Borrowed

Building Brooklyn: From Gowanus to Canarsie

August 31, 2021 10:00 - 2 minutes - 1.63 MB

We're launching a mini-series about four neighborhoods that made Brooklyn the vibrant, diverse borough it is today! “Building Brooklyn” will take you to Gowanus, the Navy Yard, Sunset Park, and Canarsie to discover some of Brooklyn’s most unique and over-looked stories. Episode transcript: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/building-brooklyn-coming

New Yorkers: Rank Your Vote!

May 27, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutes - 9.45 MB

It’s the start of summer, which means block parties, beach trips, and also, big primary elections here in New York City. This will be the city's first election cycle where voters will get to cast their votes for up to five candidates for each position. It’s called ranked choice voting. Read our transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/new-yorkers-rank-your

That All May Participate

April 07, 2021 10:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MB

"To me, what all these books say is independence and personal choice," says Nefertiti Matos of the stacks of Braille books at NYPL's Andrew Heiskell Library. In this episode, we talk about what inclusion means, whether it's creating tactile graphics so that all may encounter the visual world, or making our virtual classes accessible to kids with disabilities. Read our transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/all-may-participate

Good News

March 24, 2021 10:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MB

It’s been a rough year. So, we gathered all the good news we could find to brighten your podcast feed. Hear kids read to a therapy dog, a library love story, babies learning ASL, and adults age 90 and older learning to use Zoom. Read our transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/good-news

Education For All

March 12, 2021 11:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MB

Ingrid Douglas never finished high school as a teenager. When she started looking for a better job at age sixty, she found not having a degree was a huge barrier. So, Ingrid came to the library to get her diploma. In this episode, we talk to students and instructors at BPL about how the library can be a refuge for those who have experienced trauma or adversity on their path to education. Read our transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/education-f...

Rekindling from Burnout

February 25, 2021 11:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MB

Burnout from work is something a lot of us are thinking about right now. It's been on the minds of librarians, too. We talk to a group of library workers who got together to combat the stress of the profession, and support each other. Read our transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/rekindling-burnout

Hear Me Out: Part Two

February 10, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MB

Hear me out: A Vietnamese refugee opens a restaurant to keep her kids out of gangs, Brooklynites on their changing borough, a daughter seeks justice after her father's death from COVID-19, giving birth during a pandemic, the meaning of shelter for families experiencing homelessness, and the last lesbian bar in Brooklyn. These are all Brooklyn stories, created as part of BPL's first ever audio storytelling workshop. Listen to full audio stories here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/...

Hear Me Out: Part One

February 03, 2021 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MB

Hear me out: a Bed-Stuy kid grapples with her Brooklyn identity, a Chassidic woman follows her faith to from South Africa to Crown Heights, musicians find belonging in the South Indian music diaspora, a Brooklynite memorializes early activism in the borough, and a Black Puerto Rican land worker paves her own career path. These are all Brooklyn stories, created as part of BPL's first ever audio storytelling workshop. Listen to the full audio stories here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podc...

Showing Up

January 20, 2021 11:00 - 26 minutes - 18.3 MB

Our work in the correctional facilities in New York City didn't stop during the pandemic. We talked with the Justice Initiatives team at BPL to hear how they are connecting with patrons who are incarcerated and supporting families with loved ones in jails and prisons. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/showing

Secret Lives of Librarians

January 06, 2021 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MB

What do librarians do all day? When they're not planning programs or working the reference desk, these librarians are also obscure trivia players, birders and ... sword fighters! Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/secret-lives-librarians

Storytime Anytime

December 21, 2020 11:00 - 20 minutes - 13.9 MB

"We want all the kids to see themselves in all the stories," says Raakhee Mirchandani, author of Super Satya Saves the Day. This episode, we hear Drag Queen Cholula Lemon read Mirchandani's book, and we visit BPL's wildly popular Tibetan language storytime, which provides language refuge for thousands of Tibetan-speaking New Yorkers, and reaches thousands more across the world. Bring a kiddo along to this episode! Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibra...

