Our biggest event yet! Like ever. We’re bring the top candidates in the NY 12 House race - one of the most expensive and competitive primaries in the country to discuss, UNMUTED style. Questions will be less - how much do you hate Trump? and more..what’s your dream policy if you have a long career? What would you do different than the Biden administration SPECIFICALLY on immigration going forward? We want to build a future with politicians who can engage in substance and more importantly, disagreement. This is Step 1.

Moderated by Andrea Jones-Rooy, professor, podcaster and comedian extraordinaire. A former 538 data scientist, Andrea brings spice, wit, and heavily UNMUTED commentary to a very important role. Excited to see you there!

Upcoming UNMUTED Events
Wednesday, 4/15: An UNMUTED Dialogue: Is the West Still the West? (link)

Thursday, 4/23: An UNMUTED Dialogue: Free Speech is Dead, Long Live Free Speech (link)

Thursday, 5/14: An UNMUTED Forum: Beyond the Yard Signs (link)

Check out all our events here

The events I’ve got my eye on in the next two weeks. Check them out!

🗓 Monday, April 6
• 6:00 PM – Handwriting the Constitution
Subject: Civic Engagement and Art
Where: Old Stone House of Brooklyn
Who: Morgan O’Hara
What: If you loved the last time we featured this, it’s back. An interactive art workshop that encourages civic reflection through the physical act of handwriting important American documents. Whether you’re left, right, or somewhere in the middle, there’s something grounding about putting pen to paper on the words that started it all.

🗓 Tuesday, April 7
• 6:30 PM – After5Society: Star Wars & The Justice System: May the Courts Be With You
Subject: Law and Pop Culture
Where: Midtown, New York, NY
Who: After5Society
What: OK this one is just fun. A pop culture-meets-legal-theory event that uses Star Wars as a lens to examine the justice system. The Galactic Senate as metaphor for congressional dysfunction? I mean, it writes itself. If you’re a nerd and a policy person, this is your night. $29.99. I’d go to this with someone….978 302 5849

• 7:00 PM – Rogue Elephant: Book Launch
Subject: Political History
Where: The Verso Office, 207 E 32nd St, 4th Floor, New York, NY
Who: Verso Books
What: A book launch for Paul Heideman’s “Rogue Elephant: How Republicans Went from the Party of Business to the Party of Chaos.” He’ll be in conversation with historian Kim Phillips-Fein, journalist Doug Henwood, and scholar Anand Gopal. Now look, I know the title will make some of you roll your eyes, but understanding how the other side sees your party’s evolution is always worth the time. RSVP required, free to attend.

🗓 Wednesday, April 8
• 6:00 PM – Hegel 13/13 with Susan Buck-Morss
Subject: Philosophy and Political Theory
Where: Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia University
Who: Columbia University
What: We keep featuring this series because it keeps being relevant. Susan Buck-Morss is a heavyweight philosopher and intellectual historian, and this session connects Hegelian thought to modern political life. If you’ve been following along, you know the drill. If you haven’t — it’s free, it’s at Columbia, and you’ll feel smarter leaving than you did walking in.

• 6:00 PM – Reading Dante’s Inferno
Subject: Literature and Philosophy
Where: The Morningside Institute, 91 Claremont Avenue, Floor 11, New York, NY 10027
Who: The Morningside Institute
What: Renowned Dante scholar Professor Teodolinda Barolini leads a reading and dinner seminar on Dante’s Inferno. I know, I know — Dante doesn’t scream “political newsletter.” But if you can’t see the political allegory in a guy writing about descending through circles of hell while his country tears itself apart, I don’t know what to tell you. Plus, Morningside does the dinner seminar format, which is always a vibe.

🗓 Thursday, April 9
• 5:00 PM (Reception) / 6:00 PM (Panel) – The George Polk Awards Seminar: The Human Face of the Immigration Crackdown
Subject: Journalism and Immigration
Where: Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Who: Long Island University / George Polk Awards
What: This is the one this week. George Polk Award-winning journalists discuss their on-the-ground reporting on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and its human impact across the U.S. Moderated by Richard Tofel, former president of ProPublica, with panelists Stephanie Keith, Elliott Woods, and Camilo Montoya-Galvez. Free and open to the public. If you care about immigration policy — from any angle — hearing from the reporters who actually covered it is worth your Thursday evening.

