A weekly dive into the big questions about this city of ours, hosted by Christina Greer, Azi Paybarah and Harry Siegel, and produced by Alex Brook Lynn.
Episode 379: The Case for Voting "Yes" to the Big Question on the Back of Your Ballot
Sasha Ahuja, the campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, makes the case for voting "yes" on Proposition 1 — and explains what the update to the state constitution would and would not do.
Then hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss whether it's too soon to count out Eric Adams as a mayoral candidate, and the coming ticker tape parade for the Liberty after they brought New York its first basketball championship since 1976 and Brooklyn its first sports championship since 1955.
10/21/2024 • 38 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 378: Adams Attempts an Admin Reboot
In the midst of a great season for New York sports, Eric Adams is racing to rebuild his organization on the fly while investigators are closing in on him and his inner circle. Is there some reason to trust the process now that most of the top officials recently raided by the FBI have been pushed out, while more public service minded officials are being placed in top positions?
Hosts Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss that, the exhaustion of raking all this muck, why New Yorkers have been so sour on the mayor for so long, and much more.
10/14/2024 • 34 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 377: The City Hall Soap Opera Is Suddenly Killing Off Its Cast
The Adams administration departures are happening at a pace the podcast can’t match. Hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan dig into Monday morning’s news about Phil Banks’ exit—but recorded too soon to cover the resignation of Winnie Greco and the firing of Rana Abbasova.
Chrissy and Katie did also discuss who would want to board the Titanic right now, how city politics became “a non-stop soap opera,” the “interesting spot” Gov. Kathy Hochul finds herself in as Adams cleans house at her firm request, and much more.
10/7/2024 • 24 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 376: How A Wild New Supreme Court Decision About a Small Time Mayor’s $13,000 Tip Could Bail Out Eric Adams
Co-hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the high court’s ruling in June that public servants are free to accept gratuities in exchange for their public actions, which the mayor’s attorneys brought up Monday in a motion to dismiss the charges against him.
Plus, the pod digs into a new poll conducted just before the mayor was charged that shows New Yorkers overwhelmingly disapprove of his job performance, whether the city can still function while Mayor Adams fights the charges against him, and how his case and the city’s future could both be determined by what happens in the presidential election this November.
9/30/2024 • 24 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 375: Hizzoner is a Defendant Now and ‘It's Going to Get Weirder’
For the first time, New York City’s sitting mayor is now a criminal defendant — one who says the 57-page case against him is a pack of “lies” and that the federal government and the city’s permanent powers are trying to bring him down for doing right by New Yorkers.
In an “emergency” episode marking this historical moment, Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel dig into the case against the mayor, his public defense, where the city looks to be going from here, how the example of Donald Trump looms over all of this, and much more.
9/26/2024 • 31 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 374: Could This One Simple Fix Save American Democracy?
Venture capitalist and political strategist Bradley Tusk joins hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel to discuss his new book, Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Saving Democracy, proposing a tech solution to the seemingly intractable problem of low-turnout local elections leading to ever-more radical politics.
And Tusk, who’s a supporter of the podcast, digs into the mess Eric Adams has made for himself, and how the mayor could still dig his away out of it. That starts, he says, with not getting indicted — and then defining himself as a mayor who's produced for New Yorkers while boxing in his challengers to compete for the progressive share of the primary vote in a citywide contest that includes many more moderate Democrats.
9/23/2024 • 43 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 373: Adams Tries To Turn the Corruption Probes Page and ‘Write My Own Story’
The hits keep coming as Eric Adams' chief counsel walked away, effective immediately, on Saturday night, an associate director of a mayor's office got fired after he allegedly told a business member to pay off the former police commissioner's brother, two former FDNY chiefs just got charged with corruption, another Democrat launched a run again the mayor and a Republican announced his plan to run if Adams can'f finish his term.
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel talk about all that, and how the mayor on Monday tried to turn the page and reassert his narrative about grinding away and getting stuff done on the issues New Yorkers care about, explaining that "I want to write my own story—and this story is how great we have done.”
9/16/2024 • 34 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 372: Adams Tries to Keep Grinding as the Feds Chip Away
The FBI raided the homes of Eric Adams' closest allies last week in what look to be two new federal investigations of the mayor and his inner circle altogether, making four . This isn't normal and it isn't good, but the mayor — comparing himself to the biblical character Job — says he's done nothing wrong, stands by his police commissioner who just his phones seized, and is going to stay focused and keep grinding on behalf of New Yorkers.
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss all of the "gossip and hearsay" inside and outside of City Hall, and much more — including the cautious responses so far from the Democrats aiming to challenge Adams in next year's primary, which looks to be the first competitive one against a sitting mayor since David Dinkins upset Ed Koch in 1989, and the question of "why would Eric Adams say anything," when "shutting up is free."
9/9/2024 • 29 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 371: Is Eric Adams Hitting the Limits of His Political Prowess?
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel dig into the mayor’s insistence on seeing through the nomination of a chief lawyer for the city even after lawmakers made it clear they wouldn’t approve his nominee.
They also discuss what a second Trump administration would mean for New York, the possibility of a strong challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul from within the Democratic party, what's wrong with journalists who "discover" news after reading about it in other people’s reporting, and much more.
9/3/2024 • 27 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 370: It's All Coming Up Central Park Somehow
Hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan discuss Mayor Eric Adams’ low profile at the DNC in Chicago, the so-called Central Park Five’s powerful appearance there, and why it’s good that Beryoncé didn’t show up after all.
They also dig into the city’s surge in COVID cases, the latest death of a detainee at Rikers and, speaking of Central Park, RFK Jr.’s bizarre shaggy bear story.
8/26/2024 • 25 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 369: High Tide in New York City
Hosts Katie and Harry discuss the federal investigations into Mayor Eric Adams, at least of one which appears to headed to either charges or its end soon, and why those matter even if "ordinary" New Yorkers mostly don't care.
They also dig into the NYC subplots of this week's Democratic Convention in the Second City, George Santos' guilty plea, stranded air travelers, weekend beach closures, what to expect from protesters in the Fall, and more.
8/19/2024 • 22 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 368: Introducing Lit NYC — All Roads Lead to Language City
In the debut episode of Lit NYC, the FAQ NYC Podcast Network's off-cycle show covering books, art, music and more, you'll be hearing from Ross Perlin, author of the brilliant Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues, and co-director of the Endangered Languages Alliance.
He sat down at the Alliance's office in Manhattan to talk with Haidee Chu, Queens reporter for The City and a native Cantonese speaker, and monolingual Harry Siegel, to discuss his work mapping the languages spoken here in what may be the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the world, why our melting pot is also a threat to some of those languages, and much more.
8/17/2024 • 43 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 367: ‘Turn Out to Vote or Get Left to the Wolves’
The New Yorkest podcast takes a minute to shout out the New Yorker article about us, and the mayor, and then to fill listeners on the upcoming LIT NYC, which will be the new home of arts, books, culture, music and more coverage while FAQ NYC sticks to politics.
After that, hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry get down to business, talking about another bizarre week of bad headlines about Mayor Eric Adams' friends in the NYPD brass, including Yaov Gonan's latest report in The City about the commissioner who still counts as a cop when it comes to carrying a gun but not when it comes to being subject to civilian oversight, why most New Yorkers don't care about any of that, and much more.
8/12/2024 • 33 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 366: Jumaane Williams on Eric Adams and ‘The Politics of Fear’
The public advocate joins FAQ NYC for an extended interview about how "the law-and-order mayor chooses not to follow the laws that are passed," the very different conversations he used to have with Borough President Eric Adams, the merits of ranked-choice voting and much more.
That includes Williams’ view of why “if anybody had a mandate, it wasn't him. It was the rest of us” who were elected at the same time “with a very different vision of public safety.”
8/5/2024 • 43 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 365: City Hall Heats Up Cold War with City Council
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss some of the news from another jam-packed week in New York City, including the big march in support of the Council member who allegedly bit a cop and NYPD chief of patrol Jeffrey Maddrey getting off the hook on the latest charges against him for allegedly abusing his authority in an incident first reported by THE CITY.
They also dig into the emergency order the mayor issued this weekend suspending parts of a new law intended to end solitary confinement in Rikers Island and other city lockups, the cold shoulder City Hall has turned toward reporters — and City Hall’s new ballot proposals New Yorkers will vote on in November that would, among other things, limit the power of the City Council, and that knocked a Council proposal to have advice and consent of top mayoral appointees off of the ballot.
7/29/2024 • 29 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 364: The Democratic Party Bites Back
Hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss the national news, what the Democratic Party's shakeup — and a second Trump term — could mean for New York City, and much more from this unprecedented presidential moment.
7/22/2024 • 41 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 363: The City’s Elections Are Sneaking Up Fast
The 2025 campaign just unofficially kicked off with new fundraising numbers, and NYC could be in for a wild game of musical chairs. Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss that and a national political moment that makes it hard for most New Yorkers to think about a primary that's just 11 months away and seems likely to be a rare competitive race against a sitting Democratic mayor.
7/15/2024 • 31 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 362: ‘A Rallying Cry’ for Eric Adams
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss The Rev. Al Sharpton’s op-ed making the case for a second term for the city’s second Black mayor and much more.
7/9/2024 • 25 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 361: The Manhattan That Was
“They all disappear. That's the thing. It's extremely ephemeral” — Jill Gill, the 91-year-old author of Site Lines: Lost New York 1954-2022, talks with host Harry Siegel about her paintings and capturing a changing city in the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle.
7/5/2024 • 32 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 360: ‘A Good Lifeguard Never Gets Wet’
Hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry talk about NYC's $112 billion budget, changes in the summer swimming season, "gentrification in the ocean" and much more.
7/1/2024 • 26 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 359: Election Night Extra: The Wright Stuff
Ben Max, the executive editor of New York Law School’s Center for New York City Law and host of the Max Politics podcast, joins FAQ NYC to talk with Christina Greer and Harry Siegel about the results of a big primary night.
6/26/2024 • 35 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 358: Real Life Funnies and Sidewalk Epiphanies
For two decades, Stan Mack published a weekly cartoon strip in the Village Voice in which he listened to New Yorkers and documented their sayings and subcultures, assuring readers: “all dialogue guaranteed verbatim.”
Now Mack and Fantagraphics have compiled hundreds of highlights from his archives into a book called “Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995,” a document of late-20th century New York City — a time before cellphones when life was lived out loud.
He talks with guest host Alyssa Katz, THE CITY’s Executive Editor who worked at the Voice early in her career, in the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle.
6/22/2024 • 40 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 357: The New Pride Agenda
Hosts Katie and Chrissy talk with Elisa Crespo, executive director of New Pride Agenda, about the biggest issues for LGBTQAI+ New Yorkers.
6/17/2024 • 38 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 356: LISTEN: What Happens After the Governor Pulls the Emergency Brake on Congestion Pricing?
Our Katie Honan and transportation reporter for THE CITY, Jose Martinez, discuss the Governor's recent withdrawal from putting congestion pricing into effect on June 30th, the consequences of that, and the state's ongoing pattern of advancing the plan and then procrastinating indefinitely.
6/10/2024 • 33 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 355: ‘The Answer Is Always Money’
6/3/2024 • 35 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 354: A Place That Women Ruled
Julie Satow, author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion, talks with guest host Sarah Shears in the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off-Cycle.
6/1/2024 • 46 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 353: The Past of New York’s Past, with Harvey Wang
The namesake of Harvey Wang's New York, talks with host Harry Siegel about shooting the hold-outs in trades and businesses that were vanishing in the 1980s and early 1990s, old New Yorks past and present, and much more.
5/26/2024 • 47 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 352: Reign of the Summer Mayor
Co-hosts Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss The City's new summer newsletter, the mayor's messaging mess, and much more.
5/20/2024 • 23 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 351: NYC’s Students Take a Seat at the Table
For the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle, Host Katie Honan talks with Jose Santana, a senior at Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School in the Bronx, about his work as one of the New York City public student journalists producing the new podcast PS Weekly.
5/18/2024 • 28 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 350: Hizzoner Meets His Holiness
Eric Adams, now facing a second Democratic challenger, said he was praying for the press while ducking their questions and blessing our own Katie Honan on his way to meet the Pope in Vatican City. Meantime, the mayor finally started repping for the Knicks, who promptly stopped winning, as the NYPD is pretty much mocking the oversight efforts of the City Council and Department of Investigation. All that and much more gets discussed on the latest episode of FAQ NYC.
5/14/2024 • 34 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 349: One Video to Rule Them All
Gwynne Hogan, senior reporter for THE CITY, joins hosts Chrissy and Harry to discuss what it’s been like reporting on the NYPD from inside the “frozen zone” it established inside and around the Columbia campus, the NYPD’s wild new messaging machine that’s pumping out flashy action videos and angry tweets while reporters are stuck glimpsing the action through a glass darkly, and much more.
5/6/2024 • 35 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 348: Is It Giuliani Time Again?
Jeff Mays of the New York Times joins hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry to discuss Mayor Eric Adams ousting the head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, trying to install Randy Mastro as the city's now corporation counsel, reversing some of his own cuts in a $111.6 billion executive budget proposal, and much more.
4/29/2024 • 38 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 347: ‘Don't Fudge It in the Budget’
Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein joins hosts Katie Honan and Harry Siegel to break down what we know about the nearly quarter-trillion_ dollar state budget that just dropped, weeks late, what to expect from the city's ongoing budget negotiations, and much more.
4/22/2024 • 42 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 346: The Trump Trial Circus Is Here
Hosts Christina and Katie discuss that plus the NYPD’s hyper-aggressive attempt to reclaim the narrative, two police killings of emotionally disturbed people, and much more.
4/16/2024 • 35 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 345: Investigating the Detective
In the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle, journalist Steve Fishman talks with Harry about his his new podcast, The Burden, where he speaks with and digs into the history of former NYPD super-cop Louis Scarcella, the detective who locked up New York’s baddest guys back in the city’s “bad old days” — and with the convicted murderers turned jailhouse law firm who won their freedom by digging into police work that sometimes seemed, as journalists will joke, too good to check.
4/13/2024 • 52 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 344: 'From a Concerned New Yorker’
Chrissy and Harry discuss a week where the earth shook, the sun hid and everything else in New York City kept on ticking, plus how Mayor Eric Adams is positioning himself for his reelection campaign next year and much more.
4/8/2024 • 36 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 343: The Power of Magical Thinking
Albert Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project breaks down the problems with the mayor’s plan to deploy "weapons detectors" — which are really just metal tube detectors — in the train system. Plus hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss the NYPD's hyper-aggressive new approach to its perceived enemies on social media, and much more.
