# What Good is a State? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228/what-good-is-a-state Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228/what-good-is-a-state.md Podcast: [Firewall with Bradley Tusk](https://stenobird.com/podcast/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228) Published: 2026-05-14T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: http://firewall.media Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/c279306e-9fed-4c23-bfa4-0494117dedb2.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228/episodes/what-good-is-a-state Duration seconds: 2693 ## Resource Is there any level of American government that is actually doing its job well? Bradley sits down with his Tusk Strategies partner Shontell Plummer to talk through the slow-motion dysfunction of Albany. Why is the state budget late when there are no major issues at stake? How come Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani can't get along? What will gerrymandering do to the congressional map? Plus, what's going on with the NY-12 race and is Hakeem Jeffries cut out to be House Speaker? This episode was taped at P&T Knitwear at 180 Orchard Street — New York City’s only free podcast recording studio. Send us an email with your thoughts on today’s episode: info@firewall.media . Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack . ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228/episodes/what-good-is-a-state/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/firewall-with-bradley-tusk-7228/what-good-is-a-state.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.