Shows / Blue City Blues
Blue City Blues
Blue City Blues is a podcast that's about what's broken, what's working and what comes next in America's blue cities. Hosts David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik bring on a smart guest each episode to dig into urban politics, governance and culture. Clear-eyed conversation for people who care about blue cities and are skeptical of easy orthodoxies. Blue cities, we argue, represent an urban archipelago, which is shaping America's future. Subscribe to Blue City Blues now on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or…
Episodes
- Blue City Blues
Why Does Zach Silk Say Newly Empowered Dems Need to Get Smart about Their Populism?
Democrat Gina Hinojosa, the incoming governor of Texas, claims the mantle of economic populism. So does James Talarico, the newly elected Texas senator, who…
- Blue City Blues
Peter Moskos: Progressives Are Wrong about the Crime-Fighting Benefits of Good Policing
Peter Moskos spent the better part of two years as a cop patrolling the mean streets of East Baltimore on the midnight to 8 am night shift, before he left…
- Blue City Blues
Emma Pettit on the Homelessness Wars, Then and Now
In recent decades, visible unsheltered homelessness, and the street disorder that comes with it, have become both the background noise of life in urban America…
- Blue City Blues
Benjamin Ryan on Cosmopolitan Elites’ Truth Problem
Benjamin Ryan is a prominent independent journalist who has written for major national publications like the New York Times, NBC News, The Atlantic, The…
- Blue City Blues
Two Cities, One Industry: Big Tech, Power and Politics in Seattle and San Francisco (live)
[This episode is a live taping of a panel discussion at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle on September 29, done in conjunction with the GeekWire podcast…
- Blue City Blues
Jack Despain Zhou on Nikole Hannah-Jones and Why Excellence in Education Is So Controversial
Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent NYT Magazine essay – "In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?" – in which she offers her mea culpa for enrolling…
- Blue City Blues
Elizabeth Glazer on How Left Progressive Blue Cities Should Tackle Public Safety
If you are in Seattle join us for a live joint taping of the Blue City Blues & GeekWire Podcasts: Two Cities, One Industry: Big Tech, Power and Politics in…
- Blue City Blues
Why Does Joe Trippi Say Democrats’ Divisions Won’t Stop Them from Sweeping the Midterms?
Democratic political consultant Joe Trippi came to national prominence in 2003, as the mastermind behind then-Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s internet-fueled…
- Blue City Blues
Emily Dufton on the Maddening History of Our Broken System for Treating Opioid Addiction
Elected on a law-and-order platform, Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs with a June 1971 press conference in which he declared drug abuse on the streets…
- Blue City Blues
Chris Cillizza on the Media's - and the Democrats'? - Parasitic Relationship with Trump
For nearly two decades, Chris Cillizza was a star political commentator for legacy media. In 2005 Chris founded The Fix, the seminal, must read Washington Post…
- Blue City Blues
Michael Powell Pt. 2: "The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs"
Atlantic staff writer Michael Powell, our guest on the last BCB episode where we discussed NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the rise of anti-Zionism on the left…
- Blue City Blues
Michael Powell on Mamdani, Anti-Zionism, and the New Socialism
In 2020, at the height of peak woke, then-New York Times sports columnist Michael Powell decided to make a career zag, abandoning sports to begin covering what…
- Blue City Blues
Is the DSA a Threat to the Democratic Party (with Jake Altman)?
All of a sudden, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) seem to be a potent force within American politics, winning high profile mayoral and congressional…
- Blue City Blues
Jonathan Weber on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly about How Tech Remade San Francisco
In 1990, at the dawn of the internet age, reporter Jonathan Weber was tapped as the LA Times’ first Silicon Valley correspondent. Taking up a perch in San…
- Blue City Blues
Jamie Paul on the Memory-Holing of the Excesses of Woke
Jamie Paul, a former managing editor of Queer Majority and a contributing editor at Bi.org, is the founding editor of the American Dreaming on Substack, where…
- Blue City Blues
Maia Szalavitz Makes the Case for Harm Reduction Policies in Blue Cities
Maia Szalavitz, a prominent neuroscience journalist and progressive drug reform champion who has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington…
- Blue City Blues
Mike Madrid on the Establishment vs. Populist Throwdown in the LA Mayor’s Race
What just happened in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, and why didn't former reality tv star and social media darling Spencer Pratt live up to the incessant…
- Blue City Blues
Sherman Alexie: An Ode to the White Urban Working Class
These days we associate the white working class with rural and small town red America, whereas big blue cities are perceived largely as the playgrounds of the…
- Blue City Blues
Nancy Rommelmann on How Portland Traumatized Itself
In recent decades, no major American city can match the sharp ups and downs of Portland, Oregon. From a poor but pretty backwater burg of white gearheads and…
- Blue City Blues
The Death of the Gatekeeper: Adam Penenberg on Traditional Journalism's Identity Crisis
For decades, a handful of legacy media outlets decided what counted as news, how to frame it, and who got to report it. Now trust has collapsed, The New York…
- Blue City Blues
John Roderick on the Decline – and Comeback? – of Urban Cool
What's the fundamental difference between an authentically cool city and a contrived, gentrified one? What makes a great music and arts scene, and can…
- Blue City Blues
Preview: Why Is David Rieff a Cultural Pessimist about Blue America?
