On this episode of Start Making Sense, Bhaskar Sunkara analyzes the constraints New York’s new mayor will face, and Dave Zirin comments on brain injuries among football players.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani looks on as New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during the grand opening of the Urban League Empowerment Center in Harlem, New York City, on November 12, 2025. (Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
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Zorhan Mamdani takes office in four weeks as the first socialist mayor of New York City. How should we understand the constraints he faces, without accepting those constraints? Bhaskar Sunkara has our analysis; he’s president of The Nation and author of ‘The Socialist Manifesto.’
Plus: Sports Talk on The Nation podcast! Of course Thanksgiving was a big weekend for football on TV – a weekend where millions of viewers got to see a festival of brain injuries — concussions after receiving blows to the head. Dave Zirin will comment – he's the long-time sports editor of The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast.
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Zohran Mamdani takes office in four weeks as the first socialist mayor of New York City. How should we understand the constraints he faces, without accepting those constraints? Bhaskar Sunkara has our analysis; he’s president of The Nation and author of The Socialist Manifesto.
Plus: Sports Talk on The Nation podcast: Of course Thanksgiving was a big weekend for football on TV: a weekend where millions of viewers got to see a festival of brain injuries—concussions after receiving blows to the head. Dave Zirin will comment; he’s the long-time sports editor of The Nation and host of the Edge of Sports podcast.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
The Supreme Court is not a Trump court – at least not on several issues – but where do they stand on voting rights? And what exactly did the court say on Monday about the postal service cooperating with Trump in his effort to restrict voting by mail? David Cole explains – he’s the former National Legal Director of the ACLU, and The Nation's legal affairs correspondent.
Also: Colson Whitehead won two Pulitzer prizes for his novels, and then wrote three crime stories about Harlem – the latest is Cool Machine. John Powers comments–he’s critic at large for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.