Forty years ago, Mario Cuomo began his three-term tenure as governor. He inherited a state that was in the midst of a fiscal crisis and a crime problem. With the help of his top aide, Michael Del Giudice, Cuomo began to tackle the budget and try to get the state in order.

To complicate matters, in 1984, Cuomo gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that thrust him into the national spotlight and led to pressure from Democrats for him to pursue the presidential nomination in future elections.

From the perspective of his key advisers and the reporters that covered him, we’ll hear how Cuomo managed to juggle governing and external pressures while keeping his ideals intact, and we’ll learn how the decisions he struggled to make have had a lasting effect on both the state and the country.