Firewall with Bradley Tusk

...Well, not quite. But for this year-capping episode, Bradley came armed with a list of 50 big questions to discuss with his friend Alexander Kouts, the founder and CEO of Indigov, and because they had so much to talk about, the episode approaches Rogan-scale duration. Buckle up for this super-sized episode as Bradley and Alex take on abundance v. zero-sum thinking, the limits of capitalism, the purpose of religion, where higher education is heading (off a cliff, of course, but how high?), what roles AI can never take away from us and why humans are powerless in the presence of babies and dogs. Consider it the debut of a new annual tradition. Next year, we might invite Joe himself (or not).This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Daniel Wortel-London, author of The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981, joins Bradley to unpack a century of economic policy, arguing that elites have often undermined cities even as they claimed to save them—and that smarter, more inclusive development is still possible. The conversation ranges from subways and public housing to Zohran Mamdani’s prospects as mayor, asking whether technocratic competence, not ideology, is the real test for New York’s next era. Note that this episode was recorded shortly before Mamdani's election, and it was discussed as the likely outcome.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

For Bradley, it was Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su. In this episode, he reviews his favorites among the 96 books that he read this year, including the funniest one, the memoir that evokes real nostalgia, the one he most wants his son to read and the one that made him feel like less of a misfit. Plus, Bradley talks about how to make New York City a global model of Jewish-Muslim cooperation and why Trump's executive order on AI is little more than ill-informed bluster.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

What does Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory look like now that the memes have faded? Drawing on the months of reporting he did for The New Yorker, Staff Writer Eric Lach walks through how Mamdani’s campaign rewrote the playbook on field organizing, social media, and “politics you can see” in the streets — rather than the "politics you can't see" in back rooms. He and Bradley pull apart why the city’s political and business class so badly misread the race and what that portends for upcoming fights involving Kathy Hochul, congressional primaries, and Chuck Schumer’s future. They also game out the big unknown: how Mamdani can govern through steep budget cuts, policing dilemmas and an impatient electorate without losing the authenticity that got him elected.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Bradley makes 12 bold predictions about next year, focusing on the tidal wave of AI regulation hitting state legislatures, why electricity prices will soar and put incumbents in a major bind, the inevitable mishandling of mental-health chatbots, how all the politicians rushing to copy Mamdani's short-form videos are going to create one hell of a blooper reel, and much more. Plus, a strong recommendation for Season 2 of Landman and guest Cory Epstein reveals the one movie he auditioned for during his very short-lived stint as a child actor.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

What happens when you walk away from a hyper-optimized New York life to immerse yourself in learning one thing? Ravi Gupta explains why he moved to Italy to study cooking, rebuild his attention span, and escape phone-and-dating-app brain rot, drawing on previous "skillbaticals" devoted to powerlifting, screenwriting and surfing. Then Gupta digs into his five-part series Where the Schools Went, tracing how post-Katrina New Orleans rebuilt its schools as an almost all-charter system, what worked, what broke, and what the rest of the country should—and shouldn’t—try to copy.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

In venture these days, it pays to be small and scrappy or huge and swimming in fees. Anywhere in between is a hard slog. Bradley walks through the changing VC landscape, using his own fund history as Exhibit A, and going into detail on his return to an “equity for services” model. Plus, why AOC should run for President rather than the US Senate, how AI could be utilized to revolutionize classrooms, and a fresh theory on why we can't resist TV villains.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

What does it take to unseat a 20-year incumbent? Raj Goyle — fresh off his successful campaign to ban smartphones in New York schools — returns to Firewall to discuss why and how he’s running for state comptroller. First step: Convincing voters that the often overlooked position has untapped power to make real progress on affordability.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Governor Kathy Hochul’s real edge isn’t charisma or disruption, says Bradley, but a deeply “regular” superpower - backing things like universal school meals, subway security, phone bans in schools, childcare tax credits, and a crackdown on shoplifting simply because normal people want them. Plus, Bradley sees Trump and Mondami’s buddy act as a masterclass in pure political athleticism, admits he’s utterly perplexed by what Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing, and dissects the now-withdrawn White House AI executive order as proof that the administration still doesn’t understand how regulation actually works.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Bradley talks to Oliver Libby — venture investor, civic reform advocate, and co-founder of The Resolution Project — about his new book Strong Floor, No Ceiling: Building a New Foundation for the American Dream. They dig into Libby’s “radical moderation” framework: the idea that America can rebuild its civic culture by pairing a rock-solid baseline of opportunity and support with an unapologetic embrace of ambition, innovation, and upward mobility. If we get to write our own future, says the self-described sci-fi nerd, it ought be pretty easy to choose between a dystopia where giant companies quietly set the rules and a society like Star Trek, where "people don't really talk about money and everyone has enough and people get to do really cool stuff."This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

