The New Yorker Radio Hour

Colson Whitehead is one the few novelists, and the only still alive, to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction—for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys.” Whitehead’s protagonist in the Harlem trilogy is Ray Carney, a small-time crook who fences stolen goods while working ...  Show more

As control of the Senate hangs in the balance, many eyes are on Dan Osborn, of Nebraska. He’s a dream candidate for the Democrats: a mechanic in the food-processing industry, a former president of his local union, and a veteran of the Navy and the Army National Guard. But Osborn ...  Show more

The Trump Administration has made little secret of its desire to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency and give states the responsibility to respond to all manner of natural disasters on their own. FEMA has endured tremendous internal strife over leadership, and repor ...  Show more

There will be a variety of celebrations to honor America’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary this year. Much of it is to be expected: fireworks, red, white, and blue lights, even a military parade. But something else is happening, something that probably wouldn’t occur if anyo ...  Show more

The staff writer and historian Jill Lepore is an admirer of the Federal Writers’ Project, and the man-on-the-street form of documentary it helped to pioneer. This type of journalism, she thinks, is integral to the democratic project. As part of a special episode of The New Yorker ...  Show more