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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Join The New Yorker’s writers and editors for reporting, insight, and analysis of the most pressing political issues of our time. On Mondays, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, presents conversations and feature stories about current events. On Wednesdays, the senior editor Tyler Foggatt goes deep on a consequential political story via far-reaching interviews with staff writers and outside experts. And, on Fridays, the staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos discuss the latest developments in Washington and beyond, offering an encompassing understanding of this moment in American politics.

© Condé Nast. All rights reserved.

Join The New Yorker’s writers and editors for reporting, insight, and analysis of the most pressing political issues of our time. On Mondays, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, presents conversations and feature stories about current events. On Wednesdays, the senior editor Tyler Foggatt goes deep on a consequential political story via far-reaching interviews with staff writers and outside experts. And, on Fridays, the staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos discuss the latest developments in Washington and beyond, offering an encompassing understanding of this moment in American politics.

© Condé Nast. All rights reserved.
82hr 43min
Thumbnail for "Why Banning TikTok Could Violate the First Amendment".
Thumbnail for "Can Donald Trump Deport Anyone He Wants?".
Thumbnail for "Atul Gawande on Elon Musk’s “Surgery with a Chainsaw”".
Thumbnail for "The “Cognitive Élite” Seize Washington".
Thumbnail for "Will Trump’s Tariffs Trigger a Recession?".
Thumbnail for "How Bob Menendez Came By His Gold Bars".
Thumbnail for "America’s Founders Feared a Caesar. Has One Arrived?".
Thumbnail for "Eric Adams and Donald Trump’s Curious Alliance".
Thumbnail for "Does Tim Walz Have Any Regrets?".
Thumbnail for "Trump’s Putin-Like Cull of the White House Press Pool".
Thumbnail for "Is America Destined for a Future Without Children?".
Thumbnail for "John Fetterman on Trump’s “Raw Sewage,” and What the Democrats Get Wrong".
Thumbnail for "What Stops Democracy from Backsliding?".
Thumbnail for "Elon Musk’s A.I.-Driven Government Coup".
Thumbnail for "The A.C.L.U. v. Trump 2.0".
Thumbnail for "What Does It Mean to Resist Trump in 2025?".
Thumbnail for "Trump’s Boogeyman: D.E.I.".
Thumbnail for "Why Trump Is Targeting Foreign Aid, with Atul Gawande".
Thumbnail for "Is Flying Actually Becoming Less Safe?".
Thumbnail for "Bill Gates on His New Memoir and Dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago".
Thumbnail for "Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on What Democrats Should Do Next".
Thumbnail for "How Trump’s Federal-Aid Fiasco Is Testing the Separation of Power".
Thumbnail for "A Spirit of Vengeance in Trump’s First Week".
Thumbnail for "David Remnick on the Dawn of Trump’s Second Term".
Thumbnail for "Big Money and Trump’s New Cabinet".
Thumbnail for "How the Blazes in L.A. Got Swept Into the Culture War".
Thumbnail for "Representative Ro Khanna on Elon Musk and the Tech Oligarchy".
Thumbnail for "What the End of Meta’s Fact-Checking Program Means for the Future of Free Speech".
Thumbnail for "Will Justin Trudeau’s Resignation Lead to the MAGA-fication of Canada?".
Thumbnail for "From Critics at Large: The Modern-Day Fight for Ancient Rome".
Thumbnail for "Remembering Jimmy Carter, a “President Out of Time”".
Thumbnail for "How Henry Kissinger Accumulated and Wielded Power".
Thumbnail for "We Have Some Questions for Isaac Chotiner About 2024".
Thumbnail for "Rashid Khalidi on the Palestinian Cause in a Volatile Middle East, and the Meaning of Settler Colonialism".
Thumbnail for "Why Luigi Mangione Is Being Treated as a Folk Hero".
Thumbnail for "Inside Donald Trump’s Mass-Deportation Plans".
Thumbnail for "Is Trump’s “Shock and Awe” Transition Working?".
Thumbnail for "How the Trump Indictments Backfired".
Thumbnail for "Ketanji Brown Jackson on Ethics, Trust, and Keeping It Collegial at the Supreme Court".
Thumbnail for "How to Prepare for Trump 2.0".
Thumbnail for "What Is Donald Trump’s Cabinet Planning for America?".
Thumbnail for "The Authors of “How Democracies Die” on the New Democratic Minority".
