FAQ NYC Podcasts

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.…

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

In the wake of Jordan Neely's killing, hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan break down subways, migrants, Black leaders, and more...By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers of Queens joins the pod to discuss some of the council's street-safety and transportation bills and much more.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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 G…

An instant vintage time capsule of a street scene outside the courthouse that seemed like much ado about nothing.By FAQ NYC

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.…

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ 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.By FAQ NYC

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. .By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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 b…

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.…

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?By FAQ NYC

Gary Weiss joins the pod to discuss "The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie" and his book about that.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.…

And there’s really nothing funny about it.By FAQ NYC

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…

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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…By FAQ NYC

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 mas…

A conversation with the authors of Rikers: An Oral History.By FAQ NYC

Professor Christina Greer and Harry Siegel break down Kathy Hochul's first state of the state as New York's elected governor.By FAQ NYC

A look back at Eric Adams' first year as mayor, and ahead to the even bigger challenges looming for New York City.By FAQ NYC

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 inter…

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.By FAQ NYC

Christina Greer and Harry Siegel reflect on the mayor's first year, which was anything but boring. and what's to come.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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?By FAQ NYC

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 did…

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.…

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.By FAQ NYC

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 th…

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.By FAQ NYC

Pervaiz Shallwani dipped a hot dog into New York’s melting pot, and what came out was delicious.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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.By FAQ NYC

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 Con…