The Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, has officially been terminated. Its July 4th sunset date was part of Donald Trump’s original executive order that created the agency, which Elon Musk ran. During his tenure, Musk oversaw the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D., which used to provide life-saving medical and nutritional programs around the world. Musk, who recently became the world’s first trillionaire, claims that there is no evidence that a single person died after DOGE cancelled more than eighty per cent of U.S.A.I.D.’s programs, cutting basic health-care access to some ninety-five million people. Atul Gawande disagrees. He was the assistant administrator for global health at  U.S.A.I.D. until he stepped down, the same week Trump ended U.S. foreign assistance. Gawande says an estimated seven hundred thousand people have already died as a result of the cuts. David Remnick speaks with the longtime New Yorker contributor about the profound effects of ending U.S.A.I.D.’s work abroad, Musk’s involvement in these decisions, and the deaths it all has wrought.   

Further reading, viewing, and listening: 

• “The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands,” film by Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong, text by Atul Gawande
• “Hundreds of Thousands Will Die,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
• “Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance,” by Atul Gawande

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 digs into the stunning collapse of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine, and what it means for the Democratic Party’s performance in the upcoming midterms. The hosts are joined by Neera Tanden, the president and C.E.O. of the Center for American Progress and a former adviser to President Joe Biden. The panel grapples with the pressing question of how the Party might resolve some of its ideological divisions and position itself to attract voters looking for an alternative to Donald Trump. Across the board, Americans are seeking a break from the status quo, Tanden argues—regardless of where a given candidate falls on the political spectrum. “People want action,” she says. “It’s not ideological as much as people are hungry for ideas.” 

This week’s reading:

• “Graham Platner’s Point of No Return,” by Jon Allsop

• “Michigan Is the Next Big Test for the Democratic Party,” by Jason Zengerle

• “Trump and NATO Court Erdoğan, Turkey’s Strongman,” by Ishaan Tharoor

• “How Political Is This Supreme Court?,” by Isaac Chotiner

Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

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The New Yorker contributing writer Ruth Marcus joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the Supreme Court’s now concluded term and what some of the recent decisions indicate about the bench’s willingness to check President Trump’s use of executive power. They talk about the Court’s rulings on immigration, transgender athletes, the President’s authority to fire heads of independent federal agencies, and what various opinions reveal about the Republican-appointed justices’ tendency to side with the Trump Administration. They also explore the Court’s rejection of Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, and whether the ruling should be seen as a reassuring defense of settled law or a warning that even long-established constitutional protections may be more vulnerable than they once appeared.

This week’s reading:

• “The Supreme Court Enables Trump’s Cruel Immigration Agenda,” by Ruth Marcus
• “The Supreme Court’s Check on Trump’s Power Was Too Close for Comfort,” by Ruth Marcus
• “How Political Is This Supreme Court?,” by Isaac Chotiner
• “Behind the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Transgender Athletes,” by Jeannie Suk Gersen
• “The Supreme Court Upheld Birthright Citizenship—but the Fight May Not Be Over,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin

Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Washington Roundtable will return next Friday. To commemorate two hundred and fifty years of the American experiment, the hosts of The New Yorker’s Critics at Large podcast, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, present an American playlist. On this special episode, the hosts hear from listeners regarding the songs that best encapsulate their feelings about the U.S. today—and offer some tracks of their own. The resulting compilation reflects the country’s turbulent history, its uncertain present, and, crucially, listeners’ hopes for its future. “What we think of as nation-building—at least if you care about art, that’s not where the real action is,” Cunningham says. “The action is in our creative response to the circumstances that we’re given. And that’s what music is all about.” 

