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The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: Zohran Mamdani On Strengthening Public Safety, Uplifting Small Businesses, Free Busses + More
00:41:22
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- [00:00]
iHeart Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
DJ Envy
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iHeart Podcast Host
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- [00:42]
Justina Valentine
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Katherine Townsend
Dsw.Com over the years of making my true crime podcast Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community.
- [01:24]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murderer is still out there.
- [01:29]
Katherine Townsend
Each week I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should Hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Helen Gone Murderline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:42]
AARP Representative
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- [02:03]
DJ Envy
Start building your retirement plan@thisispretirement.org brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.
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Charlamagne Tha God
Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
- [02:16]
Angela Yee
Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlamagne the guy we are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. He's running for mayor of New York City. We have Zoran Kwame. Mom, Donnie nailed it.
- [02:29]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Nailed it. That's that.
- [02:31]
Charlamagne Tha God
You gave him a great tutorial right before we started.
- [02:33]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Absolutely.
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Angela Yee
And I'll take It.
- [02:35]
Charlamagne Tha God
If you don't know, ask.
- [02:36]
Angela Yee
That's right. That's what I do.
- [02:37]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I was gonna say it was off the top of the dome, but now.
- [02:40]
Angela Yee
I did see a video. Before we get into politics, I did see your video. You are a rapper.
- [02:44]
Charlamagne Tha God
You got a bop. You got a bop on your hand.
- [02:47]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I was an aspiring rapper.
- [02:48]
Angela Yee
Aspiring rapper.
- [02:49]
Charlamagne Tha God
Nobody will vote for you based off what I heard.
- [02:52]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And that's why I'm not a rapper anymore.
- [02:53]
Charlamagne Tha God
Make up the quality of that rap. Nobody.
- [02:56]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You see to be the mayor, you have to know what you know and know what you don't.
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Angela Yee
Gotcha.
- [03:00]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And I learned quickly what I didn't know.
- [03:01]
Charlamagne Tha God
You really wanted to, like, pursue a rap career at one point.
- [03:04]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
There was a point. There was a point. I mean, it was. It was at the level. So I was born in Kampala, Uganda, in East Africa. And there was a point where there was a guy I grew up with, he's like my brother. The two of us were rapping together, and I was trying to sell mixtapes on a public bus, which doesn't leave until it fills every single one of the 14 seats. That's how much we were trying.
- [03:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wow.
- [03:26]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And here I am. Cause it didn't really work out all that well.
- [03:28]
Angela Yee
It was kind of like Yin Yang Twins, where they were whispering.
- [03:31]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I liked it.
- [03:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
Was there any inspiration for you, the Yin Yang Twins?
- [03:34]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
The whisper song, I have to say that was an inspiration for the song I made called Nani.
- [03:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yeah.
- [03:38]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
But I think, you know, for me, it was. It was also a way of just telling the different stories of what I grew up with.
- [03:44]
Charlamagne Tha God
Gotcha.
- [03:45]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And especially in Kampala, you know, I'm Ugandan of Indian origin. The guy that I grew up with, his name is Abdul. He is Ugandan by way of South Sudan. It's all these different cultures coming together. We were trying to mix it all in. And then when I was here in New York City, just trying to kind of. The song that I made was a testament to my grandmother and how she's a real badass and how so often when we talk about our elders, we put them in a box of a nice, gentle person who, you know, is very much constrained in how we imagine them. And I wanted to just be a little more absurd in the celebration of a woman who gave me a sense of the world and was a social worker and should be a little more celebrated and disciplined.
- [04:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Love that.
- [04:22]
Angela Yee
And discipline, Chip.
- [04:23]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You know, a few slaps in Jackson Heights hurt nobody.
- [04:25]
Angela Yee
Oh, you got slapped in the video.
- [04:27]
Charlamagne Tha God
You got old school discipline.
- [04:28]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Yeah. That's what's up in that video. Not by my grandmother.
- [04:31]
Charlamagne Tha God
So question. In real life, when you do make the pivot to do what it is you're doing now, do you say to yourself, all right, scrub all that shit off the Internet, we gotta get rid of that?
- [04:38]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
No, because I think that it's about being a real person, you know, like, I enjoyed that time in my life. And ultimately I actually see a through line between that work and this work in that you're trying to tell a story.
- [04:48]
Charlamagne Tha God
Gotcha.
- [04:49]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And you know when you're trying to sell a mixtape or you're trying to get somebody's signature to get on the ballot at 6:30 in the morning, you know, at the Broadway stop with NW in Astoria, it's the same thing where you're asking someone, can I have a moment of your time to tell you about my story or our story? And it also means learning how to deal with rejection very quickly.
- [05:07]
Charlamagne Tha God
Gotcha.
- [05:08]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Because once you've, once you've tried to be an artist, once you try to be a rapper, you know what it means to be humbled on a regular basis, right? Like, you know what it means to be the opener to the opener. To the opener. To the opener. To the opener. And I think too often in politics there's a real sense of self, as if people should be excited to see you when in fact you should be excited to see them. Right. We shouldn't be lecturing people as much as we should actually be listening to them. And I think that, you know, struggling through being an artist, it was very helpful in learning that.
- [05:36]
Charlamagne Tha God
I thank God nobody told you to use any of that hip hop stuff for your campaign. That's what they do. That's how you reach certain demographics. Please. Oh, thank God they didn't tell you to do that.
- [05:46]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Don't worry, it's not coming.
- [05:47]
Angela Yee
Now, how did you get into politics? What got you into politics? Because some of your policies that you want, and we'll discuss, I don't see happening, but I love it. So let's start how you got into politics at first.
