FAQ NYC

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.

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.

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 cel...

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.

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.

Episode 355: ‘The Answer Is Always Money’

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.

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.

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.

Episode 351: NYC’s Students Take a Seat at the Table

In 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 journalists producing the new student-produced podcast PS Weekly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Check out The Burd...

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.

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.

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 Call My Name.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Episode 337: ‘The Whole Point of Government’

Hosts Christina and Harry talk about e-bike fires, Letitia James’s winning streak, and much more.

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 Vi...

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.’

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.

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.

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 ex...

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 Sup...

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 Ratner 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 fai...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 cit...

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.

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 Superf...

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.

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 Michel and Steve Lynn, and then a pair about gloom, glamor and gunmption told by Huge Perez and Flo Ankah.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.