterdam neighborhood, and as children of an ...
Life Under Quarantine
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since its outbreak last year, the coronavirus COVID-19 has thrown the world into disarray. Travel to the U.S. from Europe has been suspended for thirt...
William Gibson on the End of the Future, and a Visit with Thundercat
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
William Gibson has often been described as prescient in his ability to imagine the future. His special power, according to the staff writer Joshua Rot...
And Then There Were Two
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just over a week ago, Bernie Sanders seemed to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Then came some prominent withdrawals from the race, ...
President Mike?
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eleanor Randolph finished her biography of Michael Bloomberg in June, 2019, just as the former mayor decided not to run for President. “He didn’t ...
Rose McGowan on Harvey Weinstein’s Guilty Verdict, and Neuroscience on the Campaign Trail
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After a Manhattan jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of two of the sex crimes he was charged with, Ronan Farrow sat down with the actress Rose McGowan...
Rolling the Dice with Russia, and a Conversation with Pam Grier
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The complexity of world events can’t be modelled by a flow chart or even the most sophisticated algorithms. Instead, military officers, diplomats, a...
Stephen Miller, the Architect of Trump’s Immigration Plan
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump began his Presidential bid, in 2015, with an infamous speech, at Trump Tower, in which he said of Mexican immigrants, “They’re bringi...
Gish Jen’s “The Resisters”
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the near future, the Internet is sentient and her name is Aunt Nettie. Gish Jen’s novel “The Resisters” imagines a dystopian world with two c...
Bernie Sanders Ascends, and a High School Simulates the Election
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bernie Sanders’s win in New Hampshire has established him as the Democratic Presidential front-runner. Centrist Democrats regard him not as a challe...
Louis C.K.’s Return to the Stage
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Louis C.K. is touring comedy clubs for the first time since accusations of sexual misconduct seemed to end his career, in 2017. Several women charged ...
The Black Vote in 2020
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The last time a Democrat won the White House, he had enormous support from black voters; lower support from black voters was one of many reasons Hilla...
A Tumultuous Week in Impeachment, and Jill Lepore on Democracy in Peril
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Washington correspondent Susan Glasser has been covering the scene in the Capitol as Republicans rush to contain the damage of the John Bolton m...
N. K. Jemisin on H. P. Lovecraft
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
N. K. Jemisin is one of the most celebrated authors in science fiction’s history; the novels of her “Broken Earth” trilogy won the Hugo Award fo...
An Alternative Oscars Ceremony, and Ezra Klein on Why We’re Polarized
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time for the most anticipated of all awards shows: the Brodys, in which The New Yorker’s Richard Brody shares the best films of the year, acc...
What Would a World Without Prisons Be Like?
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mass incarceration is now widely regarded as a prejudiced and deeply harmful set of policies. Bipartisan support exists for some degree of criminal-ju...
Mass Incarceration, Then and Now
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world; although the country makes up about five per cent of the global population, it holds near...
The Democratic Candidates Respond to the Conflict with Iran
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Next week’s debate, in Des Moines, was likely going to focus on health care and other domestic issues, but the agenda will probably be dominated by ...
Terry Gross Talks with David Remnick
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Remnick has appeared as the guest of Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” a number of times over the years, talking about Russia, Muhammad Ali, and ot...
Dexter Filkins on the Air Strike that Killed Qassem Suleimani
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Qassem Suleimani was Iran’s most powerful military and intelligence leader, and his killing, in a U.S. air strike in Baghdad on Thursday night, will...
Patty Marx Conducts an Orchestra
27 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Patricia Marx is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and has contributed pieces for thirty years. Still, it might not be too late to try out a new caree...
Kelly Slater’s Perfect Wave Brings Surfing to a Crossroads
27 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In December of 2015, a video appeared on the Internet that stunned surfers worldwide. Titled “Kelly’s Wave,” it showed Kelly Slater—arguably t...
Peter Dinklage on Cyrano, and Life After “Thrones”
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the classic play “Cyrano de Bergerac,” a romantic with an exceptionally large and ugly nose pines after an unattainable woman. “As a person w...
The Hyperpartisan State
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
North Carolina is a relatively purple state, where voting between the two major parties tends to be close. That might suggest a place of common ground...
Helen Rosner Takes the Office-Fridge Challenge
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Rosner is known for her high degree of resourcefulness in the kitchen: she once broke the Internet with an article about the ingenious use of a ...
Lena Waithe on Police Violence and “Queen & Slim”
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lena Waithe is the screenwriter and creator of the Showtime series “The Chi,” about the South Side of Chicago, but she tells Jelani Cobb, “Getti...
Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” and Damon Lindelof’s “Watchmen”
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Greta Gerwig tells David Remnick that her adaptation of the novel “Little Women” didn’t need much updating for 2019: the world hasn’t changed ...
A Worldwide #MeToo Protest that Began in Chile
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Three weeks ago, members of a Chilean feminist collective called Las Tesis put on blindfolds and party dresses and took to the streets. The festive at...
The March Toward Impeachment
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a busy week, and it’s only Tuesday. The chair of the House Judiciary Committee unveiled two articles of impeachment against the Presiden...
