From WNYC Studios, it's Brian Lair, a daily politics podcast.

It's Friday, May 13th.

We begin today with our Friday Ask the Mayor segment.

Well, no, not quite.

It's a Friday Ask the former mayor segment,

my questions and yours, for Bill de Blasio, his first appearance here since leaving office,

and a little like old times, as he did come on every Friday for most of his mayor LT, as many of you

remember. The reason we invited him back for today is that he has an article in the Atlantic

on mistakes he believes he made as mayor that he wants Joe Biden to avoid as president,

especially to help Democrats retain their congressional majorities in the midterm elections.

So we'll talk some of that New York City in the post-deblasio era as well,

but mostly national politics here. And good morning, Mr. Mayor. Feels like old times. Welcome

back to WNYC. I feel young again, Brian. It's good to be with you. And I think that's fondly

to our dialogue over many years.

So thanks for having me.

We human beings are funny creatures, you know.

We can get nostalgic for something we consider the good old days when it wasn't even five months ago.

Why aren't we funny creatures?

We are very funny creatures, although I'll tell you, it feels really, really different just humanly.

It's something I've been reflecting on a lot.

You know, they used to call, I think it was back during the 60s, someone coined the phrase that mayor of New York City is the second toughest job in America.

Yeah.

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