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If government is one of the best career moves a young person can make right now, why does nobody seem to know it? Caitlin Lewis, Executive Director of Work for America, joins Bradley to extol the benefits of working for state and local governments. They're desperate for talent, they pay better than you think and the work makes a difference in people's lives. Not that there aren't problems, like painfully long and onerous hiring processes, which Caitlin is addressing. She and Bradley talk about the long shadow of Tammany Hall, how displaced federal workers are finding new jobs and why idealism is alive and well in the public sector. "If you want to be part of the resistance," she says, "there is no better way to do it than actually going into City Hall and changing things from the inside."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
What are the ingredients of a healthy life? Bradley discusses the major changes he made after turning 50, including protein shakes, testosterone therapy, sleep apnea mouth guards, a stay this summer at the Hoffman Institute in the Canadian Rockies and a complete abstinence from ice cream, even though he loves it and would eat it at every meal if he could. "All I can do is just try to do the practices that will maximize my chances of living a healthy life," he says. "Ultimately, you can do all that stuff and if you lack unconditional love and support and things that give you meaning and purpose, you're still probably not that happy."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Have we been gradually destroying our physical health by sitting still and staring at screens? Manoush Zomorodi, author of the new book Body Electric, joins Bradley to explain how our digital addictions are bad for us in ways that we rarely consider — spiking blood sugar, wrecking posture, and darkening our moods. The fix, she argues, is easily within reach: as little as five minutes of movement every half hour has dramatic health benefits and actually raises productivity. Bradley argues, in turn, that smartphones manufactured an ADD epidemic in otherwise normal people.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Yes, we're talking about sandwiches — which, to Bradley, almost constitute a religion. What matters most is not the food itself but the human connections that surround it: the first po'boy that made him fall for New Orleans, the brisket at a Texas wedding that defined a circle of loved ones and the fish sandwich in Bellevue that made him feel like an adult for the first time. Plus, Bradley responds to a listener who challenges his description of Mayor Mamdani as "a nice guy" and assesses Ben Thompson's argument that defusing opposition to data centers is quite simple: just give people money.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Is there any level of American government that is actually doing its job well? Bradley sits down with his Tusk Strategies partner Shontell Plummer to talk through the slow-motion dysfunction of Albany. Why is the state budget late when there are no major issues at stake? How come Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani can't get along? What will gerrymandering do to the congressional map? Plus, what's going on with the NY-12 race and is Hakeem Jeffries cut out to be House Speaker?This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Why is that so hard? Bradley argues that the zero-sum mentality driving our politics and social media has infected our basic daily behavior — the phone zombies blocking subway doors, the gym hogs who won't let you work in, the airplane line-cutters — and that only a shift in social norms, not legislation, can fix it. Plus, Bradley breaks down why Mamdani put pandering to his base ahead of the city's well-being in his ill-conceived targeting of Ken Griffin. That wasn't so nice, either.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Are you climbing the right mountain, or just getting really good at the wrong one? Bradley sits down with Judah Taub — Israeli intelligence veteran, cybersecurity investor, and author of How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down — who borrows a concept from machine learning called the "local maximum" to explain why smart people and successful companies so often underperform their potential. Plus, how AI is affecting cybersecurity, why mandatory military service in Israel produces better founders than any business school, and whether a diverse, equal society can ever agree on the collective good.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Is the richest, most productive state in America about to shoot itself in the foot? Bradley argues that California's proposed 5% tax on assets over $1.1 billion is a losing bet that will hurt the very people it claims to help. When billionaires leave, he says, jobs will follow. And if the legislature gains the power to lower the threshold whenever it needs cash, today's billionaire tax becomes tomorrow's millionaire tax. Bradley proposes an entirely different path, based on the radical idea that the goal should actually be helping people, not feeding the political machine that claims to represent them.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack.
