FAQ NYC
375 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 134 ratingsA 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.
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Episodes
Episode 210: The First Responders the FDNY Left Behind
July 21, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 46.2 MBDe 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.
Episode 209: Summer in the City
July 13, 2022 20:00 - 19 minutes - 13.7 MBFrom secret lairs to Covid lessons not learned in 20 minutes flat.
Episode 208: Brooklyn's Bad Machine
July 06, 2022 22:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBReporter 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.
Episode 207: Election Night: The Empire Strikes Back
June 29, 2022 05:00 - 36 minutes - 25.3 MBThe great Ben Max breaks down what just happened with Chrissy and Harry.
Episode 206: The One Sound You Do Not Want To Hear By the Beach
June 23, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 47.6 MBKatie 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.
Episode 205: A Big Personality, Thin Skin and a Low Bar
June 16, 2022 04:00 - 39 minutes - 26.8 MBA few thoughts on Eric Adams' relationship with the press, and then a bunch more on New York City's budget and political picture.
Episode 204: The Swagger-Stagger Situation
June 10, 2022 01:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MBBreaking 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.
Episode 203: The New Yorkest
June 02, 2022 00:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBWhen the New Yorker just isn't New York enough, you've come to the right pod…
Episode 202: Sixty-odd Candidates In Search of a District
May 25, 2022 22:00 - 39 minutes - 26.8 MBBradley 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.
Episode 201: Dead Souls, Brooklyn Edition
May 19, 2022 02:00 - 1 hour - 45 MBA 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 peop...
Episode 200: The Livest One
May 12, 2022 03:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBFor 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.
Episode 199: Albany Strangeness in the Multiverse of Map Madness
May 05, 2022 04:00 - 1 hour - 43.3 MBMap 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.
Episode 198: The Cave Cop Who Transformed New York City
April 26, 2022 22:00 - 1 hour - 46 MBMichael Daly recalls his friend Jack Maple, the maker of the maps that changed everything.
Episode 197: Flipping the Albany Script With Eddie Gibbs
April 20, 2022 21:00 - 1 hour - 43.5 MBAn 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.
Episode 196: Everything At Once
April 13, 2022 21:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBA conversation from early Wednesday afternoon, before Frank James' arrest, about the train shooting and also Brian Benjamin' resignation.
Episode 195: The Big, Slow Ugly
April 06, 2022 22:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBJosefa 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.
Episode 194: The More Things Change
March 31, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 47.4 MBJeff 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.
Episode 193: The Coming Home Health Care Conundrum
March 23, 2022 22:00 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MBChinese 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.
Episode 192: Shots Fired in a Vital City
March 16, 2022 22:00 - 49 minutes - 34 MBElizabeth 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.
Episode 191: Chief Shenanigan Enthusiast
March 09, 2022 21:00 - 39 minutes - 27 MBProf. 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.
Episode 190: ‘Ain't Gonna Change Nothing’
March 03, 2022 00:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBSuper-reporter Greg B. Smith breaks down why Eric Adams' promise to remove the homeless from the trains "right away" has been going nowhere fast.
Episode 189: This week in Mayor Adams
February 24, 2022 15:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBAlex 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.
Dark Store Days: The State of New York Real Estate
February 17, 2022 11:00 - 43 minutes - 29.9 MBWe 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 ...
Hustlers and Bureaucracy Choke the Undocumented Workers Fund
February 16, 2022 15:00 - 13 minutes - 9.13 MBRommel 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.
Episode 186: Paid in Full
February 10, 2022 02:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBThe great Ben Max rejoins Chrissy, Katie and Harry to talk about Eric A’s first trip to Albany, "fish-gate," and much more.
Episode 185: An Island Apart
February 03, 2022 01:00 - 1 hour - 52 MBGraham 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 .
Episode 184: The Blueprint
January 27, 2022 03:00 - 25 minutes - 17.2 MBEric Adams has talked the talk about balancing public safety and justice. Now, he's got to walk the walk.
Episode 183: Every New Yorker’s Nightmare
January 20, 2022 04:00 - 30 minutes - 20.8 MBA look back at an exceptionally busy and difficult week in New York City.
Episode 182: A Nonprofit War on Workers?
January 13, 2022 02:00 - 1 hour - 41.9 MBAssemblymember 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.
Episode 181: The Men Who Put the “P” into “Politics”
January 06, 2022 01:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBKaren 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.
Episode 180: Speaking With the Speaker
January 01, 2022 14:00 - 57 minutes - 39.2 MBA conversation with incoming City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams about her past and the city's future.
Episode 179: Park Wars
December 21, 2021 04:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBKatie 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.
Episode 178: Real Big Trouble
December 15, 2021 20:00 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MB🎶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.
Episode 177: Election Reform After Dark
December 08, 2021 22:00 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBState 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.
Episode 176: What We're In For
December 02, 2021 04:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBIs 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.
Episode 175: Word Around Town
November 24, 2021 03:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBChrissy, Alex, Katie and Harry gab it up about Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, the Blood Center, Thanksgiving and lots more.
Episode 174: Helluva Town
November 18, 2021 04:00 - 41 minutes - 28.7 MBWe talk politics, and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio of Documented discusses her reporting on immigration enforcement.
Episode 173: New York Forever
November 13, 2021 16:00 - 1 hour - 53.4 MB21 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
Episode 172: A New Year for New York Focus
November 05, 2021 01:00 - 28 minutes - 19.7 MBThe 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.
Episode 171: Election Night Extra
November 03, 2021 04:00 - 42 minutes - 28.8 MBThe great Ben Max breaks down what just happened with Chrissy and Harry.
Episode 170: Who Killed Eric Garner?
October 28, 2021 00:45 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBAlvin Bragg rejoins the pod to explain the judicial inquiry happening now and why the answer to that question can't stop with Daniel Pantaleo.
Brickhouse Bonus: What We Read When We Read Max Read
October 27, 2021 23:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBMaria Bustillos and Harry Siegel talk with Max Read about the state of the internet, his new newsletter, and lots more.
Episode 169: Issa Ibrahim, and his Eulogy for Jamaica, Queens
October 26, 2021 15:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBArtist, 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.
Episode 168: Suites, Elites, and Tik Tok Girls
October 21, 2021 14:00 - 47 minutes - 32.7 MBThe 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.'
Episode 167: Is There Life After Politics?
October 14, 2021 02:00 - 50 minutes - 34.6 MBNew 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.
Brickhouse Bonus: On and Off the Record With Gabriel Snyder
October 13, 2021 02:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBSnyder 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.
On and Off the Record With Gabriel Snyder
October 13, 2021 02:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBSnyder 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.
Episode 166: Eulogies for New York City
October 07, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 50.6 MBNew 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.
Episode 165: Schools Scramble
September 30, 2021 03:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBA 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.
Episode 164: Rats, Us, and A Murder Most Owl
September 23, 2021 00:00 - 48 minutes - 33.3 MBWe 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.