• 6:00 PM – Apolitical Parties: Celebrating America’s 250th Without Partisan Fireworks
Subject: Civic Engagement
Where: 1 World Trade Center
Who: NY AAPOR
What: America turns 250 this year and this event explores how we can actually celebrate it without turning it into a partisan food fight. If you’re exhausted by everything being politicized, this might be the palate cleanser you need. At One World Trade, which is a pretty fitting venue. Free.

🗓 Friday, April 10
• 6:00 PM – HDC 2026 Preservation Conference: MAKING IT IN NEW YORK!
Subject: Urban History and Policy
Where: Various locations, NYC
Who: Historic Districts Council
What: A preservation conference focusing on the history and future of manufacturing in NYC. If you were into our panel about preservation vs. housing last month, this is a deeper dive into the same tensions — what do we keep, what do we build, and who decides? These questions are political whether they’re labeled that way or not.

🗓 Saturday, April 11
• 12:00 PM – Coffee with Conservatives: Bronx
Subject: Conservative Social
Where: Cafe of the Day, The Bronx
Who: Coffee with Conservatives
What: For my right-leaning readers in the outer boroughs, this one’s yours. A casual coffee meetup for conservatives in the Bronx to talk politics, policy, and life in a deep-blue city. $12.51 gets you in. It takes guts to be openly conservative in NYC, and events like this are exactly why we feature both sides.

🗓 Sunday, April 12
• 2:00 PM – Taking the High Road: Straight Talk with Suhag Shukla & Jenifer Rajkumar
Subject: Politics and Community
Where: Vista Penthouse Ballroom, Long Island City, Queens
Who: Hindu American Foundation
What: NY State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and Hindu American Foundation Executive Director Suhag Shukla in conversation about politics, identity, and community advocacy. Queens gets some love this week. $50.

🗓 Monday, April 13
•6:00 PM - Beyond Capitalism
Subject: Economics / Law
Where: The Forum at Columbia University, 601 W 125th St, New York, NY
Who: Columbia Center for Political Economy
What: Look, the title alone is going to make half of you close this email. But hear me out - Columbia's Center for Political Economy is hosting a serious conversation about whether our current economic models are up to the task of handling AI displacement, climate costs, and the growing gap between asset owners and everyone else. Katharina Pistor (author of The Code of Capital) leads the discussion. You don't have to agree with the premise to find the arguments worth engaging with. That's kind of the whole point of this newsletter.

•6:30 PM - Poisoned Ivies: Book Event with Elise Stefanik
Subject: Higher Education / Campus Culture
Where: Midtown Manhattan (exact address provided 24 hours before event)
Who: Manhattan Institute
What: Former Congresswoman and current UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik drops her new book Poisoned Ivies, a behind-the-scenes account of what she calls the "moral rot" at America's elite universities - from campus antisemitism to viewpoint discrimination to the bureaucratic bloat eating higher ed alive. The Manhattan Institute is hosting what should be a lively discussion with a reception before and after. Whether you think she's a truth-teller or a provocateur (or both), the higher ed debate isn't going away anytime soon.

🗓 Tuesday, April 14
•6:30 PM - A Jewish Conservative Perspective: Dinner with Eric Cohen
Subject: Politics / Philosophy / Conservatism
Where: 165 E 56th St, New York, NY (Tikvah offices)
Who: Tikvah Fund Collegiate Forum
What: Eric Cohen - executive director of the Tikvah Fund and one of the sharpest voices in Jewish conservative thought - hosts an intimate dinner unpacking the current crisis of illiberalism in America and the key conservative responses. Whether you lean right or you're just trying to understand what the intellectual right is actually thinking these days (beyond the cable news version), this is the kind of evening that rewards showing up with an open mind. RSVP required; Collegiate Forum members get priority.