4/3/2024 • 39 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 342: Lucy Sante Reflects on Writing the Story of Her Life, and Her Transition
The writer returns to the pod for an depth-conversation about her new memoir, I Heard Her Calling My Name.
3/29/2024 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 20 seconds
Episode 341: The Harassment Tax on Women
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss the Adams administration's women problem — and why his political rivals aren't talking about it — Trump's trials, the groups railing against congestion pricing and much more.
3/25/2024 • 34 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 340: Another Death Spiral for a Manhattan Hospital
Hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry talk subway scares and safety, and Politico New York health care reporter Maya Kaufman breaks down her reporting on Beth Israel transferring out seriously ill ER patients and much more.
3/18/2024 • 48 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 339: The Guard is Underground and the Vibes Are Grim
Hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss Kathy Hochul's wild decision to deploy the National Guard in New York City's subway system, and much more.
3/11/2024 • 26 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 338: An FBI Raid and a 3-K Pickle
Chrissy, Katie and Harry dig into what's happening with Winnie Greco, Eric Adams and the feds, and Politico NY education reporter Madina Touré breaks down what's happening with the city's badly needed yet under-filled 3-K program.
3/4/2024 • 41 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 337: ‘The Whole Point of Government’
Hosts Christina and Harry talk about e-bike fires, Letitia James’s winning streak, and much more.
2/26/2024 • 27 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 336: The Freaks Came Out To Write
In a pre-internet world, the Village Voice was a newspaper like no other: a haven for writers about avant garde arts, Black politics, queer identity and a million things more — and that's after the pages devoted to exposing the seamy side of New York City politics. In this episode of FAQ NYC, Alyssa Katz, the executive editor of THE CITY who worked at the Voice early in her career, interviews Tricia Romano, author of the new book "The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of The Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture."
2/24/2024 • 38 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 335: Trump’s Trials and NYC’s Plague Year
Hosts Chrissy and Katie discuss the $364 million former President Trump was ordered to pay to New York in a fraud case, as well as his brand-new sneakers and the FBI's investigation into the FDNY. Plus, there's a Vital City interview between physician and epidemiologist Jay Varma and Sociologist Erik Klinenberg, author of the newly published book ‘2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed.’
2/21/2024 • 1 hour, 15 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 334: Hazard NYC: The Gowanus Canal
The Gowanus Canal is a “toxic Wonderland” in the midst of a neighborhood undergoing a complicated transformation. Hear from locals, government officials and developers about the future of the area — and what challenges stand in the way of a cleaner, more resilient community. Samantha Maldonado, senior reporter at THE CITY, and independent journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré dig in on the final episode of Hazard NYC, a four-part FAQ NYC Presents limited series exploring the city’s Superfund sites.
2/14/2024 • 25 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 333: Hazard NYC: The Wolff-Alport Chemical Company
A small patch of land and the buildings located on it contain radiological contamination, posing a cancer risk for workers on the site and nearby neighbors. Work is ongoing to get rid of the threat — but it hasn’t been easy to get there. Samantha Maldonado, senior reporter at THE CITY, and independent journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré dig in on episode three of Hazard NYC, a four-part FAQ NYC Presents limited series exploring the city’s Superfund sites.
2/14/2024 • 21 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 332: Hazard NYC: The Meeker Ave. Plume
An underground spill of chemicals in North Brooklyn is the latest focus of community efforts to clean up a neighborhood that’s long dealt with industrial pollution. Hear from locals who live on top of the so-called Meeker Avenue Plume and want people to remember, as one neighbor said, “It’s more than just a toxic site.” THE CITY’s senior reporter Samantha Maldonado and independent journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré dive in on episode two of Hazard NYC, a four-part FAQ NYC Presents limited series exploring the city’s Superfund sites.
2/14/2024 • 21 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 331: Hazard NYC: Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek is one of the country’s most polluted waterways. Flooding from sea level rise and storms threatens to spread the creek’s contamination and bring pollution from outside the water into it. The feds are figuring out how to include climate change into the clean-up plan they’re developing. THE CITY’s senior reporter Samantha Maldonado and independent journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré dive in on episode one of Hazard NYC, a four-part FAQ NYC Presents limited series exploring the city’s Superfund sites.
2/13/2024 • 24 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 330: NYC's Terrible HIV and AIDS Blindspot
Guest host Richard Kim, THE CITY's editor in chief, talks to journalists Kai Wright and Lizzy Wright about their Blindspot podcast digging into the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and focusing on overlooked populations including intravenous drug users, incarcerated people, and the pediatric patients separated from their families "who lived and died their entire lives on the ward of Harlem Hospital" — and the individuals and communities who stepped up and stepped in where institutions failed.
2/11/2024 • 50 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 329: Tin Cup Day
Will Eric Adams finally have his Aaron Judge year in Albany, or at least get north of the Mendoza line? The FAQ hosts discuss that, the dark and distorted ways local New York City news is showing up nationally as the presidential election gets underway and much more.
2/5/2024 • 34 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 328: Once a Cop, Always a Cop
On the FAQ NYC podcast, Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss the brouhaha over a police officer pulling over Public Safety Chair Yusef Salaam in the middle of an online City Council hearing, and much more. Plus, Craig Gurian of the Anti-Discrimination Center explains his group's settlement with the city that sharply cuts the share of affordable housing units that can be set aside for people inside of a given community district — and why that’s a good thing. Listen here.
1/30/2024 • 56 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 327: A Staff Walkout at the Daily News
Journalists Ellen Moynihan, Chris Sommerfeldt and Michael Sheridan talk to host Katie Honan about why almost the entire staff of New York's hometown paper is walking out of their newsroom, such as it is, on Thursday, and why that matters.
1/25/2024 • 25 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 326: Is Democracy Reemerging Inside of NYC’s Dominant Democratic Party?
Do old politicians ever learn new tricks? And what do they do when new politicians try and claim their spaces? The FAQ NYC crew discusses all of that, and much more.
1/22/2024 • 25 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 325: Is It a Crime, Empire State Edition
Katie Honan, Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss the mayor and the governor's budget proposals, Eric Adams' legal defense and campaign fundraising, and more.
1/17/2024 • 33 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 324: A Tale of Two Adamses
With his approval rating below 30%, Mayor Eric Adams has been trading personal barbs with the public advocate while his administration refuses to implement a law passed by the City Council. Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss whether there’s a method to his madness, and much more.
1/9/2024 • 26 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 323: How U.S. Cities Lost the Plot on Mass Transit
In his new book, “The Lost Subways of North America,” author and cartographer Jake Berman has compiled nearly two dozen historical portraits of cities from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. to show how the great and not-so-great mass transit systems of the U.S. and Canada came to be and what their history tells us about America’s future. In this episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle, THE CITY Executive Editor Alyssa Katz interviews Berman about the art of mapmaking, the secrets to the success of the few cities where riding the subway or other mass transit is the norm instead of the exception, and the future of New York City’s subways.
1/5/2024 • 32 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 322: Eric Adams' Deck of Jokers
What's up with the City Hall's undisciplined approach of calling reporters "clowns"? The FAQ NYC crew kicks off 2024 with a discussion of that and much more.
1/3/2024 • 23 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 321: New York Minutes for Ink-Stained Wretches
In the third and final installment of the pod's year-end mini-series of stories about a "New York minute," you'll hear from Michael Gartland and Ellen Moynihan of the Daily News, telling yarns about found beef, cops and lost cats. They’re followed by Justin Miller of New York Magazine on hearing an unsolicited tale of massages and romances. Finally, Mark Jacobson, the journalist and novelist who, among other things, wrote the articles Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet and The Return of Superfly that respectively became the TV show Taxi and the movie American Gangster, with a ramble about comedy in the city back in the day.
12/30/2023 • 32 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 320: Another New York Minute
In the second of three year-end episodes featuring stories about "a New York minute," natives Katie Honan and David Ray Martinez talk soap operas and families before transplants J.T. Price and Adam Levy talk about courteous robbers and courting wives.
12/28/2023 • 42 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 319: ‘A New York Minute’
Here's the first of three off-beat, year-end episodes of stories about a New York minute, with a pair about the drug business told by Cliff Schecter and Steve Lynn, and then a pair about gloom, glamor and gunmption told by Huge Perez and Flo Ankah.
12/28/2023 • 37 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 318: Adams’ Angst Is Real
The mayor's poll numbers are down and the vultures are out, but there's still a year and a half before voters are supposed to have their say again.
12/12/2023 • 33 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 317: George Santos Defines Democracy's Deterioration
Is Eric Adams really in political trouble? Will George Santos ever really go away? Are the Mekons truly golden? Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss all that and much more.
12/5/2023 • 35 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 316: N.Y. vs. Everything
Politico's new New York editor Sally Goldenberg visits the pod to talk about the state of the city now, what she saw in her months in the wilderness covering the Republican presidential campaign, and much more.
12/2/2023 • 46 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 315: Is This ‘A City in Crisis’?
Mayor Eric Adams, who won office talking about making New York feel safer, is cutting spending on core services even as his own poll numbers are plummeting and as critics are talking, however cynically, about “a city in crisis.” Co-hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss all that, the last big cases to emerge from the Adult Survivors Act and much more.
11/28/2023 • 39 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 314: Pigeon Swag, Queens Boys and Turkey Talk
Remember that time that Andrew Cuomo tried to push aside Carl McCall? Co-host Christina Greer does. With the former governor reportedly considering a run against newly embattled Mayor Eric Adams, she and Katie Honan talk about that episode and lots more.
11/23/2023 • 45 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 313: A Novel About Flying Cars Lands Right on Time
Bradley Tusk joins host Harry Siegel to discuss his new novel, Obvious in Hindsight, about a company working to legalize flying cards and — sound familiar? — a mayor of New York City in the crosshairs of the FBI.
11/20/2023 • 34 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 312: What George Santos Sees in the Mirror
Mark Chiusano, author of "The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos," talks with guest host Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post about this character in the aftermath of the brutal new House ethics report about him.
11/18/2023 • 39 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 311: A Drip Drip Drip That Eric Adams Can’t Abide
A conversation about the mayor, the feds, the “geniuses” doing communications and much more, with co-hosts Katie Honan and Harry Siegel.
11/14/2023 • 28 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 310: Election Extra with Ben Max
A Republican beat an incumbent to claim a Council seat in the Bronx, while a Republican incumbent fell short in Brooklyn.
11/8/2023 • 33 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 309: The Feds Move In and the Mayor Leans Back
Forget about Trump testifying and everything else from another jam-packed week in New York City: Chrissy, Katie and Harry spend all of this episode talking about the FBI's raid of his chief fundraiser's house and where that leaves Eric Adams and New York City.
11/6/2023 • 33 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 308: The FDNY Keeps Shutting Down Migrant Shelters
Co-hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss kids in tents, city hall’s crude insult comedy, Eric Adams’ strong political hand and much more.
10/30/2023 • 28 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 307: NYC's New Plan for Migrant Families ‘Is Like Being a Little Bit Pregnant’
Christine Quinn and Bishop Matthew Heyd explain how their new coalition, called NY Sane, aims to pressure the mayor and governor to treat migrants the same way they would any one else seeking shelter here.
10/23/2023 • 29 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 306: The Mayor Can't Help It
Co-hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss Eric Adams' discipline problem, Republican allies, his multi-lingual AI voice avatar and much more.
10/17/2023 • 28 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 305: LISTEN: A Shrill Trump, Rude Throats and Dread Clamours
What did Eric Adams trip south of the border accomplish? The FAQ NYC hosts discuss that and much more in an episode centered on how the world's events register, with or without pomp and circumstance, in the city's politics.
10/11/2023 • 24 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 304: The Sign Painters’ Image Shaper
Katie Honan talks with Aviram Cohen about his work supporting brothers Carlos and Miguel Cevallos as their hand-painted signs went from a secret of sorts to a sensation.
10/8/2023 • 33 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 303: LISTEN: Adams Unleashes Flood of Words After Storm Silence
Following his failure to communicate before his city was flooded, the mayor made the media rounds to insist he’d performed perfectly. Sound familiar? Come to hear hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss that, and stick around for an enlightening interview with Adams, speaking with Vital City, about gun violence, the right way and the wrong way for police to do stops, questions and frisks, and much more.
10/2/2023 • 53 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 302: High Times, NYC an an Exceptional Agent of Chaos
Author Sean Howe goes deep into some of the stories in his wild new book, "Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s."
9/30/2023 • 47 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 301: If You Zone It, They Will Build
City Planning Commission Director Daniel Garodnick makes the case for the Adams administration’s hugely ambitious new plan to update “our zoning rules that have over time gotten in the way,” so that developers can build what City Hall has described as “a little more housing in every neighborhood” adding up to a projected 100,000 new homes over 15 years.
9/26/2023 • 40 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 300: Three Rocks, Two Cartoonists and the Story of the Bronx Boy Behind ‘Nancy’
Bill Griffith discusses his new graphic novel, "Three Rocks," about Ernie Bushmiller, the cartoonist who created the iconic strip, and goes deep into some New York City newspaper history in the process.
9/23/2023 • 45 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 299: ‘When Does the Hard Part Start?’ This Is the Hard Part.
Just two years ago, more than 90 percent of New Yorkers applying for food stamps and other benefits received them in a timely fashion. Now, it’s fewer than 30 percent. Co-hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss what it means for New Yorkers, and for the mayor, when stuff isn’t getting done, and much more.
9/19/2023 • 34 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 298: Why Doesn’t NYC Just Let Migrants Work?
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie rejoins the pod for a lively conversation about his plan for the city to do just that, and much more.
9/12/2023 • 44 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 297: The Mayor's Magical Thinking
Eric Adams is done with Covid, but Covid may not be done with New York City. The FAQ NYC hosts dig into that and much more in a post-Labor Day, return-of-the-school-year episode.
9/6/2023 • 28 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 296: New Yorkers Run Low on Sympathy for Migrants as the Feds Run Low on Sympathy for NYC
With a new poll showing most people in the city think New York has already done enough for migrants, co-host Christina Greer talks with Harry Siegel about what that means for a place where a lot of people are "progressive in theory," why she's sounding an alarm for Eric Adams given the history of Black mayors in America, and much more.
8/31/2023 • 39 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 295: Who's in Charge Here?!
Hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan break down another jam-packed week in New York City, covering migrant housing plans, questionable donors to Adams' 2021 campaign, and who holds down the city when the mayor, for a variety of possible reasons, cannot.