Bradley sits down with Matt Wing and Josh Mohrer to talk about Smith & Moses, their newly launched AI venture that ingests every bill introduced in the New York State legislature in real time, summarizes it in plain English, and scores each legislator based on the impact and passage rate of their bills. It's essentially a performance review for Albany, an exciting new way to understand what our elected leaders are really doing and to hold them accountable.Learn more at www.smithmoses.comThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
With support for Israel eroding faster than most people realize — a recent poll found 70% of American Jews oppose continued military aid — Bradley argues that the greatest existential threat to Israel is not its avowed enemies but the retrenchment of its most reliable ally. He lays out eight concrete ideas for how Jewish organizations could rebuild that support, starting with listening before lecturing: understanding why mainstream American Jews have drifted away before launching any campaign to bring them back. Plus, Bradley implores congressional candidates to stop the cold-calling fundraising charade that tortures everyone involved.Discussed on today's episode:Israel's Greatest Challenge? Winning Back American Jewish Support, by Bradley Tusk, April 27, 2026 (Substack)This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Prediction markets, not polling, argues Bradley, will be the defining information source of the 2026 midterms and a change worth celebrating. By incentivizing people to think beyond their own preferences and sharpen their analysis, these markets provide reliable metrics of public opinion and are good for democracy. Plus, how Yale did the right thing with its report on higher education, why basic social norms are breaking down in New York City, what the CEO succession at Apple's reveals and why the best thing to watch on TV (for Bradley, anyway) is one from the vault. This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
American democracy is doomed if people can't tolerate disagreement. Bradley sits down with Ed Manzi, founder of Unmuted, who is building something genuinely countercultural: in-person forums for politically curious New Yorkers to listen to each other. They get into mobile voting, why Congress has become a tweet farm, and whether the lesson politicians should take from Trump is the terrifying one.Learn more about UNMUTED: https://www.unmuted.fyi/On May 14, UNMUTED will be hosting a debate between candidates for Congress in New York's 12th district, at Hungarian House in Upper East Side. More details: https://luma.com/syqniv23Firewall nominated for a Webby! Vote today and support us for best individual episode - interview or talk show -for Bradley's interview with then-candidate Zohran Mamdani in April 2025. We're up against Oprah, so we'll need all the votes we can get! It only takes 10 seconds - thanks in advance: https://bit.ly/firewallwebbyThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Is Mayor Mamdani's first hundred days as mayor a genuine reason for celebration, or just a decent start before the hard part kicks in? Bradley gives the mayor real credit for focusing on the operational stuff that actually matters to New Yorkers, but says that if he's serious about running this city, he should start making the case for bringing the subways and buses back under city control, the way Bloomberg brought the schools back under mayoral control in 2002. And he should stop banking on squeezing more out of the small group of high earners who already pay for almost everything, because when they leave, the people who suffer most are the ones he claims to be fighting for. Plus: Bradley opens up about joining Marijuana Anonymous, how the NBA can solve its tanking problem and why he has no regards for Broadway.Firewall nominated for a Webby! Vote today and support us for best individual episode - interview or talk show -for Bradley's interview with then-candidate Zohran Mamdani in April 2025. We're up against Oprah, so we'll need all the votes we can get! It only takes 10 seconds - thanks in advance: https://bit.ly/firewallwebbyThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Amid meme coins, scams, and scary price swings, something more consequential is quietly happening in the crypto world: stablecoins are offering a faster, cheaper way to transact — the original promise that Bitcoin made but never quite delivered on. Bradley talks to Tusk Strategies partner Eric Soufer about how the regulatory framework is being engineered to survive future administrations that might not be as friendly. Despite the banking industry's loud objections, Eric's verdict is blunt: "I don't see tons of small businesses in the Rust Belt suddenly pulling their deposits out of community banks." FIREWALL NOMINATED FOR A WEBBY! Vote today and support us for best individual episode - interview or talk show -for Bradley's interview with then-candidate Zohran Mamdani in April 2025. We're up against Oprah, so we'll need all the votes we can get! It only takes 10 seconds - thanks in advance: https://bit.ly/firewallwebbyThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What if we human beings are an evolutionary anomaly, a species that discovered how to destroy ourselves before we learned how not to? Bradley links that question to his thoughts on a decidedly different subject: Why everything we tell our kids about how to live is basically useless if they don't see us doing it. "Show, don't tell" is not only good advice for writing, it turns out. It works for raising kids, tooFIREWALL NOMINATED FOR A WEBBY! Vote today and support us for best individual episode - interview or talk show -for Bradley's interview with then-candidate Zohran Mamdani in April 2025. We're up against Oprah, so we'll need all the votes we can get! It only takes 10 seconds - thanks in advance: https://bit.ly/firewallwebbyThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
