Overview
547 Episodes
On a cold winter's evening in 1835, a terrible fire tore through lower Manhattan, destroying hundreds of buildings. But this fire also changed the course of New York City history.
Transcribed - Published: 12 December 2025
The history of the Statue of Liberty -- from the other side of the Atlantic. Tom heads to Colmar, France and the museum devoted to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Transcribed - Published: 5 December 2025
Historian Steven Ujifusa discusses the unique circumstances surrounding the arrival of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States -- and draws on his own personal story.
Transcribed - Published: 28 November 2025
For over fifty years, most European immigrants arriving into the United States came through Ellis Island in New York Harbor. But for an unfortunate few, their new lives could not begin until they spent some time on "the other side" of the island -- the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital.
Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2025
The history of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and its annual lighting tradition -- through good times and bad.
Transcribed - Published: 14 November 2025
The secret world of Amelia Earhart -- from New York City to the skies -- as told by her biographer Laurie Gwen Shapiro,
Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2025
How Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II became two of the most important artists in Broadway history? The story of their incomparable legacy.
Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2025
The haunted mansions, the ancient folktales, the spirited theaters, and the Revolutionary War ghosts of Long Island.
Transcribed - Published: 10 October 2025
Celebrating the construction of the Erie Canal, which opened 200 years ago this year.
Transcribed - Published: 26 September 2025
The story of Dominican immigration into New York City -- from the very first immigrant (ever!) to the massive wave of new arrivals in theh 1960s.
Transcribed - Published: 19 September 2025
The name 'NoHo' might be relatively new, but the history of those blocks north of Houston Street in Manhattan dates back to the beginnngs of New York City.
Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2025
In 1913, a young reform candidate named John Purroy Mitchel navigated a very strange electorial year to become the city's new (and second youngest) mayor.
Transcribed - Published: 5 September 2025
The debut of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue', one of the 20th century's most important pieces of music.
Transcribed - Published: 29 August 2025
The swashbuckling tale of Captain William Kidd and the notorious pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John Rackham
Transcribed - Published: 22 August 2025
The strange, sad tale of the Brooklyn Theatre Fire, the Gilded Age disaster that has been nearly forgotten today.
Transcribed - Published: 15 August 2025
The history of New York City's oldest surviving bars continues, recorded within two of the city's most treasured 19th century drinking establishments.
Transcribed - Published: 8 August 2025
The history of New York City — as told through the stories of its oldest taverns and ale houses.
Transcribed - Published: 1 August 2025
New York City used to be closely associated with the oyster but pollution and overfarming erased them from the harbor. Could they be making a return?
Transcribed - Published: 25 July 2025
A celebration of the Gilded Age's most interesting women and the world they created in New York society. Recorded live at City Winery.
Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2025
Transcribed - Published: 11 July 2025
What was in the water when sharks began killing people in New Jersey in 1916?
Transcribed - Published: 3 July 2025
The saga of Fifth Avenue's Gilded Age mansions, those that once stood in Midtown Manhattan and those survivors which still decorate the Upper East Side today.
Transcribed - Published: 27 June 2025
Inwood and Marble Hill -- aka "upstate Manhattan" -- are far from the center of New York's midtown urban activity but that distance provides both neighborhoods with fascinating and even unusual origin stories.
Transcribed - Published: 20 June 2025
The children of the Gilded Age were seen but not heard. Until now!
Transcribed - Published: 13 June 2025
The Brooklyn Museum, known for its wildly popular cutting-edge exhibitions, can actually trace its origins back to a more rustic era -- and to the birth of the city of Brooklyn itself.
Transcribed - Published: 6 June 2025
It's super developer Robert Moses vs. civic activist Albert S. Bard in a battle for the New York harbor and the historic landmarks of lower Manhattan.
Transcribed - Published: 23 May 2025
It's William Cosby vs. John Peter Zenger in a trial which gave birth to the freedom of the press and other foundational aspects of American democracy.
Transcribed - Published: 16 May 2025
When Prospect Park first opened to the public in the late 1860s, its superstar landscape designers — Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux -- were preparing a couple other special touches -- the creation of the first two parkways in the United States.
Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025
The story behind a legendary New York Daily News headline. While President Ford never literally told New York to "drop dead", his words did signal the severity of New York's problem -- the city was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025
Keith Taillon, the historian behind the popular Instagram account @keithyorkcity, discusses his journey documenting New York's history and his new book "Walking New York: Manhattan History on Foot."
Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025
The Frick Collection, one of New York's most fascinating institutions, and the controversial life of the man who founded it -- Henry Clay Frick.
Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025
The history of the United States Postal Service as it plays out in the streets of New York City -- from the first post road to the first postage stamps.
Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025
Patrick Bringley discusses his book about being a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his new off-Broadway show based on his best seller.
Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2025
In the year 1664, New Amsterdam was taken over by the English, and the New York officially got its name.
Transcribed - Published: 14 March 2025
The New Yorker was first published one hundred years ago. And even though the present-day magazine is often quite contemporary in content, the New Yorker's tone and style still recall its glamorous Jazz Age origins.
Transcribed - Published: 28 February 2025
In honor of the Academy Awards, the Bowery Boys hosts pay homage to the great Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert while looking at five award-worthy films with strong New York City connections.
Transcribed - Published: 21 February 2025
We’re looking at the glamour and mystery of Harlem during the 1920s, a decade when the predominantly black neighborhood, in the words of Langston Hughes, “was in vogue.”
Transcribed - Published: 14 February 2025
One of America's first great Italian neighborhoods was once in East Harlem, an enclave almost entirely gone today except for a couple restaurants, a church and a long-standing religious festival.
Transcribed - Published: 31 January 2025
The Waldorf Astoria is reopening this year, so we thought we'd again raise a toast to one of the world's most famous hotels.
Transcribed - Published: 17 January 2025
Two podcast dinosaurs talk about history, memory and elephants -- Greg Young interviews Nate DiMeo from the Memory Palace
Transcribed - Published: 10 January 2025
The extraordinary story of Louis Comfort Tiffany and the world of Gilded Age glass design he and his artisans helped inspire.
Transcribed - Published: 3 January 2025
The story of Greenwich Village, one of America's great music capitals, and one of its greatest stars -- Bob Dylan.
Transcribed - Published: 20 December 2024
The former library of J.P. Morgan -- one of the most powerful Americans to ever live -- is open to the public as the Morgan Library and Museum, continuing to highlight the world's greatest examples of the printed word
Transcribed - Published: 6 December 2024
The Rockettes are America’s best known dance troupe — and a staple of the holiday season — but you may not know the origin of this iconic New York City symbol. For one, they’re not even from the Big Apple!
Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2024
The history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- from wild balloon chases in the sky to kitschy celebrity appearances
Transcribed - Published: 22 November 2024
The history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- from wild balloon chases in the sky to kitschy celebrity appearances
Transcribed - Published: 22 November 2024
What is New York without its diners, its small book shops, its curious antique stores and its historic delis? New York Nico shares his favorite local businesses.
Transcribed - Published: 8 November 2024
The mysterious disappearance of a young woman becomes one of the most talked-about events in New York City history.
Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2024
Ghost stories from New York City's five boroughs -- from Staten Island's tombstone-toting ghost to the Hessian ghouls in a Flushing house of worship.
Transcribed - Published: 11 October 2024
Are there alligators in the sewers? Tom and Greg go deep into their favorite New York urban legends. breaking down their origins and revealing the hidden truths that live beneath the legends.
Transcribed - Published: 27 September 2024
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