8/25/2023 • 25 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 294: ‘The Greatest Disappointment Is the Governor’
Dave Giffen of the Coalition for the Homeless and Josh Goldfein of Legal Aid talk with Katie Honan about what Kathy Hochul should be doing but is not as "she's apparently forgotten she's also the governor of people who live in New York City," what Mayor Eric Adams is saying that doesn't hold up, and much more.
8/17/2023 • 42 minutes, 1 second
Episode 293: A Different Way of Shooting Drugs
Photographer Stephen Yang joins Alex Brook Lynn and Harry Siegel for a conversation about capturing private moments in public settings, the differences between photojournalism and street photography, why tabloids have traditionally frowned on high-contrast shots (spoiler: those require too much black ink to print) and much more.
8/13/2023 • 53 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 292: Beware of Sharks, and Drones
Albert Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project joins hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel to dig into the problems with automated enforcement, the perils in letting police collect too much data, and more.
8/9/2023 • 54 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 291: ‘The Radios Will Go Dark. You Will Hear Nothing.’
Journalist Todd Maisel spent 40 years listening to police scanners, letting the scratchy radio sounds guide him to some of the biggest news stories in New York City. He's now sounding the alarm over the NYPD's plan to encrypt these radios -- turning them off for everyone who isn't in the police. "Do we trust he police to tell the truth? I don't," he told FAQ. Silent radios "is bad for the public, it's bad for checks and balances, it is a real problem," he said. Listen to the full interview here.
8/6/2023 • 33 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 290: ‘It's Not Going to Get Any Better’
Christina Greer and Harry Siegel dig into New York City's collapsing right to shelter, the unlikely companies the Adams administration is paying to provide services to migrants and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City.
8/1/2023 • 29 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 289: Unpacking the Eric Adams Playbook
Jeff Coltin joins Christina Greer and Katie Honan to dig into how the mayor and his prospective 2025 challengers are positioning himself, and all the news from another jam-packed week in New York City.
7/25/2023 • 47 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 288: The Three C's
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel talk about the new NYPD commish Eddie Caban, Crime and Corruption, and much more.
7/19/2023 • 29 minutes, 1 second
Episode 287: A Plan for a Retail Revival
Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future lays out the group's ideas for what government can do to help new small businesses prosper.
7/14/2023 • 35 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 286: Red (Ex-Mayor) Table Talk
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel talk about the 109th mayor of New York City’s very public separation, the 110th mayor’s press strategy, and much more.
7/5/2023 • 39 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 285: Big-Time Upsets in a Low Turnout Election
Ben Max joins Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel to break down everything that happened in a contest that most New Yorkers missed.
6/28/2023 • 39 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 284: The Digital Revolution Is a Local NYC Story
Ben Smith, the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral, talks with Azi Paybarah about Silicon Alley, the internet of the early 2000s, and why local politics is less scalable than it used to be.
6/25/2023 • 40 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 283: Who By Fire, Who By Sword
A conversation about fire deaths, train killings and much more from a man-stabs-dog week in New York City.
6/21/2023 • 31 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 282: The NYPD’s ‘Italian Squad’ Fought the Mob, and Mayors
Years before the NYPD targeted Muslims, Black radicals and other groups with specialized and sometimes undercover operations, the Italian Squad prompted pushback for its aggressive tactics, and from Italian-American leaders concerned about their community’s public image as immigrants sought to assimilate. Paul Moses, author of “The Italian Squad: The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia” recounts the NYPD’s efforts to grapple with organized criminals preying on Italian immigrants and the challenges and threats faced by the Italian-American officers trying to stop them.
6/16/2023 • 32 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 281: The Ex-Cops Complete Their NYPD Takeover
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel break down another jam-packed week in New York City, complete with Rikers madness, NYPD upheaval, a brand new Bronx landmark and much more.
6/13/2023 • 40 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 280: ‘His Art Brings Joy to a Lot of People’
When he wasn’t making ends meet as a handyman or selling lumber or heating oil around New York City, John Hedderson was making big and bold paintings about the people, places, and pets that made up his world. Since his death in front of a blank canvas in 2016, his daughter MaryAnn has been trying to go through his art and put it out into the world, including at an art show opening on Saturday, June 10, and running through the end of July at Espresso 77 in Jackson Heights, Queens.
6/10/2023 • 44 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 279: Gun Cops Aren’t Beat Cops, Even if Eric Adams Calls Them ‘Neighborhood Safety’ Cops
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel run down another jam-packed week in New York City, discussing everything from the Adams administration’s Rikers blackout and a self-policing experiment in Brownsville to the gift that the rapper Dres of Black Sheep gave to fans in the rain mourning Phife Dawg and much more.
6/7/2023 • 34 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 278: ‘This Is Why Eric Adams Makes Sense’
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss a damning new federal monitor report on New York's disastrous jails system, the mayor's political appeal and much more.
5/30/2023 • 35 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 277: The Booksellers of Brooklyn Take Flight
Davi Marra and Briana Parker tell Harry Siegel about their plans for Lofty Pigeon Books, opening in Kensington at the end of the summer, and Dimitrios Fragiskatos tells Azi Paybarah about what led him to open Anyone Comics in Crown Heights — where Azi had his wedding! — and then Everyone Comics in Long island City.
5/26/2023 • 40 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 276: A Retconned Origin Story
Hosts Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the mayor's new account of being arrested and incarcerated as a teen, City Hall’s plans for newly arrived migrants, this summer’s lifeguard shortage and much more.
5/24/2023 • 43 minutes
Episode 275: "At Best to Be Pitied, at Worst to Be Reviled"
In this off-cycle edition, host Katie Honan and organizing and outreach specialist at the Urban Justice Center Karim Walker discuss the arduous path from being homeless to being housed, the endless need for fresh socks, and the breakdown in trust that comes with a broken system.
5/13/2023 • 26 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 274: City Stressed Out
In the wake of Jordan Neely's killing, hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan break down subways, migrants, Black leaders, and more...
5/9/2023 • 42 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 273: Party City: Casinos, Weddings, and Galas, Oh My!
From the $229 Billion Big Ugly to the downstate gambling boondoggle to free weddings at Gracie Mansion, hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan run down another jam-packed week of everything coming up aces for at least some New Yorkers.
5/2/2023 • 34 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 272: We Need To Hold the NYPD Accountable
Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers of Queens joins the pod to discuss some of the council's street-safety and transportation bills and much more.
4/26/2023 • 50 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 271: Digidogs Unleashed In ‘Fear City’
The GOP is swinging wildly at the Manhattan DA, the NYPD is sending in the bots, again, and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City.
4/18/2023 • 30 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 270: Budget Breakdown: Mo Money Mo Problems
In this week's episode of FAQ NYC, Christina holds down the fort with special guest host Ben Max of Gotham Gazette. They break down NYC financial constraints, the delayed Albany budget, and Gov Hochul's recent chief judge nominee. They also discuss how the vision of Mayor Adams is meeting the realities of his governing style, the budget delays of Gov Kathy Hochul due to bail reform, and whether the Knicks and Nets will do well in the playoffs. It's a packed episode...Go Mets.
4/12/2023 • 36 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 275: A Two-Trumpet Town
In the latest installment of his occasional series, Into Something, Greg Glassman and fellow trumpeter James Zollar play together, and talk about what it takes to make it a musician in the Big Apple and much more.
4/8/2023 • 31 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 268: Trump Got Arrested and Life Went on As Usual Around NYC
An instant vintage time capsule of a street scene outside the courthouse that seemed like much ado about nothing.
4/5/2023 • 31 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 267: What It Takes to Build Community Power
Rev. David K. Brawley, pastor of St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church in East New York and co-chair of the community organizing group Metro-IAF talks about the legacy of the Nehemiah Homes, what Mayor Eric Adams should know about mobilizing faith in politics, how to tackle New York City’s affordable housing crisis and much more.
4/2/2023 • 25 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 266: Eric Adams' Excellent(?) Albany Adventure
The mayor's first trip last year was something of a let-down; will the sequel exceed expectations? Plus, a war on rats, a climate shot in the dark and much more.
3/29/2023 • 34 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 265: What's In a (NYC).Name
Rebecca Bratspies discusses her book, “Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues, and Heroes Behind New York’s Place Names,” and dig into what our street names say about who gets to write the city’s history.
3/25/2023 • 28 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 264: Who ❤️ We ❤️ NYC.nyc?
A conversation about Alvin Bragg's bid to take down Donald Trump, the NYPD's disdain for the CCRB, a much maligned new version of a beloved old logo, and much more.
3/22/2023 • 27 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 263: Invisible Viruses on the Big Screen
Dr. Steven Thrasher — curator of the Viruses on Film series screening at BAM now — talks about the experience of people coming together to watch movies about something that's everywhere but can't be seen. .
3/18/2023 • 38 minutes, 1 second
Episode 262: Of Mayors and Mekons
A story about the time that Phil Banks said stop-and-frisk wasn't a thing, plus a post-credits mini-concert from Jon Langford of the Mekons, performing last week in Alphabet City.
3/15/2023 • 40 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 261: A Bad Look for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
The progressive icon didn’t pay her hair person or makeup artist until after the Congressional Ethics Committee started looking into her Met Gala appearance, as a guest of Vogue, in that “Tax the Rich” gown. Meantime, the city’s budget season is heating up and the mayor and the City Council have very different ideas about how much the city should be spending and Eric Adams is fed up with masks. All that and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City gets discussed on the latest episode of THE CITY’s FAQ NYC podcast.
3/8/2023 • 24 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 260: A Pot Seller’s Post-Prohibition Plan
Bronxite Jason Morales has been selling pot, and racking up pot-related arrested, for 20-plus years. Now, he's thinking about a license and hoping for some support from the state that's promised to do legalization the right way and make right its historical wrongs — but has yet to issue a single license in the borough.
3/5/2023 • 36 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 259: Phil, Till the Next Episode
Was Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks’ “episode” — his word — in which he answered a couple pre-submitted questions from the public, but refused to answer one from a journalist, the newest entry in the Eric Adams extended universe?
3/1/2023 • 24 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 258: ‘Crazy’ Eddie Antar Was the Original Retail Gangster
Gary Weiss joins the pod to discuss "The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie" and his book about that.
2/26/2023 • 44 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 257: Where Eric Adams and Ron DeSantis See Eye-to-Eye
A discussion of just some of the news from another jam-packed week in New York City with hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel.
2/22/2023 • 25 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 256: A Portrait of the (Free) Portrait Artist
Rusty Zimmerman is spending the year making oil paintings of and collecting oral histories from 200 people living in South Brooklyn. That includes FAQ NYC's own Harry Siegel, who joined Rusty for a conversation about the project, how people can support it and see it, and why he's giving the portraits away for free to their subjects.
2/19/2023 • 42 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 255: George Santos Is Real-Life George Costanza
And there’s really nothing funny about it.
2/15/2023 • 36 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 254: ‘It Was Very Easy to Survive, Except You Might Killed. (Probably Not.)’
Leonard Abrams, the founder and editor of the late, great East Village Eye (1979-1987) and Julie Golia, curator at the New York Public Library, which just acquired the paper’s archives, talk about chronicling, and preserving, the paper’s coverage of a time when “you go down to the Lower East Side [and] it’s very easy to survive except you might get killed—but probably not. So that was enough for a lot of people who really wanted… to do something meaningful with their lives. And they were able to.”
2/10/2023 • 39 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 253: ‘Horn Maintenance’
Trumpeter Greg Glassman sits down with saxophonist Stacy Dillard for a conversation — along with the two of them improvising on their instruments — about what it means, and what it takes, to make it as a jazz musician in New York City.
2/5/2023 • 36 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 252: A ‘High-Risk’ Shell Game from Eric Adams’ NYPD
A new grand jury for Donald Trump, a new podcast by Eric Adams about Eric Adams, a perfect sample for Jay-Z and only Jay-Z and much more.
2/1/2023 • 35 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 251: The Fletcher Family on Remembering the Husband and Father They Lost to COVID
Joshua, Ziggy, Maddie and their mother Veronica open up to reporter Liz Donovan about how much Joseph Trevor Fletcher was loved, how loving he was, and how they’re navigating grief and carrying on in his absence.
1/28/2023 • 25 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 250: Eric Adams: "I Am the Colgate"
John Lennon said “I am the Walrus.” Eric Adams says “I am the Colgate,” and that he’s starting his own newsletter to spread the word about all the stuff he says he’s getting done that the press won’t fairly report. Okay, then…
1/25/2023 • 33 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 249: Building a Bigger Tent to Build More Housing
Open New York is an organization advocating to make it easier to build and manage housing in New York City — and now it’s broadening its agenda to also support advances in tenants’ rights. Will that be enough to change state laws and neighborhood politics to get more housing built — and will building more housing really bring down rents for the masses? For the latest installment in her series asking the big question, What Is New York For?, The City Deputy Editor Alyssa Katz talks with Open New York Director Annemarie Gray about her group’s game-changing ambitions.
1/22/2023 • 33 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 248: Rikers and the ‘World‘ Tour to Nowhere
A conversation with the authors of Rikers: An Oral History.
1/17/2023 • 46 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 247: A State of the State for an Unsettled State
Professor Christina Greer and Harry Siegel break down Kathy Hochul's first state of the state as New York's elected governor.
1/12/2023 • 29 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 246: 2023 Predictions Through a Hazy Crystal Ball
A look back at Eric Adams' first year as mayor, and ahead to the even bigger challenges looming for New York City.
1/5/2023 • 42 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 245: The View From the Broken End of the Bottle
Anthony Almojera, lieutenant paramedic with the FDNY EMS, explains what Eric Adams’ new plan for bringing more severely mentally ill street into hospitals can’t accomplish, how that population has changed over his two decades on the job as violence against, and what those encounters are actually like for the medical first responders regularly interacting with the city’s street population.
12/29/2022 • 41 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 244: The Stories Behind the Pictures
Daily News legend Susan Watts and THE CITY's Ben Fractenberg talk with Alex Brook Lynn about the art of shooting the news in New York, and share the stories behind some of their most powerful photographs.
12/25/2022 • 40 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 243: Libraries Are on the Chopping Block in Eric Adams' New York
Christina Greer and Harry Siegel reflect on the mayor's first year, which was anything but boring. and what's to come.
12/22/2022 • 32 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 242: ‘A Typical Kid’
Alex Brook Lynn talks about her brother Zack's schizophrenia and her family's efforts to navigate New York's broken systems. WARNING: This episode contains a discussion of suicide.
12/18/2022 • 43 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 241: Fear and Felonies
A conversation about fear, crime, Al Sharpton and what, if anything changed in New York's political dynamics after Democrats mostly survived this year's election.