Thumbnail for "Chris Hayes on the New Trump Coalition, and What Democrats Do Next".
Thumbnail for "Donald Trump Returns. What Now?".
Thumbnail for "How Trump Took Back America".
Thumbnail for "Liz Cheney on Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Jeff Bezos".
Thumbnail for "Why American Democracy is in Danger, with Michael Beschloss".
Thumbnail for "Is the Backlash to a Racist Joke Trump’s October Surprise".
Thumbnail for "Charlamagne tha God Has Some Advice for Harris and the Democrats".
Thumbnail for "The Lies Are Winning".
Thumbnail for "How Poll Watchers Could Help Trump Challenge the Election Results".
Thumbnail for "The Stakes for Abortion Rights, from the Head of Planned Parenthood".
Thumbnail for "What Billionaires See in Donald Trump".
Thumbnail for "How Hurricane Helene Has Fuelled Far-Right Conspiracies".
Thumbnail for "How Kamala Harris Became a Contender".
Thumbnail for "What Motivates Kamala Harris?".
Thumbnail for "What Some Gaza Protest Voters See in Trump".
Thumbnail for "Newt Gingrich on What Trump Could Accomplish in a Second Term".
Thumbnail for "How to Find Every Democratic Voter in Wisconsin".
Thumbnail for "Will J. D. Vance’s Debate Victory Matter on Election Day?".
Thumbnail for "Young Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, and the Dark Arts of Power".
Thumbnail for "The Election Dividing Husbands and Wives Across America".
Thumbnail for "From “Inside the Hive”: Behind Donald Trump's “Bro Podcast” Binge".
Thumbnail for "Timothy Snyder on Why Ukraine Can Still Win the War".
Thumbnail for "Is Eric Adams Impervious to Scandal? ".
Thumbnail for "Josh Shapiro on How Kamala Harris Can Win Pennsylvania".
Thumbnail for "How to Get Under a Strongman’s Skin, with George Conway".
Thumbnail for "Will Kamala Harris’s Debate Win Be Enough to Move the Needle? ".
Thumbnail for "Preparing For Trump’s Next “Big Lie,” with the Election Lawyer Marc Elias".
Thumbnail for "Will Harris Get Trump to Self-Destruct at the Debate?".
Thumbnail for " What Does “Election Interference” Even Mean Anymore? ".
Thumbnail for "The Writer Danzy Senna on Kamala Harris and the Complexity of Biracial Identity in America".
Thumbnail for "How Much is “Being Cool” Actually Worth in Politics?".
Thumbnail for "Kamala Harris’s “Different Kind of ‘Hope’ Campaign”".
Thumbnail for "Unity, Millennial Cringe, And Overwhelming Relief Abound at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.".
Thumbnail for "Why Are More Latino Voters Supporting Trump?".
Thumbnail for "What the Harris Campaign Needs to Win, with James Carville and Paul Begala ".
Thumbnail for "Elon Musk’s Pivot from Online Troll to Political Machinator".
Thumbnail for "Nancy Pelosi, the Power Broker".
Thumbnail for "The Harris-Walz Reboot".
Thumbnail for "Israel’s Other Intractable Conflict".
Thumbnail for "Decoding the “Compelling” Attack Ads of the 2024 Campaign".
Thumbnail for "J. D. Vance’s Rough Rollout and Kamala Harris’s Veepstakes".
Thumbnail for "From In the Dark: Season 3, Episode 1".
Thumbnail for "What Kamala Harris Needs to Win the Presidency".
Thumbnail for "Could Kamala Harris Be a Trump-Level Cultural Phenomenon? ".
Thumbnail for "The “Strange Charisma” of Kamala Harris".
Thumbnail for "Special Episode: Biden Passes the Torch".
Thumbnail for "Trump’s Triumphant R.N.C. and Biden’s Dilemma ".
Thumbnail for "A Dispatch from the Republican National Convention".
Thumbnail for "Julián Castro on the Biden Problem, and What the Democratic Party Got Wrong".
Thumbnail for "The Great Democratic Party Freakout of 2024".
Thumbnail for "The Case for Using the Twenty-fifth Amendment on Biden".
Thumbnail for "John Fetterman’s Move to the Right on Israel".
Thumbnail for "From “Inside the Hive”: How Steve Bannon’s Prison Sentence Could Help Trump Win".
Thumbnail for "The New Yorker’s Political Writers Answer Your Election Questions".
Thumbnail for "What Does Biden’s Disastrous Debate Mean for Democrats?".
Thumbnail for "What You Need to Know About 2024’s Most Significant Supreme Court Decisions".
Thumbnail for "Kevin Costner on “Yellowstone,” “Horizon,” and Why the Western Endures".
Thumbnail for "What to Expect from the Biden-Trump Debate, with the Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin".
Thumbnail for "Could the 2024 Election Be Decided by Memes? ".
Thumbnail for "Is Being a Politician the Worst Job in the World?".
