Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast: Recent Episodes
Brooklyn Magazine
Every week, Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast highlights prominent (and soon-to-be-prominent) Brooklynites as we explore the vast and diverse borough through the lens of culture, community and commerce. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Brian Braiker, the show features intimate conversations with cultural luminaries, community leaders and compelling locals. These are the people who move us, entertain us, feed us and inspire us. There are a lot of little Brooklyns, and we are all a little Brooklyn.
Sean Qualls is a Brooklyn-based artist, award-winning children’s book illustrator, author and occasional DJ. His latest book is a collaboration with Roots drummer Questlove called “The Idea in You,” a charming children’s book about finding that first spark of creativity. You can see Sean’s art on display now through November 10 in a solo exhibition called “Inner Victories” at Established Gallery here in Brooklyn. The show explores the idea that private victories precede public triumphs. His work across the board — both non-fiction and figurative — leans into notions of race and identity, and the intersection of history and mythology.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Love it or hate it, reality TV isn’t going anywhere. It’s also probably not going to stop being divisive any time soon, either. So maybe it’s time we take seriously a genre so many people dismiss as silly. That’s the central argument of Emily Nussbaum’s deeply reported warts-and-all history “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV,” which she succeeds at making in the most compelling and engaging prose. From Candid Camera to the Apprentice — from “The Real World” to the Kardashians — it’s a “dirty documentary” world and we can’t stop watching.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For about 40 years now, the husband-and-wife team of Constance Hansen and Russell Peacock has created an indelible body of photography produced under the name Guzman. Now they have a new book out, called “Family Values,” a series of incredibly intimate photos taken in one day at the home of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, five weeks after their daughter Frances Bean was born in 1992. Here we talk about that day, what they remember about the young family, their process and highlights of their career — like hanging out with Iggy Pop. They also talk about one of their more challenging shoots … Soundgarden, we’re looking at you.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you live in Brooklyn and have ever had a desire to renovate or restore your place — a total overhaul or a new kitchen, some shelving, maybe, or a rethinking of your lighting — chances are you’ve come across the Brownstone Boys online. Or if you live in Brooklyn and just have a kink for historic home restoration, you’ve probably followed the Brownstone Boys on Instagram or YouTube. The Brownstone Boys are Jordan Slocum and Barry Bordelon. They are a couple who live in Bed-Stuy and gained a following when they started blogging their own journey of restoring the house they bought in 2018. From there, a simple online diary of their progress morphed into a full-fledged online brand, and then an interior design and renovation firm, and TV appearances and, now, a book: ”For the Love of Renovating: Tips, Tricks and Inspiration for Creating your Dream Home.” Is out now.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Since its founding as an impromptu celebration of Black joy and community in response to the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, the Lay Out has grown into a sprawling community platform that hosts year-round parties and offshoots like the BuyBLK. ByBLK. marketplace. This week, the Lay Out’s founder Emily Anadu joimed us on the podcast as she was in the final stages of prepping for the Lay Out’s annual Juneteenth party in Fort Greene Park. We discuss the origins of the Lay Out and her own background as someone who was born in Texas and raised in Nigeria before returning to Houston for middle school. We talk about building community and we talk about what’s next for the Lay Out.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Eli Sussman is a meme lord, cookbook writer, a very funny guy and restaurateur with a few big hits under his belt — notably the contemporary Middle Eastern Samesa and Gertrude’s, a Jew-ish style diner in Prospect Heights. We first became aware of Sussman before he opened Gertrude’s with partners Nate Adler and Rachel Jackson a year ago. His Instagram account is chock-a-block with hilarious if-you-know-you-know service industry in-jokes, satire and original memes that skewer more famous restaurateurs. More recently, he has also now launched a video interview show called “Talkin’ in the Walk-In,” where he interviews his contemporaries inside restaurant coolers. Here, we discuss the first year of Gertrude’s, his viral micro-fame and growing up in the Midwest. We talk about culinary trends and his pet peeves about customers. And he gives us his personalized food tour of Brooklyn and beyond.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A new book, called “Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough,” out in September, tells the story of Brooklyn’s free Black population between 1790 and 1870, 80 years of unfathomable change in the borough and the country at large. The book, by Prithi Kanakamedala, is a cultural and social history, told through four extraordinary families from Brooklyn’s 19th-century free Black community. Theirs are stories of activism, support, struggle, community, education and entrepreneurship. And their stories continue to resonate today, some 200 years later. This week we discuss the book, what it meant to be a free Black Brooklynite and how Kanakamedala uncovered their stories.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Molly Roden Winter never set out to be the face of Park Slope polyamory, but here we are. Her book “More: A Memoir of Open Marriage” came out earlier this year and instantly hit the best seller lists. It became the subject of think pieces and trend stories, landed her on talk shows and podcasts and essentially went viral in a way that clearly underscores how thoroughly she has tapped into some kind of zeitgeist. Today we dig into her book, which is a brutally honest warts-and-all story of her years-long foray into polyamory, sexual liberation, self-discovery, love and heartbreak.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Born and raised in New York City, Cey Adams emerged from the vibrant graffiti scene of the 1970s while still in his teens, tagging “Cey City” on subway cars and painting murals — and was one of the first wave of street artists to obtain gallery representation. He met the Beastie Boys before they were the Beastie Boys, and designed their first logo, t-shirts and singles. He linked up with Russell Simmons at RUSH Artist Management where he designed logos and merch for an artist roster that included Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Whodini. When Simmons and Rick Rubin launched a little label called Def Jam Records he joined on as creative director. If there’s an album from hip-hop’s golden era that you love, it probably has Adams' fingerprints all over it. We discuss his career from its earliest days to today, which also includes work with iconic brands and fine art and collage.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The Good Liars are comedians Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig, and for nearly a decade they have been doggedly traveling the country — most notably to presidential campaign rallies for both political parties — trolling attendees and politicians in fearless interviews that often go viral. All with an eye towards exposing hypocrisy, hubris, absurdity and just plain stupidity. The two have launched a new podcast, “The Good Liars Tell the Truth,” where they replay and re-examine some of their more viral moments — like being on the scene during the January 6 insurrection, or, more recently, attending a Trump rally and trying to sell their own satirical version of Donald Trump’s bible to his supporters. They’ve also taken their live act, “The Good Liars Fix America,” first performed in Brooklyn, on the road.