12/14/2022 • 28 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 240: Get Intimate With the City You Only Thought You Knew
Michael Kimmelman, author of The Intimate City: Walking New York, joins THE CITY's Alyssa Katz in the latest installment of her series asking the big question: What Is New York For?
12/11/2022 • 39 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 239: ‘Not on Miss New York’s Watch’
Taryn Delanie Smith, AKA Miss New York 2022, joins the pod just ahead of her bid to become Miss America 2023, to discuss “the advocacy role, the immense philanthropy that goes into the job” and to discuss using social media to make the most of her position: “It's really just me being a friend, a New Yorker, and saying ‘here’s something that you didn't know about social services. Here's what you didn't know about transitional housing programs in your community. And here's why they need your support.’"
12/7/2022 • 48 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 238: The City Wants to Help People Who Don’t Want To Be Helped
Brian Stettin, city hall’s senior advisor on severe mental illness, explains Eric Adams’ new approach and why “compassion and care” should take priority over consent when city workers encounter people who aren’t able or interested in caring for themselves even when those people don’t present any immediate danger.
12/2/2022 • 34 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 237: Eric Adams' New Mental Health Plan Is Less Than It Seems
The mayor says that forcing people with untreated mental illness into hospitals is a "moral obligation," but it's not clear how that's different from what the city was already doing with those people almost always released after 72 hours.
12/1/2022 • 26 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 236: NYC’s New Weed Wild West
A year and a half after legalizing recreational marijuana, the first retail licenses have finally been issued even as the black market is booming and smoke shop robberies are through the roof. Ashley Southall, who covers cannabis in the city for the New York Times, goes into the weeds to explain what New York’s doing — and not doing — to correct the drug war’s damage, whether buyers can really trust the stuff getting sold here with California packaging, and much more. Listen here.
11/27/2022 • 37 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 235: ‘Democrats Are a Huge Part of the Problem’
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams rejoins the podcast to talk about his primary run against Kathy Hochul, the party's poor performance in November from candidates running as "Republicans light" and much more.
11/22/2022 • 38 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 234: Mmmm, Chaat Dogs
Pervaiz Shallwani dipped a hot dog into New York’s melting pot, and what came out was delicious.
11/20/2022 • 26 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 233: Bucks and Blame to Spread Around
Who's responsible for Democrats' losses in New York even as the party over-performed expectations nationally? Everyone seems to be pointing figures, and they might all have a point.
11/16/2022 • 32 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 232: Was COVID NYC a Better Version of Ourselves?
Jeremiah Moss, the author of Feral New York, talks with THE CITY's Alyssa Katz about the "tremendous community connection and and oftentimes joyfulness in a moment of tremendous trauma and tragedy” for the people out in the streets amid the city's shutdown and reopening.
11/13/2022 • 32 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 231: Hochul Makes History as Red Wave Falls Short
Gotham Gazette’s Ben Max joins an election-night FAQ NYC podcast to offer some late-night early analysis in an episode that began before the governor’s race was called and continued after it was.
11/9/2022 • 41 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 230: Andrew Cuomo Says Cities Are in Trouble in a ‘Post-Covid World’
The former governor won't say if he voted for Letitia James, but he’s got lots to say about how the Democratic Party has lost the script on crime as people “are afraid of the feeling I get in the city,” and much more.
11/6/2022 • 58 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 229: Will Lee Zeldin Defund the MTA?
The City senior reporter and bona fide train knower Jose Martinez joins FAQ to break down the gubernatorial race's very high, yet hardly noticed, stakes for the already troubled future of the city’s circulatory system.
11/2/2022 • 36 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 228: Lee Zeldin Is ‘That Guy’
Co-host Christina Greer doubts that Lee Zeldin will upset Gov. Kathy Huchul, but she does think that “He's just that guy. Where it's just like, you're really dangerous but because you don't look like a DeSantis or an Abbott people don't think that he's as dangerous as he is. He's got the Youngkin effect.” And co-host Katie Honan shoots down the Congressmember’s debate claim about smelling pot on his one train ride during the race, which she joined as a reporter: “I’ll say on the record, I rode the subway with Lee Zeldin, and there was no pot smell. He said there was pot smell. And the only reason I noticed that is because there usually is a pot smell, right? So I was shocked that there wasn’t.” Plus, Laura Kavanaugh is now the first female commissioner of the FDNY, the city’s still not ready for what’s coming a decade after Sandy, and much more.
10/30/2022 • 29 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 227: Sandy Was Just the Start. Is New York City Building Resiliently Enough for What’s Coming Next?
“You might want to get a snorkel”—In a special episode of FAQ NYC, Samantha Maldonado and Kendra Pierre-Louis look at the damage the “superstorm” caused 10 years ago in Coney Island and around the city, and the construction that’s followed.
10/26/2022 • 36 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 226: The Girl From Marvel’s Boy-Club Bullpen Tells All About Old Times Square
Ann Nocenti, the writer, journalist and filmmaker who wrote and edited some of the most iconic Marvel comics of the late 1980s and early 1990s, joins the FAQ NYC podcast to discuss her early years in New York as “the girl who lived behind the fishtank,” quite literally, how her work in asylums influenced her stories about superheroes, creating Marvel’s first openly transgender character, the role of “fake news” in the comics she’s working on now, and much more.
10/23/2022 • 40 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 225: ‘Politics is Tidal’ - Can Kathy Hochul Stand Up to the Wave?
Jimmy Vieklind of the Wall Street Journal joins the FAQ NYC podcast to dig into why the governor’s race is getting much tighter in its homestretch, and why the key to a possible upset by Trumpy Republican Lee Zeldin “may, in fact, lie in New York City.”
10/21/2022 • 36 minutes
Episode 224: How NYC's Suburbs Could Decide America's Future
New York has more competitive Congressional races than any state besides California. NBC's Steve Kornacki joins Azi Paybarah and Harry Siegel to break down the races here that could well decide which party controls the House.
10/16/2022 • 33 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 223: Big Qs in Fine Print on the Back of Your Ballot
About these four proposals New Yorkers get to decide on, right after (mostly) guessing which judges to elect? Rachel Holliday Smith breaks down what's at stake, and why most voters have no idea about any of it.
10/12/2022 • 38 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 222: ‘Same As It Always Is’—Manny Kirchheimer’s New York, and His Pandemic Time Warp
Alyssa Katz talks with America’s “least known great documentarian” about his 86 years living here, his work during the pandemic editing his footage of the city from the 1950s (and that you can see over the next two weekends at the Museum of the Moving Image), how graffiti trains inspired his film Stations of the Elevated, and the big question: What is New York for?
10/9/2022 • 32 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 221: An Open Invitation to Mayor Adams
Is the left somehow to blame for the tent city for asylum seekers that the Adams administration had been erecting on Orchard Beach, and that's now going up on Randall's Island? Is New York really turning back into Fear City? If the "old normal" went away with the pandemic shutdown, what are the reasons to be hopeful about the emerging new normal? Christina and Harry discuss all that, and invite Eric Adams—who had a memorable meet up with us as a candidate—to come back on the pod now that he's mayor.
10/4/2022 • 30 minutes, 6 seconds
Episode 220: From Emperor of the City to ‘Total Humiliation‘
Biographer Andrew Kirtzman joins FAQ NYC’s Weekend Edition to talk about his quarter century covering “America’s mayor” and the inevitable question: What happened to Rudy Giuliani?
10/2/2022 • 37 minutes
Episode 219: The Mapmaker's Big ‘Surprise’
Dennis Walcott, chair of the Districting Commission drawing new City Council lines, joins the pod to explain why he was surprised to see the commission vote down its own map, and then Politico's Joe Anuta breaks down his reporting on how we got here (spoiler alert: City Hall got involved late) and what comes next.
9/29/2022 • 47 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 218: A Nap for the City that Never Sleeps?
Dodai Stewart of the Times joins the pod to discuss her survey of New York City's formerly iconic 24-hour spots, from Wo Hop to Whitestone Lanes, that have now cut their hours, and Dr. Christina Greer and Katie Honan run down all the latest news from the city, starting with the first big departures from the Adams administration.
9/21/2022 • 41 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 217: The Overwhelming Seductions of New York
Former MTA chief and NY lieutenant governor Richard Ravitch (who’s also a donor to The City) and Volcker Alliance senior director William Glasgall join the pod to break down their warning in the Daily News about the fiscal cliffs ahead—and explain why, in spite of those cliffs and the need for constant fiscal discipline, the city remains unbowed and its future remains bright.
9/16/2022 • 41 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 216: Arsenic and Old Apartments
Greg Smith rejoins the pod to explain how he found out about the city tests showing arsenic in the water at NYCHA's Jacob Riis houses before anyone informed Mayor Adams or the tenants about them, and to break down everything we still don't know about what happened here—starting with why the city decided to look for heavy metals in the first place. It's a mess that says a lot about how the other half (still) lives.
9/7/2022 • 39 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 215: Does Eric Adams Want To Be the Mayor or Just Play the Mayor?
Something in the buttermilk doesn't smell right, says Professor Christina Greer, and it doesn't help that he keeps dipping his toe into political races he keeps losing.
8/31/2022 • 37 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 214: Election Night Extra: A Lot of L's to Go Around
The great Ben Max of Gotham Gazette joins Chrissy, Katie and Harry for an early assessment of the winners and losers on a rough night for Mayor Eric Adams’ preferred candidates in a weird August election with nearly as many losing candidates as voters.
8/24/2022 • 47 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 213: Bringing Honesty to the Dangerousness Debate
In our 213th episode, Christina and Katie talk to New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie about his recent Daily News op ed "How N.Y. Dems should think about crime," his ongoing efforts to uphold bail reform, and his latest legislative accomplishments.
8/10/2022 • 32 minutes
Episode 212: Dangerousness and the District Attorney
Some “personal news” for the pod: After 211 episodes FAQ NYC is now officially part of The City, the nonprofit newsroom all about New York and for New Yorkers.
And for our 212th episode, we talked with Alvin Bragg, the district attorney representing the 212, about becoming a national figure of suspicion just after taking office, his accomplishments so far including the exoneration of Steven Lopez—the nearly forgotten sixth teen, just 15 when he was arrested, who went to prison after being accused in the infamous Central Park jogger case and then pleading out to a lesser charge—and much more.
8/3/2022 • 36 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 211: Can Old Dems Learn New Tricks?
Professor Christina Greer has a lot to say about the Jerry Nadler-Carolyn Maloney face-off in the new NY 12 and how Suraj Patel could end up deciding that race, the thus far one-sided public fight Jessica Ramos is trying to start with fellow leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and much more.
7/28/2022 • 36 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 210: The First Responders the FDNY Left Behind
De Blasio is out, sharks are in, and lieutenant paramedic Anthony Almjoera joins the pod to talk about Riding the Lightning, his new book about his wrenching pandemic year, how he thinks the FDNY let down and left behind medical first responders, and much more. WARNING: This episode includes conversation about suicide and suicidal thoughts.
7/21/2022 • 1 hour, 7 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 209: Summer in the City
From secret lairs to Covid lessons not learned in 20 minutes flat.
7/13/2022 • 19 minutes, 53 seconds
Episode 208: Brooklyn's Bad Machine
Reporter George Joseph joins Katie and Harry to discuss his reporting on the Brooklyn Democratic machine and a tough election for its boss, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
7/6/2022 • 37 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 207: Election Night: The Empire Strikes Back
The great Ben Max breaks down what just happened with Chrissy and Harry.
6/29/2022 • 36 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 206: The One Sound You Do Not Want To Hear By the Beach
Katie Honan explains what that is—and how union politics help explain why so many New Yorkers "inevitably" drown each summer. Plus, Professor David Bloomfield breaks down the public school budget cuts Eric Adams wants, the bill to reduce class size that the mayor wants the governor to veto, and much more.
6/23/2022 • 1 hour, 9 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 205: A Big Personality, Thin Skin and a Low Bar
A few thoughts on Eric Adams' relationship with the press, and then a bunch more on New York City's budget and political picture.
6/16/2022 • 39 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 204: The Swagger-Stagger Situation
Breaking down another wild week in New York City, including that poll showing New Yorkers souring on Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul—and souring on the city even as they say things are actually going pretty well in their own neighborhoods.
6/10/2022 • 35 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 203: The New Yorkest
When the New Yorker just isn't New York enough, you've come to the right pod…
6/2/2022 • 39 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 202: Sixty-odd Candidates In Search of a District
Bradley Tusk looks at the Democrats playing musical chairs for their political lives, explains the cases for Andrew Yang and cryptocurrency, and shares the backstory behind P&T Knitware, his brand new bookstore, podcast studio, event space, and cafe on the Lower East Side.
5/25/2022 • 39 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 201: Dead Souls, Brooklyn Edition
A jam-packed episode for a jam-packed week of New York news, with Yoav Gonen of The City and Chris Sommerfeldt of the Daily News talking about all the candidates in Brooklyn who didn't even know they were on the ballot (including one candidate who isn't even alive), a dispatch from Alex Brook Lynn in Paris about sending formula across the Atlantic to frantic N.Y. moms, and Caroline Lewis of WNYC and Gothamist explaining what's happening with the state's rollout of legal weed and with the people who did (and still are) illegally selling it here.
5/19/2022 • 1 hour, 5 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 200: The Livest One
For the 200th episode of FAQ NYC, a conversation about the Notorious B.I.G. and Brooklyn with Justin Tinsley, author of the new biography It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him.
5/12/2022 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 22 seconds
Episode 199: Albany Strangeness in the Multiverse of Map Madness
Map master Steven Romalewski and penetrating politics reporter Brigid Bergin do their best to explain what the hell is happening with our upcoming election, where the maps are still being drawn and not even the dates, plural, for various contests aren't entirely certain. Plus, Nick Pinto of the brand-new NYC journalism venture Hell Gate breaks down his story there about the NYPD's Stonewalling Attorney Called Out for Lying and Forging Emails.
5/5/2022 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 198: The Cave Cop Who Transformed New York City
Michael Daly recalls his friend Jack Maple, the maker of the maps that changed everything.
4/26/2022 • 1 hour, 6 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 197: Flipping the Albany Script With Eddie Gibbs
An awful lot of New York politicians end up going to prison but Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs, who spent 17 months in Rikers as a teen followed by four and a half years in state prisons, is the first to do it the other way around. He joins the pod for a conversation about that, "the bad old days" and the state of the city now, and rapping and performing comedy with legends including the late Big L and Biggie Smalls.
4/20/2022 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 196: Everything At Once
A conversation from early Wednesday afternoon, before Frank James' arrest, about the train shooting and also Brian Benjamin' resignation.
