In the 1970s and 1980s, my father, Sam Merrill, had an interview segment on a local radio show in New York City: Direct News. When he passed away, he left a crate full of vinyl records, each with a radio show on it. I’m digitizing and archiving his interview segments here.
To commemorate Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral primary, here’s one about being a political outsider.
In this segment, my dad interviews Senator Donald Riegle, a young (at the time) Senator without a law degree.
The topic is still a live one today: how do you get into the establishment from the outside? The problem seems easier today, in some ways—you need less money to reach people’s ears, as Mamdani’s campaign showed. Yet the party structures seem as calcified as ever, if not more so.
Also, enjoy the ad at the end.
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