[Vote for Firewall and help us win our first Webby Award! https://bit.ly/firewallwebby]Is it possible to build the most powerful technology in human history while remaining a genuinely decent person, or does that kind of greatness require a willingness to burn everything down? Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, joins Bradley to argue that Demis Hassabis may be the rarest breed: a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and world-changing CEO who cares deeply about safety. But as Mallaby and Bradley explore the coming political reckoning with AI, the big unknown is what sort of catastrophe it will take for our leaders to bring this technology under control.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Firewall nominated for a Webby Award! Vote today and support us for best individual episode - interview or talk show - for Bradley's interview with then-candidate Zohran Mamdani in April 2025. We're up against Oprah, so we'll need all the votes we can get! It only takes 10 seconds - thanks in advance. Vote here before April 16: https://bit.ly/firewallwebbySend us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
We all need to stop worrying about who the Democrats will nominate in 2028, argues Bradley. Unless it's someone from the far Left, the main candidates are essentially interchangeable — structural conditions, not the picayune distinctions between them, will determine the outcome. Plus, Bradley and Hugo discuss what makes life worthwhile, trade basketball stories, and discuss why starting a band might be the answer to everything that ails us.Discussed on today's episode:Start a Band, Even if You're Terrible, by Hugo Lindgren, The New York Times (03/22/26)Why Sweden punches above its weight in music, by Henrik Karlsson (03/21/23)The Web of the Game, by Roger Angell, The New Yorker (07/13/81)This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Author Michael Kimmel discussed the first-generation Jewish American toymakers who manufactured now-famous children's toys, including the Teddy Bear and the Rubik's Cube. P&T Knitwear in New York hosts this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Michael Kimmel discussed the first-generation Jewish American toymakers who manufactured now-famous children's toys, including the Teddy Bear and the Rubik's Cube. P&T Knitwear in New York hosts this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How did the Democratic party drift so far from the real interests of the poor and working class it historically championed? Legendary journalist Joe Klein joins Firewall to argue that the rot starts with his own generation — Baby Boomers — who indoctrinated two generations of Americans in ideals that have never worked in the real world. Bradley and Joe find surprising common ground on three big fixes.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
On the eve of a college trip with his son, Bradley reflects on the murky future that kids are facing and how education will have to be massively rethought. Plus, he thoroughly debunks the concept of the all-powerful Israel lobby, chastises the Mamdani administration for policies that will adversely affect quality of life, and contemplates how to manage the level of difficult news we let into our lives.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
One big reason that the Left has grown so powerful in the city, Bradley argues, is that the Partnership for New York — the group that should have been fighting for centrist, pro-business interests — never showed any inclination to play politics. That could be changing now that Steve Fulop, former three-term mayor of Jersey City, has taken over as the Partnership's CEO Fulop joins Firewall for a spirited debate on what it will take for business to punch its weight in political matters and reinvigorate the pro-growth agenda.Discussed on today's episode:What Steve Fulop Needs to do to Make the Partnership for New York City Relevant and Effective Again by Bradley Tusk, November 5, 2025This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Progressives make life hard on the rest of us, Bradley argues, by claiming to champion the poorest Americans while supporting policies that reflect their own biases and selfishness. But his ultimate conclusion is that far-left behavior, for all its flaws, is fundamentally and recognizably human — driven by a mix of self-interest, genuine idealism and the universal desire to belong to something meaningful.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Even when your issue won't win votes, there are ways to make your political opponents pay. Bradley sits down with his friend and partner, Tusk Strategies CEO Chris Coffey, to break down how the firm helped a climate group go after Rep. Chip Roy in a Texas Republican primary. Running ads on Truth Social and Rumble, they attacked him for not being MAGA enough — a strategy that produced a roughly 20-point swing and forced him into a runoff without mentioning climate change once. Bradley and Chris also dig into New York City's budget crisis, the upcoming 2026 congressional primaries in New York, and what it will take for Mayor Mamdani to succeed in a job that demands pragmatism over purity.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Why do a small minority of selfish, fear-mongering people wield so much power over the rest of us? Bradley argues that most of us want essentially the same things: meaningful work, healthy families, a little fun, and some peace. The problem isn't human nature — it's broken systems that reward the loudest and most divisive voice. He also weighs in on whether Trump's instincts are well suited to the Middle East, why the AI companies fundamentally misread their political situation, and what makes Los Angeles his ideal "composite city."