Happy Tuesday in New York City, where, as Zohran Mamdani shakes off the afterglow of perhaps his most successful week as mayor, it seems as good a time as any to ask: what are Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams up to?

The two former power players in New York politics were stunned by Mamdani’s unlikely rise during the mayoral election last year. Both ran as independents in an attempt to steal moderate Democrats away from the socialist upstart, but fell short in an election day upset that banished them to the world of civilian life.

Former mayor Adams has been enjoying his time out of the public eye. Soon after leaving office, Adams embarked on a global tour to some of his favorite international destinations — including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dubai and Senegal  — to pitch himself as a political consultant. He also launched an ill-fated cryptocurrency venture that quickly rose to a $600 million valuation before plummeting 75% in value in a single day, leading to accusations of deception and fraud. In April, he became a citizen of Albania.

Adams’ name is also circulating in the news lately due to a zombie charter commission he created on his last day in office. The Charter Revision Commission, stocked with Adams allies, has been pushing to open a vote on moving New York primaries from a closed-party to open-party system, a move that could hurt Mamdani’s chances of getting reelected in 2029.

Mamdani moved to kill the commission a month ago, but the group is now suing the mayor, the governor and the Board of Elections on the grounds that they were illegally targeted.

Cuomo, for his part, is also setting his sights on a new crypto venture. The former governor announced last week that he will be leading a partnership between the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and crypto company OKX, with the aim of “advanc[ing] development of tokenised assets, institutional-grade digital asset derivatives, and 24/7 trading infrastructure.”

If you’ve heard the name OKX before, it might be because the crypto company became a point of attack during the mayoral election last year. Cuomo acted as a special advisor to OKX despite a federal investigation into the company. Earlier this year, OKX pleaded guilty to operating illegally in the United States and agreed to pay more than $500 million in penalties.

“It was my position from the very beginning. I know the company well. I know how it operates ... I do believe this is also going to do a great public service,” Cuomo said in an interview. “The technology is here, it’s not going back in a box ... use it, innovate, and thrive or stagnate and die.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdani will meet with City Council Speaker Julie Menin today to shake hands on a final budget for the coming fiscal year.

Kim Stanley Robinson, best known for writing science fiction, is devoted to Earth and its people. On Tuesday, June 16, the author addressed a sold-out crowd at Pioneer Works on utopias, space exploration and how humans can survive climate change for the latest installment of the center’s “Science and Fiction” series.

“Science and Fiction” is hosted by Janna Levin, director of Sciences at Pioneer Works, professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College and co-editor-in-chief of the Pioneer Works Broadcast magazine. She studies and writes about black holes and cosmology, the study of the origins and evolution of the universe.

Robinson has often turned to Levin throughout his career to write the novels that some call “hard sci-fi,” a genre that adheres closely to real-life science. Robinson calls it realism.

Read on to learn more.

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