I think he said it on the podcast, babes

He spoke publicly about them on the podcast (as your quote says), but he didn’t call them dictators on the podcast, as I said.

Quoted below from the linked article, emphasis added by me.

Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee and leading candidate in the race for New York City Hall, has often spoken about housing rights and immigrant justice but stayed cautious when asked about Maduro’s authoritarian rule or Díaz-Canel’s repression in Cuba. During the interview, the duo pressed him on whether he considered them dictators. The initial answer was mild, condemning the repression in both countries but declining to call them “dictators.” However, his campaign sent a much more contundent position days after the interview:

" I want to be clear on where I stand. I believe both Nicolas Maduro and Miguel Diaz-Canel are dictators. Their administrations have stifled free and fair elections, jailed political opponents, and suppressed the free and fair press. And yet, our federal government’s long history of punitive policies toward both countries, including extrajudicial killings of Venezuelans and the continuation of a decades long blockade of Cuba, have only worsened these conditions. Democratic socialism is about dignity, justice and accountability. And above all, it’s about building a democracy that works for working people, not one that preys on them."

I was mistaken about the timeline, it was a few days rather than 2 weeks. The point is that he successfully went on the podcast and spoke to that audience (in my opinion still making distasteful concessions) and then after that he worsened his stance and called them “dictators”.