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Does fixing America's $5 trillion healthcare crisis start with taking a single picture? Bradley sits down with Andrew Lacy, founder and CEO of Prenuvo, to explore how full-body MRI scans are shifting healthcare from reactive to proactive — and why that shift could be the most important change in medicine today. They discuss Lacy's 80/20 approach to personal longevity (sleep first, everything else follows), his vision of patient-driven healthcare spending and why AI promises to make world-class diagnostics accessible to everyone.Firewall listeners can go to prenuvo.com/firewall to get $300 off a scan from Prenuvo.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
But in taking a principled stand against the Pentagon and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, it will gain valuable trust with customers, argues Bradley, and that means winning the war. Plus: Jack Dorsey's 4,000-person layoff at Block is a sign of things to come as AI efficiency tools displace white-collar workers — and nobody has a real plan for what comes next; why the addiction claims being made in the lawsuit against Meta are "1,000 percent accurate" but that doesn't mean it's illegal; is Mayor Mamdani governing as a pragmatic big-city leader or showing his progressive stripes; a Chuck Klosterman theory about political movements that Bradley mostly finds fault with; and the case for cautious optimism about the Mets pitching staff.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Early childhood education has quietly become one of the most successful — and bipartisan — reform movements in the country. Elliot Regenstein, author of Readiness: Preparing State Early Childhood Systems for a Brighter Future, sits down with Bradley to explain how it's working. They dig into why the system is more adaptable than K-12 or higher ed, which states are leading the way, and what the Trump administration's push to dismantle the Department of Education could mean for the most vulnerable kids.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
"We don't need purity," says Bradley. "We don't need saviors." The remaking of our institutions starts from the middle, he argues, which has a lot of untapped power against the extremes on both sides. Bradley contends that media, hollowed out by market forces, has ironically become the most adaptive of our broken institutions, while higher education has saddled a generation with $1.83 trillion in debt to prop up a system that puts the needs of administrators over students. And on religion, he sees the collapse in attendance not as a spiritual failing but as a rational response to institutions that serve the clergy over the congregation. This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Calling in from Istanbul, Bradley opens with impressions of a historically rich but complicated city — ancient cisterns, street cats, a shady taxi driver, and bomb-proof doors on a synagogue. Earlier, when he was in Madrid, Bradley took Abby to visit the Prado and the Thyssen, which got him thinking about the uncomfortable economics of museums: tens of billions in art, much of it in storage, underwriting tax breaks for wealthy donors while hungry people go unfed. How should we address these issues? The conversation turns to Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference, which Bradley reads as an early audition for 2028, contrasting Rubio's smooth "I'm my own person" approach with Vance's unconvincing Trump imitation. On whether Americans are actually angry at Europe, he is skeptical — ordinary people on both sides seem to like each other fine, he says, and manufactured grievance is just what demagogues do.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
On this special episode of the Podcast, Andrew kicks off his book tour by sitting down with Rikki Schlott at P&T Knitwear in NYC to discuss his new book "Hey Yang, Where's My Thousand Bucks? And Other True Stories of Staggering Depth" Have a question for Andrew? Drop it in the comments section below or send us a text or voice memo to mailbag@andrewyang.com! Watch the full episode here ---- Follow Andrew Yang: Bluesky | Instagram | TikTok | Website | X Follow Rikki Schlott: Instagram | X Get a copy of the book ---- Get 50% off Factor at Factor Meals Get an extra 3 months free at Express VPN Get 20% off + 2 free pillows at Helix Sleep | Use code: helixpartner20 Get $30 off your first two (2) orders at Wonder | Use code: ANDREW104 ---- Subscribe to the Andrew Yang Podcast: Apple | Spotify To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why are the biggest names in venture betting big on prediction markets? Aaron Miller, principal at Will Ventures, joins Bradley to talk about the evolution of platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket into a new kind of financial exchange and societal "source of truth." They dig into the states-versus-federal regulatory battle, the surge in American gambling behavior, and then turn to the messy restructuring of college sports. Do our old ideas about it make sense anymore?This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Everybody fails, doubts themselves and encounters unexpected obstacles on the path to whatever they're trying to achieve. But the choice to keep going in the face of difficulty, says Bradley, is what maximizes our own satisfaction and well being. He explains all this in the context of why the business community failed as a political force in New York City since Mayor Bloomberg left