How Channel One Keeps the News Safe for Putin
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua Yaffa recently profiled a Russian media mogul named Konstantin Ernst. Ernst is the C.E.O. of Russia’s largest state-controlled media network,...
Jamie Lee Curtis, the Original Scream Queen
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jamie Lee Curtis comes from Hollywood royalty as the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She credits her mother’s role in “Psycho” for help...
This Is William Cohen’s Third Impeachment
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The current impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump are only the fourth in American history, and William Cohen has been near the center of power ...
Kamala Harris’s Campaign Ends in a Fizzle
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Senator Kamala Harris had a lot going for her campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination: national name recognition, strong fund-raising, an ...
Robin Wright on the Eruption of Violence in Iran
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In November, Iran announced new fuel rationing and price hikes, just at a time when U.S. sanctions are crippling the economy and especially the middle...
Rana Ayyub on India’s Crackdown on Muslims
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In August, India suspended the autonomy of the state of Kashmir, putting soldiers in its streets and banning foreign journalists from entering. Dexter...
Billy Porter Wears Many Hats
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Billy Porter’s résumé is as impressive as it is difficult to categorize. His performance in the musical “Kinky Boots” won him a Tony Award and...
Bon Iver Live at The New Yorker Festival
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the winter of 2007, a songwriter by the name of Justin Vernon returned to the Wisconsin woods, not far from where he grew up. Just a few months lat...
Jenny Slate Gets Dressed
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jenny Slate is on tour for her new book “Little Weirds.” It comprises short, strange essays, many of which involve clothing and how we present our...
Samantha’s Journey into the Alt-Right, and Back
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Since 2016, Andrew Marantz has been reporting on how the extremist right has harnessed the Internet and social media to gain a startling prominence in...
Thomas Mallon on Impeachment, and Philip Pullman on “His Dark Materials”
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As he opened public impeachment proceedings last week, Representative Adam Schiff invoked Watergate—which, after all, ended well for Democrats. To u...
A Progressive Evangelical, and Charlamagne Tha God
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Eliza Griswold spoke recently with Doug Pagitt, a pastor from Minneapolis who is a politically progressive evangelical Christian. Pagitt left his chur...
The Supreme Court Weighs the End of DACA
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff Sessions, then the Attorney General, announced in 2017 the cancellation of the Obama-era policy known as DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arr...
How the Irish Border Keeps Derailing Brexit
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the almost unsolvable problems with the U.K.’s exit from the E.U. is that it would necessitate a “hard border” between Northern Ireland, ...
Can Mayor Pete Be a Democratic Front-Runner?
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Six months ago, David Remnick interviewed a politician named Pete Buttigieg, who was just beginning his campaign for the Democratic nomination for...
Horror with a Real-Life Message
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The director Sophia Takal is working on a remake of “Black Christmas,” an early slasher flick from Canada, in which sorority girls are picked off ...
Roomful of Teeth Redefines Vocal Music for the Future
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For a new music ensemble, Roomful of Teeth has made an extraordinary impression in a short time. Caroline Shaw, one of its vocalists, received the 201...
Ronan Farrow on a Campaign of Silence
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein and other accused perpetrators of sexual assault helped opened the floodgates of the #MeToo movement. In his ...
Nancy Pelosi: “Timing Is Everything”
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a lot of fights on her hands. After she led the Democrats to victory in the 2018 midterm elections, her legislative age...
New Yorker Writers on Hong Kong, and Nixon After Tiananmen Square
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The months of protests in Hong Kong may be the biggest political crisis facing Chinese leadership since the Tiananmen Square massacre a generation ago...
New Yorker Reporters on Impeachment
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
David Remnick asks five New Yorker contributors about the nascent impeachment proceedings against the President. Susan Glasser, the magazine’s Was...
Adam Gopnik on Aging, and a Visit to Maine with Elizabeth Strout
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In fifteen years, people of retirement age will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. But, the staff writer Adam Gopnik finds, the el...
Cory Booker on How to Defeat Donald Trump
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Senator Cory Booker burst onto the national scene about a decade ago, after serving as the mayor of the notoriously impoverished and dangerous city of...
The Green Rush
20 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was just seven years ago that Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Today the drug is lega...
Brittany Howard, of Alabama Shakes, Talks with David Remnick
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alabama Shakes started out playing covers at local gigs but quickly found a unique personal voice rooted in rock and soul. The band came to national a...
A Texas Republican Exits the House
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An exodus is under way in the House of Representatives: not even halfway into the congressional term, fifteen Republicans have announced that they wil...
For a French Burglar, Stealing Masterpieces Is Easier Than Selling Them
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Vjeran Tomic has been stealing since he was a small child, when he used a ladder to break into a library in his home town, in Bosnia. After moving to ...
Salman Rushdie’s Fantastical American Quest Novel
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, talks with Salman Rushdie about “Quichotte,” his apocalyptic quest novel. A few years ago, wh...
The New Norms of Affirmative Consent
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mischele Lewis learned that her fiancé was a con man and a convicted pedophile. By lying about who he was, did he violate her consent, and commit ass...
Marianne Williamson Would Like to Clarify
30 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Marianne Williamson, the self-help author associated with the New Age movement, has never held political office. But the race for the Presidency, she ...