Listen to a playlist of songs from this episode here. Featured tracks:

“Kids in America,” by Kim Wilde

“Miss America,” by David Byrne

“All-American Bitch,” by Olivia Rodrigo

“Django Jane,” by Janelle Monáe

“Help Save the Youth of America,” by Billy Bragg

“Almost Cut My Hair,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

“Free Fallin’,” by Tom Petty

“America,” by Simon & Garfunkel

“Battle Hymn of the Republic,” covered by Joan Baez

“Sleep Now in the Fire,” by Rage Against the Machine

“Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” by John Prine

“Compared to What,” by Roberta Flack

“Ohio/Machine Gun,” by The Isley Brothers

“Bob Dylan's 115th Dream,” by Bob Dylan

“Wild Goose Chase,” covered by Nora Brown

“That’s Life,” covered by James Brown

“Billy The Kid Suite,” by Aaron Copland

“A Change Is Gonna Come,” by Sam Cooke

New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.

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Americans tend to see the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as milestones in world history that inaugurated the era of modern democracy. But the British, unsurprisingly, see these events quite differently. David Remnick talks with the historians who host the popular podcast “The Rest Is History,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. Growing up in Britain, Sandbrook explains, the Revolution seemed like “a parade of quite boring men talking very earnestly about liberty, [with] battles that involved twenty people in a field somewhere. . . . It’s not Waterloo!” The King was “annoyed” to lose the thirteen colonies to the new nation, but, for his government, “it could have been a lot worse.” Sandbrook and Holland discuss historical events that overshadow the American Revolution in the British mind; the 1619 Project and the subject of slavery; the “colossally consequential” Presidency of Donald Trump; and the fate of the British monarchy.

Further reading : 

• “Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?” by Jill Lepore.
•  “The American Revolution Wasn’t the Main Event” by Daniel Immerwahr.
• “Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Complicated Commemorations" by Jelani Cobb
  
  
  

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 is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experience, but does have a track record of going after the President’s perceived enemies. Plus, the panel discusses a recent Washington Post investigation that raised new questions about the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and her alleged ties to a religious cult.

This week’s reading:

“Everyone Wants to Touch the Blue Coating in the Reflecting Pool,” by Jesús Rodríguez

“Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold,” by David Remnick

“The Difference Between the Knicks and the White House Cage Fight,” by Adam Gopnik

“How the Trump Administration Pushed Judges to Deport Children,” by E. Tammy Kim

“Do Netanyahu’s Domestic Opponents Offer a Real Alternative?” 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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The comedian and actor Robby Hoffman, known for her role on the HBO show “Hacks” and her début Netflix comedy special, “Wake Up,” joins Tyler Foggatt at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, in Seattle, for a conversation about social class and politics. Growing up as one of ten kids, Hoffman developed a world view that has never fit neatly into the left-vs.-right political dichotomy, and instead focusses her comedy on what she believes is the real defining divide in America: the rich versus the poor. “Classism is the conversation. The haves versus the have nots is the conversation. How much worse does it need to get for you to realize that’s what it’s all been about?” Hoffman says. She and Foggatt also discuss why Hoffman thinks Republicans and Democrats are often more alike than different, and why Donald Trump’s form of humor has given him a political advantage.

This week’s reading:

• “Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold,” by David Remnick
• “The Torture Chamber of British Politics Crushes Its Latest Prime Minister,” by Sam Knight
• “How the Trump Administration Pushed Judges to Deport Children,” by E. Tammy Kim
• “Who Is the Real Kevin Warsh?,” by John Cassidy
• “The Teen Believers in a Christian America,” by Eliza Griswold
• “J. D. Vance’s Contemptuous Conversion Memoir,” by Jessica Winter

Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

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The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with David Remnick at the 92nd Street Y, in New York, on Monday evening, after the Trump Administration announced a memorandum of understanding to end its war in Iran. Remnick asked whether the United States lost this war. “Yes,” Clinton replied. “The United States has come out weaker. Iran has come out stronger.” According to Clinton, Israel repeatedly tried to pressure the Obama Administration into backing a similar action in Iran, but she didn’t take the bait. “They would say things like ‘Our planes are on the tarmac,’ ” Clinton recalled. “And I’d say, ‘Well, good luck. Great. Why are you doing this?’ ” They also discuss Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term, and its fateful consequences. “He made a terrible mistake,” she said. Had Biden stayed with his plan of serving for one term, “I believe whoever emerged . . . would have beaten Donald Trump.”

