Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old Politics

I'm John Caramonica, a critic at The New York Times. And I'm Joe Cascarelli, a culture reporter at The Times. Together we host Popcast, a weekly pop culture chat show where we speak to the biggest musicians, actors, internet celebrities, and more. We've had Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo, and Anne Hathaway. We've also hosted live performances with Andre 3000 and Erica Badu.

Plus we end every conversation with a snack. Catch new episodes of Popcast every week on YouTube and anywhere you get your podcasts. The Democratic primary that just wrapped up in New York was a collision between two very different candidates on almost every level, ideologically, outsider versus insider, name recognition, but it was also a collision in a way that I think matters for much beyond. New York City politics of two very different theories of attention. Andrew Cuomo ran a campaign that was based on a tried and true strategy of buying attention.

He had this gigantic super PAC with tens of millions of dollars purchasing all the advertising money can buy. absolutely dominating airwaves with negative ads about Zoran Mamdani. In his own words, Zoran Mamdani wants to defund the police. Zoran Mamdani is a 33-year-old dangerously inexperienced legislator who's passed just three bills. Zoran Mamdani, a risk New York can't afford, paid for by Fix the City.

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