Firewall

Archie Gottesman traces her path from the comic genius behind Manhattan Mini Storage to JewBelong, where she’s trying to make Judaism feel human, welcoming, and actually usable (no Talmudic degree required). She and Bradley get blunt about fear-based conformity on the left, rising antisemitism since 2021, and how many Jews contort themselves to stay “in the club,” even when it means pretending to believe things they don’t. They spar, politely, over whether mainstream American Jews have drifted from Israel, then pivot to tactics: message-tested billboards, mobilizing pride and pulling support from institutions that don’t defend Jews.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Not until Democrats finally stop performing politics, says Bradley, will they be able to beat Trump. In a blistering set of takes, he adds: “No Kings”–style protests are worthy but don't challenge Trump; the government shutdown only breaks when Republican voters feel real pain; the NBA must apply zero tolerance and radical transparency to the gambling scandal (“kill it or lose the league”); underage online betting could be fixed overnight with biometric checks; confronting ICE on the street is a high-risk, high-reward gambit for Trump opponents; blowing up alleged drug boats is either war or murder — pick one or stop; museum security may be more implied than real; and why there's nothing Kamala Harris can do to be a serious contender for 2028.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting

Five charter revisions on this year’s ballot could make the city more affordable and make affordable housing more plentiful. Bradley sits down with Alec Schierenbeck, executive director of the NYC Charter Revision Commission, to explain how these proposals could finally unclog New York’s housing pipeline. They dig into why city bureaucracy resists change, how AI could streamline zoning and public services, and why the next mayor’s success may hinge on these reforms. The episode ends with a call to young public servants: outwork everyone, question everything, and take pride in making the city even a little bit better.RSVP to join Bradley TONIGHT at P&T Knitwear for a live event with Rev. Al Sharpton in conversation with NYT Magazine Staff Writer Jonathan Mahler, author of the new book, THE GODS OF NEW YORK: bit.ly/GodsOfNewYorkThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: inf

It was right in the middle of a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation session that Bradley had a brainstorm — an idea for a TV drama built around a conniving New York politico who hatches a plan to manipulate prediction markets. He titled it THE PREDICTORS, and in this Firewall episode, the audience (you) gets to play the part of a streaming executive as Bradley pitches us the show.RSVP to join Bradley this Thursday evening 10/23 at P&T Knitwear for a live event with Rev. Al Sharpton in conversation with NYT Magazine Staff Writer Jonathan Mahler, author of the new book, THE GODS OF NEW YORK: https://bit.ly/GodsOfNewYorkThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

What goes together better than smoked fish and good books? Russ & Daughters, beloved for its lox, herring, bagels and babka, is not only one of the truly great and iconic New York food institutions, it's also a neighbor of P&T Knitwear, Bradley's bookstore on the Lower East Side. To mark the publication of their fabulous new cookbook, Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing, owners (and cousins) Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper sat down with Bradley in September for a live event at P&T to discuss how their family business has survived and thrived in an ever-changing city.Discussed on today's episode: Russ & Daughters 100 Years of Appetizing, by Niki Russ Federman, Josh Russ Tupper, Joshua David Stein, Flatiron Books, (09/09/25)This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on

Bradley gets a Windy City on-the-ground report from friend and colleague Bob Greenlee, which leads to a bleak read on national politics: even if Democrats gain in 2026, the realities of executive power and a thin bench mean that little changes. Bradley then unveils a major milestone for mobile voting—Free & Fair’s open-source, rigorously engineered cryptographic protocol, arguing that transparency invites tougher verification and faster improvement. They then pivot to city governance trade-offs in New York and Chicago (flight of the affluent, public safety, unions, deficits), stressing that execution and pragmatism — not ideology — will make or break new mayors. Finally, they debate leveraging Trump’s Israel deal and his Nobel ambitions toward Ukraine, then land on Bradley’s “grand synthesis”: amid real doomsday risks, personal happiness is still within reach...if we build our lives around love and purpose.Discussed on today's episode:Rigorous Digital Engineering: The Bedrock For Secure Mobile V