Missing Them

December 10, 2020 11:00 - 23 minutes - 16 MB

A special episode, created in partnership with Queens Memory and the online newspaper The CITY, on grief and mourning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we can move forward as a community. Read our trasncript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/missing-them

On Passing

November 18, 2020 11:00 - 32 minutes - 22.5 MB

Belle da Costa Greene and Nella Larsen are two librarians of color, one who is white passing, and the other of mixed heritage who wrote famously about the phenomenon of passing in her novels. We're telling the stories of these women and asking what they can tell us about race in librarianship and in literature. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/passing

Votes for Women

October 30, 2020 10:00 - 12 minutes - 8.91 MB

To honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we take a trip to Green-Wood cemetery to the grave of Sarah Smith Garnet, one of Brooklyn's Black women suffragists. We also talk with NYC Council Member Farrah Louis about how the women in her family encouraged activism through voting. Read the trasncript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/votes-for-women

From Montgomery to East New York

October 26, 2020 10:00 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MB

We dig into the history of a once-unacknowledged African burial ground in East New York, Brooklyn, and ask how a new library branch can honor that legacy. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/montgomery-east-new-york

Marching Onward

October 14, 2020 10:00 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MB

From Selma, Alabama to Brooklyn, New York — we look at how racial violence and racial memory impacts our country and our libraries. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/marching-onward

Reopening, Reimagining

September 30, 2020 10:00 - 26 minutes - 17.9 MB

You can physically borrow books again, Brooklyn! This episode, we ask how the pandemic can help us re-imagine what we use libraries for. Plus, we talk to LA County Library about how extreme weather is impacting their reopening, and dig into the science of how we are keeping you (and your books) healthy. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/reopening-reimagining

Your Friendly Neighborhood Fridge

August 07, 2020 10:00 - 12 minutes - 8.77 MB

Since our libraries were closed for the last four months, we were on the lookout for organizations that were acting in the spirit of public libraries. We found one! Listen to an audio portrait of the food justice movement happening on street corners across Brooklyn. And we'll be back in your feed again in September for Season 3 of Borrowed. Read the transcript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/your-friendly

Rebroadcast: Free Brooklyn

June 25, 2020 10:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MB

In honor of Juneteenth 2020, the anniversary of the day in 1865 when the news was finally delivered to Galveston, Texas that slavery in the United States had been abolished, we are returning to an episode from earlier in our season. "Free Brooklyn" tells two important stories about the struggle for freedom: a young girl “auctioned” at Plymouth Church in 1860 and the story of Weeksville, Brooklyn's historically Black neighborhood. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https:/...

Stories from the Pandemic

June 03, 2020 10:00 - 29 minutes - 20.1 MB

In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding to the coronavirus crisis, and many more are encountering a new normal, as we adjust to changing work, education, housing, and even access to basic amenities. Listen to stories from people across the borough as part of our ongoing local oral history archive. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/stories-pandemic

A Folklorist for the Seven Million

May 13, 2020 10:00 - 20 minutes - 14 MB

In 1943, Brooklyn Public Library launched its first radio program, in partnership with WNYC. “Folk Songs for the Seven Million,” written and produced by Elaine Lambert Lewis, documented folk songs and stories from around the country and collected folk traditions from everyday Brooklynites. On this episode, we pay tribute to our audio ancestor. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/folklorist-for-seven

In Fifty Years

April 22, 2020 10:00 - 32 minutes - 22.5 MB

Earth Day is here, but a lot of us are inside. On this episode of Borrowed, we gather sounds of the natural world from the stoops and parks of Brooklyn, and we look back at the first Earth Day fifty years ago, and ask what it means for us today. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/fifty-years

Get Counted

April 01, 2020 10:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MB

The census doesn’t just distribute representatives in congress and billions of dollars in federal funds—it determines city bus routes, how many garbage cans are on your block, and whether a grocery store opens in your neighborhood. Filling out the census is one of the most powerful ways to use your voice. Read the transcript here and our show notes here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/get-counted

Social Distancing? We're Here For You!

March 17, 2020 18:32 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MB

Working from home? Kids at home? The library is here for you! We’ve got virtual resources galore to help you keep a healthy social distance during the coronavirus outbreak. Check out eBooks & Audiobooks: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/borrow/ebooks-audiobooks Attend virtual story time every day at 11am and 2pm, join our virtual Dungeons & Dragons for teens, and so much more: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/event-series/virtual-programming Read the latest newspapers and magazines o...

