Zohran Mamdani: The inside story behind New York’s first democratic socialist mayor

DECEMBER 13, 2025

On 1st January 2026, Zohran Mamdani takes office as New York’s first ever Democratic Socialist Mayor.  Bryn Griffiths of the Labour Left Podcast sat down with Professor Theodore Hamm to ask him how Zohran got elected and to consider what will happen next.

To help us answer these questions, about possibly the biggest success of the international left in 2025, Bryn interviewed Professor Theodore Hamm, aka Ted, the Chair of Journalism at New York’s St Joseph’s University. He writes for the New York City based Indypendent, Jacobin and most importantly of all, he’s just published the book Run Zohran Run! 

What does the podcast cover?

Ted Hamm and OR Books spotted Zohran Mamdani’s potential before he made his breakthrough in the Democratic Primary in the summer of 2025.  So, Ted, based in New York, had exclusive access to Zohran before he became an international celebrity. He also spoke to many Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) activists about their amazing campaign.

In the interview we speak about Zohran’s background and political evolution. 

We consider how the  DSA’s success was based on an approach to coalition-building and clear campaigning objectives that the whole of the international left would do well to learn from.

Inevitably Zohran’s campaign, like Corbyn’s Labour Leadership in the United Kingdom, was subject to vicious and unjust smears of antisemitism. But this time the smears didn’t work because Zohran’s campaign was what Rachel Shabi, a previous Labour Left Podcast guest, called in her recent Substack The Mamdani Masterclass on Antisemitism. The podcast takes an in-depth look at how Zohran held his ground and what lessons the international left can learn from his example.

The Red Ken parallel

It will not be lost on our English readers that a democratic socialist seizing office in a major western city is not without precedent. In the podcast we look at the Ken Livingstone precedent and how, as John McDonnell put it when he appeared on the podcast, elected socialists must see themselves as  both In and Against the State.  What could Zohran learn from the Greater London Council? What should Zohran expect from Trump and how might he resist the inevitable attacks?

The headline in London Labour Briefing when Ken Livingstone took control of the Greater London Council was London’s Ours!

How’s the podcast doing?

2025 has been a good year for the Labour Left Podcast.  Our largest number of viewers and listeners is still on You Tube but you can now subscribe to watch us on Substack and we are of course on every podcast site you can think of.  Spotify tell me that our listeners in the podcast audio format are on the up.  In 2025, the podcast audience was up 999% and we have 1.8k new listeners. Reassuringly for a long form podcast, Spotify tell me that subscribers listen to the Labour Left Podcast for longer than 92% of other shows.  During 2025 we added a video format choice for our Spotify subscribers and they tell me that the show was in the top 10% of videos on Spotify. 

Win a Prize!

The Labour Left Podcast doesn’t have the profile that Novara, Joe’s Politics or Alistair Campbell’s wretched The Rest is Politics have, so I need your help.  If you like our Labour Hub spin-off podcast, please help by reposting or making your own posts on social media to promote this podcast.  For every post you make I’ll place an entry in a draw for you to win Paul Holden’s excellent book The Fraud – Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy. The rules are simple: each time you repost one of my promotional posts on X, Facebook, Substack, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp or Bluesky, you get one entry.  If on the same platforms you make your own post and tag me, you will get an additional entry.  So, that will be a total of two entries per platform for posts promoting the Ted Hamm episode of the podcast.   You can find all the links to my socials on Linktree at https://linktr.ee/brynhgriffiths The draw will be conducted in the Odd One Out after the Tuesday 27th January meeting of our North Essex World Transformed group.

The draw prize for those who help promote the podcast on social media.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts here, Audible here, Substack here and listen to it on Spotify here.  You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast. 

If you subscribe you can catch up on our 20-plus episodes back catalogue. The top episode of 2025 was the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Other big hits have included Andrew Fisher, the man behind the 2017 manifesto For the Many Not the Few, and Rachel Shabi, the author of The Truth Behind Antisemitism.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. 

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.  You can find all the episodes of the podcast here  or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

You can purchase Ted Hamm’s excellent book  Run Zohran Run  at OR Books for the reduced price of £12.  Here is the Link.