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Dan Perlman is a comedian, writer and director in Brooklyn He co-created, wrote and starred in Showtime's critically acclaimed comedy series, “Flatbush Misdemeanors” which was sadly not renewed after its much lauded and pitch-perfect two season run. Don’t count Dan out though. He just keeps making things — short things for now. Much as Flatbush Misdemeanors got its start as a web series he made with fellow comedian Kevin Iso, Perlman has made two short films — one in 2020 and one at the end of 2023 — both starring the same two New York kids, non-actors playing versions of themselves. The first one, “Cramming,” has just been announced as the recipient of a grant from Rooftop Films so it can be made into a feature film. The second, “Practice Space,” will have its world premiere at the Lower East Side Film Festival this year. That announcement just dropped … today.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Rapper, singer, artist, producer and, since 2010, one third of the Brooklyn hip-hop group the Flatbush Zombies, Erick the Architect has dropped his first full-length solo album, "I've Never Been Here Before.” The title is a sly allusion to where he's at in life — emotionally, physically, professionally, musically — and the 16 tracks within feature collaborations with a range of artists from Lalah Hathaway to James Blake to Joey Bada$$ to George Clinton and more. The result is a kaleidoscopic mix of psychedelic hip-hop, Jamaican dancehall, classic boom-bap rap and neo-soul that reflects an omnivorous musical palate. Today, we discuss his so-called “villain era,” loss and growth, what he hates about contemporary hip-hop, Brooklyn and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Robert Simonson writes about cocktails, food and travel for the New York Times, where he’s been a contributor since 2000. He is the author of seven books about cocktails — he literally wrote the book on the old-fashioned and one on the martini. His latest tome, out now, widens the lens — by a lot. “The Encyclopedia of Cocktails: The People, Bars and Drinks, With More Than 100 recipes” is a delightful omnibus, an alphabetical compendium of the most notable drinks, influential bartenders (living and dead), and important bars that have shaped the cocktail world — all in shot glass-sized entries from absinthe to the zombie.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For 17 years Maria Popova has kept an online literary journal of sorts, a catalogue of what she’s been reading, contemplating and grappling with across multiple disciplines — literature, science, art, philosophy, poetry and what she has called “various other tentacles of human thought and feeling.” She started her site, the Marginalian, under a different name — you may remember it as Brain Pickings — as an email to a few friends and colleagues, a personal record of reckoning with her own search for meaning. Today it consists of hundreds of thousands of entries, cross linking ideas and connecting metaphysical dots. It is fundamentally a personal project, a map of one woman’s quest to understand this weird experience called life. And yet over the years it has proven to have a universal appeal, attracting millions of readers from all over the world who take comfort or pick up wisdom from her lyrical close readings.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
What makes a story a New York story? Maybe it’s seeing a drag queen emerge from a manhole cover on Canal Street in a full look at 6:30 a.m. Or it could be a woman carrying a bag of live eels on the subway to the shock of no one. The thing is, you know a New York Story when you’ve got one, and Dan Saltzstein has collected a whole book’s worth of little vignettes — short stories and curated tweets that perfectly distill that New York moment to a second or two. Saltzstein joins us today to discuss his book, “That’s So New York: Short and Very Short Stories About the Greatest City on Earth," and the makings of a great New York story.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Not only is Dr. Uché Blackstock a second-generation Black woman physician, she is the first Black mother-daughter legacy to have graduated from Harvard Medical School. Today she is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, a consultancy that helps its clients in the healthcare and corporate space to provide racially equitable care. She is also the the author of a new book, “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism In Medicine,” in which she explores systemic inequity in the American healthcare system, clearly tracing its origins from slavery and after the Civil War to today — even in her own experiences as a medical student and a doctor.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Most New Yorkers don’t need an introduction to Veselka. One of the last of many Slavic restaurants that once proliferated in the East Village, Veselka is turning 70 this year, it’s more robust, vital and relevant as a cultural hub that it’s ever been. It’s expanding into Williamsburg later this year and it’s the subject of a new documentary, out now, called “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World.” Filmmaker Michael Fiore started filming his documentary 11 days into the Russian war on Ukraine. Over the course of a year he documented its effects here at home in real time. In this episode, third-generation owner Jason Birchard discusses the past, present and future of the iconic eatery.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Lee Fields is a funk and soul legend who has been recording for 55 years and performing for longer than that. From his roots in hardscrabble Wilson, North Carolina — where his parents ran a speakeasy on Saturday nights and took him to church on Sundays — through the funky 1970s, Fields honed an explosive live act frequently compared to James Brown. After a decade-long setback in the ‘80s, Lee signed with Desco Records (an early version of Daptone) and sparked a comeback that continues unabated to this day. Now he is the subject of a documentary, “Lee Fields: Faithful Man,” available to stream everywhere on demand this week.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Second City is the legendary Chicago improv comedy company that opened in 1969 and launched the careers of everyone from Bill Murray and Gilda Radner to Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Keegan-Michael Key to Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell and Mike Meyers and Tim Meadows and so on. This month they’ve opened their first ever New York campus — in Williamsburg. And this week we're speaking with two of the new ensemble members of the new Second City company in New York. Ben Rameaka and Yazmin Ramos are veteran comics, improv actors and comedy teachers. And today we’re going to be talking about what Brooklyn can expect from the new Second City outpost, the legacy of Second City, their own careers and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Bensonhurst-born Anthony Mongiello is the unheralded inventor, he claims to this day, of the stuffed crust pizza. Mongiello, who holds a 1987 patent for the method of making pizzas with cheese baked into the crust, sued Pizza Hut when they rolled out their own product with the same name in 1995 — for $1 billion. That lawsuit — which was rejected in a summary judgment — is the subject of a new short docu-drama called "Stolen Dough." Silly? Maybe. But the facts are the facts: Mongiello had a patent for stuffed crust pizza before Pizza Hut came out with the same product with the same name. Let's discuss!