Thumbnail for "Hunter Biden’s Conviction and Trump’s Risk to the Justice Department in 2024".
Thumbnail for "Biden’s Executive Order on Immigration and the Politically “Toxic” Puzzle of the Border".
Thumbnail for "Senator Raphael Warnock on America’s “Moral and Spiritual Battle”".
Thumbnail for "A G.O.P. Strategist on the Republican Voters Who Could Abandon Trump".
Thumbnail for "What Do We Know About How the World Might End?".
Thumbnail for "The Trans Athletes Who Changed the Olympics—in 1936".
Thumbnail for "A “Stunningly Decisive” End to Donald Trump’s Trial".
Thumbnail for "Sam Altman Dreams of an A.I. Girlfriend".
Thumbnail for "How the Reality-TV Industry Mistreats Its Stars".
Thumbnail for "Why Vladimir Putin’s Family Is Learning Mandarin".
Thumbnail for "Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on Why He’s Running".
Thumbnail for "The Most Profoundly Not-Normal Facts About Trump’s 2024 Campaign".
Thumbnail for "Stormy Daniels’s Biggest Role Yet".
Thumbnail for "The TikTok Ban Is “a Vast Overreach, Rooted in Hypocrisy,” Wired’s Katie Drummond says".
Thumbnail for "Will Young Americans Tip November’s Election?".
Thumbnail for "The Pure Chaos Inside Donald Trump’s Criminal Trial".
Thumbnail for "Randall Kennedy on Harvard Protests, Antisemitism, and the Meaning of Free Speech".
Thumbnail for "Who Should Be More Worried about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.– Biden or Trump?".
Thumbnail for "Why Is Marjorie Taylor Greene Trying to Oust House Speaker Mike Johnson?".
Thumbnail for "Georgia’s Secretary of State Prepares for Another Election".
Thumbnail for "Trump’s “Bonkers” Immunity Claim, with Neal Katyal".
Thumbnail for "A Student Journalist Explains the Protests at Yale".
Thumbnail for "Jonathan Haidt on “The Anxious Generation”".
Thumbnail for "The Morality Play Inside Trump’s Courtroom".
Thumbnail for "Ronan Farrow on the Scheme at the Heart of Trump’s New York Trial".
Thumbnail for "A Bipartisan Effort to Carve out Exemptions to Texas’s Abortion Ban".
Thumbnail for "Will an 1864 Abortion Law Doom Trump in Arizona?".
Thumbnail for "From WIRED Politics Lab: How Election Deniers Are Weaponizing Tech To Disrupt November".
Thumbnail for "What to Expect from Trump’s First Criminal Trial".
Thumbnail for "The Attack on Black History in Schools".
Thumbnail for "After the World Central Kitchen Attack, How Far Will Biden Shift on Israel?".
Thumbnail for "How Should Reporters Cover Donald Trump?".
Thumbnail for "Kara Swisher on Tech Billionaires: “I Don’t Think They Like People”".
Thumbnail for "Should Big Tech Stop Moderating Content?".
Thumbnail for "Adam Gopnik on Hitler’s Rise to Power".
Thumbnail for "The Political Books That Help Us Make Sense of 2024".
Thumbnail for "Why Robert Hur Described Joe Biden as an “Elderly Man with a Poor Memory”".
Thumbnail for "Judith Butler on the Global Backlash to L.G.B.T.Q. Rights".
Thumbnail for "How Gaza, Ukraine, and TikTok Are Influencing the Election".
Thumbnail for "What Biden’s Budget Means for His Reëlection Battle with Trump".
Thumbnail for "Vinson Cunningham on His New Book, “Great Expectations”".
Thumbnail for "At the State of the Union, Biden Came Out Swinging".
Thumbnail for "The Mood at Mar-a-Lago on Super Tuesday".
Thumbnail for "Biden Reveals His Thoughts on the 2024 Election".
Thumbnail for "Why the Primary System Is “Clearly Failing”".
Thumbnail for "With Navalny’s Death, Putin is Feeling More Confident than Ever".
Thumbnail for "Ty Cobb on Trump's Admiration for Putin".
Thumbnail for "Does Impeachment Mean Anything Anymore?".

Why Banning TikTok Could Violate the First Amendment

Thumbnail for "Why Banning TikTok Could Violate the First Amendment".
January 1, 202534min 25sec

The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian Kang joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss efforts by the U.S. government to rein in social media, including the latest attempt to ban TikTok. While Kang agrees that society should be more conscientious about how we, especially children, use social media, he argues that efforts to ban these apps also violate the First Amendment. 

“Social media has become the public square, even if it is privately owned,” he says. 

This episode was originally published in March, 2024.

This week’s reading:

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