4/13/2022 • 29 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 195: The Big, Slow Ugly
Josefa Velasquez joins from Albany to break down the stop-and-start, hurry-up-and-wait path toward New York's forthcoming and already late $216 billion or so budget (and everything else) deal.
4/6/2022 • 33 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 194: The More Things Change
Jeff Mays of the New York Times breaks down Kathy Hochul's troubles with Black voters, and Craig McCarthy of the New York Post looks at what is, and ain't, new with the NYPD's neighborhood policing initiative, its anti-gun unit, and its quality of life enforcement push.
3/31/2022 • 1 hour, 8 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 193: The Coming Home Health Care Conundrum
Chinese American Planning Council President and CEO Wayne Ho joins the pod to talk about what Albany can do to make the economics of this work for New York's aging population, and much more.
3/23/2022 • 49 minutes, 53 seconds
Episode 192: Shots Fired in a Vital City
Elizabeth Glazer, the founder and co-editor of the new publication Vital City, joins the pod to talk about rising crime and the rising criminal justice reform tide in New York City, and what reformers can do to move past squishy root-causes rhetoric.
3/16/2022 • 49 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 191: Chief Shenanigan Enthusiast
Prof. Christina Greer explains what makes Eric Adams like "a really good point guard" — and the Nets could use one for home games, by the way — and Amir Khafagy breaks down his reporting for Documented on how the city has let down the Twin Parks fire survivors now that they're no longer front-page news.
3/9/2022 • 39 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 190: ‘Ain't Gonna Change Nothing’
Super-reporter Greg B. Smith breaks down why Eric Adams' promise to remove the homeless from the trains "right away" has been going nowhere fast.
3/3/2022 • 37 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 189: This week in Mayor Adams
Alex Brook Lynn asks Katie Honan to walk us through a few of the top news items regarding our mayor in this past week in this shorter-than-usual FAQ episode. Katie gives our listeners some context for the Mayor's reaction to criticism over some of his controversial appointments and his interaction with the press, and we talk about the first few days of NYPD interaction and intervention with homeless people in the subway.
2/24/2022 • 18 minutes, 44 seconds
Dark Store Days: The State of New York Real Estate
We have a real estate roundup with three of NYC's favorite reporters covering the subject: Rebecca Baird-Remba from Commercial Observer, Stefanos Chen from The New York Times, and Rachel Holliday Smith from The City.
For the past two years we have seen so much fluctuation: rents dip and then rise sharply, blocks of store fronts abandoned, hotels turned shelter turned back to hotel, and corner deli turned dark store. Our three guests unpack the prominent real estate issues facing New Yorkers in 2022.
2/17/2022 • 43 minutes, 30 seconds
Hustlers and Bureaucracy Choke the Undocumented Workers Fund
Rommel H. Ojeda talks with Harry Siegel about the sorry state of the Undocumented Workers Fund. The fund has been riddled with scams targeting workers and their debit benefit cards. The company responsible for the fund's distribution debit cards, Blackhawk, has abdicated all responsibility, leaving some workers without relief while their bills pile up.
2/16/2022 • 13 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 186: Paid in Full
The great Ben Max rejoins Chrissy, Katie and Harry to talk about Eric A’s first trip to Albany, "fish-gate," and much more.
2/10/2022 • 31 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 185: An Island Apart
Graham Rayman of the Daily News runs down the slow-motion disaster at the city's jails, and map maestro Steve Romalewski breaks down the new maps Albany's Democratic majority just drew up, and explains how we got here despite a voter-approved constitutional amendment for non-partisan redistricting .
2/3/2022 • 1 hour, 15 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 184: The Blueprint
Eric Adams has talked the talk about balancing public safety and justice. Now, he's got to walk the walk.
1/27/2022 • 25 minutes
Episode 183: Every New Yorker’s Nightmare
A look back at an exceptionally busy and difficult week in New York City.
1/20/2022 • 30 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 182: A Nonprofit War on Workers?
Assemblymember Ron Kim breaks down his new report accusing a prominent social service organization of stealing wages from home-care workers, with the help of 1199SEIU.
1/13/2022 • 1 hour, 57 seconds
Episode 181: The Men Who Put the “P” into “Politics”
Karen Hinton, who worked for both Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, joins the pod to discuss her new memoir, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power.
1/6/2022 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 24 seconds
Episode 180: Speaking With the Speaker
A conversation with incoming City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams about her past and the city's future.
1/1/2022 • 57 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 179: Park Wars
Katie Honan and Harry Siegel take stock of an ominous moment in New York, with big changes looming, and Alex Lynn talks with East Village resident Kirsten Theodos about the ongoing demolition of East River Park, and community member’s fight to save it.
12/21/2021 • 35 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 178: Real Big Trouble
🎶Someone please call 311
Chrissy and Harry consider New York City's outgoing and incoming mayors, and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of DoumentedNY explains what's happening now with non-citizen voting here.
12/15/2021 • 43 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 177: Election Reform After Dark
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie rejoins the pod to talk about his plans to make election reform sexy. And seven minutes in heaven is kid's stuff, so listen to Katie Honan explain six minutes of grace and how she finally beat a ticket.
12/8/2021 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 59 seconds
Episode 176: What We're In For
Is this going to be death by a thousand paper cuts, where we're constantly running after the truth with Eric Adams? Christina Greer has her concerns, and discusses them, and much more, with Harry Siegel and Alex Brook Lynn.
12/2/2021 • 36 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 175: Word Around Town
Chrissy, Alex, Katie and Harry gab it up about Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, the Blood Center, Thanksgiving and lots more.
11/24/2021 • 34 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 174: Helluva Town
We talk politics, and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of Documented discusses her reporting on immigration enforcement.
11/18/2021 • 41 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 173: New York Forever
21 eulogies for the City of New York, in large or small part, collected for the installation “Eulogy For New York,” which ran during the month of October in the West Village.
Eulogists:
Spencer Ackerman
Gracie Bialecki
Albert Fox Cahn
Rory Celentano
Skye Cleary
Anthony Curry
Daniel Genis
David Gerrard
Issa Ibrahim
Mimi Lipson
Alex Brook Lynn
Stephine Matteo
Evan Meszaros
Annie Nocenti
J.T. Price
Nancy Rommelman
Lucy Sante
Harry Siegel
Jacob Siegel
John D’Ulisse
Sophie Zeteo
11/13/2021 • 1 hour, 17 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 172: A New Year for New York Focus
The co-founder and editor in chief of New York Focus, Akash Mehta, talks about the news site's first year, its big ambitions going forward and its new fundraising drive.
11/5/2021 • 28 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 171: Election Night Extra
The great Ben Max breaks down what just happened with Chrissy and Harry.
11/3/2021 • 42 minutes
Episode 170: Who Killed Eric Garner?
Alvin Bragg rejoins the pod to explain the judicial inquiry happening now and why the answer to that question can't stop with Daniel Pantaleo.
10/28/2021 • 41 minutes, 25 seconds
Brickhouse Bonus: What We Read When We Read Max Read
Maria Bustillos and Harry Siegel talk with Max Read about the state of the internet, his new newsletter, and lots more.
10/27/2021 • 38 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 169: Issa Ibrahim, and his Eulogy for Jamaica, Queens
Artist, musician, and Queens man Issa Ibrahim talks about a song he wrote in New York's Creedmoor psychiatric facility, eulogizing the neighborhood where he grew up.
10/26/2021 • 29 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 168: Suites, Elites, and Tik Tok Girls
The FAQ Gang chats about last night's mayoral debate between NYC's Democratic pick Eric Adams and GOP candidate, Curtis Sliwa.
Later in the episode, we hear from comic-book writer, journalist, and fantastic New Yorker, Annie Nocenti for our October eulogy series with her piece called 'Edifice Complex.'
10/21/2021 • 47 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 167: Is There Life After Politics?
New York Times city hall reporter Jeff Mays talks with Chrissy and Katie about what life after city hall could look like for Mayor Bill de Blasio, Documented engagement reporter Rommel H Ojeda talks with Harry about New York’s tapped-out $2.1 excluded worker fund, and “Low Life” author Lucy Sante reads an epitaph for the cities that were.
10/14/2021 • 50 minutes, 22 seconds
Brickhouse Bonus: On and Off the Record With Gabriel Snyder
Snyder talks with the Brickhouse's Maria Bustillos and Harry Siegel about the state of New York City media companies and his new subscription newsletter about them, Off the Record.
10/13/2021 • 37 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 166: Eulogies for New York City
New York Is Dead. Long live New York City. The FAQ crew discusses, and then has a conversation with New York Times city correspondent turned obituary writer Alex Vadukul.
10/7/2021 • 1 hour, 13 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 165: Schools Scramble
A conversation with Mark Cannizzaro, the president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, about the coming vaccine mandate for school workers and much more.
9/30/2021 • 38 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 164: Rats, Us, and A Murder Most Owl
We talked with Robert Sullivan, the author of Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, for a wide-ranging conversation that began with the news that Central Park’s beloved owl Barry had consumed rat poison that may have made impaired her ability to fly before she was hit and killed by a Conservancy truck inside the park.
9/23/2021 • 48 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 163: Rules and Drool, School is in Session
This week we talk with Christina Veiga, a reporter for Chalkbeat New York on the chaotic first week of school from unvaccinated teachers to the challenges for a new Chancellor.
9/16/2021 • 37 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 162: Who by Water and Who by Fire
Katie Honan and Harry Siegel talk with George Joseph of WNYC about the spate of deaths at Rikers, and with Maurizio Guerrero about his reporting for Documented NY on the secret price of a construction worker's life.
9/8/2021 • 1 hour, 4 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 161: A New Day and the Same Old Problems
A huge holiday weekend show with Reuven Blau of the City talking about Rikers, Assemblyman Ron Kim talking about Albany's extraordinary session, rent relief and why he's not done with Andrew Cuomo yet, and David Brand of City Limits talking about the new eviction moratorium.
9/2/2021 • 1 hour, 17 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 160: ‘So Soon After 9/11’
Documentarians Steven Rosenbaum and Pamela Yoder discuss their new film, The Outsider, about the construction of the 9/11 Museum and Memorial and why it feels so cut off from New York City and from the last 20 years.
8/26/2021 • 54 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 159: Rematch?
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who ran a tough race for lieutenant governor against Kathy Hochul in 2018 and says he might run against her for governor in 2022, rejoins the pod.
8/19/2021 • 47 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 158: NY to Cuomo: It's Not Us, It's You
It's a yuge week for New York with new guest host Katie Honan joining the pod and, oh yeah, Andrew Cuomo announcing his resignation. Plus, Afua Atta-Mensah considers the Black pols who agreed to let the governor use them as shields.
8/12/2021 • 1 hour, 11 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 157: ‘I Prayed for a James Report’
As the walls close in on Andrew Cuomo, The City's Josefa Velasquez looks at how the governor got here and how this is likely to end (spoiler: it won't be pretty) and Comptroller Scott Stringer looks back on his mayoral campaign and forward to what's next for him and the city.
8/8/2021 • 56 minutes, 53 seconds
Episode 156: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Long-ago Cuomo employee and long-time Cuomo critic Alexis Grenell joins FAQ for a look at how things fell apart for our Emmy-award winning governor.
8/5/2021 • 52 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 155: The View from Room 9
With Sally Goldenberg of Politico NY
7/29/2021 • 44 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 154: Shooting Streets and Selling Dust
Photographer David Godlis and writer Luc Sante talk with Alex and Harry about Godlis Streets, his new book of 1970s street photography, and what was alluring about capturing glimpses of that city and the sometimes alluring "generalized small-time crumminess of so much of that decade."
7/25/2021 • 1 hour, 4 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 153: Book Club: (Low)Life
Jazz and boxing great Charles Farrell visits the pod to talk with Harry and Tim Marchman about his memoir that covers, among other things, playing with Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman, fixing fights for the mob, "the Moby Dick of boxing" and lots more. Stick around to the end to hear him play a little piano, too.
7/15/2021 • 1 hour, 20 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 152: Alvin Bragg's Bragging Rights
The Democratic nominee who's all but sure to be the next Manhattan District Attorney visits FAQ.
7/9/2021 • 45 minutes, 52 seconds
Episode 151: Fun City Follies
Laura Nahmias joins Chrissy and Harry to talk about the BoE's RCV SNAFU and the state of the election now that it's all over but the counting.
7/2/2021 • 54 minutes, 1 second
Episode 150: Book Club: Life on the Line
Chrissy has a message for the pundits "explaining" what just happened in New York, and Times reporter and researcher Emma Goldberg discusses her new book on the medical students who became doctors in the city in the midst of the pandemic and reads one incredible passage from it.
6/25/2021 • 41 minutes, 53 seconds
Episode 149: Decision Day
The votes are cast, the results are still to come, and Ben Max of Gotham Gazette joins Chrissy and Harry for a late-night break down of what we know (and what we don't yet).
6/23/2021 • 1 hour, 5 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 148: Homestretch
Christina and Harry take one last look at the mayor's race, and Alex Lynn breaks down what's really been happening at Washington Square Park.
6/18/2021 • 42 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 147: The Gracie Bunch
Dianne Morales, Shaun Donovan, Ray McGuire and Kathryn Garcia each call in to answer two tough questions, plus an interview with Paperboy Love Prince.
6/10/2021 • 1 hour, 5 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 146: The End Is Near
Less than three weeks out, and after a "pivotal" second debate in which not much pivoted, Chrissy, Harry and the Wall Street Journal's Katie Honan talk about the mayor's race and the future of New York City.
6/3/2021 • 58 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 145: Down and Out in New York City
We talk about homelessness in in New York City with David Brand of City Limits and Shams DaBaron AKA Da Homeless Hero.
5/27/2021 • 1 hour, 24 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 144: Book Club: Last Call
Author Elon Green joins Nolan Hicks and Harry Siegel to talk about Lost Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York and how a city crew including Rudy Giuliani's mom, Bernard Kerik, Robert Morgenthau, Linda Fairstein, William Bulger and Mike McAclary all tie into that story.
5/20/2021 • 52 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 143: Thomas Kenniff, The 'Boots on the Ground' District Attorney Candidate
5/16/2021 • 25 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 142: Who DA FAQ II
5/13/2021 • 59 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 141: Who DA FAQ? (Part I)
Manhattan District Attorney candidates Tahanie Aboushi, Liz Crotty, Diana Florence and Dan Quart talk to Chrissy, Harry and Alex, and each other about what the prosecutor's office is and what it should be.
5/7/2021 • 58 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 140: The Manhattan DA Race that just hits different.
