The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Omer Bartov is an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. He grew up in a Zionist home and served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, but he has long been concerned about Israel’s use of military power. In a new book called “Israel: What Went Wrong?,” Bartov argues that Zionism has morphed into an ideology of extremism that led to genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7th. “There is growing criticism of American support for these kinds of Israeli policies, both on the American left and on the American right,” Bartov tells David Remnick. Bartov believes that Israel requires “shock therapy” because “it has not still come to identify the limits of its own power, because those limits are in Washington, DC and it's there that those limits have to be set.” “For Israel, that would be good, because I think Israel needs to be liberated from that kind of dependence on American power. I think, for American society and for American Jewry, that’s a very bad thing because there is a rise of . . . antisemitism from the Tucker Carlsons of the world, who are a rising force right now.”
Further reading: 

“Israel: What Went Wrong?,” by Omer Bartov

“A Holocaust Scholar Meets with Israeli Reservists,” by Isaac Chotiner

“How to Define Genocide,” by Isaac Chotiner

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.

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The Washington Roundtable discusses how the anti-corruption candidate Péter Magyar brought down Hungary's autocratic Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and what implications that victory holds for the far-right movements around the world that Orbán helped embolden. The panel is joined by Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton professor who has lived in Hungary and studied its democratic backsliding. Together, they unpack how Magyar’s campaign succeeded by connecting Orbán’s corruption to the everyday struggles of Hungarians, and how that approach might inform Democratic strategy in the 2028 Presidential election.
This week’s reading:

“America’s Orange Jesus,” by Susan B. Glasser

“The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose,” by Andrew Marantz

“TMZ Gets Political,” by Paula Mejía

“Who Is the U.S. Negotiating with in Iran?,” by Sudarsan Raghavan

“ ‘The Peace President’ Gets Belligerent with Iran and the Pope,” by Robin Wright

“How Much Has the War in Iran Depleted the U.S. Missile Supply?,” by Garrett M. Graff

“How Project Maven Put A.I. Into the Kill Chain,” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus

“The Extremes of Israeli Public Opinion,” by Isaac Chotiner

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.

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The New Yorker staff writer Molly Fischer joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Zohran Mamdani’s first hundred days as mayor of New York. They talk about how Mamdani has carried his highly disciplined, media-forward messaging style into office—and how his governing style combines practical city management with a focus on visible and public-facing execution. They also explore the status of his core initiatives, including universal child care and other affordability measures, whether he has scaled back or recalibrated some campaign promises, and how he has navigated relationships with figures such as Governor Kathy Hochul and President Donald Trump as he tries to harness his political momentum into durable results.
This week’s reading:

“Zohran Mamdani, Perpetual Student of the City,” by Molly Fischer

“ ‘The Peace President’ Gets Belligerent with Iran and the Pope,” by Robin Wright

“What Brought Down Eric Swalwell,” by Jon Allsop

“TMZ Gets Political,” by Paul Mejía

“The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose,” by Andrew Marantz

“The Extremes of Israeli Public Opinion,” by Isaac Chotiner

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.

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At the end of February, OpenAI’s C.E.O., Sam Altman, made headlines by swiftly cutting a deal with the Pentagon for his company to replace Anthropic, which had balked at the Trump Administration’s bid to use its A.I. technology to power autonomous weapons and aid in mass surveillance. Days earlier, Altman had publicly supported Anthropic’s position in the dispute. Altman’s rise to power and his founding of OpenAI were predicated on placing safety above other concerns in developing artificial general intelligence. Why did he change his stance on such a fundamental issue? The New Yorker writers Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz spoke with Altman multiple times and interviewed more than a hundred people for their investigation into the leader of one of the most powerful companies in the world, comparing Altman to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Although there is no smoking gun in Altman’s hand, the writers find that persistent allegations about his conduct underscore the danger of entrusting him to wield such vast power over the future. 
 Further reading:

"Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?,” by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz

“The Dangerous Paradox of A.I. Abundance,” by John Cassidy

“The A.I. Bubble Is Coming for Your Browser,” by Kyle Chayka

 
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.

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The Washington Roundtable discusses Vice-President J. D. Vance’s week on the world stage: stumping for the Kremlin-aligned Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán and being tasked with leading American negotiations in Pakistan to resolve the war with Iran, a conflict he reportedly opposed. The panel explores the events and people that shaped Vance, and how his political evolution toward MAGA may not be enough to make him the Republican Presidential nominee in 2028. “Anyone who comes after Trump is going to have a really hard time inheriting a cult of personality and turning that back into a party,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. Vance is “not this kind of charismatic movement leader.”
This week’s reading:

“The Costs of Trump’s Iran-War Folly,” by Susan B. Glasser

“Trump’s Strategic and Moral Failure in Iran,” by David Remnick

“The Global Stakes of Hungary’s Pivotal Election,” by Kapil Komireddi

“A U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Is Here, but Trump’s Stone Age Mentality Endures,” by Ishaan Tharoor

“How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens

“Israel’s War in Lebanon Has Not Stopped,” by Isaac Chotiner

“An Economist’s Quest to Solve America’s Wage Problem,” by John Cassidy

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