- [05:56]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
So the first time I knocked on doors was in 2008 for Obama. The first time I knocked on doors in New York City was when I picked up a copy of the Village Voice. And I saw that one of my favorite rappers, Heems, had endorsed his childhood friend for city council. And I was like, oh, this guy would be the first South Asian elected official in New York City. His name is Ali Najmi. And so I got on the F train I went to 169th and I knocked on doors for Ali. And that was the moment where I started to get involved in local politics. I joined a club called the Muslim Democratic Club in New York. And then in 2017, I worked on my first race. That was for a Palestinian Lutheran minister in beiridge called Khader El Yateem. And that just changed my life because, you know, I moved to this city when I was seven. This is the city I fell in love with, the city where I got my citizenship, where I got married. And yet there was also a point where I knew I was a New Yorker. I didn't know if I had a place in New York City politics. I thought those two things were separate. And then there was this campaign which showed me that there was room for all of us and you didn't actually have to give up any of yourself to be a part of it. And that inspired me to understand that politics isn't just something that you believe in. It's also something that you do as an active thing. And from there, I kept working on campaigns. And then in 2020, I ran for the State Assembly. And now I represent Astoria in Long Island City.
- [07:09]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wow. The usa. The USA Today asked a question, and the question is simple. Can an AOC backed socialist upset Andrew Cuomo in the New York City's mayor race? I want you. I want you to answer that question.
- [07:21]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
There's a short answer, which is yes.
- [07:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Okay.
- [07:23]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And there's a longer answer, which is the fact that New Yorkers are hungry for a different kind of politics. We have seen the same politicians with the same ideas lead us to the same results for decades. And this is, in many ways a question of whether we want to go back to the past or whether we want to go to the future. And our campaign is one that sees this city under attack in two ways. An affordability crisis on the inside. We're the most expensive city in the United States of America. One in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. The rest are living in a permanent state of anxiety about whether they can keep affording this city. And then we're under attack from the outside from a Trump administration that is hell bent on going after not only New Yorkers, but, frankly, Democratic cities across the country, like we're seeing in Los Angeles right now. And I am going head to head with Andrew Cuomo, a former governor who's the son of a former governor whose super PAC is funded in large part by the same billionaires who put Donald Trump back in the White House. That's not the kind of person who can stand up to authoritarianism without seeing a reflection of themselves. We need someone who will actually fight both of these crises at the same time. And that's why I believe that I can win. And I'm so excited to have Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez's endorsement.
- [08:35]
Angela Yee
In doing that, I wanted to ask, you know, some of the policies that you stand on is free bus service in New York City.
- [08:42]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Yes, sir.
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Angela Yee
Could that actually work?
- [08:44]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Absolutely. You know, I break it down. So I grew up in Morningside Heights. I would take the 1 train. We used to have the 9 train back then, but I would take the 1 train to 231st, get on the BX10 to go to Bronx Science. And I remember when I get off the one train, if I could still see the bus, even if it was two stops away, even if I had missed it, I knew I could catch up to it because that's how slow that bus was. I'd be slapping the back of the bus and I could get there in time. It was good for me. It's bad for New York City. You should not be able to catch that bus if you miss that bus. But the buses are so slow. So as a State assembly member, I won the first of its kind fare free bus pilot. We made one bus route free in every borough of New York City. And we secured $15 million to do so. And it showed that ridership went up by up to 38%. Assaults on bus drivers went down by 38.9%. And of the largest increase of riders came from New Yorkers making $28,000 a year or less. And this is critical because it's not just about economic access. It's also about public safety. It's also even about environmentalism because we're seeing that 11% of the new riders, they were previously driving a car, taking a taxi. Now they're off the road, they're on public transit. And the cost of doing all of this is about $700 million a year. Now, that sounds significant, which it is, but just want to put it into context. We're talking about that in the context of a city budget that's about a $113 billion a year state budget, about $252 billion a year. There is money. The question is what we spend it on. And what I've proposed is that we raise $10 billion to pay for our entire economic agenda and start to trump proof our city because we know he'll use federal funding as leverage over this city. And we will do so in two key ways. The first is to match the state's top corporate tax rate to that of New Jersey. We are at 7.25%. They're at 11.5%. Corporations can pay it over there, they can pay it over here. And the beauty of it is that it doesn't just apply to corporations headquartered in New York City, because when you say this, people will say, well, they're gonna go to Florida. Wherever you are headquartered, as long as you do business in the state of New York, you are taxable for that corporate tax. We're talking about corporations that are making millions of dollars, not in revenue, but in profit. And the second is taxing the top 1% of New Yorkers. We're talking about people who make a million dollars a year or more, taxing them just by a flat 2% tax increase. And I know if 50 Cent is listening, he's not gonna be happy about this. Tends to not like this tax policy. But I wanna be very clear. This is about $20,000 a year. It's a rounding error. And all of these things together, they make every New Yorker's life better, including those who are actually getting taxed.
- [11:08]
Angela Yee
Now, you also wanna cut the police budget, and people are upset about that, right? They feel that crime is all over the place. I think a couple days ago, two people got shot in Times Square. The other day, I think another girl got shot in the face in the Bronx. So people are very scared. It seems like New York is getting worse than getting better. So what do you say that, you know, at a time like this, cutting the police budgets, that seems like that is taking more police officers off the street.
- [11:29]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I want to be very clear. We are not defunding the police. What we are talking about is sustaining the number of police that we have within the police department. And when I talk to those police officers themselves, they tell me they signed up to join the police force to tackle serious crimes. And yet what they're being asked to do today is serve as mental health professionals and social workers. The same officers who thought they'd be responding to shootings are picking up the 200,000 phone calls a year of mental health calls. And what we've seen elsewhere in the country is you can actually move mental health calls out of the police department. That can reduce the calls that police have to deal with by 20%. And in doing so, you can increase police response time to those major categories of crime. And I think that's important because police have a critical role to play in public safety. And, and we also need to ask them to just focus on their job and not ask them to do every job. Because what we're seeing right now is these same politicians who have given us this lack of public safety over so many years, telling us that their only answer, no matter the question, is to ask police to do more. I want them to do the thing that they signed up for and to have a Department of Community Safety with teams of dedicated mental health outreach workers. I love that at the top hundred stations with the highest levels of mental health crisis and homelessness, we have to deliver public safety.