Rachel Holiday Smith, Manhattan reporter for The City, breaks down the Manhattan DA race with us.
Read Rachel's explainer in The CIty
https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/31/22253418/what-you-need-to-know-about-new-yorks-district-attorney-races-in-2021
5/5/2021 • 28 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 139: Book Club: The Limits of Fulfillment
A conversation with Alec MacGillis, the author of Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, about Amazon and, among many other things, its expansion in New York City AFTER the collapse of its HQ2 plan here as the brave new pandemic economy has accelerated America's great divergence.
4/29/2021 • 45 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 138: The Woke Up Show
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams rejoins the pod to discuss, among other things, the state of policing here, the citywide races and his experience running statewide.
4/22/2021 • 53 minutes, 54 seconds
FAQ.NYC Gets Dopey
Dave from the "DOPEY," podcast, shares a few stories about drug addiction and recovery in New York City.
4/16/2021 • 34 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 137: The Turning Point
As we head into the elections home stretch, the great Brigid Bergin of WNYC joins FAQ to break down the race so far, consider where it may end up and explain why we may not know who won for days or even weeks after the June 22nd primary.
4/15/2021 • 43 minutes, 58 seconds
Emma Whitford tells us what's up with the new rent relief.
Emma Whitford, reporter at Law360. (https://www.law360.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmcWDBhCOARIsALgJ2QcV6OqKK2dg-DSA84bt4R0yEXmDAsFcWjF6TSaB-ef8VQPpYUKyF9kaAp3jEALw_wcB) gives us a rundown of the new rent relief from the Federal Government hopfully headed toward New Yorkers this Spring.
4/10/2021 • 15 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 136: Scott Stringer's Dumpster Pool Vision
4/8/2021 • 55 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 135: New York's Police Union Problem
Farah Stockman of the New York Times looks at Suffolk County, where cops call the shots, and Jake Pearson of ProPublica digs into the little known contract clause that means New York City taxpayers are on the hook to defend police officers even when the city won't.
4/1/2021 • 59 minutes, 57 seconds
Quickhouse 3: Just Off the Purest Blue
Weather, reviewed, and much more of all the goodness you'll find at the Brickhouse in 5 minutes flat.
3/25/2021 • 4 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 133: Nursing Homes are Just the Tip of Cuomo’s Coronavirus Iceberg
The Empire Center's Bill Hammonds talks about the coverup we know about now, and all the things we still don't know.
3/25/2021 • 54 minutes, 19 seconds
Quickhouse 2: Shockingly White Clouds
A weather review from Tom Scocca as the last cold day approaches in New York City and a rundown of everything you'll find everything right now at thebrick.house, all in under 5 minutes.
3/18/2021 • 3 minutes, 57 seconds
Episode 131: Radical Ron Kim
A conversation about blackmail, politics and human beings with the Assemblyman who started the avalanche that just might bury Andrew Cuomo.
3/18/2021 • 56 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 130: A Remarkable Ramble With Rangel
Charles Rangel takes Chrissy and Harry on a long, fascinating stroll through his life and career and explains why he thinks a a second Reconstruction is now beginning in America.
3/14/2021 • 1 hour, 28 minutes, 19 seconds
Welcome to the Quickhouse!
A tasty mini-pod — 5 minutes flat!—with a rundown from Brickhouse managing editor Emma Roller of what you'll find right now at our little cooperative of creators making ad-free, wolf-proof journalism and art by humans for humans PLUS a NYC weather review from Hmm Weekly's Tom Scocca.
3/12/2021 • 5 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 128: Cuomo in the Corner
Josefa Velasquez of The City talks with Chrissy and Harry about how, after a decade, the governor finally painted himself into a corner he might not be able to walk out of.
3/8/2021 • 38 minutes, 57 seconds
Cuomo's Vaccine Passports and NYC's Shotty Shotspotter technology
Albert Fox Cahn of The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, S.T.O.P., and the podcast Surveillance and the City talks to Alex Brook Lynn about Cuomo's Vaccine Passports for sports arenas and Shotspotter the technology used to detect gunshots.
For more information on the topics disscussed in theis episode see:
Cuomo's Vaccine Passports
https://statescoop.com/new-york-pilot-mobile-covid-19-vaccine-passport-ibm/
Shotspotter lawsuit and law enforcment scandal in Rodchester, NY
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-police-rochester-trial/
3/8/2021 • 18 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 126: The Gotham Book Prize and the State of Gotham
3/2/2021 • 42 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 125: Ray McGuire Will Be Your Huckleberry
2/25/2021 • 59 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 124: City on the Verge
2/18/2021 • 54 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 123: Dianne Morales Doesn't Have a Poker Face
2/11/2021 • 38 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 122: Kathryn Garcia's Not About the Razzle Dazzle
2/4/2021 • 1 hour, 8 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 121: Disaster Follows Shaun Donovan
The former housing commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg and HUD secretary and then OMB director under President Obama explains why he's running for mayor now, and what the city needs at this moment of crises.
1/28/2021 • 55 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 120: Andrew Yang's New York Math
The presidential candidate turned mayoral candidate joins Christina and Harry for a lively conversation about what the city needs and why he's running.
1/22/2021 • 49 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 119: State Dad Always Wins
Jimmy Vielkind of the Wall Street Journal discusses New York's sorry vaccine rollout, and the state of Cuomo's State of the State.
1/14/2021 • 43 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 118: Down Ballot Doings
City and State's Jeff Coltin gives a bird's eye view of all the other races on New York City's very crowded ballot.
1/6/2021 • 40 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 117: Rent Relief
State Senator Zellnor Myrie returns to explain what New York's new evictions moratorium does, and doesn't do, for tenants and landlords.
12/30/2020 • 29 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 116: Smack Talk Special
Professor Greer has some words to share with several of the guys running to be mayor, and much more as the gang gabs.
12/24/2020 • 36 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 115: New York’s New Choice/s
Susan Lerner of Common Cause New York and Sean Dugar of Rank the Vote NYC explain the genius of ranked choice voting. Plus a cartoon, read aloud, in our first-ever Brickhouse crossover with brand-new comics site Awry, and Alex Brook Lynn mourns her lemon of a classic Cadillac no longer worth the squeeze.
12/17/2020 • 44 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 114: Confessions of a Psycho News Guy
“Going to a job, going to a fire is almost as good as an orgasm. Going to a shooting is almost like a heroin fix to me.” Newly retired multimedia journalist Todd Maisel looks back on 38 years shooting and covering New York City.
12/10/2020 • 50 minutes, 7 seconds
Episode 113: Schoolhouse Whiplash
Professor David Bloomfield runs down Mayor de Blasio's unsteady approach to the schools, and much more.
12/2/2020 • 34 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 112: The David Dinkins Interview
David Dinkins, the city's first and so far only black mayor, sat down for nearly two hours last year with Chrissy and Harry to talk about his life and career. Here's that interview, very lightly edited.
11/25/2020 • 1 hour, 37 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 111: An 'Obnoxious and Offensive' Schools Closure
What the hell are de Blasio and Cuomo doing here, and why can't they get on the same page? Plus, Steven Romalewski of the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at CUNY'S Graduate Center returns to the pod.
11/19/2020 • 45 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 110: A Bridge in Brooklyn to Toll You
Councilmembers Joe Borelli (R, Staten Island) and Justin Brannan (D, Brooklyn) talk about how the return of two-way tolls to the Verrazzano looks from each side of the bridge, the second wave of the virus that’s looming, and more.
11/13/2020 • 37 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 109: Election 2020
Harry, Chrissy, and Alex talk with Ben Max of Gotham Gazette & The Max & Murphy Show about what the election means for NYC and what election New Yorkers have to look forward to in 2021.
We also talk Cuomo, a COVID vaccine, and privacy law with Albert Fox Cahn of The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
11/6/2020 • 58 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 108: TRUMP ACDC
Morgan Pehme, the director of 'Get Me Roger Stone' and 'Slumlord Millionaire,' has made a film about the rise and fall of Trump's casinos in Atlantic City using archival footage.
11/1/2020 • 36 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 107: Local Focus and the National Picture
David Plotz explains City Cast, the network of local pods he's launching this winter in cities across the country to “connect you with the city you love” and, knock on wood, help listeners “stop being obsessed with the question of Trump, and instead “reengage with the questions of daily life that are played out on the streets of American cities.”
And speaking of Trump, Walter Shapiro, in the midst of covering his eleventh(!) presidential campaign, talks about how campaigns and campaign coverage have changed, not mostly for the better, in part because the iPhone made every moment an on-camera moment, and his plans to pivot to vaudeville coverage if Trump defies the polls again and wins a second term.
10/28/2020 • 49 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 106: A Health Crisis and a Fiscal Crisis
Jacob Kornbluh breaks down the public health picture, and the political one, inside the Orthodox community. And Columbia Professor Ester Fuchs goes deep on the fiscal crisis of 1975 and the one New York is facing now.
10/22/2020 • 1 hour, 1 minute, 43 seconds
Episode 105: Imbalance of Power
State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi talks about her bill to reset the balance of budget power, and much more.
10/15/2020 • 42 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 104: The Mount Vernon Tapes
A deep dive with WNYC investigative reporter George Joseph into police impunity and its consequences just north of Bronx.
10/9/2020 • 1 hour, 40 seconds
Episode 103: The Relentless Trump Hunter
Eileen Markey, editor of the new Wayne Barrett collection Without Compromise, joins FAQ and guest interviewer Michael Tomasky for a look back at the muckraker's decades exposing the Donald and the rest of New York's endless rogues' gallery.
10/1/2020 • 43 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 102: School Daze
As parents wait for school buildings to reopen, we take a tour of New York City's public school history with CUNY professor emeritus of education Stephan F. Brumberg,
9/24/2020 • 33 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 101: Supportive Housing and the Brickhouse
9/19/2020 • 1 hour, 5 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 100: The Storefront Domino Effect
It's FAQ's 100th episode(!), and Karla Murray joins to talk about her storefront project and all the small businesses New York is losing amidst… all this.
9/13/2020 • 29 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 99: School for Scandal
Ace education reporter Madina Touré explains how New York's schools plan fell short, and looks at what's coming next.
9/5/2020 • 34 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 98: Drain Brammage
Chrissy runs down some ominous New York news, Harry recalls getting accidentally stoned on the job and — this week's highlight — Alex talks with musician Stefan Zeniuk about his (beautiful!) sonic elegy for a sewer tunnel, performed with large instruments at the entrance to a sewer tunnel in Astoria earlier this week.
8/27/2020 • 35 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 97: Six Ways To Sunday
8/21/2020 • 42 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 96: What Now?
With Sally Goldenberg of Politico New York on the city's shift to the left, Jake Offenhartz of Gothamist on the NYPD's cat and mouse game, and much more.
8/13/2020 • 36 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 95: The Window Is Blowing, The Sky Is Falling
8/6/2020 • 56 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 94: Jumaane Williams and Jawanza James Williams
Chrissy talks with New York City's public advocate, and Harry and Alex talk with Vocal New York's director of organizing.
7/30/2020 • 43 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 93: The Musical Episode
Four covers and an original song about the only city worth singing about, from guest musicians Dr. Sick and Isabel Alvarez in FAQ's second musical episode, recorded outside in the midst of a thunderstorm.
7/24/2020 • 35 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 92: City in a Corner
Opening the schools is the key to everything else, explains the Times' Eliza Shapiro, and nothing about how that's gong to work is clear or certain. Plus, Emma Whitford on the imminent return of the eviction courts.
7/16/2020 • 37 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 91: NYC on the Edge
7/9/2020 • 29 minutes
Episode 90: Ritchie Torres on Policing the NYPD and the ‘Strength of My Own Operation’
The councilman and likely new congressman rejoins FAQ NYC to talk about his new bill intended to police the NYPD, the "Democratic Socialist Industrial Complex" and lots more.
6/30/2020 • 28 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 89: Primary Shakeups as People Wake Up
A double episode, with Ben Max from Gotham Gazette breaking down Tuesday's high-stakes, mostly mail-in primary election night in New York, and ProPublica's Eric Umansky running through his unexpected crash course on cop reporting and police impunity.
6/24/2020 • 51 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 88: Things Accelerate
Maya Wiley and Albert Fox Cahn call in to talk about the past, present and future of policing in New York.
6/18/2020 • 42 minutes, 48 seconds
Albert Fox Cahn talks about the upcoming vote on the NYC Post Act
Albert Fox Cahn, founder of S.T.O.P, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, talks to Alex Brook Lynn about The Post Act, a bill that will be voted on in City council this Thursday, June 18th.
The Post Act could force the NYPD to become transparent about the technology they use to spy on New Yorkers.
6/17/2020 • 16 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 87: Something Old, Something New and Something Gone
Former New York State Chief Deputy Attorney General and candidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg joins the FAQ crew to talk about the "need to keep pressing."
6/11/2020 • 34 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 86: ‘It Can Happen To Anyone’
This week, we interview State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who was pepper sprayed & cuffed by the NYPD at one of this week's protests.
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Malik Wright from NY politics pod, House Party NY (@houseparty.ny) shares his thoughts on the protests.
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NYC Journos talk city scene: @fractenberg @ndhapple @noahhurowitz & @lloydmitchellphotography
6/3/2020 • 34 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 85: Cuomo, YOLO, Oh No
The FAQ crew talks with Cuomo family lip-syncher and comedian Maria DeCotis, Daily News City Hall reporter and amateur artist Anna Sanders, and Sarah Brafman of the small business group Reopen New York.
5/28/2020 • 43 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 84: One Wave Down
5/21/2020 • 25 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 83: Cor-oh-no Blues
Christina Greer talks with Jeff Mays of the New York Times, and Alex Lynn talks with Liz O'Sullivan of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Plus the Cor-oh-no Blues as performed by J.P. Siegel, and much more.
5/14/2020 • 49 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 82: Nap Time for the City That Never Sleeps
A look at night one of the overnight train shutdown with Clayton Guse of the Daily News, and at the tough working conditions for the "other" essential workers with Michelle Jackson of the Human Services Council.
5/7/2020 • 43 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 81: Rat Gangs
A look at the shape New York is in and what happens after this, with Harry, Chrissy, Alex and guest Nicole Gelinas. Plus beautiful music from Namrata Tripathi and Quinn Raymond.
4/30/2020 • 37 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 80: The Test
A (somewhat) optimistic look at what where New York goes after the virus, plus conversations with Wayne Ho of the Chinese-American Planning Council and Aaron Naparstek of the War on Cars.
