It’s been two years – two years! – since Zeteo was launched, and we’re now a little older, a lot bigger, and plenty of awards heavier. To celebrate our second birthday, we went back to the amazing folks at the acclaimed ‘Arabian-French bistro’ and Mehdi’s favorite Lebanese spot in New York City, Au Za’atar, but this time, with a very special guest: the one and only, Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“It is a real pleasure… to be here to celebrate the work that all of you have done,” Mayor Mamdani told Zeteo’s guests at the party, who included some of the biggest names in politics, Hollywood, academia, and entertainment. The crowd was captivated as the mayor briefly shared why he believes what we at Zeteo do is so important for democracy
“What you all have shown in a time where it is such a challenging media landscape, is the ability to still tell the same stories that have so often been overlooked to the very people who have lost faith in politics.”
It’s not every day that the super-popular democratic socialist mayor of New York shows up at your birthday party, and Mamdani did more than just give a speech; he mingled with guests and ended up in a lot of photos!
If you enjoyed this speech, above, which includes Mehdi’s light-hearted introduction for the mayor, keep an eye on your inboxes as we will soon share Mehdi’s full speech that followed Mayor Mamdani’s – not an easy person to follow! – and photos of Mehdi, Mamdani, and all of Zeteo’s big-name guests who gathered to celebrate two years of honest, hard-hitting, and unfiltered journalism.
This event was sponsored by the amazing team at Substack, which has supported and hosted Zeteo from the very beginning. A special thanks to our wonderful friends at Oneworld Publications/Penguin Random House, and Henry Holt & Company for gifting our guests copies of fantastic books from the talented Molly Crabapple and Andrea Freeman, and to Ahmad Tea for the wonderful ‘Tea Bouquet’ that accompanied the incredible reads.
And the biggest of thanks to YOU ALL, our loyal subscribers, who make our work possible and our coverage meaningful. We can only be as great as the people who support us, and we truly have the greatest of supporters to keep us independent in a media industry that is anything but.
Onwards and upwards!
