Unmuted's Political Pulse
Hi there! The Political Pulse is a newsletter on events across the spectrum and occasional thoughts on America.
Ed Manzi here - I run Unmuted, an offline hub for intelligent people to discuss the issues of our time without judgment. In our newsletter, I highlight one upcoming Unmuted event a week, and we also highlight a number of other organization events that I find interesting across the political spectrum. In addition, every month we will publish one piece of thoughtful, Founding Member content. We’re open to feedback, so let us know what you like and want to improve!
OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft - we’re coming for you.
You, me, and everyone’s mother have used AI at least once by this point. Whether it’s figuring out how to make a recipe with only the ingredients in your kitchen, building AI agents to streamline your internal workflows, or using it as a scapegoat for why you laid 20,000 people instead of admitting you over-hired in the first place, you’ve used it and probably use it daily. And with such ubiquitous and explosive use, the questions that naturally follow: who’s going to regulate Big AI? What are we trying to protect? How are we going do it?
Enter the RAISE Act, a bill introduced by State Assemblyman Alex Bores this year. If passed, it would be the FIRST NY state-wide regulation on large AI companies, and AI PACs are already fighting to keep Bores out of Congress. But is the bill actually what NY needs? Should states be leaders on the regulation front, or are they just going to add to a patchwork that makes enforcement impossible? It’s not a simple answer, and it’s a highly Unmuted question.
Alex Bores and Will Rinehart, a senior fellow at AEI, go head to head in a debate moderated by Zac Geinzer of Commonweal Ventures, featuring two experts with radically different views on whether the RAISE Act should even exist. Use discount code here. At The Bench in Chinatown, this Tuesday, December 9!
This venue has a Tower of Terror-like elevator, be warned!
Upcoming Unmuted Events
Thursday, 12/11 Unmuted Holiday Party
This Week
Events of the Week
The events I’ve got my eye on this week across the spectrum. We have two Unmuted events (although the Thursday one is just people drinking lol) and holiday party galore.
🗓 Monday, December 8
• 6:00 PM The Urbanity Of Russell Kirk (link)
Subject: Conservative Philosophy, Memorial, Book Talk
Where: 113 W 60th Street, New York, NY
Who: Fordham University
What: A memorial book talk celebrating Gerald Russello (1971-2021), who was a major conservative author and edited theThe University Bookman, a quarterly review of books founded by Russell Kirk. This year’s lecturer, James Panero, Executive Editor of The New Criterion, will speak on “The Urbanity of Russell Kirk” which is an elitist way of saying refined.
• 7:00 PM NYABJ x NAHJ Holiday Slay! (link)
Where: Pubkey
Who: New York Association of Black and Hispanic Journalists
What: A holiday party, seems like an interesting crew to learn from even if you’re not a journalist! Tickets are pretty cheap, so if you want to learn what journalists are thinking about going into 2026 - check it out!
🗓 Tuesday, December 9
•6:00 PM – The UNMUTED AI Debate (link)
Subject: AI, Regulation, States
Where: The Bench
Who: UNMUTED
What: I’ve already gone on ad nauseam at this event. Show up!
🗓 Wednesday, December 10
• 6:30 PM - Democracy as Creative Practice (link)
Subject: Intimate, Discussion, Arts, Local Institutions
Where: FABnyc, 70 E 4th St New York, NY 10003
Who: Village Preservation
What: A local discussion on how East Village institutions can possibly play a role in fostering more democratic ways of interacting in our neighborhoods. Seems vaguely interesting, probably an older crowd.
• 6:00 PM – You are Democracy: Flourishing Community Meeting (link)
Subject: Civic engagement, music, arts, food
Where: Powerhouse Arts, 322 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Who: NYC Civic Engagement Commission
What: Part 3 of a 3 part series on civic engagement in Brooklyn. Seems a bit like a food/arts community festival. But also these lines make it a must go - “Together we’ll build a living “Manifesto of Possible Futures” — a collective snapshot of what becomes possible when creativity, community, and belonging shape public life.” and more importantly, “Come dance with our giant puppet twins Civic & Engagement and meet our beloved one of a kind inflatable Mama Sunny.” WHAT IS THIS. I will be attending this, please text me at 978 302 5849 if you’d like to come with!
🗓 Thursday, December 11
• 5:45 PM – Peace Through Power (link)
Subject: Foreign Policy, Book Talk, UN
Where: SUNY Global Center, 116 East 55th Street, New York, NY, 10022 Who: Foreign Policy Association
What: A very pro-UN book talk on how the powers of yesteryear (Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill) built the UN charter on the basis of pragmatism, not idealism, and how that compares with the power struggles we are seeing today between China, US, and Russia, among others. This runs the risk of being a bit dry and leaning to an older crowd, but likely informative.
• 7 PM – Friends of Unmuted Holiday Party (link)
Where: Fabrik Tribeca
Who: UNMUTED
What: It’s a holiday party. Booze included, BYOF lol. Excited to see everyone.
🗓 Friday, December 12
• 7:30 PM – 20th Anniversary of Political Gabfest feat. Steve Colbert
(sold out)
Subject: Podcast, Comedy,
Where: The NY Society for Ethical Culture
Who: Slate
What: Now, you may be wondering - why would we put a sold out event in newsletter? And there’s two answers - 1) it’s hard to find events on Friday nights that do politics except UNMUTED and 2) the people who live dangerously might want to try to see if they can get in. FAFO…although that ironically would not be very ethical!
• 8:00 PM – MYD Holiday Party (link)
Subject: Party, Political, Not Fancy
Where: Tara Rose
Who: Manhattan Young Democrats
What: The MYD’s holiday party. Even if you hate on liberal policies, you can’t hate on this deal - $10 ticket for a 2 hour open bar. Now usually that means the line to get a drink will be ridiculously long. I might go to this….
🗓 Saturday, December 13
• 7:30 PM – NYYRC 113th Annual Gala (link)
Subject: Gala, Political, Fancy
Where: Cipriani’s Downtown
Who: New York Young Republicans Club
What: The NYYRC’s biggest event of the year. Non-member tickets are now going for roughly $1,000 a head lol. There will be two House Reps speaking at the event (Mike Collins and Andy Ogles). Should be a good time if you have a lot of money, and are a Republican or a Dem who wants to see how the other side talks behind closed doors. But again - tix are $1,000…
🗓 Sunday, December 14
• 10:00 AM - Send Love Through The Walls (link)
Where: Principles (139 9th Street, Brooklyn 11215)
Who: The Anarchist Federation
What: Annual holiday card-writing party for U.S. held political prisoners, prisoners of war, and prisoners of conscience. They’ll have crayons, colored pencils, paper and envelope.
That’s it for this week. Let us know if there are events to highlight in upcoming weeks!
Show up, think deeper, and as always, stay Unmuted!
The Unmuted Team