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The hit Amazon series “Reacher" just wrapped its second season and has been re-upped for a third — and coming back with it is the character Frances Neagley, played by Maria Sten. Neagley is Jack Reacher’s colleague, a retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant, his confidante and in many ways his equal. Sten herself is just as fascinating as Reacher, and has the added benefit of not being a fictional character. She was born in Copenhagen to Danish and Congolese parents. She’s a writer, dancer, gymnast, a kick-boxing horseback-riding beauty pageant-winner who lives here in Brooklyn. So today Sten joins us to talk about “Reacher,” what we know about season three, her own background and … revenge stories.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Today we’re talking with a theatrical power couple: Joe Tapper stars in the Off Broadway dark comedy “The White Chip,” opening February 1 and co-produced by his wife, the Tony-winning actor Annaleigh Ashford. We talk about the play and Tapper’s own personal connection to the role. We discuss Ashford’s career as well and adding a producer credit to her already impressive resume. The two discuss life as a married couple who are both working actors, working with James Earl Jones and Jake Gyllenhaal, comedy versus drama, parenting and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The city’s 34 Cultural Institutions Groups — organizations including The Brooklyn Museum, BAM, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and more — depend on funding from the department of cultural affairs. It is a department that is facing drastic cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which, if approved, could be devastating to many of them. On the podcast today, Adrian Benepe — the former NYC parks commissioner and current president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden — joins us to discuss the implications of the Adams budget, his work at the garden, his youth spent in Central Park, and his dealings, as parks commissioner, with a certain Donald Trump.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
[Originally aired 2021] For Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, we look at the ways in which New Yorkers have advocated, agitated, and exercised their power to shape the discussion around civil rights. MLK himself is connected to the city in ways that may be both obvious and surprising. With Sarah Seidman of the Museum of the City of New York, we explore his legacy as well as others, including those of Brooklyn CORE, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, and the BLM movement.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The ridiculously prolific Scott Lynch covers food for Brooklyn Magazine: restaurant openings, news and pop-ups. He also shoots highly photogenic events like the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge, Bike Kill and the Idiotarod, among others. Scott wrote our roundup of the best 12 new Brooklyn restaurants of 2023 and he recently launched our new monthly-ish column Quick Bites, a roundup of local eatery news bites. And today we’re going to talk about food. We discuss his favorite dining moments of 2023, food trends he likes and food trends he’s tired of, plus what to look forward to in 2024.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Back in October the writer and professional opinion-haver Fran Lebowitz swung through the borough to appear at Kings Theatre in conversation with writer Marlon James. Ahead of that appearance, she chatted with us for this episode of “Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast” … over her landline. It’s pure Fran in all her cantankerous glory. And it was our most-downloaded and shared episode of the year.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you’ve watched TV or movies with any regularity over the past 20 years, you’ve probably seen Ashlie Atkinson. If you’ve gone to bars with any regularity in Central or South Brooklyn over the past 20 years, you’ve probably seen Ashlie Atkinson. She may have even poured you a drink. A character actor with an IMDB page about a mile long (and still a frequent local bartender), Atkinson just wrapped the second season of “The Gilded Age,” the HBO … er, Max … show that chronicles the lives, loves and pettiness of ultra rich high society New York at the end of the 19th century. Atkinson plays the party-throwing Mrs. Fish, based on the real-life socialite Mamie Fish, wife of railroad man Stuyvesant Fish.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you like comedy, have we got a book for you. It’s called “Comedy Book.” And it’s by Jesse David Fox. Actually, the full title is “Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture — And the Magic that Makes it Work,” and it is at its heart an argument that comedy is an art form. And as an art form, it should be studied just as seriously as any other art form out there. It’s an explicit love letter to comedy and a history of the modern era of comedy of the past 30 years or so. It is also a philosophical probe into what this “comedy” thing is anyway. If you like stuff that has made you laugh on purpose, and you care about the context in which it got made, you might want to read this book. But first listen to this interview with Jesse.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A founding member of Wu Tang Clan and one of hip hop’s most explosive characters, ODB was a showman, a stage crasher, a comedian, a father, a husband, a literal hero. He was also flawed. ODB struggled with addiction, had real run-ins with the law and grappled with mental health issues. But he was in no way, as the media often portrayed him, a caricature. A new podcast, hosted by photographer and filmmaker Khalik Allah, seeks to strip away the bombastic persona and paint a more nuanced profile of the man. Over eight episodes, “ODB: A Son Unique“ unpacks the origins and impact of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, his own influences — not the least of which was the Five-Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam — his style and the indelible mark he left on hip hop through interviews with the people closest to him. Allah joins us to discuss his legacy.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
“But Will You Love Me Tomorrow” is a comprehensive new oral history of the era of girl groups — the first wave of music by and for teenagers — told by the women who forged the sounds. The book, by Brooklyn writers Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz, charts the rise, cultural domination, and ultimate disintegration of the girl group sound. Designed to be interchangeable by the industry that helped create them, these groups were made up of individuals with their own stories, wins, losses, grudges, regrets, and sometimes conflicting memories.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Say She She is coming off a big, big year. The trio of discodelic sirens released their double album “Silver” late September just shy of one year after their debut “Prism.” They had their national TV debut and played Glastonbury and the Hollywood Bowl, in addition to about 100 other shows, all on the strength of their dancefloor friendly sound and incredible, almost operatic three part harmonies. The threesome — their name is an homage to Nile Rogers and Chic — cites as influences everyone from Rotary Connection to Minnie Riperton to Asha Puthli to Liquid Liquid to Grace Jones and Tom Tom Club.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The American criminal justice system is built on a punitive ideology — an ideology that in practice doesn’t always deliver its desired results. There is another way. Restorative justice is an alternative to incarceration: it is an approach to justice that aims to repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs following a crime. Erika Sasson is a Brooklyn-based lawyer who is taking this kind of practice into new and challenging territory: by using it for homicide and domestic violence cases. We’ll discuss her work at length — it is work for which she was one of five New Yorkers to be awarded the 2023 David Prize earlier this year.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The word “legend” gets tossed around a lot. But if anyone is worthy of the designation it would be singer-songwriter and cowboy poet Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Born Elliott Charles Adnopoz in Brooklyn in 1931, Elliott is one of the last authentic living links to the great folk traditions of this country. A close personal friend and student of Woody Guthrie, Eilliott’s praises have been sung by everyone from Tom Waits to Johnny Cash to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones. At 92 years of age he is returning to Brooklyn next month to perform at the Brooklyn Folk Festival on Sunday November 12 at St. Ann’s Church.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
