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Ross Barkan covered New York City politics for years before running for office himself. He lost. His campaign manager was a little-known political operative named Zohran Mamdani. That man is now the mayor of New York City.

Barkan is one of the sharpest journalists covering the Mamdani administration — and he reveals in this conversation that he is writing the definitive book on Mamdani's election and early months in office, due out in October from Random House.

He is also the author of Colossus, a new novel out April 28th about a MAGA pastor in rural Michigan who built a perfect life on a lie. He calls it a novel for the Trump age.

We talk about Mamdani's first hundred days, the Albany budget fight, why Barkan thinks the Jessica Tisch alliance was a mistake, what it's like to interview the man you once employed, and why he believes fiction is the last line of defense against a world that wants to outsource thinking to machines.

SHOW NOTES

Ross Barkan's Books

• Colossus
• Glass Century
• The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York

Books Ross Is Reading

• Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York, by Ronen Givony
• The Ritz of the Bayou, by Nancy Lemann
• Meet Me in the Bathroom, by Lizzy Goodman

Ross Barkan Online

• Political Currents
• The Metropolitan Review

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Two weeks before Earth Day, Juan Manuel Benítez sits down with Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. They take stock of what's being dismantled in Washington — clean air and water rules, offshore wind projects, the bedrock "endangerment finding" for climate policy — and what's worth fighting for at the state and local level. Tighe breaks down the stalled New York state budget fight over the CLCPA, makes the case for cap and invest, and defends congestion pricing as the rare policy win that changed minds once people felt the results. She also shares how she became an "accidental environmentalist," what she's reading, and where New Yorkers should go to remember why any of this matters.

📚 What Julie is reading:

• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

• Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley

🎙️ Podcast Julie listens to every week: The Daily (New York Times). And yes — she was a loyal listener of Off Topic On Politics with Juan Manuel, Grace Rauh, and Zack Fink.

🏔️ Three places in New York State Julie says every New Yorker should visit:

• Adirondack Park — Bigger than the six largest national parks combined. Lake George is the gateway; the 46 High Peaks are the challenge.
• The Catskills — Closer to the city, and full of reward. North-South Lake, Hunter and Tannersville, and Catskill Falls are worth the drive (stay on the trail).
• Minnewaska State Park — For hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, and swimming. Julie competed there in high school. It holds up.

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State Assembly Member Micah Lasher is running to replace Jerry Nadler in New York's 12th Congressional District — one of the most-watched Democratic primaries in the country. He talks about the US-Israel war on Iran, Columbia University's 116th Street, Michael Bloomberg's money, AI regulation, and why Democrats need to stop negotiating and start fighting. Plus: his roommate Aziz Ansari, his teenage magic act on the Today Show, and a Javier Marías novel he swears he's not recommending just to impress his Spanish-born host.

SHOW NOTES

Guest: Micah Lasher, New York State Assembly Member (Upper West Side) and candidate for New York's 12th Congressional District Primary date: June 23, 2026

🏛️ Cultural institutions mentioned

• New-York Historical Society
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• MoMA – Museum of Modern Art
• Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
• St. Ann's Warehouse (Anna Christie)
• Ragtime at Lincoln Center (described as extraordinary — check current listings)

📚 Book mentioned

• Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías — NYPL catalog

DESCRIPTION / SHOW NOTES

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is running for Congress — and this race is more complicated than it looks. He's trying to succeed Nydia Velázquez in NY-7 after 33 years. His opponents include a DSA-backed Assembly member endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — the same Mamdani that Reynoso championed loudly when he ran for mayor. We asked him about all of it.

In this episode: the Mamdani endorsement he knew was coming (and what that conversation actually looked like), why he thinks this race is about the future of the Democratic Party — not just his career, what he'd actually do in Congress as part of a minority, and why after borough president, he thinks he's done with politics.

Also: outdoor dining, anime, a wife who watches too many murder shows, and a closing answer about a kid growing up in Los Sures that we didn't see coming.

📚 Books & recommendations mentioned in this episode:

• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing — Borrow free from Brooklyn Public Library
• Manual del Guerrero de la Luz by Paulo Coelho — Borrow free from Brooklyn Public Library (Spanish) / English edition
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Stream on Crunchyroll

Antonio Reynoso is the Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District. The primary is June 23, 2026.

