The New Yorker Radio Hour

In Leonard Cohen’s last interview, he discusses his career, his spiritual influences, and what he is doing to prepare for death.

The 2016 election gets the Hollywood treatment, and an evangelical minister contemplates the decline of the Christian G.O.P.

Michael Friedman performs his State of The Union Songbook live — songs that capture the confusion, hope, and despair of the strangest presidential election in American history.

This special hour examines the effects of Syria’s civil war, the worst humanitarian crisis of the twenty-first century, from both inside the White House and on the ground in Aleppo.

In this episode, the surgeon Atul Gawande talks with the musician Andrew Bird, and a panel of experts discusses what a Trump Presidency would look like.

Mikhail Baryshnikov talks about the playing the revolutionary choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, and T.C. Boyle shares a blues musician he discovered on a college radio station.

In this episode, Obama’s former campaign strategist talks Clinton and the Cubs, a mathematician rocks out, and the “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris vents a little.

In this episode, Colson Whitehead reimagines the Underground Railroad, Jill Lepore assesses the sorry state of political debate,and Sharon Horgan finds humor in “Divorce.”

In this episode, Jill Soloway, the creator of “Transparent,” goes after the patriarchy; a Muslim designer unveils high-fashion hijabs; and we look at the tragic life and lasting influence of the guitar legend John Fahey.

In this episode, Ariel Levy investigates ayahuasca, an ancient Amazonian hallucinogen, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks with David Remnick about the mortality rates of athletes.

In this episode, Libertarian Presidential nominee Gary Johnson talks guns and marijuana, dead bees are beautified, and actor Reed Birney reads Donald Barthelme’s classic short story about the school year from hell.

The Libertarian Gary Johnson is an E.P.A.-supporting gun-rights advocate who appreciates a good edible, and he wants your vote for President.

Larry David vents, and a Chicago priest delivers a sermon to gang members.

In this episode, a Nobel Prize winner talks about the pain of the fall of the Soviet Union, David Remnick remembers the coup the failed, and Hillary Clinton’s top policy advisor considers the problem of Putin

In this episode, F. Murray Abraham reads Arthur Miller’s essay about the sweltering summers of Miller’s youth; two writers talk fish and fiction; and a novelist recalls her childhood in idyllic Hong Kong.

In this episode, two living legends—the civil-rights leader John Lewis and the singer-songwriter Paul Simon—reflect on how far they’ve come.

In this episode, Andy Borowitz explains how the D.N.C. is like a Phil Collins music video from the eighties, and Patricia Marx practices archery at home.

In this episode, the ghostwriter behind “The Art of the Deal” tells all, and Andy Borowitz reviews highlights of the Republican National Convention.

Tony Schwartz spent more than a year with Trump back in 1986, ghostwriting his memoir. He hasn’t ever talked publicly about the experience of working with Trump—until now.

The founder of Gawker on the “karmic justice” of the Hulk Hogan lawsuit; George Saunders on what makes Trump supporters tick; and Parker Posey on a camper from hell.

In this episode, John McPhee reflects on a lifetime of writing; we explore the future of Brexit; and a reporter nearly loses everything after forgetting his iPod passcode.

Fiction writer George Saunders takes to the Trump campaign trail, and a new understanding of America emerges.

In this episode, Patrick Radden Keefe on the drug dealers who may help bring El Chapo to justice, and David Remnick talks to Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.

In this episode, a gun blogger critiques the N.R.A., and a Presbyterian minister rewrites old hymns for new crises.

A prominent gun blogger and lifelong NRA member explains how the organization uses fear to get its way.

Could Citizens United be overturned? Jeffrey Toobin and Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor, discuss what a Supreme Court dominated by Democratic appointees might do. Samantha Bee talks about how comedy hosts deal with tragedies like mass shootings. And the digital pioneer Jaron Lanier looks at how a utopian vision for the Internet went wrong.