- [12:44]
Charlamagne Tha God
And when those calls come in, you know, and people are saying, hey, somebody's over here having an episode, the police, I think, should be going out there with the mental health professional. Let the mental health professional be the person who tried to diffuse that, backing them up. And, you know, even if, even if you want, I think, a better. I don't want, I can't tell you how to say things, but no, please. If the NYPD got a budget of $10.8 billion, does all of that really need to go to the police? They're already super underpaid, so where's that money going anyway? So why not take some of that money and invest it into other alternatives to respond to things like mental health crisis?
- [13:16]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And that's what I've said, which is that we have to work backwards from does every dollar we spend go towards public safety? The critiques that I've said of the NYPD have been that they don't need an 80 person communications department that doesn't actually deliver public safety, that delivers us drone footage. We can actually rapidly downsize that. And I've been heartened to see the current commissioner took that 80 and made it 40. And I've also said that we don't need to have a more than billion dollar police overtime budget. Usually when you say that, people frame it as if you are going after the police, but when you ask the police, there are 200 officers leaving the department every month and one of the leading causes is forced overtime because of quality of life. They don't know when they're going home. They're working doubles and triples. This is actually something that can make it easier to do that job and ensure that we're actually responding to this, because what we have right now is not working. You know, I sat with the family of a New Yorker named Win Rosario, who's a young New Yorker who was going through a mental health crisis. He called 911 himself asking for help. Two police officers who were trained in mental health assistance were dispatched to his home and they killed him within three minutes on camera in front of his mother and his brother.
- [14:23]
Charlamagne Tha God
So they were trained in mental health.
- [14:25]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
They were trained. And my point here is that that serves no one. That family grieves him every single day. And we all know that that was not the way to respond to this. So why don't we actually look at what works elsewhere in the country and bring it here? And that's what we're talking about. Evidence based policy solutions that will deliver real public safety.
- [14:41]
Charlamagne Tha God
Hold on, maybe we step in on our own point. If they were trained, they were trained. When you say trained in mental health, what did they trained in? Know how to respond to people dealing with crisis.
- [14:49]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
These police officers were given the training that right now we're being told is sufficient. And my point here is that we should not be training police officers for mental health response. We should have mental health responders be the ones who are actually the ones there.
- [15:03]
Charlamagne Tha God
Gotcha.
- [15:04]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And this addiction to asking them to do everything, it's one that leaves them unable to do many things. Because right now, as you were saying, New Yorkers, when they're worried about safety, they want to know, what's your plan? 65% of crimes from the first quarter of this year are currently unresolved. That's partially because we're asking the police to do everything.
- [15:25]
Charlamagne Tha God
I get what you're saying, you know, that's what they should do. Police officers should be having their own mental health evaluation. Like that should be part of the.
- [15:32]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
It's important. And I think that's also part of why when you, when you ask an officer to work triples. Right. The longer you are on your shift, the harder it is to make the same level of decisions throughout the entirety of it. We need to ensure that we are creating the conditions where we can actually deliver that public safety.
- [15:49]
Angela Yee
I want to ask about congestion pricing as well. You know, you talk about free. Free buses, which is. Which sounds great, but now you got free buses, but then when you drive to the city, you charge me $30 to get to the city. So what's your thoughts on congestion price and how it's affecting businesses in New York?
- [16:06]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
So I believe that the one thing New Yorkers hate more than a politician they disagree with is one they can't trust. So I'm gonna tell you the answer. I say in every room, I am somebody who has supported congestion pricing. I know. I wanted to tell you the truth. Jesus, I Wanna say it to your face, though. I've supported it for a few reasons, because I believed it would reduce congestion, it would increase bus speeds, it would raise revenue for the mta, and it would improve air quality, and that's what we've seen it be able to do. At the same time, I have always believed it needs to be paired with immediate public transit improvements. I launched a campaign called Get Congestion Pricing Right with the deputy majority leader of the state Senate, Mike Gianares. The two of US won about $12 million in new bus service. I'm proud of it, but it's not enough. And the reason I fought for that is when you look at the implementation of congestion pricing in places like Stockholm, London, the first day they had it, they had increased public transit. Because I think it's important to tell New Yorkers that it's not just about raising revenue for public transit. It's also about giving them a better option. Right there. There are some people who need to drive. There are also others for whom that's the most convenient option. We need to make public transit the most convenient one. But it's hard when you look at your app and you're told a bus is coming in 10 minutes, and then you wait 10 minutes, and then that bus doesn't actually show up. And so we need to earn that tr. That's where my position is.
- [17:21]
Angela Yee
How is it affecting businesses in New York City, though? I mean, I know a lot of restaurants are charging a congestion fee tax, and, you know, prices are. Everything is expensive. I mean, the other day I went to McDonald's, I got my kids one meal, and that one meal is usually 2.99. When I was a kid, it's now $12.
- [17:34]
Charlamagne Tha God
You bought all your kids one meal times that hard?
- [17:36]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Absolutely.
- [17:38]
Angela Yee
They gotta split it up.
- [17:39]
Charlamagne Tha God
We gotta split it up.
- [17:41]
Angela Yee
Expensive out there.
- [17:42]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's crazy.
- [17:43]
Angela Yee
You wanna lend me some? But so that's crazy, you know. So how is it affecting business? You know, especially small business, you know, the main businesses.
- [17:49]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Yeah.
