{"id":128962,"date":"2025-08-08T11:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128962\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T11:54:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:54:28","slug":"how-zohran-mamdani-became-the-main-character-of-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/128962\/","title":{"rendered":"How Zohran Mamdani Became the Main Character of New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On paper, a thirty-three-year-old socialist would seem an unlikely contender for mayor of New York City. But Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign proved compelling enough to make him the front-runner to lead the largest city in America. On the first in a series of Critics at Large interview episodes, Naomi Fry talks with her fellow staff writer Eric Lach<\/a> about the surprising protagonist<\/a> of this year\u2019s mayoral race. Together, they contextualize Mamdani\u2019s persona within a long history of New York characters, from Batman to Bill de Blasio<\/a>, and consider the hold these narratives have on observers within the city and beyond. \u201cThe history of New York City mayors is not a litany of successes and heroes. It\u2019s mostly fuck-ups and rogues,\u201d Lach says. \u201cOften, it\u2019s this tug-of-war between the machine and the reformer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani\u2019s \u201cUganda Miss Me! (But I\u2019ll Be Back Soon)<\/a>\u201d
\u201cGangs of New York\u201d (2002)
\u201cThe Gangs of New York<\/a>,\u201d by Herbert Asbury
\u201cLow Life<\/a>,\u201d by Lucy Sante
\u201cSerpico\u201d (1973)
\u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d (2008)<\/p>\n

New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Download a transcript. Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You Listen Sign up to receive our…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5157,7792,12176,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-128962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-audio","10":"tag-batman","11":"tag-mayor","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114993015311522812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}