"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
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Podcast Overview
"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.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
9/2/2025
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Recent Episodes
May 14, 2026
The Cover Story Is Politics — the Actual Subject Is People (Season 2 Recap)
<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>
May 5, 2026
Chuck Park Quit the State Department to Protest Trump. Now He's Running Against Grace Meng
<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 his parents' basement in Flushing with his wife and kid, and took a job at the MinKwon Center. Six years later, he is challenging seven-term incumbent Grace Meng in the Democratic primary for New York's 6th Congressional District.</p><p>In this conversation from Columbia Journalism School, Chuck Park talks about why he believes Donald Trump won a second term, why he wants to abolish ICE, why he refuses money from corporate PACs, lobbyists, and AIPAC, and why he thinks "organized people" can still beat organized money — even when his opponent has roughly eight times more cash on hand. </p><p>The primary is Tuesday, June 23.</p><p></p><p><b>What he's reading:</b></p><p><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://nypl.overdrive.com/media/257734" target="_blank"><i>Los Detectives Salvajes / The Savage Detectives</i></a><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://nypl.overdrive.com/media/257734" target="_blank"> </a>by Roberto Bolaño </p><p><b>The book he recommends about the Korean American experience:</b></p><p><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://borrow.nypl.org/search/card?id=ef101e3b-d216-5390-8deb-7f7ca326341d&entityType=FormatGroup" target="_blank"><i>Human Acts</i></a> by Han Kang </p><p></p><p><b>Where he takes visitors in NY-6:</b></p><p>The 74th Street–Roosevelt Avenue station under the 7 train, and Main Street Station in downtown Flushing.</p><p></p><p><b>Last museum exhibit he liked:</b></p><p>The <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/egyptian-art" target="_blank">Ancient Egypt galleries at the Met</a><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/egyptian-art" target="_blank"> </a>— including the reconstructed Temple of Dendur. "It's the one that everyone visits when they come to New York."</p>
April 28, 2026
Frank DiLella on Broadway's Affordability Problem (and Why It's Not Dying)
<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' <i>On Stage</i> 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 estate, and the rush tickets, TDF memberships, and Broadway Week deals New Yorkers should actually be using. We talk about why the Public Theater keeps minting hits that change the form — from <i>A Chorus Line</i> to <i>The Normal Heart</i> to <i>Hamilton</i> to <i>SUFFS</i> — and why Frank says Broadway is not dying, even when it sometimes feels that way.</p><p>Frank also walks through the Hillary Clinton and Julissa Reynoso sit-down he just landed, his pick for the most underrated show of the season heading into Tony nominations on May 5, and the Liza Minnelli memoir he's been listening to on a loop.</p><p>A New York story about the beating heart of the city — and the people doing the work to keep it pumping.</p><p></p><p><b>Book recommendation:</b> </p><p><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://borrow.nypl.org/search/card?id=e80271af-1ab7-5b6a-bb57-e470b5398aee&entityType=FormatGroup" target="_blank"><i>Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!: My Memoir</i></a> by Liza Minnelli with Michael Feinstein</p><p></p><p><b>Show pick:</b></p><p><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://liberationbway.com/" target="_blank"><i>Liberation</i> </a>by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White </p><p></p>
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