- [17:50]
Angela Yee
You know, they can get over, but, you know, you got that mom and pop store that just can't do it.
- [17:54]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You know, what we've actually seen is that since it's been implemented, foot traffic has increased in the central business district. And I think that's a big part of it, is that actually when you make it easier to get around that same neighborhood, you actually can facilitate more business. And an interesting thing that I've also seen is that noise complaints are down by a significant amount because you have reduced congestion. And that's a difference also in quality of life. But I think to your point, small businesses. Small businesses are struggling in New York City. They employ a majority of all New Yorkers who are working in the private sector. We put forward a small business proposal where we would cut fines and fees for those businesses by 50% across the board. And we would do that because, you know, the city has $113 billion budget. It is not funded through these fines and fees. It doesn't mean that much to the city if it gets $100 from a restaurant because they have a refrigerator every year. But for that restaurant, those are the kinds of things that can add up. And so we're gonna cut that in half. And we're also gonna make it easier to open them. Because right now, I'll tell you, you wanna open a barbershop in New York City, you gotta go to seven different agencies, fill out 24 forms, and then attend 12 activities. That does not make it easy to open a barbershop. We need to actually follow the example of Pennsylvania where they took an eight week permitting process and made it just a couple days. And that's why we said we're gonna have a mom and pop czar. We're going to increase funding for one to one small business services because we have to make it easier to survive in the city. And city government has to understand its role and responsibility in that. Because I'm tired of politicians pretending like we're just bystanders to all these crises. You know, I'm texting out thoughts and prayers. So the small business just closed, but actually my policies are helping it to close. We need to make sure that that's not the case any longer.
- [19:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
You know, I want to ask you, I'm asking you to define something, but when you answer it, I want you to, you know, think about how you would define it to somebody if you was writing a rap. Now, I don't want you to rap.
- [19:42]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
What I'm saying, look, I know you don't like the raps. I know you don't like the raps.
- [19:46]
Charlamagne Tha God
I'm just saying that the way you would approach a rap, you know, the audience you're trying to talk to and you would probably keep things on the ground.
- [19:52]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
This is where I lose the election right here.
- [19:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
How would you define being a democratic socialist to just, to just somebody.
- [19:58]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
So you know, some of my favorite songs, they, they start with, with an old quote. That's how, that's how a song might begin. And so for me, one of them is from Dr. King call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There must be a better distribution of wealth for all people in this country, for all of God's children. And ultimately, to me, it's about dignity for each person. The person who gave me this language of calling myself a democratic socialist is Bernie Sanders when he ran in 2016, and his relentless focus on income inequality, it taught me that things could be better than they were. So often when you're voting, it feels like you're voting between somebody who wants to wipe you off the face of the earth and someone else who wants to tell you to celebrate the crumbs that can't feed your neighbors and to know that it could be more, that you could be voting for something that has inspired me. And I think that, you know, as a Muslim democratic socialist, I am used to bad PR and having to explain what all of these things mean. And what I found, though, is when you actually get into a conversation, a lot of this is common sense, right? If I believe that every New Yorker should be able to live a dignified life and that it's city government's job to ensure that New Yorkers will agree with me when I bring up the example of public education.
- [21:14]
Charlamagne Tha God
So free education, free health care, what else?
- [21:18]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I mean, anything that's necessary, stabilize rent. It's like when people, whatever you need to live in this city, that should not be something you can be priced out of. And we agree with that when it comes to school, we agree with that with libraries, with sanitation, with the fire department. But there are certain things we've picked and chosen and said, you know what, you don't need that for housing. Or you know what, you don't need that for food. And I think that we can't let the market determine who gets to live that dignified life. This is not to say that it's city government's job to deal with everything, but for that which is necessary, we have to ensure that we are doing our part. And that's why I have said I'm gonna freeze the rent for more than 2 million rent stabilized tenants, because that's the mayor's power.
- [21:57]
Angela Yee
Hey, what up, y' all? It's DJ Envy. The first few months of 2025 have been quite a year. Work deadlines, group chats you can't escape, and your weird cousin's latest overshare. It's a lot. But here's some good news. You don't have to bring that stress into your car. The all new Nissan Murano is your piece on wheels, thanks to its available features Imagine sliding into the relaxing, massaging seats that feel feel like they were made to melt your tensions. Take in the skyline views that let sunlight pour in and watch as your day brightens. I have a special playlist that always gets me right. And with the Bose Premium sound system, you too can vibe like you're at your own private concert. Plus, with your 64 color personalized lighting option, you can set the mood any way you want, be it romantic, chill or in a straight up do not disturb mode. Let the Nissan Murano be your oasis in a chaotic world because sometimes the greatest rush isn't rushing at all. Drive the all new Nissan Murano today.
- [22:52]
DJ Envy
Panoramic moonroof, ambient lighting, bows and massaging leather. Appointed seats are optional.
- [22:56]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Features.
- [22:58]
iHeart Podcast Host
Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye.
- [23:29]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie.
- [23:33]
iHeart Podcast Host
In this eight episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad free on iheart True Crime plus so don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.
- [23:57]
Katherine Townsend
Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders.
- [24:12]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I was calling about the murder of my husband. It's a cold case. They've never found her, and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.
- [24:20]
Katherine Townsend
Every week on Hell and Gone Murder line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking.
- [24:30]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for.
- [24:42]
Katherine Townsend
If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Helen Gone murder line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Helen Gone Murderline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [24:57]
Dan Bush
What happens when we come face to face with death?
- [25:00]
Charlamagne Tha God
My truck was blown up by a.
- [25:01]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
20 pound anti tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying.
- [25:13]
Dan Bush
When we step beyond the edge of.
- [25:15]
DJ Envy
What we know, to open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that western box.
- [25:20]
Dan Bush
And we turn.
- [25:21]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I clinically died.