David Farrier is a New Zealand journalist who has a knack for finding stories in the nooks of culture, bizarre phenomena hidden in plain sight. His new movie, "Mr. Organ," is about a sociopathic narcissist named Michael Organ who landed on Farrier’s radar for an extortion racket that involved putting boots on parked cars at a private antiques business. It only gets darker and weirder from there. This week's conversation was recorded in front of a live audience following a screening at Alamo Drafthouse.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Last month, Arts Gowanus was dealt a devastating blow when the storms that blew through the borough completely swamped the entire neighborhood. But their annual tentpole Open Studios weekend is trudging on. This year is a critical one for the group. Arts Gowanus executive director Johnny Thornton and programs director Emily Chiavelli join us to discuss what was lost in the flooding, how extensive the damage was and why the group decided to forge ahead so soon after the storm. We’ll talk about what visitors can expect this year, and we’ll discuss recent developments in the neighborhood, like the restoration of the so-called “Batcave,” ongoing redevelopment and the $1.6 billion cleanup of the canal.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you live and work in Red Hook you’ve probably come across housing and climate activist Karen Blondel. Last month Blondel received new, city-wide recognition when she was one of five New Yorkers presented with the annual “David Prize,” a no-strings-attached gift of $200,000 to locals doing on-the-ground work in their communities. She says she will put her windfall back into the Public Housing Civic Association, which she started, and to create fellowships for young residents. We will discuss all of that, plus growing up in Coney Island, starting her career in cooking and catering, and then training as a computer-aided designer, construction inspector, a civil engineer inspector and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Fran Lebowitz started her career writing a column for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, Mademoiselle and others. She published two very funny collections of her essays, "Metropolitan Life" in 1978 and "Social Studies" in 1981. These days, is a professional talker more than a writer. She is a sardonic wit, cut from a similar cloth as Dorothy Parker … minus the martinis. An unapologetic Manhattanite, she does have a little Brooklyn in her background. And she is going to be appearing on stage here at Kings Theatre on October 21st, where she will be interviewed by another notable New Yorker.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Eric Gonzalez made history in November 2017 when he became the first Latino district attorney elected in New York State. And with a promise to helm “the most progressive D.A.’s office in the country,” he didn’t stop making history there. Gonzalez joins the podcast to discuss his track record on safety, guns, crime in the borough, justice versus vengeance, changing the culture of the Brooklyn D.A.’s office, why he chose to become a prosecutor in the first place and more. And we don’t spare him a silly pop quiz, either.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
We have granted anonymity to this week’s guest in order for her to speak candidly about her years as a preservationist for the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission. We’ll get into the inner workings of the LPC, how it operates, some recent wins and fails in Brooklyn and we’ll get a little tour of her own favorite city landmarks.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For someone who professes not to be special on her new album, “I Am What I’m Waiting For,” Kendra Morris is … pretty special. Morris is a Greenpoint-based soul singer-songwriter and visual artist who has been recording and gigging steadily — at her own pace and on her own terms — since her 2010 self-titled debut. The lead single off her new album, produced by Little Shalimar of Run the Jewels, is “What Are You Waiting For,” a propulsive and insistent and sexy workout. “Dominoes,” released as a video last week, comically chronicles the pitfalls of married life. We’ll talk about that. We’ll discuss collaborating with everyone from Dennis Coffey to Czarface to Ghostface Killah to, uh, Scarlett Johansson. And we talk about forging her own path in the music industry, her process and her visual art.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
In April, journalist and author Clive Thompson set out to bicycle across the entire country — 4,150 miles total — as part of the reporting for his next book on “micromobility.” He documented his trip in real time online: 70 days on the road, broken up by a brief return trip home. Here we discuss what micromobility is and why this ride was so important for him to do, plus some ups and downs of the journey and what cycling across the country does to someone physically, mentally and emotionally.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
State Senator Zellnor Myrie is the first generation American son of Costa Rican immigrants and a native Brooklynite who represents the district that includes Prospect Lefferts Gardens — where he grew up and currently lives. Today he joins the podcast to talk about life in Flatbush, possible solutions to the city’s housing crunch, illegal guns, the concerns of his constituents, the state budget mess and why it matters, and on a personal note, the effect of being pepper sprayed by NYPD during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Naturally, we also talk about Jay-Z.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Now in its 25th year, Tanoreen is a James Beard nominee and a Michelin Bib Gourmand-winning restaurant. It has spawned two excellent cookbooks. It has been featured on the Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate," and it has been named one of the best restaurants in New York City by Bon Appétite. Rawia Bishara, who emigrated to Bay Ridge from Nazareth with her family when she was 18, opened Tanoreen in 1998 as a way to express her heritage and to honor her mother. Rawia’s own daughter, Jumana, later came on board as a partner, and today the two work closely to oversee all aspects of the daily operation. Just about any time you eat at Tanoreen, you are guaranteed to see Jumana at the door or Rawia roaming the floor, chatting up the customers. Today we talk about the first 25 years of Tanoreen — and what the next 25 might look like.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Singer, songwriter, DJ and producer Eli “Paperboy” Reed has spent a lifetime mining the deep vein of Americana — from soul to country to gospel. He has put out eight albums of his own over the past 20 years, including last year’s “Down Every Road,” a funky tribute to Merle Haggard. He has mentored and produced the group The Harlem Gospel Travelers, and released a long-buried recording by Cleveland blues musician Fred Davis that was actually recorded by his father 50 years earlier. And this fall he will be putting out a compilation of his 45s called “Hits and Misses: The Singles.” He’s teased that with an amazing soul cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades,” of all things. Today he joins us to talk about his life in music.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Two weeks ago NPR’s Tiny Desk online video series broke the internet with a bombastic performance by New Orleans rapper Juvenile. The man who produced that viral segment is NPR Music's Bobby Carter. If you’ve seen the viral Anderson .Paak or Usher or Mac Miller Tiny Desk shows, you have Bobby to thank for those, too. In a special live episode of the podcast we spoke with Carter at BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series in the Prospect Park bandshell earlier this month about what makes a good Tiny Desk show, who his dream performer would be and why the Tiny Desk Contest is so important. We also talk about how that Juvenile set came to be.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
This week we are joined by a legend, an empress, an icon of reggae. In an industry dominated by male voices, Marcia Griffiths is about to enter her 60th year as a trailblazing vocalist, songwriter, performer and collaborator. You may know her from early hits like “I Feel Like Jumping,” or her work with the great Bob Andy. She also collaborated with another important Bob — as a Bob Marley backup singer with the I Threes trio. And if you’ve ever done the Electric Slide, you have Marcia Griffiths to thank for that, too. Her 1983 hit “Electric Boogie” gave birth to the global dance phenomenon which simply refuses to quit. And, thankfully for us, Marcia Griffiths herself refuses to quit. She will be performing as part of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! summer concert series in Prospect Park on July 15.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Leah Goodridge is a tenants’ rights attorney who serves on the New York City Planning Commission, where she is the first and only tenants’ rights attorney. Born and raised in Brownsville, she lives in Bed-Stuy where, like anyone else in Brooklyn can tell you, the rent is too damn high — and newcomers are consistently pushing historic, legacy families out. On June 21, the city's Rent Guidelines Board voted to increase rents on New York City’s rent-stabilized apartments — Goodrige herself has been a member of the rent guidelines board, so we’ll talk about that. We’ll discuss what the planning commission does and what she sees as her role on that body. And we’ll talk about the idea of professionalism: Goodridge wrote a widely circulated essay for the UCLA law review called "Professionalism as a Racial Construct."
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Roddy Bottum and Joey Holman are a couple of regular guys with regular dad bods. And they’re a couple. As Man on Man, they make music that tackles themes of love, intimacy, sex, queer culture and quirks. But above all, they make music that rocks, which has been an anomaly in mainstream queer culture since, well, always. Their second album, “Provincetown,” came out last week. Like their self-titled 2021 debut, the duo deploys humor, heavy riffs and introspection on songs with titles like "Showgirls," "Piggy" and "Gloryhole."