This is a free preview of our latest Patreon-only episode of Blue City Blues, with writer David Rieff, a war correspondent, an essayist, and a leading cultural…
- Blue City Blues
Democracy Dies in Ineffectiveness with Richard Pildes
Is a return to good, effective governance not just a glaring need in blue cities but a key to saving liberal democracy? NYU law professor Richard “Rick” Pildes…
- Blue City Blues
In Praise of “Solid B" Cities with Halina Bennet
There are the superstar cities that act as the seedbeds of American cultural cosmopolitanism and the great engines of blue America's knowledge economy: New…
- Blue City Blues
Three Blue City Mayors Innovating on Drug Policy with Keith Humphreys
Keith Humphreys, a friend of the pod, is widely recognized as the country’s leading expert on drug and addiction policy. The Esther Ting Memorial Professor in…
- Blue City Blues
Do Public Sector Unions Wield Too Much Power in Blue Cities?
In late February, Nicholas Bagley and Robert Gordon, who have both had extensive careers in Democratic governance – Nicholas was Chief Legal Counsel for…
- Blue City Blues
Eboo Patel Says Blue America Needs to Rethink How We Do Diversity
Eboo Patel, an Ismaili Muslim, is the founder and president of Interfaith America, a Chicago-based non-profit that works to promote pluralism and foster…
- Blue City Blues
A Dem Socialist Insurgency in Los Angeles?
In the 1970s, as a young left wing activist seeking to upend capitalism, Karen Bass was a leader in the Venceremos Brigade, an organization that sends…
- Blue City Blues
John Judis Has Advice for Young Leftist Mayors in Blue Cities like New York and Seattle
Author, journalist, and political analyst John B. Judis cut his political teeth in the (briefly) ascendant New Left politics of the late 1960s and early 1970s…
Blue City BluesWhy Does William Deresiewicz Believe the Culture of Elite Universities Elected Trump?
A former Yale English professor, William Deresiewicz has become one of the country’s most erudite and insightful commentators on the cultural trends that have…
- Blue City Blues
Anne Applebaum (Live) on Resisting Authoritarianism Here and Abroad
Authoritarianism is on the march, not just here in the US but across the globe. It hardly bears repeating that we live in perilous and troubled times, as a…
- Blue City Blues
Ruy Teixeira on the Democrats’ Cultural Cosmopolitanism Problem
In 2002, political analyst and commentator Ruy Teixeira co-authored The Emerging Democratic Majority. The book, published near the zenith of the Bush…
- Blue City Blues
Best of BCB: Why Is San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan Breaking So Many Eggs?
We spoke with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan last April about his groundbreaking approach to municipal governance and the new directions he wants to take the…
- Blue City Blues
Best Of BCB: Freddie deBoer on Why Blue City Progressives Need to Get Real on Involuntary Commitment
While David is away, we are reposting some early days Blue City Blues episodes that many of our more recent listeners may have missed. We thought this one…
- Blue City Blues
Tricia Romano on the Village Voice, Alt Journalism, and the Rise of New York City’s Countercultures
In 1955, three men in the bohemian enclave of Greenwich Village got together to form what they thought would be a local community newspaper. But the Village…
- Blue City Blues
Neil Gong on How Class Dynamics Shape Our Approach to the Mentally Ill on the Streets of Los Angeles
The pervasiveness of untreated mental illness on the streets of blue cities – about 20 percent of the homeless population in the United States is severely…
- Blue City Blues
Best of BCB: Sherman Alexie Talks “Monsters,” “Colonizers” and the Urban Left's “Minor League Maoism”
We invited writer Sherman Alexie on to weigh in on recent cultural trends in blue cities. Alexie has long been recognized as one of the country’s most…
- Blue City Blues
Kelsey Piper on the Shameful Truth that Mississippi Beats Blue Cities on Educational Equity
This week we take a close look at the damning decline in the quality of public education in progressive cities where, as Sandeep puts it, the "glaring…
- Blue City Blues
Emily Hoeven on Whether San Francisco's Backlash Mayor Is Making Things Better
In November 2024, fed up San Francisco voters elected an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune the city's 46th mayor. Daniel Lurie, a moderate Democrat and a…
- Blue City Blues
How a Broken Foster Care System Fuels Crime, Homelessness and the Addiction Crisis in Blue Cities
Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care was a National Book Award finalist. Drawing on the life stories of several foster children, author…
- Blue City Blues
What Makes a Great City?
