Zohran Mamdani’s Social Media Triumph
On The Time of Monsters: Greg Sargent on the New York mayoral candidate’s peerless digital efforts.

The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Writing in The New Republic, Greg Sargent called attention to Zohran Mamdani’s highly
effective media strategy which has allowed him to reach many voters that have been drifting
away from the Democratic Party, especially young people and immigrants. In punchy, short
videos, Mamdani has offered an optimistic message that celebrates big city life and diversity
while showing how government policies can help make life better. I talked to Greg about the lessons
of the Mamdani campaign. We also talk about strategies for investigating the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,
a subject he wrote about here.
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Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, attends an endorsement event from the union DC 37 on July 15, 2025.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)Writing in The New Republic, Greg Sargent called attention to Zohran Mamdani’s highly effective media strategy, which has allowed him to reach many voters that have been drifting away from the Democratic Party, especially young people and immigrants. In punchy, short videos, Mamdani has offered an optimistic message that celebrates big-city life and diversity while showing how government policies can help make life better.
I talked to Greg about the lessons of the Mamdani campaign. We also talked about strategies for investigating the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, a subject he wrote about here.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Journalist Eoin Higgins was recently sued for defamation by a fellow journalist Matt Taibbi, who is subject on criticism in Higgins’ book Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. The case was briskly dismissed by a judge and is now on appeal. The lawsuit was manifestly frivolous and is filled with irony, since Taibbi likes to present himself as a free speech champion. I spoke to Higgins about it and the larger tendency of wealthy right-wing figures, including Donald Trump, to use lawsuits to intimidate critics.
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