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The question of home is a driving force of Stacey Mei Yan Fong's new book “50 Pies, 50 States,” out this week. The book is also, as the title suggests, a pie cookbook — an ingenious one at that. In 2016 Fong undertook a wildly ambitious project to design a pie recipe for every state in the union, and dedicate each pie to someone special from that state. She would also travel to as many of the states as possible to absorb the culture, cuisine and folklore of each region. The dedication part is as important as the pies — a deliberate exercise in giving her loved ones their flowers while she can.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
You or someone you love probably reads a lot of romance fiction. Which means that you or someone you love has probably read a book by Sarah MacLean, a New York Times best seller with 19 novels and novellas under her belt. But do not call what she writes “bodice rippers.” MacLean, a Washington Post contributor and host of the popular romance fiction podcast Fated Mates, is one of the leading progressive feminist voices writing historical fiction today.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you’re looking for a place to eat that’s a little off the beaten path, most likely not in your neighborhood and definitely delicious, you could do worse than follow Righteous Eats on TikTok or Instagram. We’re talking tips like Egyptian seafood in Astoria, Filipino delicacies in Woodside Queens, dim sum in Bensonhurst, Afghani fare in Kensington, Chino-Latino cuisine in the Upper West Side. Launched almost accidentally by Jaeki Cho, the mission here is to highlight under-the-radar immigrant and minority owned restaurants serving super authentic (or authentically innovative) food and celebrate the cultures and stories and people behind that food.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Touré is an omnivorous pop culture critic, an astute political analyst and a thoughtful voice on race and Blackness. Over the course of his career he has hosted shows on MSNBC, Fuse, BET and MTV. He was the first pop culture correspondent on CNN. He is the author of several books — he literally wrote the book on Prince. And these days he is a columnist for the Grio. This month he is launching yet another podcast, called "Being Black: The '80s," a docuseries that looks at the most important issues of the '80s — from the crack epidemic to gay liberation to affirmative action — through the biggest songs of the decade. It is, he promises, the funkiest podcast you could ask for.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Fort Hamilton Distillery was born out of a desire to revive the classic pre-Prohibition New York-style rye and has since become a destination for connoisseurs of cocktails as well as cocktail and American history. Named for the historic Brooklyn site Fort Hamilton, which itself was named after Alexander Hamilton, Fort Hamilton Distillery has a tasting room, a robust cocktail program, offers tours and has an interesting story. Alex Clark, co-founder of Fort Hamilton Distillery with his wife Amy Grindeland, joins us on the podcast to discuss whiskey history and culture, authentic pre-Prohibition rye, distillers row in Industry City and Alexander Hamilton.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Fort Hamilton Distillery was born out of a desire to revive the classic pre-Prohibition New York-style rye and has since become a destination for connoisseurs of cocktails as well as cocktail and American history. Named for the historic Brooklyn site Fort Hamilton, which itself was named after Alexander Hamilton, Fort Hamilton Distillery has a tasting room, a robust cocktail program, offers tours and has an interesting story. Alex Clark, co-founder of Fort Hamilton Distillery with his wife Amy Grindeland, joins us on the podcast to discuss whiskey history and culture, authentic pre-Prohibition rye, distillers row in Industry City and Alexander Hamilton.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For two weeks now, Writers Guild of America members on both coasts have been picketing for fair compensation in the brave new streaming world. Strikers have shut down production of shows like “Billions,” “Daredevil,” “Born Again,” “Severance” and others, with crew members refusing to cross the picket lines in solidarity with the striking writers. One of them is Devin Delliquanti, a staff writer for “The Daily Show,” which has also suspended production. He joins us to discuss what’s happening on the picket lines day in day out, what writers like him are asking for and how New York is showing up for an industry that is so closely associated with the west coast. We also talk about what it’s like working on the “Daily Show” in less strike-y times.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Motz is the pre-eminent expert on the history of the American hamburger and a scholar of different regional burger styles and their cultural significance. His 2004 documentary “Hamburger America” was made as a side project, but it went on to spawn books about burgers, a TV show about burgers, magazine spreads about burgers, a YouTube series about burgers and, coming, maybe, in July, a burger restaurant in the Lower East Side. This week, a revised and expanded edition of his 2016 regional cookbook called “The Great American Burger Book” is also being released. So let’s start some beef!
Whelan joins us to discuss the past, present and future of Sahadi’s, the legendary Middle Eastern market founded by her great-grand-uncle 128 years ago. Known for its spices, roasted nuts roasted, fresh-made treats and homemade prepared foods, and goods imported from the Middle East that you literally can’t get anywhere else in the States, the James Beard Award-winning market is not only historic but also vital. Whelan, who runs it all with her family, is also the co-author of “Flavors of the Sun: The Sahadi’s Guide to Understanding, Buying, and Using Middle Eastern Ingredients.”
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Hudson, a third-generation Brooklynite from Prospect Heights who represents her own neighborhood plus Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights and part of Bed-Stuy, is one of first openly gay Black women on the city council. She joins us to speak about her first year in office, her accomplishments, goals and challenges. We discuss her vision for a revamped Atlantic Avenue corridor, her role in the council’s streamlined progressive caucus, her views on Mayor Eric Adams, the displacement of legacy Black residents from her district and more. Plus, because we keep our elected representatives accountable, there is a pop quiz.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Hari Kondabolu is a very funny stand-up comic, an astute observer on race and racial politics, a writer and filmmaker, a Brooklynite and, most recently a dad. His latest special is out this week on YouTube. Filmed right here in Gowanus at the Bell House, “Vacation Baby” is some of his more personal work to date. In it, he discusses the surreal nature of having a baby in the middle of a global pandemic. Filmed days after Roe v Wade was overturned, though, he leaves nothing on the table in terms of his biting political wit.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
There is a lot going on in Prospect Park these days. The Vale of Cashmere is undergoing a massive, multimillion dollar redesign process. The two-mile section of the park’s loop known as East Drive is getting fresh asphalt and undergoing a trial redesign meant to make life easier — and safer — for both cyclists and pedestrians. The historic Lefferts House is getting a makeover that will pay proper homage to the native Lenape people who lived on the land before it was colonized, and the enslaved Africans who later worked there. The park is getting a Shirley Chisholm memorial, too. Monaco, the first Black administrator of Prospect Park, joins us to discuss all of that and more, including the infamous attack that killed a dog in the park last August.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
This week's guest is Mistress Marley, who is a financial dominatrix, which is exactly what it sounds like. Her clients, almost all white men, are financial submissives — "finsubs" in the industry lingo. Their kink? They get off on sending her money simply because she demands it of them. No sex or nudity involved. You might not understand it, but the human heart is boundless and unknowable. Mistress Marley has a master’s degree in fashion marketing, a dungeon in East New York and a paddle with the word "reparations" carved into it. Let's go!
