Firewall

The selection of the next pope, argues Bradley, isn't merely a religious decision but a face-off between competing global visions: one of fear-driven, zero-sum authoritarianism versus one rooted in love, abundance, and compassion. Church leaders have a chance to do more than celebrate Pope Francis’s legacy of moral courage — they can, and should, perpetuate it. Plus, how Chuck Schumer's own moment of moral courage could come back to bite him and why we need a new kind of punditry.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. 

In this new installment of The Race to Gracie Mansion, Bradley and Tom quiz investor and education reformer Whitney Tilson on his effort to position himself as the pro-growth, pro-business candidate. The best way to fix New York’s affordability crisis, Tilson argues, is by making the city a place where private investment thrives. He promises to tackle housing, schools, and crime with pragmatic reforms—streamlining regulations, welcoming charter schools, and restoring public order—while standing up to entrenched political interests like unions and career politicians.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. 

For 48 hours in Vancouver, Bradley felt like he had the world eating out of his hands. What was going on? Let's just say it was a very good night for mobile voting. Plus, Bradley handicaps the Meta-FTC face-off, offers advice for staying grounded in these chaotic times, agrees with Hugo that paying federal taxes feels worse than ever this year and admits to getting into watching golf on TV for the first time.

"You're spending all this money," says mayoral candidate Michael Blake, "but you're not getting enough back." In the latest installment of The Race to Gracie Mansion, Firewall's co-production with City & State, the former NYS Assemblyman and DNC Vice Chair talks about helping New Yorkers make and keep more money, stopping Trump from meddling in city affairs, modernizing municipal services with AI, expanding humane mental health interventions, and fixing transit by recovering lost revenue and investing in automation.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone.

As New Yorkers know, scaffolding has become a serious scourge on our streets. What began as a safety measure has now done the opposite and helped to breed crime. But thanks to a recent legislative effort by New York City Council Member Keith Powers, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, scaffolding regulations have been reformed for the better, and New Yorkers can expect a lot less in their neighborhoods in the coming years. Powers and Bragg join Bradley to discuss why they focused on this issue and their model of political pragmatism that makes New York City a better place to live. Plus, Bradley hashes out the complexities of rezonings with Powers and discusses the threat of 3D printed guns and more with Bragg.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. .

The hot new book in policy circles, Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, defines a new liberal agenda for promoting growth of housing, green energy and transit. Bob Greenlee joins Bradley to debate how these nice-sounding, well-intentioned ideas might actually get off the ground. Plus, Bradley has a memo for Democrats — lock in on what tariffs are doing to the economy and voters will punish Trump.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. 

Jim Walden is next up on The Race to Gracie Mansion, Firewall and City & State's series on the 2025 New York City mayor's race. Walden, a litigator and ex-prosecutor, presents himself as an untainted centrist with an emphasis on competence, recruiting top talent and learning from data. He talks to Bradley and Tom about a revival of Broken Windows, getting serious about involuntary commitment, rehabbing NYCHA from the ground up, suing China over fentanyl smuggling, and setting up a truly independent corruption-busting agency.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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. 

The just-released World Happiness Report places the United States 24th globally. That's the bad news. The good news is that a big part of our problem is based on a fixable misperception that we have about each other. Bradley outlines a new regimen of building better vibes. Plus, he explains why Trump is shredding our system of checks and balances so easily (because it's actually reliant on norms, which Trump does not observe), how Trump's rejection of good politics should eventually sap his momentum, and what Bradley learned from reading Graydon Carter's memoir, When the Going Was Good.LIVE EVENT: Join Bradley for a live Firewall recording at P&T Knitwear on Wednesday, April 2 and 6:30PM. After his discussion with Spencer Greenberg, host of the Clearer Thinking podcast, Bradley will answer audience questions on-air. Space is limited. RSVP today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clearer-thinking-x-firewall-a-live-podcast-recording-tickets-1261541337099?aff=oddtdtcreatorThis 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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone. 

In this first installment of The Race to Gracie Mansion — a series of interviews with New York City mayoral hopefuls, co-produced by Firewall and City & State — Jessica Ramos, State Senator from Queens, lays out her vision for a more equitable, better-run city. She takes on police deployment, fair fares, Cuomo’s comeback, and why she'll never promise childhood friends a job in her administration. 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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his latest book Vote With Your Phone. ++LIVE SHOW: Join Bradley for a live Firewall recording at P&T Knitwear on Wednesday, April 2 at 6:30PM. After his discussion with Spencer Greenberg, host of the Clearer Thinking podcast, Bradley will answer audience questions on-air. Space is limited. RSVP today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clearer-thinking-x-firewall-a-live-podcast-recording-tickets-1261541337099

Bradley offers a framework for thinking about how government at all levels should approach AI in terms of regulating it, deploying it and dealing with its ramifications. It doesn't have to be like DOGE, he argues, but there are definitely things we can learn from Elon. "The point of government," he says, "is to serve the collective needs of the people, not to employ a workforce of people."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.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter, follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube, be sure to order his new book, Vote With Your Phone.