office. Plus, he talks about why the merging of philanthropy and commerce is often so fraught, questions Mayor Mamdani's decision not to force homeless people into shelter in the extreme-cold weather, and writes an ad for Pete Buttigieg that he contends is superior to Hugo's from last week.Discussed on today's episode:New York's CEOs Are Gearing Up for a Battle With Mamdani, David Freedlander, New York Magazine (02/05/26)This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What happens when an entire generation grows up with nothing but chaos, only to encounter an AI revolution that makes practically every career look iffy? Bradley talks to Rachel Janfaza, founder of The Up and Up, about why COVID didn't just disrupt Gen Z—it split them in two: the older group that remembers life before the pandemic and the younger ones who don't and who never learned how to have an unplanned conversation. She explains how Gen Z voters feel betrayed by Trump just one year into his second term, why they're demanding AI regulation, and what effect data centers, crypto and phone bans are having on their politics.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What do you get when you ask five AI platforms to crunch some numbers and help solve an investment decision for you? A shocking array of basic errors, faulty assumptions and bizarre omissions, Bradley discovered, enough to make him seriously wonder where this revolution might be heading. Plus, he reevaluates his loathing of social media in light of Minneapolis and Greenland, debates the merits of his own particular form of networking and proposes an ad that could propel Rahm Emanuel to the top of the 2028 leaderboard.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
In the 1990s, we were promised that the internet was going to decentralize wealth and power. How did we end up with what feels like the exact opposite of that? Tim Wu, author of the new book, The Age of Extraction — an examination of how tech platforms extract value, shape attention, and concentrate power — joined Bradley earlier this month for a live discussion at P&T Knitwear, moderated by Nate Loewentheil, Managing Partner of Commonweal Ventures. "If you look through the history of democracy turning into dictatorship," says Wu, "a lot of it goes through the path of monopolization of key industries, the build-up of a huge amount of wealth and an anger among the people. When democracy cannot fix that or make the system seem fair, the strong man has a lot of appeal."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Canada can never fix the asymmetry of its relationship with the US, but as Prime Minister Mark Carney showed last week in Davos, there's much to be gained from playing to your strengths. Bradley assesses the strange predicament of the middle power in a zero-sum world. Plus: the real reason Kristi Noem has a cabinet post, why law school applications are surging and — here's something nice — the 12 finalists for the 2026 Gotham Book Prize.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Are AI workers easier to manage than humans? Bradley sits down with Evan Ratliff, creator of the award-winning podcast series, Shell Game, to talk about the real startup he launched with a staff of AI employees. They discuss the economic, psychological, and regulatory stakes of AI, plus the creepy comedy of working with bots. “Every time I went in to say, ‘Stop talking about this,'” Ratliff says, “it triggered them to talk about it more. They can create endless busy work—endless process—for no real value.”This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
If you were conspiring to weaken America over the long haul, wouldn't you start by corroding the institutions that make the U.S. economy uniquely powerful? Bradley walks through his “Manchurian Economy” thesis—tariffs, intimidation of speech and IP, politicizing the Fed and federal data, choking immigration and R&D, and the broader slide toward rule-of-law instability. The damage may outlast Trump and even accelerate in an AI-disrupted, demagogue-friendly future. Then Bradley pivots to New York City affordability, with a buffet of cost-cutting proposals for Mayor Mamdani—from inspecting buildings by drone to lifting the zoning constraints that make development so expensive. Finally, Hugo puts Bradley in the coach's chair to help him come up with a new strategy for consuming media — sparring over Substack, print-only minimalism, aggregators, audio-only news, and whether the real solution for Hugo isn't merely to give up his old habits of an editor always hunting for new voices.Discussed on today's episode:How Mamdani can make NYC more affordable, Bradley Tusk, New York Daily News (January 19, 2026)This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What do you learn from three decades of working the late shift on sports radio? Steve Somers, the beloved Shmoozer on WFAN and author of a new memoir Me Here, You There, joined Bradley and his longtime producer Paul Rosenberg for a live conversation late last year at P&T Knitwear. "All through high school, all I tried to do was call in to The Fan and I could never get on," says Bradley (a fellow die-hard Mets fan like Steve), "so this is my first real chance."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What will trigger the fiercest backlash to the AI boom? Rather than job losses or generative-AI weirdness, says Bradley, it'll be data centers and their insatiable appetite for electricity. When utility bills start climbing, voters everywhere will make their wrath felt. Which means new power sources are in hot demand. Can we develop them fast enough to head off a crisis? Plus: Bradley reflects on how “having nice things” (like the little gem of a bar he discovered in Miami) rests on thousands of trust-based transactions and presents a working theory on why Mayor Mamdani's early flashes of progressive posturing could be more strategic than they look.