When it comes to the war on terror, bomb-sniffing dogs are essential companions. When it comes to your sex life, no animal provides blissful privacy like a cat. So which is the superior domesticated animal? In this episode, the canine partisans Adam Gopnik and Malcolm Gladwell duke it out with the feline lovers Ariel Levy and Anthony Lane to settle the debate once and for all. Also, Lauren Collins talks with the British actor Damian Lewis about playing the part of an American on “Homeland” and “Billions,” and the late architect Zaha Hadid speaks with John Seabrook about her early life.

In 2014, the New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about Kalief Browder, a teen-ager from the Bronx who spent three years jailed at Rikers Island without ever being convicted of a crime. After his release, Browder committed suicide. In excerpts from Gonnerman’s interviews with him, he speaks candidly about the psychological toll of solitary confinement, and what it meant to have the criminal-justice system take away years of his life. Also, the Public Theatre’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, tells David Remnick why “Hamilton” will have a real impact on America’s debate on immigration, and the New Yorker’s theatre critic, Hilton Als, speaks with the actress Michelle Williams. Lastly, we reveal the real answer to the question “Can my dog say hi?”

Lena Dunham talks about turning thirty and backing Hillary Clinton when her peers are feeling the Bern; and Amy Davidson gives us a history lesson on political conventions gone wrong.

David Remnick speaks to the comedian Larry Wilmore about performing at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he now-infamously referred to the President using the N-word. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer explains how James O’Keefe, the undercover conservative activist, foiled his own mission. And a retired soldier leaves Iraq for truly unfamiliar territory: a small Northeastern liberal-arts college.

As scientists learn more about how genes affect everything from hair color to sexual orientation and mental health, we’re faced with moral and political questions about how we allow science to intervene in the genetic code. In this episode, Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of the new book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” talks with David Remnick about the intimate and global implications of modern genetic science, and speaks frankly about his own family history of mental illness. Plus, we visit the studio of a leading sound-effects artist, and a virtual-reality team struggles to make a V.R. experience that lives up to the hype.

On shows as varied as “Jessica Jones,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and “Game of Thrones,” characters are confronting sexual violence in ways never shown before on television. Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic, thinks this is probably a good thing. Also, the jazz pianist Robert Glasper explains why sometimes there’s no need to take a solo; and a troubled man takes to the water for a series of adventures, like something out of Mark Twain. Originally aired December 15, 2015

A former prison counsellor discusses the abuse and torture of mentally ill inmates she suspected inside a Florida correctional institution—and the emotional price she paid for staying silent. Plus, Anohni, the former lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, discusses her recent turn to pop music; Annie Dillard talks with David Remnick about a new collection of essays; and William Finnegan takes us surfing.

In this week’s episode, the activist Ai-jen Poo envisions a happier, more affordable alternative to nursing homes, and we meet a home health aide who’s formed a remarkable bond of friendship with her client. David Remnick talks with a rising star of the Democratic Party who is rumored to be a potential Vice-Presidential candidate; and, finally, the ugly truth about picture-perfect weddings.

On this week’s show, Ben Taub shares his reporting on a group that’s gathering top-secret documents tying Bashar al-Assad’s regime to mass torture and killings, and David Remnick talks with a war-crimes expert about how to run a fair tribunal. Plus, Patricia Marx goes foraging in Central Park, and Kathryn Schulz explains her love of country music—it’s the stories, man.

This week, we look into the lives and careers of two giants of soul—Aretha Franklin and the late James Brown. From the campaign trail, Michael Friedman’s musical ode to a South Carolinian Trump supporter, and Jesse Eisenberg, along with his sister Hallie, performs the humor piece “Why I Broke Up with the Little Mermaid.”

This week, three highlights from The New Yorker Festival: Larry David explains why he envies his sociopathic alter ego on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Amy Poehler describes the joys of doing comedy while nine months pregnant, and Randy Newman on why he still can’t understand why some people bridled at his song “Short People.”

