Malcolm Gladwell, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, often uses ideas from the social sciences and epidemiology and applies them to surprising topics. But his new book tackles an issue that’s in the headlines every day. The book is called “The American Way of Killing,” and the subject is America’s unique association with gun violence. Death statistics, he says, fail to convey the scale of the problem because advances in medical care save countless lives that are nevertheless scarred by violence. Gladwell talks with David Remnick about how gun-control advocates have got the problem wrong, and why he thinks that a persistent dynamic of under-policing and over-incarcerating is at the root of America’s problem. “I can’t even utter the phrase ‘defund the police,’ ” Gladwell says, “without nearly blowing a gasket.”

Further reading:

• “What We Get Wrong About Violent Crime,” by Malcolm Gladwell
• “Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and the Modern Whistle-Blower,” by Malcolm Gladwell 
• “Thresholds of Violence,” by Malcolm Gladwell

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.
 

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A woman who acts as a surrogate, carrying a child for someone else, is said to be going on a “journey.”

Kayla Elliott started her surrogacy journey at the age of twenty-six. She gave birth to a baby girl for a wealthy couple living in a mansion in L.A. County. The couple told her that they already had one child, who desperately wanted a sibling. But nothing about the situation was as it appeared.

Kayla soon learned that the couple already had twenty other children, most of them under the age of three, who had also been carried by surrogates. After one of the children was taken to an emergency room with head injuries, the police got involved, and then the F.B.I. As the scandal unfolded, the surrogates for the couple began to find one another.

Who was this mysterious couple, and why had they collected so many children?

“The Journey,” a five-part audio series, unravels what was going on inside the couple’s mansion and exposes a scheme that threatens the surrogacy industry.

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. 

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John Wilson is a documentary filmmaker, a comedian, and a contemporary philosopher. On his hit HBO show, “How To with John Wilson,” he wandered around New York City filming everyday life, pontificating, and asking strangers questions ranging from the mundane to the esoteric. The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz has written about Wilson, and recently met him at the independent movie theatre that he runs, Low Cinema, in Queens. They discuss Wilson’s newest film, “The History of Concrete,” which premières September 18th. 

Further reading:

• “How to Make a Movie House with John Wilson,” by Madeleine Wulfahrt
• “John Wilson’s Sewage-Treatment-Plant Adventure,” by Andrew Marantz
• “ ‘How To with John Wilson’ Offers a Martian’s-Eye View of Homo Sapiens’ Habits,” by Alexandra Schwartz
   

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. 
 

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Colin Kaepernick had a stunning rise as an N.F.L. quarterback after becoming a full-time starter, in 2012. He was a legitimate dual threat—as effective running the ball as he was throwing it. And, to this day, Kaepernick still holds the record for rushing yards by an N.F.L. quarterback in a playoff game. But his formidable skills as a player were quickly overshadowed by his decision—quiet at first—to engage in protest for social justice a decade ago. He knelt during the national anthem at games, and that generated an enormous amount of controversy, with everyone from his fellow-players to a future President weighing in on his decision. In the aftermath of his demonstrations, the San Francisco 49ers told him that they were going to cut him, and no other team would sign him. In his new memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” Kaepernick describes how this wasn’t even the full extent of the league’s efforts to punish him. He and David Remnick discuss his new book and the consequences of his political activism. “I had football taken away from me,” Kaepernick explains. “I didn’t get to leave on my terms. And I didn’t get to leave because, ‘Oh, you're not good enough to play anymore.’ It was because of the causes I was supporting and the change I was trying to effect. So that leaves a sour taste in your mouth.”

Further reading: 

• “The N.F.L.’s Change of Tone, and the Limits of Merely Listening,” by Louisa Thomas
• “Colin Kaepernick’s Contested Workout and the Power Plays of the N.F.L.,” by Louisa Thomas
• “Behind Nike’s Decision to Stand by Colin Kaepernick,” by Jelani Cobb
• “What Will Taking the Knee Mean Now?,” by Doreen St. Félix
• “The Racial Demagoguery of Trump’s Assaults on Colin Kaepernick and Steph Curry,” by David Remnick

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. 
 

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For more than thirty years, Edwidge Danticat has written about the experiences of Haitians and Haitian Americans in fiction, memoir, and journalism. In The New Yorker, she has covered the ways in which the Trump Administration has targeted Haitian immigrants with lies and threats of deportation. In a new novel about a Miami real-estate broker, called “Dèy”—which means “grief” or “mourning” in Haitian Creole—Danticat considers the meaning of home “when home may not want you,” and when violence in Haiti may preclude returning there. She speaks with the New Yorker staff writer Doreen St. Félix about the novel, and what the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians means for the large Haitian American community. 