4/23/2020 • 40 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 79: Things Fall Apart
State Senator Zellnor Myrie calls in to warn about the state of the census in New York in the midst of social isolation, publisher and editor-in-chief Elinor Tatum discusses the state of the 109-year-old Amsterdam News, and much more.
4/16/2020 • 39 minutes, 17 seconds
Professor Christina Greer interviews Elinor Tatum of the Amsterdam News
4/13/2020 • 9 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 78: Stay the Fuck Home
The strange scene in NYC now, as conveyed by Gwynne Hogan of Gothamist, looking at the city's coronavirus undercount, Nikita Stewart of the New York Times, looking at how homeless families are sheltering in place, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, looking at the people still out on the streets in the midst of all this.
4/9/2020 • 45 minutes, 44 seconds
Cut down to the bone! NYC nurses issue a list of demands.
Alex Brook Lynn of FAQ.NYC interviews Sarah Dowd, a nurse at Harlem Hospital, about what healthcare workers need to pull us through this crisis.
As the world watches tired healthcare workers beg for supplies on social media, Sarah Dowd, a nurse at Harlem Hospital, doesn't want to see their troubles become an accepted “horrific sob story,” Sarah wants a "counter narrative," a narrative in which our elected officials “get things done.”
On Monday April 6th, Sarah and her fellow healthcare workers, along with the New York Nurses Association, will issue a list of demands to Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO of Health + Hospitals, Governor Cuomo, and President Trump.
4/6/2020 • 18 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 77: This Ain't Fine
New York Times media columnist Ben Smith, documentarian Akisa Omulepu and Barron’s reporter Alexandra Scaggs call in from their respective social isolations to look over what's happening in New York in the midst of all of this.
4/2/2020 • 40 minutes, 50 seconds
Interview: Alexandra Scaggs educated us on The Federal Reserve, Municipal Bonds, and Why it Matters.
Barron's financial journalist Alexandra Scaggs explains to Alex Brook Lynn how the stimulus bill impacts lending, what big things are changing with the federal reserve, and how the issue of municipal bonds, something that progressive economists have been on about for years, is finally entering the mainstream.
3/30/2020 • 18 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 76: 'Unlike Anything We've Ever Experienced as New Yorkers'
Council Health Chair Mark Levine, isolated at home with a presumed case of the coronavirus, gets on the phone with Harry to survey our transformed medical system, and explain why testing outside of hospitals is a counterproductive idea now. And CUNY Professor Heath Brown talks to Chrissy about homeschooling, as New York families are getting a crash course in it.
3/26/2020 • 39 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 75: New (Not) Normal
3/19/2020 • 33 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 74: Evictions Go Viral
Alex Brook Lynn and Adam Levy talk evictions with David Brand of The Queens Daily Eagle, and assess what the city is doing (and could be doing) to help New Yorkers that face losing their home as a consequence of Coronavirus.
On Thursday, March 12, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency for New York City. He said that the city needed to brace for six months of crisis mode; gatherings of 500 people or over are now banned, Broadway is going dark, and Madison Square Garden is closing. The city is also asking restaurants, bars, and other venues to operate at 50% capacity to support "social distancing."
This presents a major threat to the livelihood of millions of New Yorkers, as workforces reliant on this traffic brace to take a hit they are most likely unprepared for. The economic repercussions of these closures mixed with other job loss during the COVID-19 crisis are undeniable, and it is still unclear how far the city can and will go to block evictions in the private sector.
So, in the wake of these announcements, lawmakers are scrambling to protect New Yorkers who may be facing evictions or homelessness. According to Deputy Mayor for Operations, Laura Anglin, "NYCHA is not executing any warrants of eviction right now." For the rest of New York's renters, several efforts are in motion to ensure public health and the security of working families do not have to compete.
Read David Brand's most recent articles on COVID-19 and homelessness and "one shot deals," the city's rent relief for residents facing imminent eviction.
3/13/2020 • 34 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 73: The Safe Choice?
Progressive strategist Rebecca Katz joins Chrissy, Harry and Alex for a look at the shaken state of the Democratic party following Super Tuesday.
3/5/2020 • 38 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 72: Watching Weinstein: Just Another Trial
Victoria Bekiempis rejoins FAQ to run down her experience covering the Harvey Weinstein trial for Vulture.
2/27/2020 • 37 minutes, 1 second
Episode 71: Surveillance in the City: A New Podcast
Check out the pilot episode of 'Surveillance in the City,' a new podcast from some of our favorite FAQ guests, and produced by our very own Alex Brook Lynn. Join Albert Fox Cahn, Liz O'Sullivan, and Ali Winston, as they discuss current events related to privacy, data, surveillance, science fiction, and op-ed columnists.
Recorded at Don't Bury the Lede on January 20, 2020.
Albert Fox Cahn: @foxcahn (twitter.com/foxcahn)
Liz O'Sullivan: @lizjosullivan (twitter.com/lizjosullivan)
Ali Winston: @awinston (twitter.com/awinston)
Produced by Alex Brook Lynn
Mixed and Mastered by Adam Chimera
2/21/2020 • 53 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 70: Stop, Frisk, Apologize, Rinse, Repeat
Chrissy and Harry discuss Mike Bloomberg's latest national apology, the very different conversation about policing in Bill de Blasio's New York, and lots more.
2/13/2020 • 35 minutes, 58 seconds
Episode 69: Better Late Than Never?
2/6/2020 • 36 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 68: Eric Adams is Packing Heat
He isn't backing down from his complaints about new New Yorkers, his fundraising, or anything else.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE: https://youtu.be/1aiFuCo2Kn4
1/30/2020 • 42 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 67: Talking About Pictures
1/24/2020 • 37 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 66: The Frightening Future of Work
1/16/2020 • 35 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 65: New York City Trash Talk Falls Short
1/10/2020 • 40 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 64: The Killing of Tessa Majors
Michael Daly of the Daily Beast discusses his reporting on the killing that shocked a city, and Christina Greer talks about her time at Columbia and why this killing drew some much more attention than others.
12/19/2019 • 34 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 63: Mother of Exiles
FAQ takes a field trip to Emma Lazarus' Sitting Room at the American Jewish Historical Society to talk with Executive Director Annie Polland about the poet's life and her legacy. It's a story about intergenerational identity and how a rich woman found herself identifying with "wretched refuse" that's disturbingly resonant today.
12/13/2019 • 39 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 62: Penn Station's Original Sin
Marc Dunkelman delves into the history of Penn Station, and explains why the ghost of Robert Moses makes it so hard to get anything built in New York now.
12/9/2019 • 39 minutes, 10 seconds
Episode 61: Tears in the Rain
For the past year, FAQ has been asking New York's politicians the toughest questions, namely: “Are you a replicant?” The results of their Voight-Kampff tests have been a tightly held secret until now. It’s November, 2019, and the future is here and so are the tests, and results.
11/28/2019 • 26 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 60: Digital Stop and Frisk
Albert Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project joins Chrissy, Alex and Harry to talk about police body cams, who's watching our (AI and facial recognition enhanced) watchmen, and much more.
11/21/2019 • 36 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 59: Civics Lessons
Political strategist, NAACP Brooklyn branch president and Sunday Civics host L. Joy Williams joins Chrissy and Harry to run down what New York's democracy looks like these days.
11/14/2019 • 42 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 58: NYC's No-Contest Election
Nearly 20% of New Yorkers turned out to vote, for what? Ben Max of Gotham Gazette joined Chrissy, Harry and Alex Tuesday night to run down what just happened, and what it means.
11/6/2019 • 40 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 57: As Poor People Are Beaten for Seeking Help, Where's the Mayor?
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay and researcher Emma Goldberg join Chrissy and Alex to discuss the response from the city to their disturbing story, When Poor People Are Beaten for Seeking Help, about HRA clients who were beaten, handcuffed and worse by city employees and contractors.
11/1/2019 • 32 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 56: Corey Johnson on "Removing an Indelible Stain"
Council Speaker Corey Johnson joins Chrissy, Harry and Alex to explain how the vote to build four new jails and the promise to close Rikers Island in 2026 fit together. Plus, he talks for the first time about his most recent visit to the Island a week ago, and much more.
10/24/2019 • 49 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 55: The Water Miracle
Turn on a tap, tune in, and listen to Ibrahim Abdul-Matin blow your mind about New York's water.
10/17/2019 • 47 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 54: Border/Lines
Immigration reporter Felipe De La Hoz of the new Border/Lines newsletter joins Chrissy and Harry to explain about the Trump administration's new public charge rule, and much more.
10/11/2019 • 44 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 53: Life and Death, Porn and Potter's Fields
Katie Honan of the Wall Street Journal joins Harry and Chrissy to talk about sex shops, burying grounds and everything in between.
10/3/2019 • 39 minutes, 25 seconds
Episode 52: Train Pain and Gain
Jose Martinez, transportation reporter for The City, joins Chrissy, Harry and Alex to run down the MTA's new $51 billion and change capital plan.
9/26/2019 • 43 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 51: Testilying, Then and Now
Investigative reporters George Joseph and Ali Winston join Chrissy and Harry to explain how New York's district attorneys do — and, more often, don't — track police officers whose testimony doesn't ring true.
9/19/2019 • 42 minutes, 43 seconds
Episode 50: A Verb, a Noun, and What?
Summer's done, and Chrissy, Harry and Alex are back to run down the latest and New Yorkest.
9/12/2019 • 35 minutes, 29 seconds
Episode 49: (No) Escape From New York
The first New York City mayor to run for president while still in City Hall since Hot John Lindsay is having a blast moonlighting in Iowa; not so much at his day job. Politico's Dana Rubinstein joins to discuss her reporting on what to expect when Bill de Blasio finally calls it in and comes home. Spoiler: Meh.
8/21/2019 • 38 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 48: Just Us, and No More Jeffrey Epstein
NY Cops and Cooks reporter Pervaiz Shallwani, a senior editor at the Daily Beast, joins the FAQ crew to run down the latest twists in the terribly twisted Jeffrey Epstein saga.
8/15/2019 • 50 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 47: A Bike Mayor
Streetsblog's Dave Colon runs down the state of the streets in New York City, where the car remains king, and the need for a bike mayor. Plus a flashback to actual Mayor Bill de Blasio railing on FAQ about the unique evil of Fox, not so long before he spent Wednesday evening with Sean Hannity, and more.
8/8/2019 • 1 hour, 18 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 46: View From The Plaza
Journalist Julie Satow, author of The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel, joins Harry and Alex Lynn to share some of those secrets.
7/29/2019 • 35 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 45: Fear City, ICE Edition
The safety net in our sanctuary city barely exists for undocumented immigrants. Mazin Sidahmed of Documented and Claudia Irizarry Aponte of The City come in to discuss their reporting on ICE raids, family members left behind and more. Plus, Harry and Chrissy talk about the feds decision not to charge Daniel Pantaleo for the killing of Eric Garner, and Victoria Bekiempis and Alex Brook Lynn go inside the courts.
7/18/2019 • 55 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 44: Queens Rules
With the Queens DA race still up in the air, Nolan Hicks of the New York Post joins Chrissie and Harry to run down the state of the recount. Plus, Victoria Bekiempis goes In the Courts for a look at Jeffrey Epstein, who's finally spending full days inside a cell.
7/11/2019 • 42 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 43: Who’s Counted, and Who Counts
Life comes at you fast: Steven Romalewski of the CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research at CUNY'S Graduate Center joined Harry Wednesday morning — when Trump's citizenship question was dead and Tiffany Cabán appeared to have won the district attorney primary in Queens — to talk about the Census, who's likely to be undercounted and what’s at stake for New York, as well as the state of Queens politics. By Wednesday night, the citizenship question was back in play and Cabán was down 20 votes after absentee ballots were finally counted. Plus, Victoria Bekiempis returns to go In the Courts, with Alex Brook Lynn.
7/4/2019 • 59 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 42: Cabán Rocks Queens
Tuesday was a YUGE night for the rising reform crowd in Queens and a YUGE defeat for the powers that be, but maybe not for much longer. Harry and Chrissy discuss, along with Emma Whitford calling in from Cabán's victory party.
6/26/2019 • 36 minutes, 48 seconds
Episode 41: A New York City Education
New York Times Metro Deputy Editor Dodai Stewart joins Christina and Harry to discuss the papers’ reporting on the collapse in black and Latino representation at New York City’s elite schools and the rise of private test prep, her own BPR (Before Pizza Rat) education at Bronx Science, and more.
6/20/2019 • 35 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 40: The Meek Mill Interview: ‘Ate Alive in the Criminal System’
Meek Mill, still “on probation my whole life,” talks about his justice Reform Alliance work at The McSilver Awards, and then with Christina and Harry. Plus, McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research COO Rosemonde Pierre-Louis talks about the night and its honorees.
6/13/2019 • 28 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 39: Just Us, and The Queens District Attorney Debate
It’s a Queens District Attorney debate, with the first real election for the borough’s top law enforcement position since the 1970s(!) less than a month away. Candidates Tiffany Cabán, Rory Lancman, Greg Lasak, Nina Malik and Jose Nieves joined Christina Greer, Harry Siegel and the New York Times’ Azi Paybarah at the Rocco Moretto VFW Post 2348 in Astoria Wednesday morning for a special episode of FAQ along with Racket Media, our executive producer Alex Brook Lynn’s new entry into the heretofore barren digital media marketplace. Stay tuned! Plus pre- and post-debate analysis from David Brand of the Queens Daily Eagle, and much more.
5/30/2019 • 1 hour, 35 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 38: The Ghost of Hot John Lindsay
Azi Paybarah, who left FAQ — WTF?! — for the NYT returns to talk with Harry and Chrissy about the city’s rats, goats, and sharks, including political shark Bill de Blasio’s presidential run and what it means to be America’s mayor-in-chief.
5/23/2019 • 41 minutes, 17 seconds
Episode 37: Just Us, and Officer Daniel Pantaleo
ABC Criminal Justice reporter Christina Carrega joins Harry Siegel, Christina Greer, Victoria Bekiempis and Alex Brook Lynn to talk abut what she's seen at the disturbingly low-stakes department trial, inside One Police Plaza, of the officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner—and who's still drawing a check from the NYPD nearly five years later.
5/16/2019 • 34 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 36: Black Boys, Ready to Die
Dr. Michael Lindsey, director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, discusses his work leading the working group for the Congressional Black Caucus’ newly convened emergency Task Force on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health. Then Alex Brook Lynn, in Albany, visits Albany to report on dark talk about dirty vice cops in New York City. Finally, Patricia Williams, mother of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, calls in for Mother's Day to look back on raising a boy in Brooklyn.
