BROADCASTS.com

In July, Eric Adams narrowly won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, making him the odds-on favorite to win in November. And he won the nomination by running directly against the verities of today\u2019s progressives: asserting that the police are the answer, not the problem; that \u201cdefund the police\u201d misjudged what communities of color actually want; that Democrats had lost touch with the multiracial working-class voters they claim to represent.\n\nAdams won on that message. He won in deep-blue New York City. It\u2019s made him a national figure, and he\u2019s been emphatic on what that means. \u201cI am the face of the new Democratic Party,\u201d he said. And \u201cif the Democratic Party fails to recognize what we did here in New York, they\u2019re going to have a problem in the midterm elections and they\u2019re going to have a problem in the presidential election.\u201d\n\nWhen politicians become national stories, they often release, or rerelease, a book. Adams is no exception. But instead of a campaign manifesto or an autobiography, \u201cHealthy at Last\u201d is a book about the health benefits of plant-based eating. \u201cOutspoken vegan\u201d isn\u2019t a political identity I tend to associate with ambitious politicians at odds with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but that\u2019s Adams for you. He doesn\u2019t shy away from a fight.\n\nIn this conversation, Adams and I talk about the fights he is picking, or will have to pick, in the coming years: with progressives who he thinks have lost their way, with police unions he wants to reform, with wealthy communities where he wants to build more housing, with critics who think plant-based eating is a hobby for foodie elites and with voters who may not be willing to wait for Adams\u2019s \u201cupstream\u201d approach to social problems to pay off.\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nHealthy At Last by Eric Adams\n\nBreaking The Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza\n\nYou Are The Placebo by Joe Dispenza\n\nUpstream by Dan Heath\n\nAtomic Habits by James Clear\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.