Max is a radio producer and audio engineer from Brooklyn, New York. He comes to The New Yorker Radio Hour after working on WNYC programs including On the Media, The Brian Lehrer Show, and The Takeaway. He’s a graduate of the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at City University of New York, and the Sonic Arts Center at CUNY’s City College.
Max Balton appears in the following:
Senator Chris Van Hollen on the Epstein Files, and the Leadership Crisis in Washington
Friday, November 21, 2025
The Maryland Democrat talks with David Remnick about Chuck Schumer’s leadership of a fractured party, and whether Van Hollen himself harbors presidential ambitions.
Rewriting Art History at the Studio Museum in Harlem
Friday, November 14, 2025
The curator Thelma Golden takes David Remnick on a tour of the unique institution, which is reopening to the public after a seven-year building project.
Andrew Ross Sorkin on What 1929 Teaches Us About 2025
Friday, November 14, 2025
The financial journalist discusses his new book about the Wall Street crash of 1929, and the mounting concerns about an A.I. bubble.
Jon Stewart on the Perilous State of Late Night and Why America Fell for Donald Trump
Friday, October 31, 2025
The “Daily Show” host talks with David Remnick about his contract with Paramount Skydance, the government’s attack on political satire, and how our institutions got so weak.
Richard Linklater on His Two New Films, “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague”
Friday, October 17, 2025
The director talks with Justin Chang about his latest work on artistic genius. One dramatizes the decline of Lorenz Hart; the other details the triumphant début of Jean-Luc Godard.
Zohran Mamdani Says He's Ready for Donald Trump
Friday, October 10, 2025
The Democratic candidate for mayor would be one of the youngest and the first Muslim in the job. He discusses threats from Donald Trump, and what socialism means in practice.
A Conservative Professor on How to Fix Campus Culture
Friday, October 03, 2025
Robert P. George opposed Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage—and the rise of MAGA. “I say to my [liberal] colleagues,” he claims, “it was you guys who gave us Donald Trump!”
Ezra Klein’s Big-Tent Vision of the Democratic Party
Friday, September 26, 2025
The writer and podcaster on why he thinks Democrats need to broaden their scope—to both the right and the left—and what people misunderstand about his role in politics and media.
How the “Dangerous Gimmick” of the Two-State Solution Ended in Disaster
Friday, September 12, 2025
The veteran negotiators Hussein Agha and Robert Malley spent decades trying to broker peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and they know why it failed.
Jeff Tweedy on His New Triple Album, “Twilight Override”
Friday, September 05, 2025
Wilco’s front man on his forthcoming solo record—a triple album, but “whittled down from five,” as he tells Amanda Petrusich. “I’ve made single records that feel longer.”
Donald Trump’s War on Culture Is Not a Sideshow
Friday, August 29, 2025
Adam Gopnik discusses the Administration’s moves to dictate what is acceptable and unacceptable in American culture, and why pluralism remains essential to democracy.
Donald Trump’s War on Culture Is Not a Sideshow
Friday, August 29, 2025
Adam Gopnik discusses the Administration’s moves to dictate what is acceptable and unacceptable in American culture, and why pluralism remains essential to democracy.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington on a Reunion Making “Highest 2 Lowest”
Friday, August 15, 2025
The director and the actor discuss their latest collaboration, nineteen years after their previous film together. “Time flies!,” Lee says. “I didn’t know it had been that long.”
Your Questions Answered: Trump vs. the Rule of Law
Friday, August 08, 2025
Jeannie Suk Gersen and Ruth Marcus, who write about the law for The New Yorker, address listeners’ pressing questions about the Trump Administration’s legal controversies.
Jamaica Kincaid on “Putting Myself Together”
Friday, August 01, 2025
The celebrated writer discusses how she found her unique voice, and a new collection of her writings that begins with her first published piece in The New Yorker.
Michael Wolff on MAGA’s Revolt Over Jeffrey Epstein
Friday, July 18, 2025
The journalist talks about his interviews with the infamous abuser, and the political fallout from the White House’s attempt to close his case.
Susan B. Glasser on the Deficit, and Why “We Are the Boiled Frog”
Friday, July 11, 2025
Susan B. Glasser explains the political implications of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Janet Yellen on the Danger of a “Banana Republic” Economy
Friday, July 11, 2025
The former Treasury Secretary and chair of the Federal Reserve on the budget bill, the exploding deficit, and why Donald Trump is so desperate for lower interest rates.
America’s Oligarch Problem
Friday, June 20, 2025
How did America join Russia and China as an oligarchy? The staff writer Evan Osnos chronicles the shift in his new book, “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich.”
The Unfolding Genocide in Sudan
Friday, June 13, 2025
Nicolas Niarchos shares reporting from a civil war in which Sudan’s Black minority is caught between warring factions led by members of the country’s Arab majority.