While the Mobile Voting Project posted its open-source code to GitHub, where it is available for any jurisdiction to use, the New York Times ran a front-page, above-the-fold story on Anchorage utilizing it for elections next spring. Bradley reflects on what it took to reach this point and where it goes from here. Plus, he offers two strategies for Mamdani — deploying AI to free up billions for the new programs he wants and playing hardball on Staten Island secession —and discusses how a minor confrontation at the gym got him thinking about how our daily lives are shaped by the clash between zero-sum and abundance mindsets.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Bradley sits down with two Erikas — Erika Augustine, who runs The David Prize, and Erika Sasson, a winner of said prize — about why $200K, no-strings grants can unlock long-horizon, relationship-driven change in NYC. They get into Sasson’s restorative-justice work on serious harm and why apologies, agency, and community can lower future violence better than ever-longer sentences. Bradley also floats an AI-sentencing thought-experiment, sparking a sharp debate about bias, deterrence, and what justice is actually for. New Yorkers can throw their hats in the ring at thedavidprize.org, initial deadline is Nov 17 for their 2025 open call for visionary ideas. This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

We've grown numb to politicians gaming out everything. But when Senate Democrats chose to end the shutdown, says Bradley, they chose the concerns of real people over political opportunism, and Chuck Schumer deserves credit. Plus, Bradley rhapsodizes about what the declining impact of TV ads will do for politics and credits Peter Thiel for properly diagnosing the disconnect between young people and capitalism.Bradley's Substack:I Have Never Liked Chuck Schumer More Than I Do Right NowCan Technology Reduce the Influence of Money in Politics?This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

In this special non-guest Thursday episode, Bradley walks us through his first-ever magazine for Substack: six articles where he analyzes the future Mamdani administration and what comes next for New York City. From how to staff City Hall to how the future mayor should interact with the press (and vice versa), these articles are Bradley's top tips for smart leadership — despite the gulf that remains between his politics and those of the next mayor.I. A Letter, and Some Recommendations, to Zohran MamdaniII. My Advice To The 20-Somethings Joining Mamdani’s City HallIII. Zohran and the JewsIV. What Reporters Covering Zohran Should Keep in MindV. Zohran's Difficult Choice: The Poor or His VotersVI. What Steve Fulop Needs to do to Make the Partnership for New York City Relevant and Effective AgainThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

So what happened last night? In this co-production with Firewall friend Jamie Rubin and his After Hours podcast, Bradley, Jamie, and Chris Coffey (Tusk Strategies CEO) analyze the historic win of NYC's next mayor, Zohran Mamdani. What does it mean for Gov. Hochul's re-election next year? Will NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch stay at the helm — despite major policy differences with Mamdani? And could the secret to affordability be the victorious ballot proposals to build more housing across the five boroughs?Discussed on today's episode:The Mamdani Mayoralty: A Six Part Mini-Magazine On What Comes Next by Bradley Tusk (11/05/25)Be sure to subscribe to After Hours, a Vital City podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

In this bonus episode of Firewall, Rev. Al Sharpton, a major figure in Jonathan Mahler's book The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990, joined the author and Tusk Strategies CEO Chris Coffey earlier in October for a spirited conversation about New York in the 1980s and how it set the stage for the politics of today.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Archie Gottesman traces her path from the comic genius behind Manhattan Mini Storage to JewBelong, where she’s trying to make Judaism feel human, welcoming, and actually usable (no Talmudic degree required). She and Bradley get blunt about fear-based conformity on the left, rising antisemitism since 2021, and how many Jews contort themselves to stay “in the club,” even when it means pretending to believe things they don’t. They spar, politely, over whether mainstream American Jews have drifted from Israel, then pivot to tactics: message-tested billboards, mobilizing pride and pulling support from institutions that don’t defend Jews.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Not until Democrats finally stop performing politics, says Bradley, will they be able to beat Trump. In a blistering set of takes, he adds: “No Kings”–style protests are worthy but don't challenge Trump; the government shutdown only breaks when Republican voters feel real pain; the NBA must apply zero tolerance and radical transparency to the gambling scandal (“kill it or lose the league”); underage online betting could be fixed overnight with biometric checks; confronting ICE on the street is a high-risk, high-reward gambit for Trump opponents; blowing up alleged drug boats is either war or murder — pick one or stop; museum security may be more implied than real; and why there's nothing Kamala Harris can do to be a serious contender for 2028.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Five charter revisions on this year’s ballot could make the city more affordable and make affordable housing more plentiful. Bradley sits down with Alec Schierenbeck, executive director of the NYC Charter Revision Commission, to explain how these proposals could finally unclog New York’s housing pipeline. They dig into why city bureaucracy resists change, how AI could streamline zoning and public services, and why the next mayor’s success may hinge on these reforms. The episode ends with a call to young public servants: outwork everyone, question everything, and take pride in making the city even a little bit better.RSVP to join Bradley TONIGHT at P&T Knitwear for a live event with Rev. Al Sharpton in conversation with NYT Magazine Staff Writer Jonathan Mahler, author of the new book, THE GODS OF NEW YORK: bit.ly/GodsOfNewYorkThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

It was right in the middle of a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation session that Bradley had a brainstorm — an idea for a TV drama built around a conniving New York politico who hatches a plan to manipulate prediction markets. He titled it THE PREDICTORS, and in this Firewall episode, the audience (you) gets to play the part of a streaming executive as Bradley pitches us the show.RSVP to join Bradley this Thursday evening 10/23 at P&T Knitwear for a live event with Rev. Al Sharpton in conversation with NYT Magazine Staff Writer Jonathan Mahler, author of the new book, THE GODS OF NEW YORK: https://bit.ly/GodsOfNewYorkThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.