We just talked live with the author, MacArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize winner, and MIT professor Junot Díaz, about Zohran Mamdani’s campaign and what kind of New York City — and United States — might arise if he wins.
Díaz told us about his hopes that Mamdani’s success in pushing back against the “great silencing” done by both progressives and fascists, on the left and on the right, of poor people and the working class, can start a dialogue with people who want to be spoken to, but instead find themselves judged. That, he says, is the only way to start fixing what’s broken in America: the exterminationist fantasies of neoliberalism that infect left and right, the precarity that affects us all, and the militarization of our society as people struggle to protect themselves against an unsafe world. There’s also a lot to love in this country where, as he put it, the world meets itself — a place he meets with a veneration and love and commitment to criticism that one can call patriotism.
You won’t want to miss this conversation. Just click on the video player above.
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Join us for more Live conversations this week!
Come back on Thursday, November 6, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll talk about the future of Democratic politics with Michigan Senate hopeful Dr. Abdul el-Sayed. And on Friday, November 7, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll speak with journalist Jonathan Karl about his new book Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America.
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