Three Brooklyn Stories

March 03, 2020 11:00 - 11 minutes - 7.82 MB

Listen to three Brooklynites talk about their personal connections to places across the borough. We’ll hear from a Walt Whitman scholar at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, an LGBTQ activist in Brighton Beach, and one of Biggie’s biggest fans on a block in Clinton Hill. Read our transcript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/three-brooklyn-stories

Stroller Parking

February 18, 2020 11:00 - 21 minutes - 15.1 MB

If you’re a kid or if you take care of a kid, chances are you use the library a lot. Listen in on some creative ways that libraries are engaging with children and their caregivers, from writing workshops just for caregivers to classes that help patrons open daycare centers in their own homes. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/stroller-parking

Borrowed, Live!

February 04, 2020 11:00 - 44 minutes - 30.3 MB

For our first ever live show, we went back to the basics and talked about books! Listen to our librarians as they match audience members to books on the spot, reveal what, in fact, is the real number-one-checked-out-book in Brooklyn and recommend their favorite reads of 2019. This episode was recorded during the Brooklyn Podcast Festival at Union Hall on January 26. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/borrowed-live

Carnegie's Legacy

January 23, 2020 23:00 - 31 minutes - 21.4 MB

Andrew Carnegie has a classic rags-to-riches story: an immigrant turned steel magnate who financed the construction of over 2,500 public library buildings worldwide, including 21 in Brooklyn. But, his business and labor policies often hurt the very people his libraries served. As one Carnegie steel worker said in 1900: “After working 12 hours, how can a man go to a library?” We dig into Carnegie’s complicated legacy, with a special appearance from the Bowery Boys! Listen to their compani...

Librarians, Live!

January 21, 2020 11:00 - 2 minutes - 1.52 MB

We’re getting in your ears to tell you about our first ever live recording of Borrowed! It’s free, at 5pm on Sunday, January 26 at Union Hall, as a part of Brooklyn Podcast Festival (event details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/borrowed-live-tickets-84560078471). And, we’re collaborating with The Bowery Boys on an episode about Andrew Carnegie’s complicated legacy. That will come out this Friday, January 24 on our feed and theirs (http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/bowery-boy...

Plunging into the New Year

January 01, 2020 11:00 - 11 minutes - 7.65 MB

To ring in the new year, take a dive into the stories of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. We hear from voices from across New York City—a cop speaking openly about his wife's drug addiction, recent Russian immigrants looking for tradition, and a mother mourning her daughter's death—who all have their own reasons for jumping into the freezing ocean every Sunday. Read the transcript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/plunging-new-year

Blocks and Brownstones

December 24, 2019 11:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MB

Perhaps Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhood is Bedford-Stuyvesant. The tree-lined streets and grand brownstones have been here for over 150 years, while the Brooklynites who call those brownstones home are constantly changing. In this episode, we tell the story of this neighborhood through the lives of three women who set down roots there in different ways: activist Hattie Carthan, writer Paule Marshall, and novelist Naomi Jackson. Read the transcript and check out our book list her...

Our Garbage, Ourselves

December 10, 2019 11:00 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

At the edge of Brooklyn, there’s a beach covered with glass bottles, nylon stockings, rusting kitchen appliances, and decaying batteries. The trash didn’t float here, though. It’s eroding from a poorly-covered landfill. We start this episode at Dead Horse Bay, where we ask what trash can tell us about structures of power, and end the episode in 1960s Bed-Stuy, where the local Civil Rights Movement took on a surprising enemy: garbage collection. Read the transcript and check out our book...

Throwing It Out

November 26, 2019 11:00 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MB

We're talking trash at the library today. Specifically, the story of a 3,000-ton garbage barge that made a scene in Brooklyn in the 1980s… and, we ask what happens to library books when they get too old. Finally, we take a trip to East Harlem, where one sanitation worker spent 30 years creating an archive of New Yorkers' trash. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/throwing-it-out

Free Brooklyn

November 12, 2019 11:00 - 27 minutes - 19 MB

Four hundred years later, this country has yet to reckon with the legacy of slavery. And that is no less true for Brooklyn. This episode, we’re taking a cue from The 1619 Project and telling important stories about the struggle for freedom, from a young girl “auctioned” at Plymouth Church in 1860 to the story of Crown Heights’s Weeksville as a site of resistance and power before the Civil War. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podca...