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Did you know that life expectancy in Brownsville is 11 years shorter than on the Upper East Side? Dr. Ashwin Vasan, former city health commissioner, joins Bradley to discuss the funding crisis, mounting inequities and stratospheric administrative costs of public healthcare. Vasan explains why real reform starts with rebuilding trust—through ethics rules, revamped incentives, transparency, and a less officious posture. "People don't like being made to feel dumb," he says. The coming era will be defined by a messy transition: fewer paper-pushers, more direct contracting and a political fight over who loses first.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
The more we chase it, the more it slips away. For the first episode of 2026, Bradley explores the hard choices that lead to contentment over the long run, resisting the dopamine loop of money and status in favor of purpose, perspective and love.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
...Well, not quite. But for this year-capping episode, Bradley came armed with a list of 50 big questions to discuss with his friend Alexander Kouts, the founder and CEO of Indigov, and because they had so much to talk about, the episode approaches Rogan-scale duration. Buckle up for this super-sized episode as Bradley and Alex take on abundance v. zero-sum thinking, the limits of capitalism, the purpose of religion, where higher education is heading (off a cliff, of course, but how high?), what roles AI can never take away from us and why humans are powerless in the presence of babies and dogs. Consider it the debut of a new annual tradition. Next year, we might invite Joe himself (or not).This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981, joins Bradley to unpack a century of economic policy, arguing that elites have often undermined cities even as they claimed to save them—and that smarter, more inclusive development is still possible. The conversation ranges from subways and public housing to Zohran Mamdani's prospects as mayor, asking whether technocratic competence, not ideology, is the real test for New York's next era. Note that this episode was recorded shortly before Mamdani's election, and it was discussed as the likely outcome.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
For Bradley, it was Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su. In this episode, he reviews his favorites among the 96 books that he read this year, including the funniest one, the memoir that evokes real nostalgia, the one he most wants his son to read and the one that made him feel like less of a misfit. Plus, Bradley talks about how to make New York City a global model of Jewish-Muslim cooperation and why Trump's executive order on AI is little more than ill-informed bluster.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What does Zohran Mamdani's upset victory look like now that the memes have faded? Drawing on the months of reporting he did for The New Yorker, Staff Writer Eric Lach walks through how Mamdani's campaign rewrote the playbook on field organizing, social media, and “politics you can see” in the streets — rather than the "politics you can't see" in back rooms. He and Bradley pull apart why the city's political and business class so badly misread the race and what that portends for upcoming fights involving Kathy Hochul, congressional primaries, and Chuck Schumer's future. They also game out the big unknown: how Mamdani can govern through steep budget cuts, policing dilemmas and an impatient electorate without losing the authenticity that got him elected.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
Bradley makes 12 bold predictions about next year, focusing on the tidal wave of AI regulation hitting state legislatures, why electricity prices will soar and put incumbents in a major bind, the inevitable mishandling of mental-health chatbots, how all the politicians rushing to copy Mamdani's short-form videos are going to create one hell of a blooper reel, and much more. Plus, a strong recommendation for Season 2 of Landman and guest Cory Epstein reveals the one movie he auditioned for during his very short-lived stint as a child actor.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
What happens when you walk away from a hyper-optimized New York life to immerse yourself in learning one thing? Ravi Gupta explains why he moved to Italy to study cooking, rebuild his attention span, and escape phone-and-dating-app brain rot, drawing on previous "skillbaticals" devoted to powerlifting, screenwriting and surfing. Then Gupta digs into his five-part series Where the Schools Went, tracing how post-Katrina New Orleans rebuilt its schools as an almost all-charter system, what worked, what broke, and what the rest of the country should—and shouldn't—try to copy.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.
In venture these days, it pays to be small and scrappy or huge and swimming in fees. Anywhere in between is a hard slog. Bradley walks through the changing VC landscape, using his own fund history as Exhibit A, and going into detail on his return to an “equity for services” model. Plus, why AOC should run for President rather than the US Senate, how AI could be utilized to revolutionize classrooms, and a fresh theory on why we can't resist TV villains.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City's only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today's episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley's new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.