Matt Stoller, author of the Substack newsletter BIG, joins Bradley to dig into how the rise of AI mirrors the early internet—when regulators failed to check the dominance of Google, Facebook, and others. Stoller argues that America’s political elites, especially under Obama, confused “freedom from restriction” with “freedom from mastery,” enabling corporate monopolies to become de facto rulers of public life. Without decisive policy intervention, he warns, AI will consolidate under the same few tech giants—most likely Google—and deepen the country’s oligarchic tendencies.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

The upside of being your own boss is pretty clear, says Bradley, it's your tolerance for the downside that really is the deciding factor. He offers an 8-point checklist that starts with the warning, "You own all the risk — always." Plus, he discusses how much the AI investment boom is driven by narratives rather than economics and what to do about the broken state of polling.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

Jonathan Mahler’s The Gods of New York is a brilliant chronicle of the late 1980s, when a rotating cast of outrageous characters — Trump, Koch, Sharpton, among others — hogged the headlines. Bradley talks to Mahler about the clash of epic egos, as well as shifting social conditions. How exactly did homelessness and untreated mental illness go from an emergency that pricked the conscience of New Yorkers to a normalized, if regrettable, fact of urban life? Fast-forwarding to the present, they parse Brooklyn’s transformation, how the business elite grew complacent, where Mamdani will lead us, and who will write the next chapter about a wealthier but increasingly rudderless city.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley

Not much will change with Eric Adams' withdrawal from the New York City mayor's race, but it is a good moment to reflect on how we reached this point. Zohran Mamdani is going to be the next mayor because progressives spent years laying the groundwork for a candidate like him. If the city's business and real-estate interests wish to have real political influence, they need to put in the same kind of sweat equity. Plus, Bradley ponders the "art" of Trump's TikTok deal, assesses the Democrats' prospects for capitalizing on a government shutdown, and gets Meaghan and Hugo to play a game about, yes, state recognition. This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + You

Randy Mastro, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor for Operations under Mayor Giuliani, talks to Bradley about his return to City Hall this year as the First Deputy Mayor to bolster an Adams administration shaken by key departures but also looking to run through the tape. He explains how social media and hyper-partisanship have made the task of governing harder, goes into detail on how he is helping to address thorny stalemates like horse carriages in Central Park, and argues that the success of any mayoral administration — centrist or socialist — is based on getting the basics right, like safety, services, and jobs.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

...or not to blow up the world, that is the question. Taking off from Kathryn Bigelow new movie A House of Dynamite, Bradley goes down the list of the last 10 American presidents and decides how each one would respond to an incoming nuclear attack from an unknown source. Plus, he writes a speech that Bibi Netanyahu could give but never will, and explores the outpouring this year of great books about New York City. The 2026 Gotham Book Prize is going to be a very tough call.This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.

When Danny Kim was nearly crushed by the 4,000-pound chassis of a truck he was working on, he had an epiphany. What if he could make an entirely new kind of car that combined the efficiency of a motorcycle with the safety of a regular car? Lit Motors was born. Bradley talks to Danny about his vision for a two-wheel vehicle with the soul of a spaceship.Join Bradley this Saturday, Sept. 20 at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. We’ll be hosting a live Firewall recording at 3PM where Bradley will interview Russ & Daughters’ fourth generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.  For more details and to RSVP, visit https://www.russanddaughtersday.com/This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new T

The killing of Charlie Kirk has kicked the forces of political polarization into high gear. But it’s worth taking a step back, says Bradley, to consider the degradation of everyday life that gives rise to such tragedies and think about what each one of us can do to ease the chaos. More locally, Bradley also discusses the data that proves that the ban on forced brokers fees is working, the race to replace Congressman Jerry Nadler, and the very un-Christian move by a local church to kick out a longtime soup kitchen. Discussed on today's episode:Indoor Ban Shuts Down Soup Kitchen at Downtown Manhattan Church, by Jonathan Custodio, The City, (09/15/25)Join Bradley on Sept. 20 at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. We’ll be hosting a live Firewall recording at 3PM where Bradley will interview Russ & Daughters’ fourth generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper. 