Getting Home

October 29, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutes - 17 MB

It’s not an uncommon experience to be unstably housed in this country. From Brooklyn to San Francisco, communities often turn to public libraries for valuable information, social services and for a safe and comfortable place to be. This episode, we listen to stories of patrons experiencing homelessness, and ask how the library could be better when it comes to creating a sense of home for everyone. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/pod...

Check This Out

October 15, 2019 10:00 - 6 minutes - 4.68 MB

Libraries are truly amazing no matter where you go. This season on Borrowed, we’re going to celebrate that, and bring you stories that challenge your idea of the public library, and of Brooklyn, too.

New Americans

July 16, 2019 10:00 - 21 minutes - 14.6 MB

Immigration is a pressing topic in our political landscape right now, with concerns about ICE raids and immigration bans. In this episode, we listen to inspiring stories of recent asylees, the case for more bilingual librarians, and what the library means when we say “American.” Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/new-americans

A Writer Grows in Brooklyn

July 02, 2019 10:00 - 31 minutes - 22 MB

There’s something about Brooklyn that makes you want to write. “Everything is alive here,” says poet Mahogany L. Browne. And thank goodness we have writers to capture that. In this episode, we share an interview with Mahogany Browne and Brooklyn poet laureate Tina Chang, plus a story about the classic novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/writer-grows-brooklyn

Teens Take Over

June 18, 2019 10:00 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MB

Kairi Hollon tried to go to the library when he was a teenager in Brooklyn in the 1980s, but he kept getting kicked out. Years later, he came back to the library and started to create spaces just for teens. We’ll listen in on a Dungeons & Dragons game in Mill Basin, a teen party at Central, and learn how video games are changing the library. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/teens-take-over

Work in Progress

June 04, 2019 10:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MB

From “the most expensive pigeon roost in the world” to one of the world’s most unique libraries, Brooklyn’s Central Library has many stories to tell. We’ll dive into the history of Central Library, and bring you stories of small businesses, fashion shows, and one patron’s path from homelessness to determined author. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/work-progress

For Kids' Sake

May 21, 2019 10:00 - 19 minutes - 13.5 MB

It turns out that libraries weren’t always so friendly toward children. That started to change around the turn of the 20th century, thanks to a librarian who is pretty much unknown today. We're taking a field trip to a library truck in the Flatlands, a story time at Central, and to Brownsville in 1914... Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/for-kids-sake

Weathering the Storm

May 07, 2019 10:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MB

Sometimes, in the wake of natural disasters, the library becomes an information center, a shelter and a community space. We travel to Coney Island, Red Hook, and Puerto Rico to learn about how neighbors come together after a storm, and how libraries can help. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/weathering-storm

Across the Reference Desk

April 23, 2019 10:00 - 20 minutes - 13.8 MB

Online search engines are basically universal, so questions at the library reference desk are changing. We follow the story of one question, “I want to know how I can be happy,” and learn about how libraries are keeping up with the needs of the community. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/across-reference-desk

Something to Offend Everyone

April 09, 2019 10:00 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MB

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” So goes the quote from librarian Jo Godwin. From Dr. Seuss to kosher books to Drag Queen Story Hour, this episode will explore what it means to challenge censorship, and what happens when patrons disagree with content in the library. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/something-offend-everyone

Oil Spills and Moldy Paper

March 26, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MB

Preserving history is about more than battling mold and disintegration. We took a trip to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to learn about how an environmental disaster propelled residents into action, and how the public library is archiving the neighborhood’s past and present. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/oil-spills-and-moldy

Books Are Not Dead

March 12, 2019 10:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MB

Books on conveyor belts, book vacuums and books in the mail. This episode of “Borrowed” will take you behind the scenes to see how books travel around the boroughs, from Long Island City to Bensonhurst to your bedside table. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/books-are-not-dead

Introducing 'Borrowed'

February 21, 2019 16:56 - 1 minute - 938 KB

Brooklyn has so many stories to tell, and a lot of them start at the library. Every other week, “Borrowed” brings you stories that start here and take you somewhere new. Brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library. Our first episode launches March 12.

Episodes