Starcast Join the waitlist
Impolitic with John Heilemann

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Anand Giridharadas: Jordan Neely, Daniel Penny, Donald Trump & The Politics of Abandonment

Oct 12, 2026 · 1h 29m

Coming soon to iPhone. Already have it? “Listen in Starcast” takes you straight there.

On this episode

About this episode

John welcomes journalist Anand Giridharadas to discuss his new best-selling book, “Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City,” about the death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway train after being placed in a chokehold by another passenger, Daniel Penny. Anand explains what drew him to the headline-making story of Neely, a homeless, mentally ill Black man, and the white Long Islander who subdued him, that became a Rorschach test for the country’s political and racial tribes; and how despite their conflicting views of public order in post-pandemic America, those tribes are animated by a shared sense of abandonment by the institutions meant to protect and serve us…