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

SHOW NOTES

Julie Menin didn't plan on a career in politics. She started a nonprofit to help rebuild Lower Manhattan after 9/11, became a three-time city commissioner, ran New York City's 2020 census — finishing first among all U.S. cities and securing an additional $1.8 billion in federal funding for the next decade — and got elected to the City Council. In January 2026, her colleagues chose her as Speaker, making her the first Jewish speaker in the Council's history.

In this conversation with Juan Manuel Benítez, Menin talks about the city's budget crunch (her answer on property taxes: a firm no), her relationship with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the case of Rafael Rubio — a Council staffer who has been in ICE custody since January 12th — her five-point antisemitism plan, and her concern about the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran. She also shares the story of her grandmother's escape from Soviet-occupied Hungary in the middle of the night, guided by a "miner" who knew where the bombs were buried along the border.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

📚 Milan Kundera — Julie's favorite author, whom she's been revisiting with her college-age son:

• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• The Joke
• The NYPL has a great reading guide: Why Read Milan Kundera?

🏛️ Museums Julie champions:

• The Tenement Museum — 103 Orchard Street, Lower East Side.
• Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust — Battery Park City.

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School

Show Notes

Luis Miranda — political consultant, founder of the Hispanic Federation, and yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda's father — sits down with Juan Manuel Benítez to talk about five decades of building Latino political power in New York City. From his radicalization growing up in colonial Puerto Rico to running Fernando Ferrer's mayoral campaigns for mayor, Miranda reflects on what the Democratic Party keeps getting wrong about Latino voters, why 42% of Latino men voted for Trump, and what Zohran Mamdani's victory says about the politics of affordability. Plus: a heart attack, a parking spot, and the show tunes he blasts at 6 AM.

Luis Miranda served in three New York City mayoral administrations (Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani) and ran campaigns for Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Fernando Ferrer, and Letitia James, among others.

In this conversation, we discuss: growing up in colonial Puerto Rico and what radicalized him; founding the Hispanic Federation in 1990; the science behind Fernando Ferrer's near-miss mayoral campaigns and how 9/11 changed everything; why Democrats continue to take Latino voters for granted; the 42% of Latino men who voted for Trump; Mayor Zohran Mamdani's victory and his use of Spanish; the "mic" that Hamilton gave the Miranda family; becoming a great-grandfather; and the best advice he ever got — from his dad.

Books mentioned

📖 Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America by Luis A. Miranda Jr. — Borrow from NYPL

📖 The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism by Steve Kornacki — Borrow from NYPL

Places & institutions mentioned

🏛️ The Hispanic Federation 🏛️ El Museo del Barrio 🏛️ MoMA 🏛️ American Museum of Natural History 🏛️ Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

He grew up in a fly-fishing motel near Lake Placid. As a teenager, he was suicidal and spent a month in a psychiatric hospital. Decades later, he helped pass marriage equality in New York State, represented Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and the West Village in the City Council — and three weeks ago, he was sworn in as a New York State Senator.

In this episode, newly elected State Senator Erik Bottcher sits down with Juan Manuel Benítez to talk about the experience that almost ended his life and why he talks about it publicly, what he learned watching power for 17 years before having it, the budget battle ahead in Albany, why he's against a property tax hike, whether he could have won the congressional race he walked away from, his use of AI, and the one question everyone asks: will he ever run for mayor?

An honest, personal, and wide-ranging conversation with one of New York's most compelling new voices in state politics.

Erik Bottcher

• Official website: erikbottcher.com
• New York State Senate, 47th District: nysenate.gov/senators/erik-bottcher

📚 Book Recommendation

• On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith 

Museum

• The Whitney Museum of American Art — 99 Gansevoort St, NYC Free admission: Friday nights 5–10pm and second Sunday of every month. Free every day for visitors 25 and under. whitney.org

Gay Bar

• Rise Bar risebarhk.com.

Mental Health Resource mentioned in this episode

• Four Winds Hospital (the facility where Bottcher received treatment as a teenager) fourwindshospital.com
• Crisis support: If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), available 24/7.

