As Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, was ending his interview with Ebro Darden, Laura Stylez and Peter Rosenberg, who cohost an eponymous podcast, Rosenberg cut in.
“Before we go, I promised my dad, my 79-year-old father in Maryland—reformed Zionist to pro-Palestinian freedom person that he’s become over the years,” said Rosenberg, who is Jewish and who has accused Israel of “genocide.”
“But more importantly, someone who just admires great politicians, a guy who’s holding Bobby Kennedy’s legs on the back of a convertible in the ’60s, who walks around Chevy Chase, Md., wearing three different—he has three different Zohran shirts,” the cohost told Mamdani.
“He wanted me to tell you he worries about you, he prays for you,” he said. “He’s just obsessed. Just—you have, there are lifelong, like, you know, hippy-dippy people who like, they just—”
“Shout-outs to your dad, man,” said Mamdani, who also accused the Jewish state of “genocide” and whose spokeswoman has said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events.
Stylez told the mayor that Rosenberg’s father is named “M.J.”
“Shout-outs to M.J.,” Mamdani said.
Religion came up a few times during the interview, which ran about 35 minutes.
“So obviously, there’s a ton of noise around everything you do, and we’re pretty transparent about this. Most of it, to me, a strong percentage, is just rampant and in-the-open Islamophobia, in my opinion,” Rosenberg told Mamdani earlier in the interview.
“9/11 is around the corner, and it’s 25 years. This is obviously a big deal for New Yorkers,” he said.
After Mamdani recalled being 9-years-old on Sept. 11 and the “sense of panic” among adults, teachers and others as New Yorkers tried to learn whether their loved ones in lower Manhattan were safe, Rosenberg again returned to hatred of Muslims.
“Not to mention then the secondary trauma that then happened for Muslim New Yorkers and Middle Eastern New Yorkers of all backgrounds who looked a certain way in the months and years that followed,” he said of the aftermath of 9/11.
“It led to a really horrible time of Islamophobia,” Rosenberg said. “So, in addition to like the immense tragedy that all Americans felt, you then had a group of people who not only were dealing with their own tragedies because their people were lost and they lost people but now are being villainized, because this is what we tend to do. And that is sadly not something that has changed.”
In early August, the New York City Police Department said that Jews, who make up about 10% of New Yorkers, were the targets of nearly 70% of all hate crimes in the Big Apple in July. Muslims were targeted in 15% of the city’s hate crimes in July, the department said.
In Mamdani’s first month in office, anti-Jewish hate crimes were up 182% compared to January 2025, per official statistics.
Religious names were also the subject of a conversation on the podcast. After Darden referred to the mayor as “Zohran Kwame Mamdani,” which is the same way City Hall identifies him in press releases, Rosenberg asked, “Are you giving him full name?
“Yeah, that’s the mayor of New York City,” Darden said. Rosenberg responded, “Show respect.”
“Listen, we can’t just let them weaponize his name,” Darden said. “We gotta also celebrate his name. You know what I’m saying? We gotta do that.”
Mamdani asked his interviewers if any had a middle name.
“I’m Ibrahim Jamil Darden,” Darden said.
Mamdani responded, “Salaam alaikum,” to which Rosenberg said, “Half-Jewish, half-Christian. Full Muslim name.”
On the podcast, Mamdani also reiterated his plans to participate in next week’s 25th anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even though some have called for him to be excluded.
“I will be there at the event as I was last year to commemorate those who were stolen from us, and in all of the events around that,” the mayor said. “Because what we—when we’re talking about the fear that you felt, that was something that so many New Yorkers felt, and at the same time, there were New Yorkers who felt that fear and ran towards the towers to try and save people.”