This Thanksgiving week, Blue City Blues sits down with former traffic engineer and urban planner Ray Delahanty, better known as “CityNerd” on YouTube. We get…
- Blue City Blues
Danny Westneat on Why Seattle Can’t Seem to Solve Its Problems
One of Seattle's most insightful chroniclers, longtime Seattle Times metro columnist Danny Westneat, joins us in this episode to discuss the blues that have…
- Blue City Blues
Nick Gillespie on Whether Socialism Is the Future of Blue Cities
In New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani routed scandal-tainted Andrew Cuomo, completing his at first unthinkable, then inevitable rise to become…
- Blue City Blues
Can Blue Urban America Find Common Ground with Trump on Homelessness?
On July 24, Donald Trump declared war on the homeless. At least that was how his Executive Order, titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” was…
- Blue City Blues
Blue City Crime: What Both Sides Get Wrong According to Criminologist David Kennedy
Like almost everything else in present day America, crime in blue cities has become a deeply partisan and polarized issue. While progressives routinely…
- Blue City Blues
Hard Hats and Blue Cities: David Paul Kuhn on the Roots of the Working Class Revolt
The modern Democratic Party has a class and culture problem. Blue city leaders struggle to understand their cultural and political disconnect with…
- Blue City Blues
Whitney Tilson on Why Kids in Blue City School Districts Are Being Left Behind
Children in urban public school districts are falling behind. While a handful of lower spending red states – Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and, most notably…
- Blue City Blues
Has Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Cracked the Code on Progressive Governance in Blue Cities?
Four years ago, a 36 year-old Harvard Law grad and City Councilmember named Michelle Wu rolled to victory as the first elected female, non-white mayor of…
- Blue City Blues
Did Blue City America Get Covid Wrong, Too?
This week we take a look back at the COVID-19 pandemic with Steven Macedo, a professor of politics at Princeton University and co-author of "In Covid's Wake…
- Blue City Blues
Nicole Gelinas: Blue City Lessons from NYC’s 100 Years' War Between Cars and Transit
New York Times contributing opinion writer Nicole Gelinas, who writes regularly on New York City issues, is the author of a deeply researched and informative…
Blue City BluesDispatch from an Urban Drug Market
In this special episode we venture outside our respective basements to explore a sprawling open-air drug market in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood, which…
- Blue City Blues
What’s the Matter with Chicago?
The Windy City is not just a great American metropolis – the third largest in the United States – it is a world class city, recognized globally as a center of…
- Blue City Blues
Trump Just Defunded Public Media. Did NPR Help Bring This Disaster on Itself?
In the latest installment of Blue City Blues, we welcomed Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, to join…
- Blue City Blues
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez on What Urbanites Get Wrong about Rural America
The political gulf between educated urban progressives and rural and blue collar Americans has accelerated in recent decades. The consequences for blue cities…
- Blue City Blues
Celinda Lake on What NYC’s Political Earthquake Means for the Politics of Blue Cities
Zohran Mamdani's upset victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary wasn't just a win; it was a seismic event that's shaking the foundations of the…
- Blue City Blues
Sherman Alexie: A Res Indian Take on Monsters, Colonizers and the Urban Left's “Minor League Maoism”
In this episode of Blue City Blues, we invited writer Sherman Alexie on to weigh in on recent cultural trends in blue cities. Alexie has long been recognized…
- Blue City Blues
Katie Herzog on What the Decline and Fall of Twitter Means for Blue Cities
In 2020, when the power of social media – Twitter, in particular – to police the boundaries of acceptable thought in blue cities was at its cultural zenith…
- Blue City Blues
Is Abundance the Answer to What Ails Blue Cities?
In January of 2022, The Atlantic published staff writer Derek Thompson’s manifesto calling for a fundamental reform of progressive governance. “We need an…
- Blue City Blues
Defund/Abolition Is Dead in Blue Cities. What now?
Public safety policy reformer Lisa Daugaard won a MacArthur Genius Award in 2019 for her work creating the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program…
- Blue City Blues
Why Does Progressive Megadonor Nick Hanauer Blame Blue Cities’ Woes on … Barack Obama?
Seattle venture capitalist and Democratic megadonor Nick Hanauer doesn’t fit neatly into pre-fab boxes. He’s a wildly successful tech investor who denounces…