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack

Christine Quinn was once the second most powerful person in New York City government. As City Council Speaker — the first woman and first openly gay person to hold that role — she negotiated eight budgets with Mayor Bloomberg and shaped the city's political landscape for nearly a decade. Today, she runs WIN (Women in Need), the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families in New York City, housing about 5,000 people every night — roughly half of them children.

In conversation with host Juan Manuel Benítez, Quinn walks us through the harrowing intake process a homeless mother faces, explains why New York spends $4.4 billion on homeless services yet keeps falling behind, and makes the case for why housing vouchers — not shelter beds — are the key to solving the crisis. She talks about what she expects from Mayor Zohran Mamdani's first budget, why the road to the Democratic House majority runs through New York, and what it was like to bluff Mayor Bloomberg on a budget vote with no cards in her hand.

Quinn also opens up about losing the 2013 mayoral race, her colon cancer diagnosis, and how both experiences deepened her commitment to service.

Christine Quinn

• President & CEO, WIN (Women in Need)
• Vice Chair, New York State Democratic Committee
• Former NYC City Council Speaker (2006–2013), first woman and first openly gay person in that role
• CNN and MSNBC political contributor

Book Recommendation

• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Art & Culture Recommendation

• Amy Sherald: American Sublime

Mentioned in This Episode

• WIN's upcoming fundraiser — March 4 at Chelsea Piers, supporting camp programs for children in shelter

Political scientist Christina Greer joins Juan Manuel Benítez to discuss why the current moment of federal raids, ICE violence and authoritarian governance isn't shocking to Black Americans - it's familiar. From the historical parallels between Nazi Germany and American racial terror to the Republican Party's 50-year strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade, Greer explains how America's "capacity for cruelty" has always been present, just newly visible to white Americans.

She breaks down Mayor Zohran Mamdani's first month in office, the strategic genius of his White House meeting with Trump, and her concerns about the lack of Black advisors in his administration. Greer also discusses the double-female ticket of Kathy Hochul and Adrienne Adams, why Democrats keep losing the long game, and what it means to politically "tithe" during a crisis. Plus: her reading recommendations for understanding this moment, the transformative Seydou Keita exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and why the Tenement Museum's "Your Story, Our Story" project offers hope when everything feels dark.

Christina Greer, PhD

• Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
• Co-host, FAQ NYC podcast (THE CITY)
• Weekly columnist, The Amsterdam News
• Member, The New York Editorial Board

• Nikki Giovanni - Poetry collections
• The Ungovernable City 
• Phil Thompson 

• Lani Guinier 
• Bell Hooks 

Brooklyn Museum

• Seydou Keïta: Portraits 

Tenement Museum

Former immigration judge Carmen María Rey joins Juan Manuel Benítez to discuss her August 2025 termination by the Trump administration, what she witnessed in New York's immigration courts during the first months of Trump's second term, and why she still has hope for America despite having decided to leave the country.

Rey, who spent her career as an immigration lawyer and now teaches at Pace University, was one of hundreds of immigration judges terminated without explanation. She had previously been targeted by 30 Republican Congress members, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, for tweets criticizing ICE during Trump's first term.

In this conversation, Rey describes scenes of "cruelty that will remain with me until the day that I die"—ICE agents detaining people in courthouse hallways, children screaming as fathers were taken away, families too afraid to use the bathroom. She reflects on the bitter irony of being fired from the very building where she once stood as an undocumented child, waiting in line with her mother for an employment authorization stamp.

Rey discusses the erosion of judicial independence, the "unitary executive theory" being used to justify mass federal employee firings, and why she sees parallels between this moment and the Civil War era.

Host: Juan Manuel Benítez

Guest: Carmen María Rey

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Empire of Borders by Todd Miller -
• Works by historian Heather Cox Richardson (Boston College)

Topics discussed:

• Immigration court proceedings and ICE enforcement tactics
• The firing of immigration judges and challenges to judicial independence
• The "unitary executive theory" and federal employment protections
• Asylum law and grant rates across different courts
• Historical parallels between current era and the Civil War period
• The experience of being undocumented in 1980s and 1990s America

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is produced at Columbia Journalism School. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Read more at Substack.