City Journal Audio

Henry Olsen  joins  Brian Anderson  to discuss Henry's new book  The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism . For nearly 30 years, the Republican Party had defined itself by Ronald Reagan's legacy: a strong military, free trade, lower taxes, and most important, smaller government. When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president in 2016, man...

Edward L. Glaeser joins  Brian Anderson  to discuss the great American domestic crisis of the twenty-first century: persistent joblessness, particularly among "prime-age" men. This Ten Blocks edition is the first based on City Journal 's special issue, The Shape of Work to Come . In 1967, 95 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54 worked. During the Great Recession, the share of jobless prime...

Seth Barron  joins  Brian Anderson to discuss New York City politics, Mayor Bill de Blasio's first term, the relationship between de Blasio and Governor Cuomo, and the controversy surrounding this year's Puerto Rican Day Parade.   "Surging tax revenues and the continued peace dividend from 20 years of vigorous Broken Windows policing have given Bill de Blasio a relatively easy first term in the ma...

Heather Mac Donald  joins  Brian Anderson  to discuss the state of policing today, the "Ferguson Effect," former FBI director James Comey's defense of proactive policing, and the recent protests against conservative speakers on college campuses. Since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014, public discussion about police and the criminal justice system has reac...

KC Johnson joins Seth Barron to discuss sexual assault and college disciplinary procedures on campuses across America.  In 2011, the Obama administration ordered all campus disciplinary offices to use a lower "preponderance of evidence" standard when charging a student of a sexually related crime. Today, colleges are under intense pressure from both activists and bureaucrats to punish students acc...

DJ Jaffe and Stephen Eide join Howard Husock to discuss severe mental illness and the deficiencies in mental health services in New York City and across the country. DJ Jaffe is the author of an important new book, Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill . He is executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org., a nonpartisan think tank, which creates detailed pol...

Adam J. White  joins  Brian Anderson  to discuss the "administrative state," often described as the fourth branch of the federal government. Under the Obama administration, bureaucratic agencies were aggressivelyutilized to bypass congressional hostility to the progressive agenda. In 2014, President Obama declared his "pen and phone" strategy: if the Republican-controlled Congress was unwilling to...

Peter Cove joins Brian Anderson to discuss his new book  Poor No More: Rethinking Dependency and the War on Poverty . Declaring the War on Poverty in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson stated that the goal was to "cure poverty, and above all, prevent it." 50 years later, most people would agree that the signature campaign of the "Great Society" has shown mixed results, at best: Despite spending over $...

Katherine Kersten joins Brian Anderson to discuss how public school leaders in St. Paul, Minnesota abandoned student discipline—and unleashed mayhem—in the name of "racial equity." In January 2014, the Obama administration's Departments of Education and Justice issued a "Dear Colleague" letter to every school district in the country, laying out guidelines to local officials for how to avoid racial...

Michael Totten joins Brian Anderson to discuss the issue of homelessness in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.   Portland is often called the "City of Bridges" for the many structures that cross the city's two rivers. Underneath many of those bridges are homeless encampments complete with tents, plastic tarps, shopping carts—and people.   Oregon's Supreme Court has blocked efforts to regulate homel...

Robert Poole (of the Reason Foundation) joins Aaron Renn to discuss the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority was originally founded to manage the region's transportation infrastructure, but the agency has long been plagued by politicized decision making, money-losing facilities, and declining financial viability. Poole is the author of a new report commissioned by the Manh...

Victor Davis Hanson joins the City Journal podcast to talk with Aaron Renn about the 2016 election, the divide between rural and urban America, and how a life-long New Yorker came to lead a movement of "deplorables" all the way to the White House. Read Victor's piece in the Winter 2017 Issue of City Journal , " Trump and the American Divide ."

City Journal  editor Brian Anderson and contributing editor Kay Hymowitz discuss her new book, " The New Brooklyn: What It Takes to Bring a City Back ," which chronicles the history of New York City's largest borough and its remarkable transformation from a symbol of urban decay by the mid-20th century to one of the most valuable and innovative environments in the world.

City Journal senior editor Steve Malanga and contributing editor Judy Miller discuss some of the issues with the Port Authority Police Department, including a secret review of the department's security readiness and the contentious relationship between Port Authority leaders and the police union. Read Judy Miller's full piece from the Autumn 2016 Issue of City Journal , " The New York Police Force...

City Journal  associate editor Matthew Hennessey and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Robert Bryce discuss the possibilities for the domestic energy industry under Trump, the state of American nuclear power, the Left's push for all-renewable energy, and more.

​City Journal associate editor Matthew Hennessey and contributing editor John Tierney (formerly of the New York Times ) discuss the politicization of science and how the Left's dominance in universities and the scientific community actually threatens progress.

City Journal  associate editor Matthew Hennessey and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Paul Howard discuss the state of Obamacare, Republican options for reforming the health care system​, and legislation in Congress designed to overhaul the FDA and improve drug development.

City Journal editor Brian C. Anderson and contributing editor Heather Mac Donald (author of the New York Times bestseller "The War on Cops") discuss law and order in the Donald Trump administration, how the left's anti-police narrative contributed to his victory, and Trump's choice to head the Justice Department.  

City Journal editor Brian C. Anderson and contributing editor Aaron M. Renn discuss Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential race, the popular discontent that led to his rise, and the future of the Trump administration.

City Journal  editor Brian Anderson and senior editor Steve Malanga discuss the GOP's new generation of pragmatic, problem-solving mayors that have helped turn ​around some of America's struggling cities. From Steve Malanga's piece for the Autumn 2016 Issue of City Journal , "City Hall GOP."

City Journal editor Brian Anderson and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Aaron Renn discuss how four big metros—Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio—power the Texas economy. From City Journal 's special issue, T exas Rising .  

  Manhattan Institute senior fellow Stephen Eide speaks with Professor Thomas Main, author of  Homelessness in New York City: Policymaking from Koch to de Blasio .​

City Journal editor Brian Anderson and senior fellow Jason Riley discuss the history of private philanthropists funding high-quality educational opportunities aimed at African-Americans and the poor.​

City Journal  editor Brian Anderson and senior editor Steve Malanga discuss how public and private-sector unions have fared since the 2008 recession and the "right-to-work" states that are leading the recovery for organized labor in the United States.  

City Journal editor Brian Anderson and former New York Times columnist John Tierney discuss recent controversies concerning the "Crossroads of the World" and how to improve the plaza for tourists and New Yorkers alike.​