What is a Museum For?

Calling in from Istanbul, Bradley opens with impressions of a historically rich but complicated city — ancient cisterns, street cats, a shady taxi driver, and bomb-proof doors on a synagogue. Earlier, when he was in Madrid, Bradley took Abby to visit the Prado and the Thyssen, which got him thinking about the uncomfortable economics of museums: tens of billions in art, much of it in storage, underwriting tax breaks for wealthy donors while hungry people go unfed. How should we address these issues? The conversation turns to Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference, which Bradley reads as an early audition for 2028, contrasting Rubio's smooth "I'm my own person" approach with Vance's unconvincing Trump imitation. On whether Americans are actually angry at Europe, he is skeptical — ordinary people on both sides seem to like each other fine, he says, and manufactured grievance is just what demagogues do.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: [email protected] sure to watch Bradley’s TED Talk on Mobile Voting at https://go.ted.com/bradleytusk.Subscribe to Bradley's weekly newsletter and follow Bradley on Linkedin + Substack + YouTube.