Further reading:

• “The Great Delegalization,” by Dara Lind
• “The World Cup and the Changing Psyche of the Haitian Diaspora,” by Doreen St. Félix
• “Miami’s Haitian Community Braces for Deportations,” by Edwidge Danticat
• “The Haiti That Still Dreams,” by Edwidge Danticat

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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The political consultant Sarah Longwell runs focus groups of voters, and she has a lot of advice for Democrats seeking to wrest control of the government from MAGA. Longwell, a former Republican disaffected from Donald Trump’s party, presents her playbook to the New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos: go on the offensive talking about corruption; make a positive case for immigration; and adapt to a podcast-driven media environment. “You can go on ‘Joe Rogan’ or not go on ‘Joe Rogan,’ ” she says. “The question is: can you sit for a long period of time and talk to someone who doesn’t know that much about politics and have an engaging conversation? . . . This is how trust is built now, in this screen-to-screen environment.” Longwell’s new book is called “How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.” 

Further listening: 

• “Can Trump Voters Still Change Their Minds?,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
• “A G.O.P. Strategist on the Republican Voters Who Could Abandon Trump,” an episode of The Political Scene

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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Gloria Steinem, who died on September 2nd, at the age of ninety-two, was one of the most influential figures of our time in politics and feminism. Her work shaped the ideas of generations of Americans. Steinem was one of David Remnick’s very first guests after The New Yorker Radio Hour launched, in 2015; her autobiography, “My Life on the Road,” had just come out. 

Further reading and viewing:

• “A Feminist Fractal in ‘The Glorias,’ ” by Anthony Lane from 2020
• “Road Warrior,” by Jane Kramer from 2015
• “Glora Steinem Doesn’t Drive,” a short film by The New Yorker from 2015
• “Feminism 101,” by Rebecca Mead from 2013
• “Cover Woman,” by Hendrik Hertzberg from 1974
• “Liberation,” by Anthony Hiss, Jane Boutwell, and Hendrik Hertzberg from 1970

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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In the film “Coyote vs. Acme,” which was released this week, the ingenious but unlucky Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation for damages caused by its malfunctioning merchandise. That is also the premise of the New Yorker staff writer Ian Frazier’s original piece, which inspired the film. The screenwriter Samy Burch reimagined Frazier’s premise as a satire of legal thrillers. “What if Wile E. was actually like a Dustin Hoffman character?” Burch wondered. “This guy out in the desert, working on something obsessively, addicted. . . . If this were humans, would the plot make any sense?” The film features actors such as Will Forte alongside Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, and other “Looney Tunes” characters. Frazier talks with Burch, who was nominated for an Academy Award for “May December,” a drama starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. 

Further reading:

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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During the height of Roy Cohn’s friendship with Donald Trump, according to the historian Kai Bird, “they were on the phone with each other a dozen times a day.” Bird’s new book, “American Scoundrel,” details Cohn’s profound influence on Trump—whom he met as a young real-estate heir in the nineteen-seventies—and how Cohn is “haunting” politics in our time. “I had written about Roy Cohn in [previous biographies] as this nefarious, minor, awful figure who was disruptive and divisive and unethical. And I suddenly realized that the establishment that I’d been writing about for forty years is gone. Their values and culture, the politics, the bipartisanship . . . that’s all gone,” he tells David Remnick. “Roy Cohn explains something about the dark side of America that I just didn’t understand.” They discuss Cohn’s early career as a prosecutor and his role as the “mastermind” of the McCarthy purges; his service as a lawyer and fixer for Mafia members, politicians, and celebrities; and an allegation of being involved in sex trafficking.

Further reading and listening: 

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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Fox News’ “The Five” is the most-watched program on cable news. So there are millions of eyes on Jessica Tarlov, who occupies the liberal hot seat (alternating with Harold Ford, Jr.) on a panel featuring the diehard conservatives Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, and Jesse Watters. Her exchanges with fellow-panellists tend to get heated, but Tarlov is constantly aware of how she represents liberal views in front of a largely hostile audience—and of how liberal viewers may misunderstand her colleagues. Her new book, largely inspired by her work on Fox, is called “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends.” 

Further listening:

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.

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