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you are a driver of a certain delinquent orientation, you might not think every law pertains to you. You might, for example, tamper with your license plate in order to avoid detection by toll, speed and red-light cameras. Maybe you scratch off a few letters. Maybe you obscure the plate entirely. If you do, you’re kind of a jerk. And Gersh Kuntzman is coming for you. Today we talk with the career journalist about his recent viral efforts to name and shame license plate scofflaws, his work at Streetsblog NYC, biking in the city and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Since 2016 Johnny Cirillo has stationed himself on street corners in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where he’s lived for over 20 years, and snapped thousands of photos of fabulously attired New Yorkers. It started as an homage to the late, great Bill Cunningham, the New York Times street style photographer, but the passion project has eventually morphed into his own thing. On Instagram, where he has nearly one million followers as @watchingnewyork, and more recently on TikTok, Cirillo posts candid shots of and interviews with stylish Brooklynites. It is a wonderful slice of life of the borough in all its swag and panache.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For 21 years Jennifer Mills has published Jennifer Mills News online, a banal-as-it-gets weekly compendium of her daily life, told in classic newspaper style. It’s understated and quietly very funny and if that sort of thing appeals to you, you can see all 21 years printed out and wallpapered at Bick Aux Gallery in Williamsburg now through March 19. Mills joins us to talk about the decades-long bit as well as her day job as a writer and producer on the NPR news quiz show “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me,” and, naturally, life in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For two decades, Binky Griptite was the guitarist, emcee and hype man for the Dap-Kings, backing the mighty Sharon Jones. These days he’s leading his own band. The Binky Griptite Orchestra is an old school rhythm and blues outfit in the vein of T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan. Their album “Got Up and Walked” will be out soon. So will another album Binky produced, by singer-songwriter Brendan O’Hara. He’ll also be at SXSW this month, performing in a tribute concert to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Today he joins us to talk about his current projects, the story behind the Dap-Kings, working with Sharon Jones and the singer Lee Fields, recording with Janet Jackson, growing up in Milwaukee, deejaying and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For two decades, Binky Griptite was the guitarist, emcee and hype man for the Dap-Kings, backing the mighty Sharon Jones. These days he’s leading his own band. The Binky Griptite Orchestra is an old school rhythm and blues outfit in the vein of T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan. Their album “Got Up and Walked” will be out soon. So will another album Binky produced, by singer-songwriter Brendan O’Hara. He’ll also be at SXSW this month, performing in a tribute concert to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Today he joins us to talk about his current projects, the story behind the Dap-Kings, working with Sharon Jones and the singer Lee Fields, recording with Janet Jackson, growing up in Milwaukee, deejaying and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Actor, writer, activist and Brooklynite Gbenga Akinnagbe joins us to discuss his career and his latest offscreen role: Working to save a 140-year-old living landmark in Bed-Stuy, a magnolia tree that has survived and thrived in the least likely place. Today its very existence is in peril — as is the environmental community center that was established around it in 1977. Akinnagbe is perhaps best known for his role as Chris Parlow, the terrifying assassin on HBO’s “The Wire.” He can currently be seen in FX’s “The Old Man” as a hit man sent to kill a former CIA operative played by Jeff Bridges. He also played Tom Robinson in Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Today we talk about his career, his other philanthropic efforts, living in Brooklyn and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Hosted and co-created by award-winning journalist Alana Casanova-Burgess, “La Brega” is a podcast that has won best-of accolades for its reportage into various aspects of under-examined life in Puerto Rico. Now halfway through its second season, “La Brega,” which translates roughly to “the struggle,” is exploring Puerto Rican — and Caribbean — life and history through music. Specifically, through eight songs over eight episodes. Casanova-Burgess joins us this week to discuss her podcast, the process behind it, her life in Brooklyn, identity, music, journalism and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Since its founding in 2009, the Brooklyn Community Foundation has helped provide more than $90 million in grants to exclusively Brooklyn nonprofits. Which is important because even though Brooklyn is home to nearly 30 percent of the nonprofits in New York city, its share of philanthropic giving is only 7.6 percent. Jocelynne Rainey, the president and CEO of the BCF since November of 2021, is working to change that, while leaning in to issues around racial and economic justice. A lifelong Brooklynite, she joins us to talk about her background and upbringing, the work that the Brooklyn Community Foundation does and her own commitment to racial justice.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Timothy Goodman went from a tough childhood in Ohio to painting houses for a living, before painting major murals in Williamsburg and working with huge brands like Apple and Uniqlo. Now, he’s designed the latest Kevin Durant Nike. A troubled kid with lousy grades and raw ambition, it was getting his act together through therapy and moving to New York 19 years ago that Goodman found himself — and no small amount of success. His graphic memoir “I Always Think it’s Forever” is out this week.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
It’s an awkward thing for most of us, facing and accepting our mortality. But it’s not something we get to opt out of. As a death educator and coordinator of public programs at The Green-Wood Cemetery, and a death doula, Gabrielle Gatto thinks about death all the time. So today that’s what we’re going to talk about. We’ll get into what death education is and how it’s practiced at Green-Wood. We discuss trends in green burial, some of the cultural offerings at the cemetery and what its founders would think about all the activity there today.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
An editor at Vanity Fair and a contributor to the New Yorker, among others, Mike Sacks is the author of ten books. Two of those books are collections of in-depth interviews with profoundly influential comedy writers from the legendary to the less known but no less important. His other books take a little more explaining. Two of them are being re-published this week: “Stinker Lets Loose” is a deliberately badly written novelization of a 1970’s trucker movie that never actually existed. “Randy!” Is an “unpublished memoir” Sacks “found” at a yard sale written by an average Maryland dirtbag who’s come into some money. Sacks also co-wrote “Welcome to Woodmont College,” a fake catalogue from a really expensive (and really shit) boutique college, out in hardback last month. Today we discuss his approach to comedy — both writing it himself and what he’s learned from interviewing some of the best to ever do it.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Podcaster, screenwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur Kareem Rahma had a banner 2022. He wrote and starred in a movie directed by Nicholas “New York Nico” Heller that debuted at the Tribeca Festival. He launched a super viral TikTok account called “Keep the Meter Running,” and he created a smart new podcast called “First.” Today Rahma joins us on our podcast — the first episode of the year — to talk about who he is, where he came from, and why he’s suddenly all over our feeds these days. He also lets us know what to expect in 2023.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
This week’s episode is our last episode of the year — and a repeat of our first episode of the year. Our conversation with Sue Donoghue, at the time the Prospect Park administrator and president of the Prospect Park Alliance, was our most downloaded and listened to episode of the year. Shortly after this episode ran, Donoghue got a promotion: She was tapped by Mayor Eric Adams to be the New York City Parks Commissioner, overseeing all the city’s parks. Here, we revisit our interview with Donoghue from January to discuss the past, present and future of Prospect Park.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Chef and serial restaurateur Greg Baxtrom is behind acclaimed Prospect Heights staples Olmsted, Maison Yaki and relative newcomer Patti Ann’s Family Restaurant and Baker. A little over a week ago he launched a fourth restaurant — in Rockefeller Center. He joins the podcast today to discuss his mini empire and how discovered he wanted to be a chef in the first place — turns out learning how to make beef stew in the Boy Scouts had something to do with it. We talk about his resume, which is impressive by design (Per Se, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, etc.) and he walks us through his many pandemic pivots. Baxtrom breaks down the culinary scene at large, food trends that bore him, learning to not be one of those asshole chefs and where he eats when he’s not working, which is not very often.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A Brooklyn kid, born in Flatbush in 1943, Kenny Vance came of age right along with rock and roll. He grew up around icons of doo-wop like fellow Brooklynites Little Anthony and the Imperials and the Jive Five. Vance himself would co-found the singing group Jay and the Americans, who were signed by the legendary songwriting duo Lieber and Stoller. Before he was 20 the group was scoring hits like “She Cried," and the band opened for the Beatles and The Rolling Stones on each of their first U.S. tours. Later in his career Vance would become a music supervisor on classic films including “Animal House” and “The Warriors.” He also basically discovered Steely Dan. His new film, “Heart and Soul” is a love letter to the bands he idolized as a kid — and features interviews with a few of their surviving members.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Over the course of the past 24 years, Gogol Bordello has become a hardcore gypsy punk and global party music institution, rooted here in New York, but with an international orientation. The group — which infuses Eastern European folk and Romani melodies with punk energy, Latin inflections, touches of dub and polka — is known for its live shows in particular. In our conversation today frontman Eugene Hütz calls a typical Gogol Bordello show “relentlessly hardcore celebratory.” We discuss how the band came to be, and Ukrainian-born Hütz's own incredible life story.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Chances are, if you put on, promote or produce something like 10,000 live concerts, you’re going to learn a few things. Just ask Peter Shapiro. The owner and operator of the Brooklyn Bowl venues, the legendary Capitol Theatre, and before that, the Wetlands Preserve, Shapiro is all of that … and also a Deadhead, a fact that is relevant because were it not for the Grateful Dead, he probably would never have gotten his start in the venue business at all. His book, “The Music Never Stops,” came out earlier this year, a chronicle of 50 pivotal shows that helped define Shapiro’s life, his ethos — and his businesses. We have a lot to discuss.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Comedian and actor Eugene Mirman will be at the Bell House on Wednesday, November 16, to host a launch show and party for his new comedy record label PGF Records. Bobcat Goldthwait will be there, and so will Maeve Higgins, as well as other special guests. The night will be a callback to the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, the subject of the 2020 documentary “It Started as a Joke,” which explores Mirman’s role as a galvanizing force in the alternative comedy scene in the borough. We discuss all of that, plus his role in the animated series “Bob’s Burgers.”
