The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The Washington Roundtable will return next Friday. To commemorate two hundred and fifty years of the American experiment, the hosts of The New Yorker’s Critics at Large podcast, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, present an American playlist. On this special episode, the hosts hear from listeners regarding the songs that best encapsulate their feelings about the U.S. today—and offer some tracks of their own. The resulting compilation reflects the country’s turbulent history, its uncertain present, and, crucially, listeners’ hopes for its future. “What we think of as nation-building—at least if you care about art, that’s not where the real action is,” Cunningham says. “The action is in our creative response to the circumstances that we’re given. And that’s what music is all about.” Listen to a playlist of songs from this episode here. Featured tracks: “Kids in America,” by Kim Wilde “Miss America,” by David Byrne “All-American Bitch,” by Olivia Rodrigo “Django Jane,” by Janelle Monáe “Help Save the Youth of America,” by Billy Bragg “Almost Cut My Hair,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Free Fallin’,” by Tom Petty “America,” by Simon & Garfunkel “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” covered by Joan Baez “Sleep Now in the Fire,” by Rage Against the Machine “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” by John Prine “Compared to What,” by Roberta Flack “Ohio/Machine Gun,” by The Isley Brothers “Bob Dylan's 115th Dream,” by Bob Dylan “Wild Goose Chase,” covered by Nora Brown “That’s Life,” covered by James Brown “Billy The Kid Suite,” by Aaron Copland “A Change Is Gonna Come,” by Sam Cooke New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.

Americans tend to see the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as milestones in world history that inaugurated the era of modern democracy. But the British, unsurprisingly, see these events quite differently. David Remnick talks with the historians who host the popular podcast “The Rest Is History,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. Growing up in Britain, Sandbrook explains, the Revolution seemed like “a parade of quite boring men talking very earnestly about liberty, [with] battles that involved twenty people in a field somewhere. . . . It’s not Waterloo!” The King was “annoyed” to lose the thirteen colonies to the new nation, but, for his government, “it could have been a lot worse.” Sandbrook and Holland discuss historical events that overshadow the American Revolution in the British mind; the 1619 Project and the subject of slavery; the “colossally consequential” Presidency of Donald Trump; and the fate of the British monarchy. Further reading : “Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?” by Jill Lepore. “The American Revolution Wasn’t the Main Event” by Daniel Immerwahr. “Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Complicated Commemorations" by Jelani Cobb The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experience, but does have a track record of going after the President’s perceived enemies. Plus, the panel discusses a recent Washington Post investigation that raised new questions about the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and her alleged ties to a religious cult. This week’s reading: “Everyone Wants to Touch the Blue Coating in the Reflecting Pool,” by Jesús Rodríguez “Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold,” by David Remnick “The Difference Between the Knicks and the White House Cage Fight,” by Adam Gopnik “How the Trump Administration Pushed Judges to Deport Children,” by E. Tammy Kim “Do Netanyahu’s Domestic Opponents Offer a Real Alternative?” by Isaac Chotiner The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

The comedian and actor Robby Hoffman, known for her role on the HBO show “Hacks” and her début Netflix comedy special, “Wake Up,” joins Tyler Foggatt at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, in Seattle, for a conversation about social class and politics. Growing up as one of ten kids, Hoffman developed a world view that has never fit neatly into the left-vs.-right political dichotomy, and instead focusses her comedy on what she believes is the real defining divide in America: the rich versus the poor. “Classism is the conversation. The haves versus the have nots is the conversation. How much worse does it need to get for you to realize that’s what it’s all been about?” Hoffman says. She and Foggatt also discuss why Hoffman thinks Republicans and Democrats are often more alike than different, and why Donald Trump’s form of humor has given him a political advantage. This week’s reading: “Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold,” by David Remnick “The Torture Chamber of British Politics Crushes Its Latest Prime Minister,” by Sam Knight “How the Trump Administration Pushed Judges to Deport Children,” by E. Tammy Kim “Who Is the Real Kevin Warsh?,” by John Cassidy “The Teen Believers in a Christian America,” by Eliza Griswold “J. D. Vance’s Contemptuous Conversion Memoir,” by Jessica Winter Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.

The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with David Remnick at the 92nd Street Y, in New York, on Monday evening, after the Trump Administration announced a memorandum of understanding to end its war in Iran. Remnick asked whether the United States lost this war. “Yes,” Clinton replied. “The United States has come out weaker. Iran has come out stronger.” According to Clinton, Israel repeatedly tried to pressure the Obama Administration into backing a similar action in Iran, but she didn’t take the bait. “They would say things like ‘Our planes are on the tarmac,’ ” Clinton recalled. “And I’d say, ‘Well, good luck. Great. Why are you doing this?’ ” They also discuss Joe Biden’s decision to run for a second term, and its fateful consequences. “He made a terrible mistake,” she said. Had Biden stayed with his plan of serving for one term, “I believe whoever emerged . . . would have beaten Donald Trump.” Further reading and listening: “Hillary Clinton on the Psychology of Autocrats,” an episode of The Political Scene “Hillary Clinton Explains What Happened,” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour “The Broadway Life of Hillary Clinton,” by Michael Schulman “Curtis Sittenfeld’s ‘Rodham’ Offers the Catharsis of Uncomplicated Regret,” by Nora Caplan-Bricker The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.