Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Death of the Gatekeeper: Adam Penenberg on Traditional Journalism's Identity Crisis
Season 2 Episode 15
For decades, a handful of legacy media outlets decided what counted as news, how to frame it, and who got to report it. Now trust has collapsed, The …
5 hours ago
John Roderick on the Decline – and Comeback? – of Urban Cool
Season 2 Episode 14
What's the fundamental difference between an authentically cool city and a contrived, gentrified one? What makes a great music and arts scene, and ca…
1 week ago
Preview: Why Is David Rieff a Cultural Pessimist about Blue America?
Season 2 Episode 13
This is a free preview of our latest Patreon-only episode of Blue City Blues, with writer David Rieff, a war correspondent, an essayist, and a leadin…
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Democracy Dies in Ineffectiveness with Richard Pildes
Season 2 Episode 12
Is a return to good, effective governance not just a glaring need in blue cities but a key to saving liberal democracy? NYU law professor Richard “Ri…
4 weeks ago
In Praise of “Solid B" Cities with Halina Bennet
Season 2 Episode 12
There are the superstar cities that act as the seedbeds of American cultural cosmopolitanism and the great engines of blue America's knowledge econom…
1 month ago
Three Blue City Mayors Innovating on Drug Policy with Keith Humphreys
Season 2 Episode 11
Keith Humphreys, a friend of the pod, is widely recognized as the country’s leading expert on drug and addiction policy. The Esther Ting Memorial Pro…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Do Public Sector Unions Wield Too Much Power in Blue Cities?
Season 2 Episode 10
In late February, Nicholas Bagley and Robert Gordon, who have both had extensive careers in Democratic governance – Nicholas was Chief Legal Counsel …
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Eboo Patel Says Blue America Needs to Rethink How We Do Diversity
Season 2 Episode 9
Eboo Patel, an Ismaili Muslim, is the founder and president of Interfaith America, a Chicago-based non-profit that works to promote pluralism and fos…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
A Dem Socialist Insurgency in Los Angeles?
Season 2 Episode 8
In the 1970s, as a young left wing activist seeking to upend capitalism, Karen Bass was a leader in the Venceremos Brigade, an organization that send…
2 months ago
John Judis Has Advice for Young Leftist Mayors in Blue Cities like New York and Seattle
Season 2 Episode 7
Author, journalist, and political analyst John B. Judis cut his political teeth in the (briefly) ascendant New Left politics of the late 1960s and ea…
2 months, 1 week ago