5/9/2019 • 58 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 35: Legal Pot Goes Up In Smoke
This was going to be the year that pot was flat-out legalized in New York, or so said Gov. Cuomo, perhaps inspired by primary opponent Cynthia Nixon. Then three wo/men went into a smoke-filled room and everyone forgot about it. State Senator Diane Savino joins Chrissy, Harry and Cannabis Wire's Alyson Martin to discuss what happens, and what happens — or more likely doesn't — now.
5/2/2019 • 49 minutes, 26 seconds
Episode 34: Door-to-Door War
New state Senator Zellnor Myrie walks up to Alex Lynn's rent-stabilized apartment to sit down with his constituent Christina Greer and talk about the rent-stabilized apartment he grew up in, why New York needs stronger new rent regulations, statewide, and more.
4/25/2019 • 41 minutes, 2 seconds
Episode 33: Dirty Data Dystopia
For now we see through a black box, darkly, as Albert Fox Cahn and Liz O'Sullivan of STOP - The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project — visit Bleecker Street to talk about what's happening with algorithms and AI in de Blasio's New York.
4/18/2019 • 36 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 32: A Tale of Two Pre-Ks
Within Universal Pre-K, there are two groups of teachers — one that works for the city, and one that works for community groups the city contracts with — that do the same work, for very different salaries. Christina Veiga of Chalkbeat joins us to talk about a looming strike, and the value of a woman's work in de Blasio's New York. Plus, Victoria Bekiempis calls in to run down the court drama this week from the NXVIM sex cult cum pyramid scheme, and more.
4/11/2019 • 46 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 31: Just Us episode 1
FAQ presents a new, highly irregular podcast about courts and the justice system with Victoria Bekiempis and Alex Brook Lynn talking with with legendary courts reporter Christina Carrega about the highly irregular trials of Chanel Lewis, convicted this week for the murder of jogger Karina Vetrano.
4/4/2019 • 42 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 30: Ferry Follies
Rosie Goldensohn of The City comes in to explain how the city blew $369 million to save $30 million on a niche transportation system that charges $2.75 per ride that the city pays $13 to provide, state Senator Alessandra Biaggi calls in to discuss how $175 billion of state budget sausage gets ground up.
4/4/2019 • 51 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 29: MacDoodle Street, or, A Pod for Visual Voluptuaries
Mark Alan Stamaty’s great visual novel MacDoodle Street—the story of dishwashing poet Malcolm Frazzle that first appeared in the pages of the Village Voice in the late 1970s—is back in print thanks to the fine nerds of the New York Review of Books.
Bill Bramhall, editorial cartoonist for the Daily News, joined Harry Siegel and Alex Brook Lynn for a conversation with Stamaty about his work, God, drugs, those hacks Artman and Andy Warhol, donuts and love, and, of course, umbilical oralism and the ultimate painting.
In the spirit of his work, there are tangents within tangents — Emmylou Harris, maybe, helping a drunk Dave Van Ronk up from the sidewalk of MacDougal Street after a Kris Kristofferson show — as we stroll through the lost New York of MacDoodle Street without ever leaving Alex’s Bleaker Street apartment.
3/28/2019 • 38 minutes, 31 seconds
Episode 28: A New Day for the Oldest Profession?
Harry Siegel and Alex Lynn talk with state Senator Jessica Ramos about sex work and the new push to decriminalize in in New York, and much more. Plus, Emma Whitford runs down her reporting on loitering laws, massage raids, and why the NYPD says we can’t arrest our way out of this problem; Harry talks with Peter Edelman about the criminalization of poverty, and Alex and Victoria Bekiempis go inside the courts.
3/22/2019 • 1 hour, 10 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 27: Prosecutor's Promise: I'll Hammer Less
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez talks with Harry and Alex about his Justice 2020 action plan, what happens when prosecutors with legal hammers stop treating people like nails, policing the police, sex crimes and much more. Then Alex and Victoria go in the Manhattan courts to talk about a busy week there for the Trump gang, what with his old campaign manager getting charged in a court where the president has no pardon power, while his TV lawyer — our old mayor! — was back again to get divorced again. What da FAQ?
3/14/2019 • 50 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 26: The Fusion Explosion
As Cuomo's Democratic Party looks to blow up fusion voting in New York, the Post's Michael Benjamin joins Christina and Harry to discuss the state of the party here and nationally in the shadow of Trump. Plus Victoria and Alex go in the courts to talk about the case of Statue of Liberty climber Patricia Okoumou.
3/6/2019 • 39 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 25: Nefarious Reasons in a Special Election
New Public Advocate-elect Jumaane Williams called Christina Greer just before the polls closed to discuss his vision for the office—and why there needs to be an investigation of how his sealed police records from a decade-old domestic dispute ended up dropping days before the election. Then Gotham Gazette Executive Editor and Max and Murphy co-host Ben Max visits the FAQ crew to break midnight breaking down the results, and what they mean for NYC and the players in its long game of political musical chairs.
2/27/2019 • 36 minutes, 15 seconds
Episode 24: Amazon's Prime Decepticon
A double-sized episode with Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer explaining to Chrissie and Harry why he isn't interested in negotiating with Amazon, or serving with Ruben Diaz Jr. Plus—deep breath!—Daily Beast special Fashion Week correspondent Sarah Shears on Paris Hilton lighting her own photos, ace courts reporter Victoria Bekiempis on Chapo’s conviction, Community Voices Heard Executive Director Afua Atta-Mensah on organizing against Amazon, and Sexual Harassment Working Group members Rita Pasarell and Patricia Gunning on Albany’s historic quarter-century-in-the-making hearing on harassment.
2/14/2019 • 1 hour, 2 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 23: No Access
With the tragic death of Malaysia Goodson reigniting New Yorkers' fears and concerns about making it into and out of the subway tunnels, we spoke to engineer and advocate Chris Pangilinan about a system that still mostly depends on stairs — and what it's like to depend on that system when you can't use the stairs.
2/7/2019 • 38 minutes, 50 seconds
Episode 22: ICE's Courthouse Jump Offs
We talk federal arrests inside state courts with Documented NY's Mazin Sidahmed and Felipe de la Hoz. Plus, state Sen. Gustavo Rivera talks with Christina about the blue new day in Albany, and Victoria Bekiempis explains to Harry why Robert de Niro's divorce is — really! — a matter of some public importance.
1/31/2019 • 42 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 21: El Chapo's Burgundy Burn
Chrissy and Harry talk with turncoat Azi Paybarah about door knocking Peter Parker in Queens, Timesman Alan Feuer about the madness of the El Chapo trial in Brooklyn, and courts reporter Victoria Bekiempis about Harvey Weinstein's wired new legal team.
1/24/2019 • 44 minutes, 20 seconds
Episode 20: New York's Californication
The state of the state is changing fast, for a change. Chris Smith joins Chrissy and Harry to discuss.
1/17/2019 • 45 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 19: L-pocalypse Nah
The governor controls the train authority that planned and warned for years that the L train tunnel would need to be shut down for repairs after Hurricane Sandy ravaged it back in 2012. Then Governor Cuomo walked through the tunnel in 2019, and emerged with a new plan averting the shutdown and a retconned origin story about that plan. Huh? MTA board member Veronica Vanterpool and transit reporter Aaron Gordon join us to make some sense of this, and, err, break down the sorry state of our public transportation system.
1/10/2019 • 47 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 18: Our 2018 Kicker
We talk De Blasio, Cuomo, NYCHA, and more. Plus Alex Brook Lynn on the death of the Cornelia Street Cafe, and Victoria Bekiempis takes you in the courts.
12/20/2018 • 41 minutes, 14 seconds
Episode 17: Nazis and Street Fights in Victory City
White supremacists holding rallies with fascists and anti-fascists brawling outside, and war looming. Maybe that sounds like NYC in 2018, but we're talking NYC in WWII and the years around it along with special guests John Strausbaugh, author of "Victory City: A history of New York and New Yorkers during World War II," and Ron Howell, author of "Boss of Black Brooklyn: The life and times of Bertram L. Baker."
12/13/2018 • 47 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 16: Albany's Sex Crimes Horror Show
“I’m a single woman. I don't come from wealth. How do I survive this experience so I can get a job again? In politics, your loyalty and your network is your value and taking on a member as powerful as Vito, you’re not just taking on that member—you’re taking on their entire network and everything that network has to lose and especially if your claims aren’t enough to bring them down…I started to change my own behavior just to survive… I was suicidal. I was on my last legs."
12/6/2018 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 28 seconds
Episode 15: NYCHA's SOS
Councilman Ritchie Torres and Daily News investigative reporter Greg B. Smith discuss lead, neglect, private money and public housing. Plus Gwynne Hogan goes to the Andrew Jackson houses in the Bronx to talk with Daniel Barber, the leader of the group of tenants associations suing New York City.
11/29/2018 • 46 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 14: Ugly Optical Illusion
Voting in New York is a certified disaster. Michael Benjamin joins the FAQ crew to discuss why that is, and how to fix it. Plus Chirissy Greer, on her way to Georgia, breaks down the unsettled governor's race there, and much more …a including ChapAzon.
11/15/2018 • 40 minutes
Episode 13: Fresh From the Election Day Coup
Ben Max of Gotham Gazette sat down with us in the wee hours of Wednesday morning for a first look at the polls, and a new day in New York where fat cats just might get slapped back. Plus Alex Brook Lynn hits Staten Island and South Brooklyn Tuesday to talk with voters, and so much more.
11/7/2018 • 45 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 12: The ‘Authentically Effervescent’ Mr. Johnson
🎶 Corey Johnson may be the City Council speaker, but we've got him singing in our first ever musical episode.
11/1/2018 • 34 minutes, 47 seconds
Episode 11: Molinaro, the Mooch & the State of the N.Y. GOP
We talked in person about the sad state of the Republican party here, and on the phone with the Republican who would be governor who evokes some of what the party once was and, he hopes, could be. Alex Lynn reports from her night out partying with Anthony Scaramucci and his mom who—spoiler alert!—also does not think much of Steve Bannon. Plus a truly disgraceful tribute to Azi, and it all adds up to oh so much New York in your ear.
10/25/2018 • 42 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 10: November Stakes
With Democrats poised to keep holding every statewide office, FAQ talked with City and State's Rebecca C. Lewis about the high stakes fights for control of the state Senate in Albany and the House in Washington, and the races here that could decide which party triumphs.
10/11/2018 • 40 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 9: Jumaane's 'No Inside Dude'
Councilman Jumaane Williams was thisclose to becoming the Lieutenant Governor Andrew Cuomo dreaded. He fell short, but his political stock has never been higher. He talked with the FAQ crew about the change coming to Albany, the state of New York City and what's next for him — including the friendship that might keep him from running for public advocate.
10/4/2018 • 36 minutes, 13 seconds
8.2 Short: Jumaane Williams
Here's a taste of Jumaane Williams, on clearing the lieutenant governor's for the Working Families Party with a new "campaign" against state Senator Simcha Felder; full interview up soon.
10/3/2018 • 4 minutes, 1 second
8.1 Short: Howie Hawkins
Azi talks with the Green Party gubernatorial hopeful Howie Hawkins, who makes his case and talks some stuff about the Working Families Party.
10/2/2018 • 3 minutes, 4 seconds
Episode 8: STRINGER
Scott STRINGER or STRINGER Bell?
——You have any idea what I had to do to get where I am today? When I say I’m ready, you best believe it.
(The youngsters?) Look, I’m going to empower this generation.… learning how to work the system. I had to learn it when I was 30; and they will learn it as well.
If the man coming, make ready for the man.
I don’t think it has to be about me vs. new people. Why not embrace new people and collectively work?
Everybody making money sharing the real estate.
This wasn’t my first rodeo. I was paroled after 13 years (from a place where hope) dies in the middle of the night or is never heard—and that was the fault of the collective system.
You gotta be fierce, I know that, but more than that, you gotta show some flex, give and take on both sides. ——
We had New York City Comptroller SCOTT Stringer, who said half those things, to talk about his housing plan that’s about to drop (Mitchell Llama 2, he called it) and much more.
9/27/2018 • 37 minutes, 44 seconds
Episode 7: IDC Heads Roll, and so Does the Cuomo Machine
New York's Democrats came out in force, to punish local incumbents even as they stood behind Cuomo and helped Tish James, his pick for attorney general, make some history.
9/14/2018 • 26 minutes, 56 seconds
Episode 6: How Thou Ought to Vote
A week before primary day — the moment of truth in most New York elections — we pull back the curtain on the voice of the papers in a conversation with editorial board members Mara Gay of the New York Times and Alyssa Katz of the Daily News about how they decide who gets the nod, and why this may be the rare year in which endorsements really matter.
9/6/2018 • 35 minutes, 22 seconds
Episode 5: AG Hopefuls Talk RE & DJT
In a supersized episode 5, we ask aspiring Attorneys General Zephyr Teachout, Tish James, Sean Patrick Maloney and Leecia Eve to say whether or not Donald Trump and his crew are emblematic of the New York real estate world, and what would change if each of them gets to be the new sheriff in town. Plus, former A.G. candidate Mark Green runs down this year's race and revisits several of his old ones.
8/30/2018 • 51 minutes, 46 seconds
Episode 4: The Curse of Tom Suozzi
Are you listening, Cynthia Nixon? The original Democratic underdog has some thoughts on what it’s like to run against the party powers that be for governor of New York.
8/23/2018 • 37 minutes, 19 seconds
Episode 3: FAQ Meets BdB
Mayor Bill de Blasio sat down with us at Gracie Mansion to talk about his Murdoch-oriented media critique, how his progressive Democrats have already won the fight for the soul of the party, and why — hey, Cynthia Nixon! — he still he isn't ready to endorse some of those progressives.
8/17/2018 • 47 minutes, 16 seconds
Episode 2: De Blasio’s Moon Shot Mission to Albany
New York City is the center of the universe, at least we think so. But what if it turned out that the universe didn’t revolve around us but in fact we revolved around… Albany? If the Democrats finally retake the state Senate and the Empire State turns deep blue, everything changes for Mayor de Blasio. Or at least that's what he hopes. We talked with political science professor Jeanne Zaino and Working Families Party boss Bill Lipton about the high stakes in this year's elections, plus City Council Speaker Corey Johnson calls in to run down what he says Harry Siegel got wrong in episode one.
8/9/2018 • 47 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 1: The Return of John Liu
John Liu thought he was on track to be New York City's next mayor in 2013 before a federal investigation overshadowed his run. Now, he says, things have changed and he's trying to get back in the game as one of a group of Democrats running primaries against the former so-called "Independent Democrats" who've helped Republicans keep control of the state Senate.