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For the past 20 years, “Captain” Kirk Douglas has been an integral member in a powerhouse of a hip hop band. As the Roots’ guitarist, Douglas has played on a string of critically acclaimed and occasionally Grammy-winning albums. On Friday he released “New Unknown,” his second solo album under the moniker Hundred Watt Heart. Introspective, occasionally a little psychedelic — with loads of guitar, Kirk’s vocals and a lot of rock — it’s maybe not what you’d expect from a member of the Roots. But it’s also not not what you’d expect given the musically omnivorous nature of the band. We discuss the project, his background, the Roots and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For 10 years, Kemi Ilesanmi has been the executive director of the Laundromat Project, a community non-profit that provides resources and financial support for primarily Black artists and New Yorkers of color to create art in public spaces throughout the city such as libraries, community gardens, public plazas and, yes, laundromats. And now, she is stepping down at the end of the year. We talk about her background and upbringing (hint: it doesn’t have a lot to do with art), what the LP has accomplished under her watch … and what’s coming next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Best known most recently for her role as Tiffany DuBois on “Insecure,” Amanda Seales was the second Black woman to ever have her own comedy special on HBO. That special, 2019’s “I Be Knowin’,” is an uncompromising and hilarious exploration of what it’s like to be a Black woman in America today, among other topics. The multi-hyphenate Seales — comedian, activist, author, podcast host, VJ — is now the creator of “Smart, Funny and Black,” a variety comedy quiz show that is coming to Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre this weekend, October 29 and 30.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
BRIC’s new president, Wes Jackson, has had a career that is just as multifaceted as the organization he’s running. He was the founder and executive director of the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. He has run a business program for executives at Emerson College. And he began his career producing concerts at college for groups like the Fugees, Nas, Dave Matthews Band the Roots and Tribe Called Quest, before starting his promotions company, Seven Heads Entertainment. We talk about his plans for BRIC, his career and how hip hop saved his life.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Launched in 2020 at peak pandemic lockdown and in the wake of the George Floyd and Brianna Taylor murders, Building Black Bed Stuy is a passion project of three women working to promote self-sufficiency and economic independence in the historically Black neighborhood. Kai Avent-deLeon, one of the founding partners and owner of Sincerely, Tommy, joins us to discuss changes in the community.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Diana Mora is the co-founder of the bar and music venue Friends and Lovers, a safe and inclusive space for queer and BIPOC folks in Crown Heights, staffed by locals for locals. But when the pandemic shut down Brooklyn’s nightlife scene, she went citywide. Mora co-founded NYC Nightlife United, an advocacy and action coalition that works to bolster the city's ruptured professional nightlife community. We will talk about that work, the current state of Brooklyn nightlife, what it feels like to be raided by the cops, without explanation, on a number of occasions and what her own favorite nightlife moments have been.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Anne Pasternak has been the director of the Brooklyn Museum since 2015 and is the first woman to lead one of New York’s two so-called encyclopedic museums. She succeeded Arnold L. Lehman who had been the museum’s director for nearly 18 years, during which time he reshaped the museum in significant ways, broadening its programming and seeking out a larger, more diverse audience. Pasternak, for her part, has both embraced and extended that almost populist legacy — think huge installations about David Bowie and Christian Dior — while also mounting important exhibits like the current “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech.” Pasternak discusses her work and gives us a guided tour of the museum.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
John Schaefer has hosted and produced the WNYC show “New Sounds” since 1982 with an insatiable curiosity and omnivorous musical palate. This week, as he gets set to celebrate the 40th anniversary, he joins us to talk about his radio career and his adventurous musical taste. We talk about the state of radio and his most off-the-rails interview, his love of horse racing, Schaefer beer and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Tony Dokoupil on your TV every weekday morning from 7 to 9 as the co-host of "CBS Mornings" with Gayle King and Nate Burleson. The three are celebrating one year as a team under a restructured morning news framework at the network. He joins us for a chat about his career, which started in magazine journalism before moving to TV (not without a few missteps). He opens up about his upbringing which, it’s a safe bet to say, was less conventional than yours. And we talk about the news business, the state of broadcasting and swap some hopefully not-too-boring war stories.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For nearly a quarter century now, if you're to walk into the Williamsburg bar Union Pool on any given Monday, you'd be going to church. There you will find Reverend Vince Anderson, conducting a sweaty sermon in sound with his Love Choir. A musician and minister of love, Anderson can now add “movie star” to his resume: He is the subject of a moving and inspirational new documentary called “The Reverend” by Nick Canfield. Both of them are guests on the podcast this week in a conversation recorded live at Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Leland Eating and Drinking House is a restaurant in Prospect Heights that somehow opened during the pandemic and survived through ingenuity, hospitality and really good bread to go. The proprietors of Leland Eating and Drinking house — Randi Lee, the restaurant’s co-owner and his fiancee Jeanette Zinno — appeared on the Food Network docuseries “Me or the Menu” over the summer. The title of the show sounds like an ultimatum but even though the series is over, the couple is still together and Leland Eating and Drinking House is enjoying its neighborhood darling status.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Sarah Cooper shot to superviral fame in 2020 with a series of lip sync videos mocking President Donald Trump’s insane Covid press briefings. She parlayed her buzz into the Netflix variety special “Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine,” directed by Natasha Lyonne and executive produced by Maya Rudolph. This week she stars in a new coming-of-age film “Summering,” a “Stand By Me” for Gen Z girls. And her auto-biographical take on Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” called “Let’s Catch Up Soon,” is out now on Audible. We discuss her out-of-nowhere career, working with Jerry Seinfeld, living in Brooklyn, divorce, Trump and winning friends and influencing people.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
If you've seen much street photography from New York City from the 1980s, a more innocent time before the crack and AIDS epidemics, at the dawn of hip-hop, chances are you've seen the work of Jamel Shabazz. The Brooklyn-born shutterfly is the recipient of the 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize and is currently the subject of a career survey, “Jamel Shabazz: Eyes on the Street,” at the Bronx Museum. You can also catch an exhibit he curated of six younger artists at the Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park now called The Brooklyn Connection. His classic 2005 collection "A Time Before Crack" is being reimagined and re-released later this month by PowerHouse books.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
