Power doesn’t just show up in elections; it builds laboratories. We dive into how New York City became a proving ground for a fusion of finance, philanthropy, and policing that later spread across the country—then map how that same logic now shapes narratives around Israel, Gaza, and the American right. Our guest, investigative journalist Matt Wolfson, brings rare insider perspective on Zionist networks in media and politics, the rise of pro-finance governance dressed up as centrism, and the backlash that produced figures like Zohran Mamdani. From the Democratic Leadership Council era to Bloomberg’s rezoning, we connect the dots between real estate booms, federal security funding, and the normalization of urban surveillance.

We also follow the technology pipeline: Microsoft partnerships, NYPD’s expanding domain system, gunshot detection with weak performance, and facial recognition that misidentifies yet continues to scale. Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s ascent—and her family’s long shadow in New York power—anchors a candid look at how public safety becomes a pretext for private networks. When private cameras feed public grids and “surge policing” becomes policy, the result is a sleek apparatus that watches more than it helps, especially in neighborhoods already stretched by inequality.

Then we turn to the right’s cultural firefight. Mark Levin’s broadsides, coordinated messaging against Tucker Carlson, and a rush to equate Israel skepticism with antisemitism reveal a strategy: elevate extremes to stigmatize dissent and justify new speech controls. Matt explains how financiers, media platforms, and political intermediaries can co-opt both sides, shrinking debate to a spectacle while expanding the security state at home and endless support abroad. If New York is the lab, the rollout is coming to a city near you.

If this conversation sharpened your lens on power, surveillance, and the future of the right, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. Where do you draw the line between real safety and permanent monitoring?

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