- [25:23]
Charlamagne Tha God
The heart stopped beating, which I was.
- [25:25]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Dead for 11.5 minutes.
- [25:27]
Dan Bush
My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple. To find, explore and share these stories.
- [25:32]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable.
- [25:36]
Dan Bush
To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who was smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit, and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [25:57]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
The last mayor did that three times. This mayor raised the rent 9%. He wants to raise it again up to 8%. We have these tools. It's just a question of do we want to do this. And I know why politicians don't, because there's a lot of pressure. You know, I'm the candidate wanting to freeze the rent. Cuomo is the candidate running to raise the rent. That's why the landlords of those same units just gave Cuomo two and a half million dollars. The same landlords that say they don't have enough money to be able to freeze the rent just found two and a half million to give it to him. The single largest check in this entire race. But it helps let people know that's what's on the ballot. It's straightforward. It's do you want your rent to be the same or do you want it to raise?
- [26:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
I thought Your rent was 2,300amonth.
- [26:34]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Yes, sir. 2,300 for a one bedroom in Astoria.
- [26:35]
Charlamagne Tha God
Jesus Christ was 500 square feet.
- [26:38]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
It's not too much more than that, let me tell you.
- [26:42]
Charlamagne Tha God
It's interesting, right, because Democrats have created all this new politically correct language for everything. Gender, sexuality, pregnant women. How come y' all haven't found a better way to discuss socialism? Why is socialism a dirty word when essentially all you want to do is take care of people.
- [26:58]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I don't think it should be. I think it's actually a word that, when you break down its meaning, like you just have done, is one that many Americans agree with. And we've seen that. That despite all the attempts, Bernie Sanders continues to be one of the most popular politicians in America. Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez, similarly. And they have both defined themselves in that same language. And I think it's that, but I.
- [27:21]
Charlamagne Tha God
Think it's because they tell more. So nowadays, instead of just leaning on the word socialism, they just tell people, you should have free health care, you should have a free education. You should be able to make a livable wage. They should increase the minimum wage. Those are just simple concepts that are all socialism. Well, for some reason, y' all still find yourselves tripping up over that word or letting. Letting the other side use it.
- [27:42]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
As a guy, I mean. I mean, I think it's. It's because there are a lot of people making a lot of money in this moment who would want Americans to think that that's the only way life can be. And I don't hide this. You know, it's. It's. It's how I see the world. It's. The world that I want is one of dignity. And it's funny, there's this one guy who comments under almost every one of my tweets, and he's like, he's a socialist. I'm like, yeah, it's in my bio. You know, this is. This. This is who I am. And I think it's about being honest with New Yorkers, because I've found, you know, Mayor Koch said this, that if you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me, 12 out of 12, see a psychiatrist. And I found that in New Yorkers an ability to say, look, maybe I wouldn't call myself the same word, but I want the same things. And ultimately, you have to have a coalition that asks people of just one thing. We need to make the city affordable. We can have disagreement, we can have tension, but we have to have agreement on that one thing so that we can build a coalition that looks like the city of New York now.
- [28:35]
Charlamagne Tha God
Sorry, but you were climbing the poles like you just came out of nowhere. Right? Why do you think the young people.
- [28:41]
Angela Yee
Are riding with you?
- [28:42]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You know, I think it's. It's because people are hungry, because in.
- [28:46]
Angela Yee
The beginning, they didn't throw your name in the hat at first.
- [28:48]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
It was just, look, let me Tell you, I was sitting in a coffee shop in Astoria. This is right before we launched the campaign. Somebody in politics showed me a poll. And I was looking at the beginning of the poll, and they were like, no, no, no, keep looking, Keith. Looking. And then I was there at 1%.
- [29:02]
Charlamagne Tha God
Damn.
- [29:03]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
They were like.
- [29:05]
Angela Yee
That's what you said, right?
- [29:08]
Charlamagne Tha God
How'd you make the poll rise?
- [29:10]
Angela Yee
Pause?
- [29:11]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You know, I think. I think. I think just by being consistent, you know, from the beginning of the race, from October 23, the first day, I said this was a campaign about affordability. I said this was a campaign about New Yorkers who. Who have built this city, who are being pushed out of this city. And I said that I was gonna do three things. I was gonna freeze the rent. I was gonna make the slowest buses in America fast and free. I was gonna deliver universal childcare. And it got to the point where I can go to a rally and I can say, I'm gonna freeze the. And the crowd will say, rent buses. Fast and free. Universal childcare. People know, and I think for too long, politics has become about a person as opposed to a platform. And New Yorkers see themselves in that. And, you know, growing up in this city, so many of the people that have helped to raise me, that I've grown up with, they haven't always seen themselves in our politics. They haven't voted in a lot of these elections. The last mayoral primary, 26% of Democrats voted. And most New Yorkers, when you ask them, when's the election, they'll tell you it's in November, not in June. Most people don't know about the importance of the primary, But I've been getting text messages from people that I've known for years and people that I've just met, just screenshots of voter registration that I'm gonna vote for the first time. And that's meant the world to me. Because if we really want to protect our democracy, one of the best ways of doing so is that people see themselves in it. People see themselves as participants. You can't protect it at an intellectual level. You have to protect it in an everyday level. And ultimately, going back to your question about democratic socialism, it's about extending that democracy from the ballot box to the rest of our lives. If you get to choose your own leaders, why shouldn't you be able to choose the economic conditions that you're living in? Why shouldn't you be able to ensure you have that dignity? And. And I think that what's so exciting is, as you said, a Lot of this is powered by young people, you know, young people who so often political analysts will say, don't worry about them, they don't vote at the same rates, they don't come out. And it's been so exciting to see those same young people be part of the 34,000 volunteers we have. You know, it took us months to knock 150,000 doors in this city. Last week, we knocked that in seven days alone. That's the level of momentum we're at, where people are just going all across the city. And my mother is one of these canvassers. She has her weekly canvassing shift on Sunday. She's paired up with a 25 year old who she complains, walks too fast. They go up, sixth floor, walk up, and she goes through 10 consecutive not doors, not homes. And then when she finally meets a voter and they say, they're gonna vote for me, she says, that's my son. And it's that sense of everyone is a part of this. She don't even tell them. She don't tell them. She don't tell them. She's like, you know, I have my concerns as well.
