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And to make sure you never miss an episode, find us and what to read next. I'm Gwen Glazer. And I'm Frank Hilarious. And later, we're going to be joined by Shala Lynch, who's a curator here at NYPL Schaumburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

I'm excited about her because one of my colleagues was telling me that Shala described her job as making Black Lives visible, which I feel like is really cool because she does moving picture and audio stuff. And so I think it's cool. She also has an interesting history that might resonate with some people. Right. Which we'll find it later. Here's a hint. Will ask her. Sunny days. Okay. That's a hint? That's a giveaway. That's a total giveaway. A really bad hint. And we also would like to thank at Will Radio. We're in a studio right now. A real one. A real one. It's making me quiet. It's making me quiet. It's making. We'll refer to it continually. Don't worry. Also, its location is in Times Square, so we're basically on Broadway right now. Which once again is a connection, like the last time I said...

Do you want to go right into what you're reading now? Let's just do it. Because the last time I said, I don't know, like if everything I read suddenly makes sense together, like they all relate to each other, or I'm forcing that relationship, or I just am attracted to certain kinds of things that make sense to me. But, you know how I always am talking about, don't look.

I'm always talking about, don't look.

I'm always talking about these introspective psychological books like Anita Brookner about how one gets through a day, literally, psychologically, just dealing with life. And I'm very, I love those books, and they're wonderful. And I read Stoner, as you made fun of me last year, because it reminded of your teenage years, apparently. But Stoner is a name of a man who, in the turn of the century, 20th century is an academic, and it basically follows his whole life in which they tell you in the first sentence of that book,

he was born, he died, and nobody cared. So you're like, what is this book about?

So, on a very different tip, I read Razzle Dazzle.

Ooh, look at that.

Now, we are in Times Square in this studio right now, which walking here, I was like,

oh, my God, right where I was just reading about, because Razzle-Dazzle, the Battle

for Broadway by Michael Reedle, is a book about, again, like I mentioned in the first podcast,

a book about Broadway and Times Square in the 60s, mostly the 70s and 80s during that period,

which is now like this hallowed, obsessed about decades in American history or New York history in particular.

Even people who like young kids who've never been to New York and the 70s weren't even born yet, sort of have a thing like, yeah, New York in the 70s and people who were there also, like, it was better then. Right. Well, it's total backlash, right? Because ever since it's gotten all cleaned up and corporatized, people. Yeah. People pine for the days when it was gritty. Yeah, well, that's, and it definitely talks about it in this book. So it is about Broadway in that era when it was on the decline, and Times Square was so-called on the decline. And then also it's rise in the 80s with the introduction of all these big hit musicals, especially the British invasion musicals like Le Maiz, Rob, and Phantom of the Opera and stuff like that. But it does talk about the neighborhood. It's a really well-done book. Michael Riedel is the New York Post film critic. He did the show, Theodore Talk, which was, he's just adorable guy. Yeah. And he, great book, great written, you get a greatly written, great written. Great written written good book and good talking in book

Gwen now you so like things like which I love like these details which is how hard to imagine

like he talks about Times Square in the context of Broadway and in the early 70s get this just imagine

the neighborhood the Times Square we just walked through to get here.

The sanitation department went on strike, so no one was picking up garbage. It's garbage everywhere.

The firemen staged a sick out, so they were like out for a day. And then this even more unbelievably,

cops all over Times Square were handing out leaflets to everyone on the street to say, get off the street by 6 o'clock.

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