Jenny Montgomery is a New Yorker on a mission — scouring galleries for art she loves and can afford to buy. Bradley talks to her about the city's art scene, where to see great work right now, and how to think about starting your own collection. Get rich quick? Forget about it. But live a richer cultural life? That's well within your reach.Discussed on today's episode:Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1: https://printedmatterartbookfairs.org/Join Bradley on Sept. 20 at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. We’ll be hosting a live Firewall recording at 3PM where Bradley will interview Russ & Daughters’ fourth generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.  For more details and to RSVP, visit https://www.russanddaughtersday.com/This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email wi

Now that Trump has decided to restore the throwback name of the Department of Defense (now the Department of War), maybe it's time we started calling all federal agencies according to what they really do — so Bradley plays an epic name game. Plus, he assesses the looming real-world conditions that will test Zohran Mamdani's commitment to his progressive agenda, throws a flag on football's talking heads, and divulges his personal Emmy picks.Discussed on today's episode:Zohran Mamdani’s Year One: A Time for Testing, by Bradley Tusk, Vital City, (09/04/25)Join Bradley on September 20 at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. We’ll be hosting a live Firewall recording at 3PM where Bradley will interview Russ & Daughters’ fourth generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.  For more details and to RSVP, visit https://www.russanddaughtersday.com/This episode was taped at P&a

Here's one thing we know about the Democratic Party right now — they are practically in a death spiral and must do something heroic to have any shot at the White House in 2028. If they think they can go about picking a candidate the regular, super-boring way, they're toast. So Bradley has a plan to bring fun and genuine excitement into the process, based on, yes, Battle of the Network Stars. Plus, he delivers a sharp verdict on the question of whether business school is worth it, and analyzes what the slowing growth of millionaires in New York City means for the next mayor.Join Bradley on Sept. 20 at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. We’ll be hosting a live Firewall recording at 3PM where Bradley will interview Russ & Daughters’ fourth generation co-owners, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.  For more details and to RSVP, visit https://www.russanddaughtersday.com/.This episod

What if you could eat at a place where the food was fresh and healthy, prices were geared to what customers could afford and the staff was treated equitably? Legendary food writer Mark Bittman joins Firewall to discuss the imminent launch of Community Kitchen, his nonprofit corrective to a food world gone awry.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Join Bradley at P&T Knitwear as we celebrate Russ & Daughters Day on September 20, to mark the legendary shop's first-ever cookbook in their 111 years on the Lower East Side. For more details and to RSVP, visit https://www.russanddaughtersday.com/.

While all of you were enjoying a Firewall-free week, Bradley was undergoing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, a therapy designed to mitigate obsessive-compulsive disorder. "They put this thing over your head, and effectively, every two seconds, you get 30 pulses or shocks," he says. "They call them pulses because shock sounds bad. If you are a listener and you really do suffer from OCD or depression, this is a tool that I had not been aware of before that I'm very glad I tried." Plus, Bradley dissects the incentives for peace in Ukraine, explains why Democrats still haven't found a message to counter Trump, and floats a plan to make life better for baseball fans.Discussed on today's episode:How to Be a Good Intelligence AnalystThis episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio.Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradley

Two friends decided to turn their shared passion for tennis and food into — well, they don’t know what it could become, but for now it’s a Substack called The Play Boys. Bradley talks to Dave Allee and Paul Tedesco about the best and worst public courts in New York City, why breakfast is more central to their project than lunch or dinner, the surprisingly diverse tennis culture in different boroughs, and their favorite part of watching the US Open. Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media.Be sure to watch Bradley’s new TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.