- [31:49]
Angela Yee
Let me ask you, if you were the mayor and you see what's going on in la, how would you handle that problem? If there was protesters, they were breaking stuff, looting, smashing police cars, vandalizing things, of course, Trump sending the troops, how would you handle that? If you were mayor of New York City and that actually happened here, I.
- [32:08]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Think first and foremost, you call it what it is, it's authoritarianism. This is the Trump administration looking to arrest enough migrants that they can say they fulfilled their campaign promise of building the single largest deportation force in American history. And too often we think about it as just an attack on immigrants. It's an attack on the fabric of this country. And it's not just in la. I mean, we have New Yorkers who have been arrested and detained today. You know, a few days ago, marked three months since a Palestinian New Yorker named Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in his apartment building lobby, taken away from his pregnant wife, Noor, and has since been in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, wasn't able to even witness the birth of his, of his first child. Dean. And we have another New York City public high school student named Dylan, who was snatched at a regular check in at Federal Plaza, is now hundreds of miles away from his mother and his two siblings. And this is personal for me because I got my citizenship just blocks from where those arrests are happening. Those blocks used to be my Favorite part of New York City. It's where I got my citizenship, where I got married. And those are now the same blocks where when I took my father for his immigration interview this year, I hugged him so tight because I didn't know if I was gonna see him in the afternoon. There are too many New Yorkers who are feeling that. And so I think you call this what it is. You also make clear that Trump is reversing historical precedent in that calling the National Guard is typically something a governor requests of the president. It's not something a president puts on a governor. And Kathy Hochul is someone who, as the governor of our state, has been able to fight Donald Trump and defend a lot of his potential attacks on this state. One of the first things I would do is work with her to make it clear that this has no. This has no room in our city. And our police force should not be assisting ICE in what they are conducting. You know, we recently saw arrests where the NYPD was then arresting a pastor and other New Yorkers who were observing ICE arresting migrants coming in for their check ins. We don't need to be accomplices to authoritarianism. We need to show that there's another way of running this city in this country. And that's who I'm excited to be.
- [34:18]
Charlamagne Tha God
Could you explain to people why federal overreach is dangerous?
- [34:21]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
You know, it's so funny to see Republicans for whom so long their rallying cry has been states rights, and now here they are, they don't have a concern for that at all. It's the same way that they used to care about free speech. That's gone as well. Ultimately, these are principles. They only hold when are convenient to them. And what's so dangerous about this is that we have a clear delineation of what is a federal responsibility, what is a state responsibility. But Donald Trump wants to make every responsibility his. He wants to run a country in a manner that is more befitting of an authoritarian state. And I think what's so concerning is he's looking at the example of someone like Nayib Bukele and saying that this style of leadership, of having mass prisons where we send so many people who we allege are criminals, no matter whether we can find it or not.
- [35:09]
Charlamagne Tha God
Salvador.
- [35:09]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Yeah, that's what he wants to bring to this country. And I think what we need are Democrats who are willing to stand up and fight that. We have a mayor right now who, who has wanted to fear monger around sanctuary city policy. This is a policy we've had in this city for decades. It's a policy that's been defended by Republicans and Democrats alike. It allows for the city to work with the federal government if someone is convicted on 170 serious crimes. What it says, however, is outside of those, there should not be that collaboration. And I'm sure you've heard of Kilmar, the man in Maryland who was taken to El Salvador. If the city he was arrested in by ICE had sanctuary city laws, he would not have been able to be picked up. That's what we're preventing from happening. And still with what we have in place, because we have a mayor who doesn't want to enforce it, because we have a mayor who wants to collaborate, still we see New Yorkers being picked up.
- [36:01]
Charlamagne Tha God
Let me ask you a question, right? Why is Donald Trump the Democrats? Boogeyman. Cuz none of y' all are running against Trump. And to me, the biggest hurdle to the Democratic Party is the Democratic Party. The inaction of the Democratic Party over all of these years is the biggest hurdle for the Democratic Party.
- [36:17]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Now, I don't disagree with you. That's part of my critique of Andrew Cuomo is that he's the very kind of leadership that helped give rise to Donald Trump. Before Donald Trump was the president of this country, before he was a reality TV show host, he was a real estate developer in New York City, and he was someone who both parties had room for and time for. And I think that our ability to accommodate the very kind of real estate developers that have broken law after law after law is also part of what has given rise to an era of politics with no accountability. I mean, Andrew Cuomo had a video of Donald Trump playing at his own bachelor party. Like, that's the level in which all of this is enmeshed together. And I'm trying to chart a new course with this campaign alongside thousands of New Yorkers for a politics that is clearly distinct from that of Donald Trump. And I think when New Yorkers are shocked at Donald Trump's record of cutting Medicaid, of trying to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the mta, of giving tax breaks to billionaires, of hounding the many women who have credibly come forward to accuse him, those are the same things you could say about Andrew Cuomo. We don't need a reflection of that in New York City. We need someone who is the opposite of that. And as a progressive Muslim immigrant who's willing to fight for the things I believe in, that's what makes me Donald Trump's worst Nightmare.
- [37:40]
Charlamagne Tha God
I saw you say that in the debate. You would be Trump's worst nightmare. But once again, why should that matter to anybody voting for you? Now, you're not running against Donald Trump.