This week: Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger talks about how Instagram took over the world; the New Yorker’s cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff, shares his three favorite jokes; and George Packer reports from Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, where democratic governance has led to an upsurge in jihadism.

This week: Three great political minds talk to David Remnick about the 2016 election, Roz Chast is visited by a young cartoonist who is following in her footsteps, and Hilton Als sits down with Cynthia Erivo, the English actress who stars in “The Color Purple” on Broadway. Take our WNYC Studios audience survey!

This week: Julia Louis-Dreyfus says that, in light of the 2016 Presidential race, “Veep” is now like a “sombre” documentary; Malcolm Gladwell looks at the subculture behind post-Columbine school shootings; and we explore the rumor that Alexander Hamilton’s ghost resides in an old house in Manhattan.

This week: A Manhattan bartender, prizefighter, and onetime bank robber returns to his ancestral mansion in Serbia; Michael Friedman brings us a new song written from the campaign trail; and a devastating play tackles rape culture.

This week, Father Michael Pfleger, a white priest on Chicago’s South Side, holds a funeral for a young man who threatened his life; Larry David applies his passive-aggression to Missed Connections listings; and the authors of a new book on autism discuss “patient zero,” an elderly man in Mississippi who was the first person ever to receive the diagnosis.

This week, two stories out of Baltimore: “The Wire” creator David Simon drives the city with Jelani Cobb, and David Remnick talks to the thirty-year-old mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson. Also, Maria Bamford discusses mental illness and comedy, and the engineering evangelist Limor Fried tries to convince you—yes, you—to build some electronics.

This week, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Jeffrey Toobin revisit the O.J. Simpson trial, a songwriter hits the campaign trail, and the lifelong night owl Patricia Marx tries some gizmos to help her sleep.

The Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”) talks to David Remnick about her first solo museum exhibition, “Astro Noise,” which channels her investigations of government surveillance into immersive installation art. A group of jazz musicians recall how David Bowie found them in a hole-in-the-wall club and enlisted them to create “Blackstar.” And the poet Brenda Shaughnessy reads Hilton Als a poem about living in a loft full of lesbians, back when New Yorkers could still afford to smoke.

This week, stars of the stage, screen, and earbuds. Marc Maron tells Kelefa Sanneh why talking into a mic saved his life. The magazine’s TV critic, Emily Nussbaum, speaks with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer about their raunchy and joyful TV comedy “Broad City.” And Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of “Hamilton,” takes comfort in knowing that dirty politics are as old as America.

In this episode, three epic battles: Jane Mayer recounts her experience investigating—and being investigated by—Koch Industries; Junot Díaz discusses his fraught relationship with his native Dominican Republic; and the undefeated boxer Heather Hardy prepares for a big fight at the Barclays Center. Finally, the astronomer who wrote “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming” lays out his evidence for the existence of a ninth planet.

If Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug kingpin known as El Chapo, is extradited to the United States, he might face two formidable witnesses: identical twin brothers, former drug traffickers on a major scale, who gathered evidence against him for government prosecutors. Jack Handey tells some “Tales of Old Santa Fe,” where the cowboy past collides with the New Age present. And David Remnick talks with Alicia Garza, who co-founded Black Lives Matter, about the movement’s goals, and her issues with Hillary Clinton.

Sarah Koenig, the host of “Serial,” talks with David Remnick about why her podcast’s success caught her by surprise. Robin Coste Lewis, who recently won a National Book Award, explains how a devastating injury damaged her brain, but aided her poetry. And Jelani Cobb goes back to his high school.

What's the funniest way to spook a horse? Cartoonists Matt Diffee and Emily Flake give us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how jokes get made. Then, comedian Aziz Ansari critiques Hollywood’s casting habits. Journalist Rukmini Callimachi shares her insight into how ISIS views itself. And the screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman talks puppet sex and existential dread during a tour of the Whitney Museum.