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PODCAST

Firewall with Bradley Tusk

Politics, technology and the pursuit of happiness. Twice a week, Bradley Tusk, New York-based political strategist and venture investor, covers the collision between new ideas and the real world. His operating thesis is that you can"t understand tech today without understanding politics, too. Recorded at P&T Knitwear, his bookstore / podcast studio, 180 Orchard Street, New York City.

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All Episodes

55:09

The Power Grab

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2026/01/13

What will trigger the fiercest backlash to the AI boom? Rather than job losses or generative-AI weirdness, says Bradley, it'll be data centers and their insatiable appetite for electricity. When utility bills start climbing, voters everywhere will make their wrath felt. Which means new power sources are in hot demand. Can we develop them fast enough to head off a crisis? Plus: Bradley reflects on how “having nice things” (like the little gem of a bar he discovered in Miami) rests on thousands of

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43:01

How to Not Waste the Healthcare Crisis

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2026/01/08

Did you know that life expectancy in Brownsville is 11 years shorter than on the Upper East Side? Dr. Ashwin Vasan, former city health commissioner, joins Bradley to discuss the funding crisis, mounting inequities and stratospheric administrative costs of public healthcare. Vasan explains why real reformstarts with rebuilding trust—through ethics rules, revamped incentives, transparency, and a less officious posture. "People don't like being made to feel dumb," he says. The coming era will be

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01:09:04

A Weird Thing About Happiness

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2026/01/06

The more we chase it, the more it slips away. For the first episode of 2026, Bradleyexplores the hard choices that lead to contentment over the long run, resistingthe dopamine loop of money and status in favor of purpose, perspective and love.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

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02:13:27

Bradley Goes Rogan...

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/23

...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

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38:33

The Prosperity Riddle

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/18

Daniel Wortel-London, author ofThe 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

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40:10

What Was the Weirdest Book You Thoroughly Loved?

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/16

For Bradley, it wasBlob: A Love Storyby 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

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01:06:01

The New Rules of Power in New York

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/11

What does Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory look like now that the memes have faded? Drawing on the months of reporting he did forThe New Yorker, Staff Writer EricLachwalks through how Mamdani’s campaign rewrote the playbook on field organizing, social media, and “politics you can see” in the streets — rather thanthe "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

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41:29

Forecast: Tech and Politics in 2026

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/09

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 ofLandman and guest Cory Epstein reveals the one movie he auditioned for during his

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58:38

What the Hell is a Skillbatical?

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/04

What happens when you walk away from a hyper-optimized New York life to immerseyourself 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 seriesWhere the Schools Went, tracing how post-Katrina New Orleans rebuilt its schools as an almost all-charter system, what worked, what

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54:29

How the Middle Fell Out of Venture Capital

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/12/02

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 onwhy we can't resist TV villains.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180

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37:37

Taking on the Entrenched

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/28

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

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46:44

The Superpower of Being Regular

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/25

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

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37:58

Dare to Be Reasonable

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/20

Bradley talks to Oliver Libby — venture investor, civic reform advocate, and co-founder of The Resolution Project — about his new bookStrong 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

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46:24

A Massive Week for Mobile Voting

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/18

While the Mobile Voting Project posted itsopen-source code to GitHub,where it is available for any jurisdiction to use, the NewYork 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 pointand where itgoes from here. Plus, he offers two strategies for Mamdani — deploying AI to free up billions for the new programs he wants and playing hardball onStaten Island secession —and discusses how a minor

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37:30

Betting on New Yorkers: The David Prize

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/13

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

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40:09

Chuck Schumer Gets It Right

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/11

We've grown numb to politicians gaming out everything. But when Senate Democrats chose to end the shutdown, says Bradley, they chose the concernsof real people over political opportunism, and Chuck Schumer deserves credit. Plus, Bradley rhapsodizes about what the decliningimpact of TV ads will do for politicsand 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

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59:51

The Mamdani Mayoralty: A Six Part Mini-Magazine On...

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/06

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

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40:22

The Mamdani Breakdown

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/05

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

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01:11:02

LIVE FROM P&T: A Visit from an Actual God of New York

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/01

In this bonus episode of Firewall, Rev. Al Sharpton, a major figure in Jonathan Mahler'sbookThe 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

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53:31

A Brand New Day for Jews

Firewall with Bradley Tusk ·

2025/11/01

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

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