 Further reading and listening: 

• “Hillary Clinton on the Psychology of Autocrats,” an episode of The Political Scene 
• “Hillary Clinton Explains What Happened,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour
• “The Broadway Life of Hillary Clinton,” by Michael Schulman
• “Curtis Sittenfeld’s ‘Rodham’ Offers the Catharsis of Uncomplicated Regret,” by Nora Caplan-Bricker

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 writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Louisa Thomas join Tyler Foggatt to discuss three recent collisions of sports and politics. Cunningham and Foggatt talk about President Donald Trump’s appearance at a Knicks game during the team’s championship run, which evoked a mixed reception from New Yorkers and complicated an otherwise celebratory week in the city. Then Fry and Foggatt discuss the U.F.C. fight that Trump hosted on the White House lawn—in celebration of America’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary, and his own birthday—and how it merged the aesthetics and politics of Trump’s second term. Finally, Thomas joins Foggatt to discuss the World Cup and how the Administration’s immigration policies, the Iran war, and America’s precarious standing on the international stage are impacting one of the world’s premier sports and cultural events.

Listen to Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s reading:

• “Fight Night at the White House,” by Naomi Fry
• “Will Americans Start to Care About the World Cup Now?,” by Louisa Thomas
• “Lessons in Fanhood from the Knicks,” by Vinson Cunningham
• “Can the World Cup Transcend Donald Trump?,” by Ishaan Tharoor
• “The World Cup and the Changing Psyche of the Haitian Diaspora,” by Doreen St. Félix
• “How the Moroccan World Cup Team Became a Symbol of the Global South,” by Dan Greene

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. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, she became a prominent spokesperson for the families of Israeli hostages. Throughout Hersh’s captivity, and then after his murder, Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Chicago and emigrated to Israel in 2008, argued that Israel’s priority should be to bring the hostages home, and that the killing of all innocents, Israeli and Palestinian, must stop. She advocated with Israeli politicians, Pope Francis, and other leaders, and she addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2024. She recently spoke with David Remnick about her new book, “When We See You Again,” and how she has continued her work as a public figure despite unending grief. “People are desperate for us to be angry . . . to feel things that I think that they assume they would feel if they were in the position that we are in. But the truth is, I’m open to feeling anything,” she reflects. “I put Hersh in the ground on September 2, 2024. After that, I’m in a completely different universe.” 

Further reading: 

“Gaza’s Broken Politics,” by Mohammed R. Mhawish

“The End of Israel’s Hostage Ordeal,” by Ruth Margalit

“Why Hamas Agreed to Release the Hostages,” by Isaac Chotiner

“Hope and Grief in Israel After the Gaza Ceasefire Deal,” by Ruth Margalit

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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s eightieth birthday, on Sunday, with a look at the pageantry and spectacle surrounding the planned U.F.C. fight on the South Lawn of the White House. The panel contrasts Trump’s desire to project power and masculinity with his recent pattern of disinhibition: from allegedly falling asleep at important meetings and the N.B.A. Finals to angry outbursts at reporters, including such politically damaging statements as “I love the inflation.” Is the President fading, physically and politically? “It’s not about the age; it’s about the behavior,” the staff writer Evan Osnos says. “It’s about the clear fact that his conduct, his cognitive function, his behavior is declining.”

This week’s reading:

• “What Jill Biden Doesn’t Say in Her White House Memoir,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin
• “Can the World Cup Transcend Donald Trump?,” by Ishaan Tharoor
• “The Supreme Court’s Latest Blow to Black Voters’ Rights,” by Ruth Marcus
• “Is Elon Musk’s SpaceX Really Worth $1.75 Trillion?,” by John Cassidy
• “Has Nancy Mace’s Crusade Against Sexual Violence Ruined Her Career?,” by Moira Donegan
• “For the Nation’s Birthday, Making It Harder to Become an American,” by Jonathan Blitzer

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 more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices