Lynae Vanee: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of "The People's Brief." I'm your host, Lynae Vanee, and today we have a very special guest, someone who we feel is everybody's mayor, but he's only officially New York's mayor. Please welcome Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
Vanee: Thank you so much. I'm going to jump right in. I'm going to cut to the chase. You're a star. I know you're a human being. You have your own flaws. I've even seen you be on the receiving end of some emotionally driven and high-charge feedback and frustrations from your constituents, but I've also seen you handle that with grace. And the way you show up for your city is so refreshing and inspiring. So, I want to start with a question I feel like everybody everywhere across the globe wants to know.
Mayor Mamdani: Wherever you want to go.
Vanee: What's it like to do your [] job?
Mayor Mamdani: I want to say shout-outs to all of the city workers because, yes, I work hard. They work very hard. We have more than 300,000 city workers. And so, when New Yorkers wake up, they go outside, they see the pothole paved. More than 191,000 in the last nine months. That's a city worker.
And so doing my job is also the privilege of leading that workforce. It's a very difficult job, but it is also the most fulfilling job I could ever imagine because when this job works, it means you are making someone's life better. And I don't think that there's anything better than that.
Vanee: Yeah. And I feel like we see it. We feel it reverberating, like, off the screen. The culture or the climate feels different in New York. Everybody feels happy and go-lucky and just, you know, you guys won the championship. You're the mayor -
Mayor Mamdani: 53 years.
Vanee: You're getting all the good things everybody else wants. I would say, though, of course you're not alone in your stardom in terms of being a mayor. We've got Mayor Brandon Scott out in Baltimore really transforming the way -
Mayor Mamdani: He did some incredible - he continues to do incredible work on public safety.
Vanee: Correct.
Mayor Mamdani: When you look at the statistics, it's really - it speaks for itself.
Vanee: Yeah. For sure.
Mayor Mamdani: I had the privilege of speaking to him in the months leading up to taking office. And one of the reasons that I wanted to have that conversation was just looking at what he's been able to usher in. It's been quite something.
Vanee: It's really phenomenal to see the way he's transformed the way they're handling crime and just young people and community in general. And we need so much more of that. [We] got Mayor Brandon Johnson also sharing with you and standing up to these corporations. He's doing things like calling for a general strike.
So the people are doing the things, but I feel like too often or for too long, so many constituents have felt like they've been met with the response, "Oh, my hands are tied," or "There's too much red tape." So how much do you suggest other elected officials can also do their [] job?
Mayor Mamdani: I think I'll say one of the most important things I learned was that nobody owes you their support. Nobody owes you their faith or their trust. You have to earn it. And so that means that when someone tells you that they don't believe that City government can actually deliver for them, your job isn't to debate them. It's to deliver for them.
And I think that's something that we've found more and more people starting to believe that City government can be more than what it's been because, finally, the things that they've looked at in their own neighborhood [and] their own life and said, "They can't do this. How can I believe them on that?" We're fixing those things.
And to me, if you want to deliver universal child care, you have to pave the pothole. If you want to show that we can actually make the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable when it comes to housing, you also have to open the park. It's all of these things together.
Vanee: I'm so glad you said that because you're actually making me skip ahead a few questions, but I think this is a great segue. Speaking of universal child care, speaking of all the potholes, speaking about the way that you have tackled the junk fees and subscription fees, even fees for small business owners, I think the way capitalism works, it's convinced a lot of Americans that they have to just make more money in order to achieve a better quality of life when, in fact, there are government structures and entities in place to make sure it's provided for them. So, I wonder what you think the socialist-style of leadership is going to reveal to Americans over time or even short term?
Mayor Mamdani: My hope is to show that there are things that no one should be priced out of, and dignity is one of them. We understand that at a certain level in our country when we're talking about libraries or we're talking about public schools, but for too long we've only said it in words when it comes to housing or when it comes to child care.
We believe that it's okay that the market will set the price and if you can't make it, then that's what it is. I don't think that in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we should have one in four people living in poverty. And to me, that is not a reflection of whether or not they're working hard enough.
New Yorkers work so hard every single day, but it feels like the harder people work, they're still stuck where they are in their life. And we want to make it such that there are certain things that every New Yorker will have as a part of their life and that this is a city where the harder you work, the better you do.
Vanee: I love that. Mayor, can I call you mayor?
Mayor Mamdani: Please.
Vanee: I know I'm from Atlanta, but I would like to call you mayor while I'm here. I hear you, but I'm still kind of stuck on just how much you've been able to achieve and get done. And I love the way that you speak about these things because it feels like I'm talking to another person who experiences government. Like, you want to model a way that you would want to live.
And just getting back to the red tape of it all, you push so hard to get these things done. And I know it's not just you, your team, city workers, even partnering with the governor to get things done. What is the impetus for you to keep going and to push to get these policies?
Mayor Mamdani: I think that the biggest thing is to deliver for people. A lot of times politics has felt like a hobby that only some people can afford to have. And I want politics to be something that people understand that can make their life better. And so, we need to do that for people to believe that it's possible.
And one of the things that, when you do this work, you come up against is understanding that there's a rationale that you hear in politics. It doesn't stand up to when you're talking to someone outside of it. What I mean by that is I'll ask, "Why do we do this?" Sometimes the answer I'll get is, "Because we've always done this."
When you tell someone why you can't pave their pothole, they don't care if it's the same reason you could have given them 10 years ago. They want to know how and when you're going to do it. And so, some of this is just pushing and pushing and pushing past the "We've always done it this way" to get an answer that actually makes sense.
Because it feels like we have a different language in politics. We have a different - and a different framework entirely. And it needs to be one that actually mirrors what working people are worried about in the city.
Vanee: So, I want to ask you, I'm a firm believer that everybody who is skilled or knowledgeable in politics shouldn't just be expected to run for a position. I think we should also model being informed citizens. And while I'm doing all this talking about phenomenal mayors across the nation doing amazing things, I still feel like there is a responsibility for citizens to be engaged. And so, I wonder what advice you would give to people who want a Mamdani for their city. What type of environment should they be cultivating to have that type of leadership be able to thrive?
Mayor Mamdani: I think one is, find what you're passionate about. Sometimes it feels overwhelming because it feels like you have to care about everything in order to care about anything. And what I would say is, if there is something that you are particularly passionate about, let's say it's public transit. Let's say it's libraries. Let's say it's parks. Pour yourself into that because that is something that you can start to put together a sense of, okay, this is what I want to see. This is what I have in front of me. These are the obstacles.
Because with the scale of things in our world today, it can feel so overwhelming, where it feels like, you know what, it's better to not be engaged. And what I've found in my own life is the way that I've found purpose is focus, focus and specificity.
And so, if you're in Atlanta, I would say, what's the thing that you see as what City government could do more on? And picking that, starting to think about what that life could look like, and then pushing for that, that gives room for others to step up.
Because there are a lot of people who are waiting to do something, but they're worried that they're alone in thinking about it. And even if just one other person steps up and says, "You know what, that's my concern," you start to feel like, I'm actually not alone in this anymore.
Vanee: Well, thank you. I wonder, you mentioned just for everyone, it's hard to receive all of the bad news, all the news we get in general, and it can be overwhelming. I can imagine knowing what's going on in the world is overwhelming for you but also having to hold the position that you have.
I also see you outside riding bikes. You're with the people doing the things. You're at Rikers spending time with people there. What do you do to take care of yourself? And do you take time for yourself? What's your sign?
Mayor Mamdani: My sign? I'm a Libra.
Vanee: Okay. Shoot.
Mayor Mamdani: Oh.
Vanee: No, I just mean, of course you're showing up for everybody. That's all -
Mayor Mamdani: I don't know enough about astrology, so I didn't know if that was, like, a prompt.
Vanee: No, no, no.
Mayor Mamdani: Yes, I'm a Libra. I was born October 18th. And I will be honest with you. One thing, biking is something that gives me peace of mind because you can't do anything while you're doing it. And so often now, you feel like you have to be multiply productive. You know, like, you're on your way somewhere; you can be doing something as you do it. When you're biking somewhere, you just have to focus on getting there. And that is something that clears the head. I did just have a chance to take a week off with my wife, and that was lovely.
Vanee: She's so beautiful, by the way.
Mayor Mamdani: Isn't she?
Vanee: Get a load of this guy. Anyway, lucky in all the ways.
Mayor Mamdani: She is. And I think the other thing that's really lovely is the people that I work with, you actually look forward to seeing them every day. You look forward to coming into the office. And I know that's - I mean, that's not always been my experience when I've worked. And to have that here, it's because you have a shared sense of purpose. You know why you're doing this. You're doing this for the people outside of City Hall. And that's the other thing of why bike, why take the train, why walk, why get out of this building is because too often it feels like politics is just inside these buildings. Caring only about the concerns of the people inside the buildings. It has to be about outside the building. What's your sign?
Vanee: Correct. What's my sign? I'm a Capricorn.
Mayor Mamdani: What does that mean?
Vanee: It means I'm working all the time. So, when I asked you, I genuinely was trying to understand just -
Mayor Mamdani: How do you shut off?
Vanee: How do you shut off. And I think it's so hard. And what I hear you say in the response to my question is that I think, unfortunately, in this moment, we have to be on so much. We just kind of have to be on so much. But what you do is you try to find agency and holes and time.
Mayor Mamdani: And force yourself to be off.
Vanee: Yeah. Yeah. Force yourself to be off. I think choosing self is a part of resistance as well. And just choosing time to unplug is a part of resistance as well. But I think people are looking for maybe a get-out-of-jail-free card or just an apathetic perspective to want to just completely let it all go. But if we want things to change, we have to be actively engaged.
Mayor Mamdani: And I think, yeah, if your brain is broken like mine, sometimes I have to motivate myself in strange ways. And one reason why you should also take time to turn off is that that's when you can actually think. That's when you can reflect.
If you're just living at this speed, you will never get the time to actually dig into the depth of something. And you don't know the ideas that come to you when you're running or you're biking. Or even if you're just - I know there have been times where it's like, I don't want to stop looking at the work I have on my phone. But sometimes when you do that, you can actually resolve the question that's in front of you.
Vanee: Absolutely. I'm a writer. I'm a writer. So, I literally have to put all my things down and schedule out time in my day to just sit in front of my notebook and even - and just wait until my brain declutters.
Mayor Mamdani: Do you write or do you type?
Vanee: I use - I'm a poet. So, I write a lot of things by hand and just my notes and things. And that's also exercising my brain in a way. But I think what this also points to is that this is why you always need a team to do the things that you want to do. And I think so often when people talk about you, they talk about you as the focal point. And I don't renege on my statement, you are still a star. But you also put emphasis on all the people that help you push any of these things forward.
And I heard you earlier speaking to our director and you said that you used to be a PA. And so does that give you any sort of perspective on what it's like to just making sure you're treating your team members fairly and all the things?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it gives you a perspective of a different vantage point. And also just how critical every single role is to the outcome. As a PA, my job was mostly like, "Get this milkshake, get this juice." But I would also motivate myself knowing that if I gave this to someone, it would make them feel better, they could do their job better.
And there is so much that it takes to do this kind of work in City Hall. And too often when it works, it's framed as if it's a reflection of just one person, when, in fact, it's a reflection of a process and a team.I could not be doing this without this team. And that's also something that I would just offer to others. You shouldn't compare yourself, one individual to another. You should compare the people that you're building around yourself, because the collective is actually what's going to deliver it for you.
Vanee: Yeah. How did we get here, though? So did you have any thoughts that you'd be running for office, what, nine years later?
Mayor Mamdani: I did not think I was going to be mayor nine years ago. When I was getting my milkshake back, I wasn't like, "Just you wait. I'm going to be the mayor in nine years." No, I did not have that thought.
Vanee: Okay. And I'm sure you've been asked this before, but what flipped that switch for you? What made you say, "I need to run for this position because I'm going to be the best person for the job"?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think the biggest thing that frustrated me was how we were seeing the city have a skyrocketing cost-of-living crisis and a sense that the mayor could do nothing about it when, in reality, the mayor was exacerbating that cost-of-living crisis.
And that is what really pushed me over the edge: that it can be different. And if we just tell ourselves that this is what it is, then we're allowing it to get worse.
And I want to try. I didn't think at that moment that trying meant that everything could work out. But when, you know, a friend of mine, Phara Souffrant Forrest , she always tells me, "Closed mouths don't get fed."
Vanee: I know that's right.
Mayor Mamdani: And so, if you, you know, the only way you can succeed is if you're willing to try.
Vanee: I also feel like, I think that's a general rule of thumb, but I feel like so much, even in that answer and the way that you move is so millennial-coded and the way that we show up and we're seeing a lot of millennials really shine when it comes to these primaries gearing up for midterm elections.And I just wonder what you think about what our experience may have made us prime for this time to be leaders.
Mayor Mamdani: I think as millennials, we're old enough to have lived through the promise of the world around us and the contradictions. Like, we came of age during the financial crisis, during the Iraq war, came of age at a time when we were taught and learned the hard way that so many of the so-called experts who we could trust to steward our future were, in fact, ensuring that our past looked much brighter than what we were about to live through.
And I think that also imbues us with a responsibility that we may have to be the ones who are part of writing that next chapter. And it's so exciting to see so many other millennials who are a part of what it looks like to do that and to just be one small part of it.
Vanee: I think we're also super effective at bridging gaps with messaging from Boomer, Gen X and also Gen Z and the people. I don't know. I just feel like we're the middle sibling that just knows what everybody needs.
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I mean, even if you think about the internet, we lived through a time where it wasn't our second language and we lived through a time where it was starting to become it. So there's at least some sense of what it looks like to live in both of those worlds.I mean, I think about, like, my first iPod.
You remember that?
Vanee: Well, my parents never let me have one of those.
Mayor Mamdani: I had to check my privilege out here.
Vanee: I had an MP3 player that I couldn't plug up to the computer. LimeWire. That was my -
Mayor Mamdani: Guilty as charged.
Vanee: I have one more question for you. This whole season is about making sure people know what they need to know and are thinking about what they need to think about heading up to the midterms. Me being in Atlanta, one of my biggest concerns is making sure people know that billionaires have no place in local and state government. We've got this man named Rick Jackson running against Keisha Lance Bottoms. He's got to get out of here. Calls himself "Baby Trump."
Mayor Mamdani: Calls himself Baby Trump?
Vanee: Yeah. He calls himself a Southern Trump and he'll be everything Trump was in the South. He's already here. I don't know. We don't need that. Anyways, I wonder what you -
Mayor Mamdani: I got "Baby Shark" playing in my head.
Vanee: As you should. I wonder what you have to say to people about your concerns coming up for the midterm elections. What do you think they should prepare for this, I don't know, how we should be moving as a nation? Everybody's going to see this.
Mayor Mamdani: I think that I'm really hopeful that these are the midterms where we take back the House. And to me, that's not simply important from a political level. It's what that can mean for working people. When I'm thinking about the cuts that have come from Washington, D.C., under this federal administration, the health care cuts we're about to see, the SNAP cuts, these will be devastating for people. And so, if you have Democrats who have the House, then it means that there is actually a path to fighting back on some of these things.
And so often politics, it feels like it's removed from the day-to-day. But what we're really talking about is people going to the hospital, people going to the grocery store. These are ways to make it that little bit easier. I think we've seen what that cruelty can look like from Washington. It's time to actually redefine what Washington can be.
Vanee: Yeah. Thank you so much.
Mayor Mamdani: Very welcome.
Vanee: This has been amazing.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you so much.
Vanee: Everybody, I don't know, a master class in doing your job. Thank you so much again for your time. It was so nice to meet you.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you. Nice to meet you.
Vanee: Wow. Mayor Mamdani is such a light. It was such a joy to share a space with him today. He is highly sought after. His time is limited, so we didn't get to get into everything I would have liked to. But I think ultimately what we should take away from this interview is that we can have - and I won't say a Mamdani, it's not just about him. Like I mentioned, Mayor Brandon Scott in Baltimore. I mentioned Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago and the things that they're doing. Every city has unique needs. They need a unique person to meet those needs. But when it comes to this sort of progressive and/or even, dare I say, leftist politic that we're wanting to see right now, we have to be the change we want to see in our neighborhoods. Like he said, to pick something that you're passionate about.
But what I think a lot of people need to hear is that midterm elections is not just a switch. It's not going to turn everything back to normal. We're not just going to be back in, I don't know, good graces with government. We're going to have to repair a lot of the - you guys still bleeping stuff? - a lot of the [] that has transpired up until now. And so what that means is, I don't think we're still just waiting on November. I don't think we're just going to vote and hope that fixes everything. There are things people need right now. Because number one, people are being cut off their insurance right now. People are getting taxed higher. People are losing their jobs. The affordability crisis is increasing exponentially. And people need help right now.
And if I can leave you with a message, Mayor Mamdani left us many gems, but if I could leave you with a message, we all have to be better neighbors. And I think that's the example he's setting in New York. He's encouraging people to be better neighbors to each other and showing up the same way with his team of city workers, the Mayor's Office and administration, even in partnership with Gov. Kathy Hochul. And leadership is top-down, and the people are a reflection of the leadership. So if you want to see your leadership change, if you want a Mamdani in your city, you have to be better neighbors.
And some people may say, what does that look like? Some people are all over the internet showing us how to grow our own food, how to clean our own water. And there's a lot of things that can sound scary, people talking about potential power outages. There's a lot of knowledge amongst the populace. There's a lot of skills we can share. But I just really want to instill in people, best I can, these moments of crisis are not the time that we turn away from each other. It's the time that we turn toward each other.
This, too, shall pass, you know? We'll see you next time on "The People's Brief."