- [37:50]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
No. But you are running against the authoritarianism that he's bringing to this city.
- [37:53]
Charlamagne Tha God
So you think Cuomo is an authoritarian?
- [37:55]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
No, I think that there's too many commonalities between him and Donald Trump's record. And my point is that you don't want to have a mayor who has to pick up a phone call from someone who cut a $250,000 check to both him and Donald Trump. You want to have a mayor who's willing to fight for the city and have that be the thing that he's ultimately responsible for. And I think, to your point, we also have to be honest about how we lost this presidential election. You know, New York is the state that had the largest swing in the country towards Donald Trump, 11 and a half points. And it happened far from the caricature of Trump voters. It happened in the hearts of immigrant New York City. I went to Fordham Road in the Bronx. I went to Hillside Avenue in Queens. And when I asked New Yorkers there, almost all of whom were Democrats, who did you vote for and why? Many told me they didn't vote. Many told me they voted for Trump. And they told me they voted for him because they remembered having more money in their pocket four years ago for their rent, for their childcare, for their groceries, even for their Metro card.
- [38:52]
Charlamagne Tha God
They remember how they feel.
- [38:53]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
And as insincere and ridiculous and horrific as we know Trump's policies to be, that is how people felt. Those are the decisions that they made. And when I asked these same New Yorkers what would it take to bring you back to the Democratic Party, they said, a relentless focus on an economic agenda. I said, what would you say to a candidate running to freeze the rent, make buses fast and free, deliver universal childcare? Said, I'd vote for him. And that's when I introduced myself, and that's my point here, is that there are some Democrats, like Andrew Cuomo, who think that we. We went too far left in, in how we ran a campaign. And my point is that we actually betrayed working class voters a long time ago, and it's time to own up to that and finally fulfill the promises that were made decades ago.
- [39:32]
Charlamagne Tha God
Well, I mean, that's interesting, right? Because, you know, you say Cuomo and Trump have so many similarities, but Cuomo has been a career Democrat. And that's why I feel like anybody who is going to be the future of the Democratic Party. You do have to throw that old regime under the bus, because it's not just Cuomo.
- [39:47]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
That bus is going to be free, sure.
- [39:50]
Charlamagne Tha God
But it's not just Cuomo and the Democratic Party. It's a lot of old leaders. It's the Chuck Schumer's, it's the Bidens. You got to throw all of that under the bus and run it over. And people have to hear you say that, because I keep hearing y' all. You know, you keep talking about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. But your party has been just as ineffective and just as corrupt in a lot of ways.
- [40:06]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Trust me, I have. I hear you because I've been critical about the style of leadership that gave rise to Donald Trump is also a style of leadership within the Democratic Party. And I think for too long it's been a party that has valued insider politics. Pay your dues, the words and advice of consultants over the people that are Democrats themselves. And I do think it's time for a new generation of leadership. You know, Cuomo would be the oldest mayor elected in New York City. I would represent a completely new generation. And I think it's important for that, because it's not just about age. It's not just about vision. It's also about what has your record been and who have you been fighting for? And is that distinct enough from what got us here?
- [40:49]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yeah. Just got a couple more questions. You said de Blasio was the best mayor in your lifetime for New York, and you gave three reasons. You said because he ended stopping frisk. Well, yeah, he ran on ending stopping frisk, taxing the rich and funding Universal pre K. You said he got a lot of that done. How much of it did he get done?
- [41:06]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Universal pre K, I think, is one of the most shining examples of what city government can do. Right. This is something that took tens of thousands of dollars off New York families backs and made it easier to raise a family here. You know, I'm tired of hearing New Yorkers tell me that they're gonna settle down. And I know that the next sentence is gonna include the words Long island or the suburbs because they just can't make it work in the five boroughs. Part of making it work is making it easier to have childcare. You know, today the average cost of childcare is $25,000 a year. That's more money than it costs to send that same kid to CUNY 18 years later. Those, I think, are accomplishments. Now, it's not to say that There is no critique of that time in office. I mean, I'm somebody who was on a 15 day hunger strike alongside thousands of working class taxi drivers fighting that same administration for debt relief. And we were able to come to an agreement where we won $450 million in debt relief for those taxi drivers. And ultimately I say this, though, because we have seen what's possible if we have someone focused on delivering it. And to me, the greatest mayor in New York City history is Fiorello La Guardia, because he was someone who transformed our sense of the possible. And he put working people at the heart of his politics. And he did so while also confronting this rise in anti immigrant hate all at the same time. And I think we need a mayor who has that ability to fight multiple crises at the same time and show what it means to be a New Yorker.
- [42:31]
Charlamagne Tha God
You said if you're elected mayor, Israel wouldn't let you in. And you mentioned some legislation, but would that legislation apply to you if you're actually mayor?
- [42:39]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
We've seen elected officials, even congresspeople of this country, not be allowed into the state of Israel. And my point was, I've been asked this question many times, and I've said directly that I believe one need not visit Israel to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers. What I need to do is to meet Jewish New Yorkers at their synagogues, at their temples, at their homes, subway platforms, parks, wherever they may be, to hear their concerns and actually deliver on those concerns. And then when I have been asked about this, what I've also said is that even if I was going to make that trip, there is legislation that does not allow anyone who supports a nonviolent movement calling for the compliance of the Israeli government with international law to be allowed into that state. And I say that to say that there has to be a greater recognition of what is going on. And the fact is, for me, my politics come back from a politics of the universal. I believe that freedom and justice and safety, liberty, these things have to apply to everyone for them to be meaningful. And that also includes Palestinians.
- [43:38]
Charlamagne Tha God
Why does it also seem like elected officials care about what's going on in other countries more than they care about what's happening here in America? Because, you know, you do realize it's hard to think about starving kids somewhere else when your kids are starving?
