Can New York survive Mamdani’s tax plan?

This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss the growing push on the left to “tax the rich,” highlighted by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Tax Day message. They examine whether America’s tax system is already highly progressive, why wealth taxes and similar proposals have repeatedly disappointed abroad and in blue states, and whether New York risks copying California’s mistakes. The panel also asks a broader question: With some of the nation’s highest tax burdens, what are taxpayers actually getting in return?

Next, the editors mark 4/20 with a conversation about marijuana legalization, the libertarian case for drug freedom, and whether concerns about public disorder are being wrongly blamed on legalization itself. They also discuss President Donald Trump’s executive order expanding psychedelic drug research. The conversation then shifts to Palantir’s call for national service and why so many tech leaders suddenly have grand plans for remaking public policy, before returning to Iran, where mixed signals over the Strait of Hormuz and uncertain negotiations raise fears of another drifting conflict. Finally, a listener asks whether today’s political divide is best understood as two wings of a broader progressive movement rather than a clash between left and right.

0:00—Do wealth taxes ever work?

19:18—Drug legalization and psychedelics research

31:25—Palantir calls for national service

42:38—Listener question on progressivism

48:46—Is the Strait of Hormuz open?

53:24—Weekly cultural recommendations

Mentioned in the podcast:

“Can This Psychedelic Help Cure Opioid Addiction?” by Rachel Nuwer

Nick Gillespie on X: “Much about this @PalantirTech list outlining the requirement of ‘the technological republic’ is risible, none more than the call for ‘national service,’ a form of indentured servitude that always goes easy on the rich and politically connected.“

“NYC Schools Are Losing Students and Burning Cash. Mamdani Could Make the Situation Worse,” by Danyela Souza Egorov

“Will Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. Psychedelicize America?” by Nick Gillespie

“Kat Rosenfield: Why It’s Important for Novelists To Speak Freely,” by Nick Gillespie

“Stan Lee Co-author Kat Rosenfield on Rise of Cancel Culture in the Literary World,” by Nick Gillespie

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Video Editor: Ian Keyser