If the first part of Hasan Piker’s conversation on Newsweek's new video podcast, The 1600, was a warning shot to Democrats about the rightward drift of young men, part two is about what they can still do to turn it around—and why it might already be happening in New York City.
In the latest episode, Piker and Newsweek's Carlo Versano pick up where they left off, moving from cultural politics to electoral ones, zeroing in on the unlikely rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist on track to become New York’s next mayor.
It’s a case study, Piker says, of what happens when a Democrat stops apologizing for their progressive politics and starts organizing around them instead. “I think I’m excited to see—I want him to succeed. I want them to succeed so I can keep pointing to him as a way to prove to a lot of people who have been so scared of this left flank, this socialist alternative, that this is not scary.
“This is actually what the Democrats used to do,” he said.
Mamdani’s campaign is only part of the story. The broader argument, Piker insists, is about posture—how Democrats present themselves in a political landscape reshaped by online media, generational resentment, and collapsing trust in institutions.
Where the first half of the 1600 conversation explored how young men are drifting toward the right through grievance, alienation and algorithmic content, this installment challenges Democrats to confront their own inertia. Mamdani isn’t framed as a hero—he’s a stress test. What happens when a candidate speaks plainly? What happens when they don’t disavow?
Watch Here: The 1600 Podcast Full Episode
Piker, whose own face is now appearing in attack mailers targeting potential Mamdani voters in New York City, sees the backlash as familiar. “He’s getting the mailer treatment because they know they can’t beat him on policy,” he said. “So they’re going after vibes.”
The episode also turns to Biden and Trump—the two men that defined the political poles of the country for the past eight years. Piker draws a stark contrast between Trump’s communication style and Biden’s restraint, describing Trump as “charismatic but terrifying,” and arguing that charisma alone can carry real consequences when voters feel disconnected.
“If Biden had even 20 percent of that energy,” he said, “we’d be looking at a very different country.”
In one of the podcast’s sharper detours, the discussion turns to Graham Platner, the Senate candidate in Maine whose campaign has been rattled by old Reddit posts and an apparent Nazi tattoo. For Piker, the controversy highlights a broader dilemma: who is allowed to run for office in the digital age—and whether Democrats will continue to apply purity tests that few can pass.
“You want a candidate with zero skeletons?” he asks. “That person doesn’t exist.”
That tension brings the conversation back to Mamdani, whose campaign, Piker argues, has tested those boundaries more openly than most. In the final days before the election, top national Democratic figures like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have not publicly endorsed him, though Politico reports House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to make his endorsement imminently.
“He’s not hiding from anything,” Piker said of Mamdani. “He’s openly pro-Palestine, openly anti-cop, and still connecting with voters—that’s terrifying to the Democratic establishment.”
Piker says that’s exactly what makes this campaign so interesting. He doesn’t see Mamdani merely as a promising politician, but as a political experiment—one that could reveal how much space Democrats are willing to make for candidates who don’t fit the traditional mold.
“Democrats are terrified of taking real positions,” he said. “So they just say, ‘We’re not Republicans.’ That’s not enough.”
Whether that holds after Election Day remains to be seen. But Mamdani’s rise, Piker says, has already exposed the deeper pressures facing the party in 2025.
Watch the full conversation between Hasan Piker and Carlo Versano in the video player above or on YouTube.
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