•7:00 PM - Beyond Tolerance: Artistic Windows into Spanish Jewish-Muslim-Christian Relations
Subject: History / Culture / Religion
Where: Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, 1 E 65th St, New York, NY
Who: Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center
What: Dr. Jerrilynn D. Dodds takes you on a visual journey through the art and architecture of medieval Spain - when Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived in a proximity so close it produced some of the most extraordinary cultural fusion in Western history. If you've ever wanted to understand what "pluralism" looked like before we had a word for it, this is your event.

🗓 Wednesday, April 15
•6:30 PM - Lectures on Tap: "Mamdani Is Mayor, Now What? Looking at the Future of NYC"
Subject: NYC Politics / Government
Where: Bar in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn (exact venue on Eventbrite listing)
Who: Lectures on Tap / Prof. Christina Greer, Fordham University
What: Zohran Mamdani is the mayor now, and the honeymoon period is... well, it depends on who you ask. Prof. Christina Greer from Fordham breaks down what we actually know so far about the Mamdani administration's direction - the early wins, the early stumbles, and what the next few months look like for a city that can't seem to agree on anything except that it's the greatest city on earth. Grab a beer and a strong opinion and head to Brooklyn.

•6:30 PM - How Movements are Built
Subject: Politics / Movements / Organizing
Where: Center for Brooklyn History
Who: Brooklyn Public Library
What: How do movements actually get built? Not the headline version, but the quiet, local, unglamorous work that happens before anything erupts into collective action. Saul Austerlitz, author of How to Assemble an Activist and co-founder of Brooklyn Resisters, moderates a panel with Council Member Alexa Avilés, political zine-maker Megan Piontkowski, and Indivisible's Molly Sandley. If you've been feeling the pressure to "do something" but aren't sure what meaningful action actually looks like, this is the conversation. That said, these guys are liberal activists, not people who want to convince people who don’t already agree with them. To me, “doing something” means engaging with people who didn’t vote your way and figuring out where you’re right or where they have a point.

🗓 Thursday, April 16
•6:00 PM - Moments that Defined a Nation
Subject: Presidents / History
Where: Temple Emanu-El
Who: Streicker Center
What: I freaking love Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Streicker Center is inaugurating a yearlong semiquincentennial (lol that’s 250 for you non-elitists) celebration with Goodwin exploring the leadership of American presidents at defining moments in the nation's history, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and her signature wit. This is more history-politics than live partisan politics, but it's a Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian in a serious room with political overlap. If I was in town, I would go to this. Well, maybe not because it’s sold out. But I would try to get scalped tickets at the door.

🗓 Friday, April 17
•3:00 PM - The Last Human Job: The Implications of Automating Connective Labor
Subject: Technology / Labor / Philosophy
Where: CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY (Hybrid - also available online)
Who: CUNY Graduate Center
What: What happens when we automate not just factory floors and spreadsheets, but the jobs that require actual human connection - therapists, teachers, caregivers? Allison Pugh from Johns Hopkins presents her research on "connective labor" and whether AI can replicate the thing that makes us, well, us. This one starts at 3 PM (I know, I know - it's a Friday afternoon, you have a job), but it's free, and the topic is too important to skip over,

•7:00 PM - Poetry & Prose: Richie Hofmann and Benjamin A. Saltzman
Subject: Literature / Arts
Where: Book Culture, 536 W 112th St, New York, NY
Who: Book Culture
What: A reading and conversation with two writers working at the intersection of poetry and deep history. Richie Hofmann reads from The Bronze Arms, and Benjamin A. Saltzman presents Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture - a book about how the simple act of looking away became one of the most loaded gestures in Western art and literature. If your Friday night vibe is "smart people talking about things I didn't know I cared about," Book Culture on the Upper West Side has you covered. Free.

🗓 Saturday, April 18
•Evening - Queens Night Market Season Opener (Sneak Preview)
Subject: Culture / Civic Life / Food
Where: New York Hall of Science Parking Lot, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens
Who: Queens Night Market
What: The Queens Night Market is back, baby. The annual sneak preview kicks off what has quietly become one of the most democratic civic institutions in the city - dozens of vendors from every corner of the globe. If you've never been, this is the night to start. If you're a regular, you already have it circled. I’m going to go to this!

🗓 Sunday, April 19
None this week

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