Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know

"Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know" is a New York City-based interview podcast that gets inside the minds of the people shaping our world - from rising political heavyweights to policy architects to cultural influencers. Drawing on more than two decades of reporting experience on television and radio, and on his role as Columbia University’s Professor of Local Journalism, host Juan Manuel Benítez combines sharp policy questions with unexpected personal curiosity, exploring not just what his guests think, but how they think. Each conversation reveals the books, music, experiences, and obsessions that drive decision-makers, creating intimate portraits of public figures that satisfy both news junkies and anyone curious about the human side of power. It's journalism that remembers people are people first.

Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know is a news podcast hosted by Juan Manuel Benítez, with 30 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Juan Manuel Benítez hosts Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know, a news show with 30 episodes published.

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  Episode #15

  The Cover Story Is Politics — the Actual Subject Is People (Season 2 Recap)

  May 14, 202632 minS2

  <p>For the Season 2 finale, Juan Manuel Benítez revisits the moments that stayed with him — the candid answers, the unexpected turns, and the heaviest conversations of the year. Clips from Christina Greer, Luis Miranda, Micah Lasher, Ross Barkan, Julie Tighe, Frank DiLella, Grace Rauh and Zack Fink, Christine Quinn, Julie Menin, Carmen María Rey, Chuck Park, Erik Bottcher, Dr. Alister Martin, and Antonio Reynoso. Season 3 returns later this summer.</p><p>Email Juan Manuel => juanmanyc@me.com</p>

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  Episode #14

  Chuck Park Quit the State Department to Protest Trump. Now He's Running Against Grace Meng

  May 5, 202639 minS2

  <p>Chuck Park was born in Flushing to Korean immigrants who started out as street vendors on Canal Street, selling whatever they could find on the loading docks of Bloomingdale's. He grew up to become a U.S. diplomat under President Obama, serving in Mexico, Portugal, and Canada — until 2019, when he resigned with a Washington Post op-ed that called the Foreign Service not the "Deep State" but the "Complacent State." The breaking point was a photograph: Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his two-year-old daughter, drowned face-down in the Rio Grande.</p><p>He drove back to Queens, moved into...

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  Episode #13

  Frank DiLella on Broadway's Affordability Problem (and Why It's Not Dying)

  Apr 28, 202632 minS2

  <p>Mounting a small play in London costs about £2 million. The same play on Broadway? Around $8 million. That's the math Frank DiLella lays out in this conversation about why Broadway tickets cost what they do — and what New Yorkers can actually do about it.</p><p>Frank has covered Broadway for Spectrum News' On Stage for nearly 20 years. He teaches at Fordham University. He's a multiple New York Emmy winner. And he's the person this city calls when it wants to know what's happening on a Broadway stage.</p><p>We get into the affordability question head-on: union costs, real est...

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  Episode #12

  "Still Worthy" — Alister Martin on Fathers, Patients, and the Next NYC Health Crisis

  Apr 21, 202633 minS2

  <p>Dr. Alister Martin is the 45th Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — an emergency physician, Harvard graduate, and former White House fellow who's been on the job for two months. In 72 days, roughly 450,000 New Yorkers lose their Essential Plan coverage. HR.1 hits Medicaid in January. The CDC has been gutted, the federal government has pulled out of the WHO, and childhood vaccination rates in New York are slipping. The World Cup arrives in June. Martin's answer on all of it is the same: New York is not waiting for Washington.</p><p>But th...

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  Episode #11

  He Hired Mamdani to Run His Campaign. Now Ross Barkan Is Writing His Book

  Apr 14, 202638 minS2

  <p><b>DESCRIPTION</b></p><p>Ross Barkan covered New York City politics for years before running for office himself. He lost. His campaign manager was a little-known political operative named Zohran Mamdani. That man is now the mayor of New York City.</p><p></p><p>Barkan is one of the sharpest journalists covering the Mamdani administration — and he reveals in this conversation that he is writing the definitive book on Mamdani's election and early months in office, due out in October from Random House.</p><p></p><p>He is also the author of Colossus, a new novel ou...

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