David Remnick

Host, The New Yorker Radio Hour

David Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker since 1998 and a staff writer since 1992...

He has written many pieces for the magazine, including reporting from Russia, the Middle East, and Europe, and Profiles of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Katharine Graham, Mike Tyson, Ralph Ellison, Philip Roth, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Remnick began his reporting career as a staff writer at the Washington Post in 1982, where he covered stories for the Metro, Sports, and Style sections. In 1988, he started a four-year tenure as a Washington Post Moscow correspondent, an experience that formed the basis of his 1993 book on the former Soviet Union, “Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire.” In 1994, “Lenin’s Tomb” received both the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and a George Polk Award for excellence in journalism.

Since Remnick became editor, The New Yorker has garnered a hundred and forty-nine nominations for National Magazine Awards and has won thirty-seven. In 2001 and again in 2005, the magazine won an unprecedented five National Magazine Awards; in 2014, the magazine won four awards. In addition, in 2000 Remnick was named Advertising Age’s Editor of the Year.

Remnick has written six books: “Lenin’s Tomb,” “Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia,” “King of the World” (a biography of Muhammad Ali), “The Bridge” (a biography of Barack Obama), and “The Devil Problem” and “Reporting,” which are collections of some of his pieces from the magazine. Remnick has edited many anthologies of New Yorker pieces, including “Life Stories,” “Wonderful Town,” “The New Gilded Age,” “Fierce Pajamas,” “Secret Ingredients,” and “Disquiet, Please!”

Remnick has contributed to The New York Review of BooksVanity FairEsquire, andThe New Republic. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and has taught at Princeton, where he received his B.A., in 1981, and at Columbia. He lives in New York with his wife, Esther Fein; they have three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha.

Shows:

David Remnick appears in the following:

Lesley Stahl on What a Settlement with Donald Trump Would Mean for CBS News. Plus, Brian Eno Knows “What Art Does”

Friday, May 30, 2025

The “60 Minutes” correspondent on “dark times” for journalism at CBS and and beyond. Plus, Eno on his book “What Art Does,” his two new albums, and why we should take feelings seriously.

Comment

Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: “Speak in Plain English.” Plus, Percival Everett’s “James” Wins a Pulitzer.

Friday, May 09, 2025

The Michigan senator on why her state elected Donald Trump and her at the same time. Plus, The writer and National Book Award-winner on his book “James.”

Comment

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Confounding Politics of Junk Food. Plus, Kelefa Sanneh on the Long Influence of Kraftwerk

Friday, May 02, 2025

The nutrition researcher Marion Nestle on the health impact of America’s diet and the politics behind it. Plus, our music critic discusses the pioneering electronic band.

Comment

Assessing the First 100 Days of Trump 2.0

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, offers his assessment of the first 100 days of President Trump's second term.

Cory Booker on America’s Crisis of “Moral Leadership.” Plus, the Epic Story of the Chinese in America

Friday, April 25, 2025

The senator explains why he resists calls for Democrats to act alone in standing up to Donald Trump. Plus, Michael Luo on Chinese Americans’ century-long struggle to belong.

Comment

How Science Fiction Led Elon Musk to DOGE. Plus, Nikki Glaser at the Top of Her Game

Friday, April 18, 2025

Jill Lepore says that Musk misreads cautionary tales as instruction manuals. Plus: the grassroots anti-Musk movement known as Tesla Takedown; and the comedian revives the roast.

Comment

The Supreme Court and Donald Trump. Plus, Ryan Coogler on His New Film, “Sinners”

Friday, April 11, 2025

Ruth Marcus discusses whether the Supreme Court will yield to the President’s extraordinary assertions of power. And the director talks with Jelani Cobb about his new vampire film.

Comment

Senator Chris Murphy on “How Democracy Dies.” Plus, Elaine Pagels on the Mysteries of Jesus

Friday, March 28, 2025

The Trump Administration aims to prevent fair elections in 2026, Murphy says; “it won’t matter if we’re more popular than them.” And the noted religion scholar talks with David Remnick.

Comment

Atul Gawande on Elon Musk’s “Surgery with a Chainsaw”; Plus, Federal Workers Standing Up to DOGE

Friday, March 14, 2025

Gawande, until recently a senior leader at U.S.A.I.D., explains the agency’s importance, and what its undoing by DOGE will bring. Plus, the federal workers behind We the Builders.

Comment

What Trump Has Got Wrong—and Right—About the War in Ukraine; Plus, How Bob Menendez Came By His Gold Bars

Friday, March 07, 2025

The Russia scholar Stephen Kotkin looks at America’s turning point in supporting Ukraine. Plus, how the former senator got the gold bars that sent him to prison.

Comment

Does Tim Walz Have Any Regrets?

Friday, February 28, 2025

The Minnesota governor, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate, on what went wrong for the Democrats in 2024, and what they should do now that Donald Trump is back in the White House.

Comment

John Fetterman on Trump’s “Raw Sewage,” and What the Democrats Get Wrong

Friday, February 21, 2025

The Pennsylvania senator says the Administration is dumping “three feet of raw sewage” on America, “and we have a Dixie cup to bail out.” Plus, Richard Brody on the year in film.

Comment

The Oscar-Nominated Documentary “No Other Land”; Plus, Trump’s Boogeyman: D.E.I.

Friday, February 07, 2025

The staff writer Jelani Cobb talks about the Trump Administration’s attempts to root out policies of diversity, equity, and inclusion—which it describes as discriminatory. 

Comment

Bill Gates on His New Memoir and Dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Friday, January 31, 2025

The Microsoft co-founder discusses his new memoir, A.I., vaccine skepticism, and his dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Plus, two anthologies for The New Yorker’s centennial.

Comment

100 Years of 100 Things: The New Yorker Magazine

Friday, January 31, 2025

David Remnick on The New Yorker at 100.

How “Saturday Night Live” Reinvented Television, Fifty Years Ago

Friday, January 24, 2025

Susan Morrison on “Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live,” with a reading from SNL alumna Tina Fey. And the staff writer Dana Goodyear on losing her home in the LA wildfires.

Comment

Antony Blinken’s Exit Interview

Friday, January 17, 2025

President Biden’s long-serving Secretary of State discusses the challenges of the last four years, and his reason for optimism that lasting peace in the Middle East remains possible.

Comment

Ro Khanna Wants to Fight the Tech Oligarchy

Friday, January 10, 2025

The California representative discusses the potential impact of Silicon Valley’s influence on policy. Plus, how an environmentalist makes the case for more mining in the U.S. 

Comment

The Art of Cooking with Ina Garten; Julianne Moore on Pedro Almodóvar

Friday, December 27, 2024

The food guru on learning to love dinnertime; plus, Pick Three: Erotic Thrillers, and Moore on Almodóvar’s new film and why she hates when people call actors “brave.”

Comment

Rashid Khalidi on the Palestinian Cause in a Volatile Middle East, and the Meaning of Settler Colonialism

Friday, December 13, 2024

The historian discusses events that have weakened supposed allies of the Palestinians, and the idea of settler colonialism that has taken hold on the left. Critic Adam Kirsch responds.

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