Bradley talks to Michael Idov, author of The Cormorant Hunt, about how his own life — coming to the US from Latvia at age 16, running a café on the Lower East Side into the ground, getting discovered by Nora Ephron and moving to Moscow as editor of GQ Russia — feeds his fiction, as well as the passage from his novel that turned Bradley into a superfan: "The left-right distinction, he kept having to remind himself, no longer applied.

If you write out a list of bad things happening in the world right now, it's easy to feel the apocalypse closing in on us.

What can be done to preserve the value of learning in the age of AI? Bradley sits down with Adam Chilton, the dean of University of Chicago Law School, to discuss his vision for fortifying legal education.

Bradley returns from a week-long stay at the Hoffman Institute, an intensive personal-development program that he calls “the single most helpful experience I’ve ever had.”

Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig joined Bradley for a live event last month at P&T Knitwear, co-hosted by Teddy Himler of Optimist Ventures, about the two most fundamental threats to American democracy and what to do about them.

Bradley shares his ten rules for writing well, starting with the most important: get it down fast and spend almost all your time editing.

Was MAGA's cultural dominance ever real, or was it always partly a joint hallucination of self-aggrandizing Republicans and self-lacerating liberals? David Wallace-Wells, opinion columnist for the New York Times, joins Bradley to argue that the vibe shift, to the extent it ever existed, has reversed itself. Trump's approval ratings are in freefall, his celebration of the nation's 250th birthday was a farce and the war against Iran is turning into a quagmire. But can Democrats seize the advantage? "When I look around and I'm like, you know, I find some of these leaders appealing rhetorically, politically," says Wallace-Wells. "But I'm like, what is the program they're proposing here? If it comes to pass that the Democrats even have a trifecta — what even would they try to do?"

What if the secret to happiness is as simple as learning to extend a little more grace? Bradley argues that every unnecessary judgment — of your own behavior, of other people's choices, of all the ways the world fails to meet your standards — creates small negative emotions that accumulate into a dark psychic cloud. Showing grace dispels that cloud. Plus, Bradley sketches out the highly unlikely but increasingly plausible sequence of events that topples the Trump administration and also explains how he fell in love with Stockholm on a recent trip abroad.

This special taping in front of a live audience on the Lower East Side, Bradley hosts his niece Ellie Gottheimer, daughter of Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and Larra Mullin, daughter of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, to discuss their new children's book Shmoo & Ozzie Go to Washington, which imparts an important message about bipartisanship and democracy — through the story of two dogs.

resh from celebrating his mother's 80th birthday in Paris, Bradley reflects on what makes the city so breathtakingly beautiful while also declaring it mightily overrated as a food city.

Before he decided to run for Congress, Micah Lasher was a proud member of the Matzoh Ballers political consultant text chain.

Why do voters keep rewarding candidates with no realistic plan for fixing anything? Bradley argues that the far left's triumph in last week's New York primaries wasn't really about Israel or AI or the 1% — it was about tapping into anxiety rather than offering workable solutions.

What's the putdown that Donald Trump loves to dish but can't take? Loser.

What is the best reason to be a sports fan?

Daniel Schreiber, CEO of Lemonade and founder of the MOSAIC AI Policy Institute, makes a case that the wealth generated by AI can be captured and redistributed to leave nearly everyone better off, without raising taxes or punishing innovation. "Poverty should end in the era of abundance," he says. "It should simply end."

Bradley argues AI has hit its own "Google 2017 moment" and that the regulatory environment tech companies enjoy today may be the most permissive it will ever be. He also ranks his all-time top 25 TV shows (The Wire, by statute, is number one) and weighs in on the Knicks playoff run.

Justin Cohen, co-founder of Dads for All, joins Bradley to discuss how social isolation, economic anxiety, and polarization have created both a crisis and an opportunity around men in politics, and how local organizing around shared interests can counter the left's drift away from men.

Bradley walks through the numbers on a potential OpenAI IPO, framing it as a conflict between math and mythology — a debt-laden company with massive losses against the mythology of its market position. He also recounts a weekend walk down Broadway from the Bronx to the Staten Island Ferry.

Caitlin Lewis, Executive Director of Work for America, makes the case for state and local government as an underrated career move, discussing long hiring processes, displaced federal workers finding new paths, and why idealism is alive and well in the public sector.

Bradley discusses the changes he made after turning 50: protein shakes, testosterone therapy, sleep apnea treatment, a planned stay at the Hoffman Institute, and giving up ice cream entirely. He reflects on the relationship between physical health and what actually makes a person happy.

Manoush Zomorodi, author of Body Electric, joins Bradley to explain how digital habits damage physical health in underappreciated ways, and argues that as little as five minutes of movement every half hour has meaningful health and productivity benefits. Bradley argues, in turn, that smartphones manufactured an ADD epidemic in otherwise normal people.

Bradley treats sandwiches as a vehicle for reflecting on human connection, recounting the po'boy that made him fall for New Orleans, a brisket at a Texas wedding, and a fish sandwich in Bellevue. He also responds to a listener who pushed back on his characterization of Mayor Mamdani as "a nice guy."

Is there any level of American government that is actually doing its job well?

Why is that so hard? Bradley argues that the zero-sum mentality driving our politics and social media has infected our basic daily behavior — the phone zombies blocking subway doors, the gym hogs who won't let you work in, the airplane line-cutters — and that only a shift in social norms, not legislation, can fix it.

Are you climbing the right mountain, or just getting really good at the wrong one? Bradley sits down with Judah Taub — Israeli intelligence veteran, cybersecurity investor, and author of How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down — who borrows a concept from machine learning called the "local maximum" to explain why smart people and successful companies so often underperform their potential.

Is the richest, most productive state in America about to shoot itself in the foot?

Bradley sits down with Matt Wing and Josh Mohrer to talk about Smith & Moses, their newly launched AI venture that ingests every bill introduced in the New York State legislature in real time, summarizes it in plain English, and scores each legislator based on the impact and passage rate of their bills.

With support for Israel eroding faster than most people realize — a recent poll found 70% of American Jews oppose continued military aid — Bradley argues that the greatest existential threat to Israel is not its avowed enemies but the retrenchment of its most reliable ally.

Can government catch up to a technology moving faster than any regulatory response ever has?

Is Mayor Mamdani's first hundred days as mayor a genuine reason for celebration, or just a decent start before the hard part kicks in?