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What Zohran Mamdani Is Listening To
“I’m just on a perpetual digital tape delay,” the New York mayoral candidate says. “That’s just my life.”
Running for mayor is an all-consuming task, after all, and despite carving out space in his schedule to appear on the leftist Hasan Piker’s popular Twitch stream, Mamdani doesn’t have much opportunity to even listen to a podcast or take in much social-media scrolling. When we spoke by phone last Friday afternoon, he swiftly cited his congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and City Councilmember Chi Ossé as major influences; both are New Media phenoms in their own right. They don’t have time to investigate that which should be made as accessible as possible, and social media is a critical tool in taking out the middleman and saying ‘This is what’s going on, this is what impacts you, this is how you can get involved.’” You don’t have to pay much closer attention to detect that there’s more than a little Bernie Sanders in the overarching shape of his communications style; that’s how he’s able to cultivate reliable call-and-response loops with supporters: “We’re running to freeze the —” “Rent!” “To make buses fast and —” “Free!”
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