Rosebud in NYC - Fran Lebowitz

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leading up to the 250th anniversary of American independence, Rosebud is giving you a series of interviews recorded in New York City. Our first is with the sharpest observer of New York life - the wit, conversationalist and writer, Fran Lebowitz. In this brilliant interview, Fran tells Gyles about her family, who moved to the US from Russia and Eastern Europe to escape the Jewish pogroms. She talks about her happy childhood, cycling on her "freedom machine" around her pretty hometown in New Jersey, where her father owned an upholstery business and her mother had aspirations to be Fred Astaire's dance partner. She tells Gyles about being punished for being a chatterbox at school, about knowing she was gay from a young age, and about moving to New York to become a writer. She talks about Andy Warhol and being paid to write porn. She talks about smoking, the internet, and her enormous collection of books. Finally, Gyles awards Fran a medal from the Oscar Wilde Society, in recognition of her brilliance as a talker.

As you might expect, this is a fabulous conversation. It's well worth your time.

Enjoy this.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Rosebud. This is my podcast with me, Giles Brandreth, produced by my friend Harriet Jane.
0:07.1	And we're very lucky. We have literally millions of downloads. We become a huge podcast worldwide.
0:14.0	There are millions of you out there. So I'd like you all to join with me now as I say what I say every week as we begin another episode.
0:22.5	Are you ready? On the count of three?
0:24.7	Three, two, one.
0:27.8	Cue the music.
0:28.7	Music. Welcome to Rosebud. Yes, it's a Friday, if you're listening in real time.
0:55.1	And it's me, Charles Brandreth, in a state of some excitement, because today I'm talking to you from New York City.
1:02.5	It's very exciting.
1:03.6	We've done a few interviews in New York, and this is a very special one.
1:08.2	And my special guest today is someone who, well, really is the
1:13.7	sensibility of New York, is the voice of New York.
1:17.1	In fact, the New York Times called her a modern day Dorothy Parker.
1:22.1	As some of you may know, I'm the president of the Oscar Wild Society, and at a recent gathering
1:26.8	of Oscar Wild enthusiasts,
1:29.1	we fell to talking about who might be considered a contemporary Oscar Wild.
1:34.4	And we banded a few names around. Older people mentioned the great American James Baldwin,
1:42.1	who had an incredible way with words. And I know our guest today,
1:46.1	well, she was an admirer of James Baldwin. Somebody mentioned Stephen Fry. Well, he's certainly
1:50.9	remarkable. And he's already been a guest on Rosebud. Well, today's guest is a woman. She's a New Yorker.
1:57.0	She's a phenomenon. She is Fran Lieberwitz. She's a cultural critic. She's a public speaker.
2:03.5	She's an author today with writer's block, famous for her books, Metropolitan Life, Social
	...

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