- [43:49]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Right now, my focus is right here in New York City. This is a question that's been asked of me time and time again. And ultimately, I think it's actually a question that as you're Saying is not actually in line with the top concerns of New Yorkers, not even in line with the top concerns of Jewish New Yorkers. You know, when you see in a poll, what are those top concerns? The number one is affordability. After that, it's childcare, it's elder care, it's discrimination. These are all New York City issues. And I think that we need to have a mayor who is focused on New York City. And that's why when I was asked in the debate, where is your first trip abroad gonna be? I said, I'm gonna be here in New York City. And then I was asked, followed up, are you gonna go to Israel? And I said, one need not go to Israel to stand up for Jewish New Yorkers. And then I was asked, you know, it just continues, continues, continues. But for me, the focus has to be the five boroughs. I mean, you are running to be the mayor of this city. This is a city that is losing hundreds of thousands of people in the last few years alone because they can't afford it. They're going to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, anywhere their dollar can go a little further. And we know that as the saying goes, when white America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia. That inequality is compounded for black New Yorkers. We lost 200,000 black New Yorkers in two decades. About 9% of the city's population of black New Yorkers. From 2010 to 2019, nearly 20% of black children and teenagers had to leave this city. And that is a crisis that has to be focused on. That would be. That would be at the heart of what my administration would do.
- [45:08]
Charlamagne Tha God
Yeah. I don't understand why conversations about affordability, free health care, making buses free, freezing the rent on rent, stabilized apartments, why is that considered far left?
- [45:18]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Come on.
- [45:20]
Charlamagne Tha God
I'm just saying, why is it?
- [45:21]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
It's common sense.
- [45:22]
Charlamagne Tha God
Why can't y' all message that better? Like, why? Like, I think you gotta get rid of that word, socialism. You know, my man Killer Mike used to tell Bernie Sanders to use the term compassionate capitalism, or maybe just talk about what it is you wanna do constantly instead of getting caught up in those.
- [45:36]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I mean, I think it's both important to tell people where this belief comes from, but what I always foreground is what this belief will mean for someone. You know, it's. People want to know, how are you going to help them in their life, in their struggle. The reason we focus this entire campaign on affordability is that's what New Yorkers told us when you ask them, what are you struggling with they'll tell you rent. They'll tell you childcare. They'll even tell you public transit. Because I know to many people, 290 doesn't feel like a lot of one in five New Yorkers cannot afford a Metro card. That's the state of inequality in this city. While income inequality has declined in the country, it's increased in New York City. This is the wealthiest city and the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And so to what you're saying, these are common sense policies. And also when they're polled, they even sometimes have support of majority of Republicans because they speak to what people are actually going through.
- [46:27]
Charlamagne Tha God
That's it. Are people wanting some more money in their pocket and they want to feel safe? That's it.
- [46:31]
Angela Yee
Well, if they want to support you, how can they go out and support you?
- [46:34]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Well, what I would tell them is come to zahranfornyc.com don't donate to us. We've already raised the maximum we can spend in this campaign. But do give us something more valuable, which is your time. We're building a team of 34,000 people, New Yorkers from all walks of life knocking on doors, talking to their neighbors. Come on out, canvas. It would be a joy to have you. And I would also say that if the three of you want to come canvas, we'd love to have you as well.
- [46:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
Thank you.
- [46:55]
Angela Yee
Are we residents in New Jersey?
- [46:58]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
So look, you know, just bring that corporate tax rate. Bring that corporate tax rate over from New Jersey.
- [47:02]
Charlamagne Tha God
When's the election?
- [47:03]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
June 24th. But early voting starts June 14th, and we're confident we can win this, but only with the help of New Yorkers.
- [47:10]
Angela Yee
Well, good luck.
- [47:10]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Thank you so much, Zoran.
- [47:12]
Angela Yee
Kwame Mamadani. Appreciate. Mamdani.
- [47:14]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Mamdani.
- [47:14]
Charlamagne Tha God
Mamdani.
- [47:15]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Hit it one more time. Hit it one more time.
- [47:16]
Angela Yee
All right, Zoran. Kwame Mamdani. There we go.
- [47:19]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
My goodness, My goodness.
- [47:23]
Charlamagne Tha God
Get the poles up.
- [47:24]
Angela Yee
There you go. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.
- [47:27]
Charlamagne Tha God
Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
- [47:34]
Katherine Townsend
Over the years of making my true crime podcast Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community.
- [47:47]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
I was calling about the murder of my husband. The murder is still out there.
- [47:51]
Katherine Townsend
Each week, I investigate a new case. If there is a case we should Hear about. Call 678-744-6145. Listen to Helen Gone Murderline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [48:05]
AARP Representative
Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position pre game to greater things.
- [48:25]
DJ Envy
Start building your retirement plan@thisisprretirement.org brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council.
- [48:35]
Dan Bush
What happens when we come face to face with death?
- [48:37]
Charlamagne Tha God
My truck was blown up by a.
- [48:39]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
20 pound anti tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel.
- [48:45]
Dan Bush
When we step beyond the edge of what we know, I clinically died.
- [48:49]
Charlamagne Tha God
The heart stopped beating, which I was.
- [48:50]
Zoran Kwame Mamdani
Dead for 11.5 minutes. In return, it's a miracle I was brought back.
- [48:54]
Charlamagne Tha God
Alive Again.
- [48:55]
Dan Bush
A podcast about the strength of the human spirit. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
- [49:04]
DJ Envy
Stay informed, empowered and ahead of the curve with a bin News this Hour podcast updated hourly to bring you the latest news stories shaping the black community. From breaking headlines to cultural milestones, the Black Information Network delivers the facts, the voices and the perspectives that matter 247 because our stories deserve to be heard. Listen to the BI News this Hour podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [49:34]
iHeart Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.