In 2019, veteran journalist Mosheh Oinounou was the executive producer on “CBS Evening News,” a rarefied and powerful job in broadcasting earned after years of working behind the camera. In 2020, the Emmy-winner went out on his own … on Instagram, where he breaks down the complexities of international relations, domestic politics, climate change and the occasional human interest story in a way that is transparent and conversational. We talk about the evolution of his career, the devolution of broadcast news and we swap stories about Paul Rudd, naturally.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The new documentary “Anonymous Club” pulls the curtain back on the life of an introverted DIY artist experiencing — and going on tour in the aftermath of — an unpredictable and dizzying level of almost instantaneous success. Shot over three years, the film follows Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett on tour through Europe, Asia and the States, performing to huge crowds, and grappling with her own anxiety and anhedonia. Filmmaker Danny Cohen tasked her with keeping an audio diary through the whole process, and her narration dots the film in ways that are witty, moving, sad and wistful. Here, in front of a sold-out theater, we discuss the making of the film, her role as an artist, persevering and what’s coming next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Wen-Jay Ying is a woman on a mission. The founder of Local Roots — a new kind of C.S.A. and, since last year, a physical cafe and market space — Ying has for the past 11 years been single-mindedly driven to bring hyperlocal nutritious food and produce to communities that need it most. But she does it in a way that is educational without being preachy, fun and almost punk rock. Which is not a stretch to say: Years ago, Ying received a piece of advice that set her on the path to where she is now … from Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Today we sit down with the stars of Showtime’s hit comedy "Flatbush Misdemeanors," which last week kicked off its second season. It’s an ensemble comedy co-created by Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso, who star as a couple of hapless friends living in Flatbush. Dan joined me on stage along with his castmates Hassan Johnson, who plays Drew, a menacing drug dealer and the devoted uncle to Zayna, played by Kristin Dobson. You can absolutely listen to this if you haven’t been watching the show. In fact it might make you want to watch it. Which you should.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
In this live recording from last week’s Brooklyn Magazine Festival, we sit down with three of the more influential people in the independent Brooklyn live music and event space: Crystal Longo at Kings Theatre, Kae Burke from House of Yes and Brooklyn Bowl’s Lucas Sacks. They get candid about what the pandemic has done to their industry — from ticket sales to the booking of guests to connecting with the neighborhoods where they’re based. And we talk about how concert-going behavior has changed, how they’ve had to pivot and what new habits they believe will endure.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
It’s been just over six months since Antonio Reynoso took over as Brooklyn Borough President. Last month, he released a transition report in which he outlined a “comprehensive plan” for Brooklyn that laid out ideas for alleviating the borough’s housing crisis among many other policy initiatives. But the borough president, while a pretty big pulpit, does not actually possess a ton of statutory power. So, six months into the new gig, we discuss what the borough president can and can’t do and what he’s prioritizing in the role.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Gabriel Garzón-Montano has had a stunning run for someone who has done virtually no self-promotion: He first caught the ear of singer Meyer Hawthorne, who sent his self-produced debut to Stones Throw Records. That landed Garzón-Montano on tour with Lenny Kravitz in 2014, which is where he was when he learned that Drake wanted to sample his song “6 8." His music has since evolved from spare R&B, influenced by Prince and Stevie and even Radiohead, to include elements of reggaeton, ambient, folk and trap. On June 18, you can see him for yourself when he performs at the inaugural Brooklyn Magazine Festival at the LeFrak Center, Lakeside in Prospect Park. Details at bkmag.com/bkmf
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Nabil Ayers is a multi-hyphenate musician and executive, record store owner and writer. And now he can add memoirist to the list. His first book, “My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering my Family” is out June 7 and tells his remarkable life story. Ayers is the the product of an unorthodox arrangement: His mother, a Jewish suburbanite from Long Island, wanted to become a single mom, unburdened by a man. So, naturally, she asked legendary jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers to give her a baby and go away. In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss his life, his relationship to his father and his dynamic career.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The bicycle, a simple machine that has remained largely unchanged for 200 years, has served as a tool of both freedom and oppression, ushered in the space age, been sexualized, demonized, mythologized, and is still, to this day, ridden by a huge swath of humanity. Today’s guest is Jody Rosen, a New York Times Magazine contributing writer, Brooklynite, and urban cyclist, who comes fully clipped-in to discuss all of the above: He is the author of the new book “Two Wheels Good,” out this week. Let’s ride.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Death of Classical is a concert series with a point to prove: People may say that classical music is dead, but if you host gorgeous performances in crypts, catacombs, mausoleums and graveyards where the dead have made their permanent homes … the living tend to turn out in droves. Created by Andrew Ousley, the Death of Classical series returns to Green-Wood Cemetery this month with a run of shows that highlight Handel paired with hotdogs and whiskey, and that’s just for starters. Ousely joins the podcast to discuss his populist approach to classical, his personal connection to the music—and the best burger in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Barbecue is about as old as mankind itself: All you need is fire and meat. Doesn’t get more primal than that. Just ask Matt Adboo and Shane McBride, the team behind the sprawling Gowanus BBQ eatery Pig Beach. The two join the podcast to discuss the expansion of their meaty empire, their fine dining past (Balthazar, Del Posto), and their new book, “The Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook: Smoked, Grilled, Roasted and Sauced.”
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Wyatt Cenac is an Emmy-winning writer, comedian, actor, producer and former correspondent for The Daily Show most recently behind the HBO docu-series “Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas.” Donwill, a Brooklyn-based rapper and comedian, is half of the hip hop duo Tanya Morgan. Together they’ve been “Shouting at the Screen” for a decade. They’re bringing their live show to Nitehawk Prospect Park on April 28, where they will provide live commentary over a blaxploitation film of their choice. We discuss the series, their respective careers, the intersection of music and comedy, going to the Apple store and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Murray Hill's might be the longest overnight success story in Hollywood history. A staple in comedy clubs, the burlesque scene and New York’s queer underground for nearly 30 years now, he's currently got roles on HBO’s "Somebody Somewhere," Amy Schumer’s "Life and Beth" and Paul Feig's "Welcome to Flatch." The easy shorthand is to call Hill “the RuPaul of drag kings.” But it’s a label he himself avoids, preferring simply “comedian,” or “Murray” if you’re nasty—just your ordinary heavy-set middle-aged guy who can rock a three-piece suit and work a room.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Arts Gowanus is a not-for-profit organization working to support hundreds of local artists. Last October they hosted the 25th annual Gowanus Open Studios, which invites the public into galleries and studios for a weekend of browsing. This month they are co-presenting “Brooklyn Utopias: Along the Canal” which explores what a “utopia” in Gowanus would look like—not a purely academic exercise considering that the neighborhood is undergoing a massive and not uncontroversial rezoning that along the shores of the Gowanus Canal. Thornton joins us to discuss advocating for the artistic community there, his own art and growing up in apartheid South Africa before moving to the States.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Performing as Cat Power, Chan Marshall’s new album, “Covers,” takes an almost audacious approach to covering an almost audaciously eclectic group of songs—something that have come to expect from her by now but still retains an element of surprise. The songs she's chosen come from a list of musicians that ranges from Billie Holiday to Frank Ocean to Bob Seger to Iggy Pop. While not a Brooklynite, she played some early shows here in Williamsburg … and will be playing one of her next shows at Brooklyn Steel, on April 18. We discuss her relationship to the city, we talk about her relationship to covers, to discovering new music and to motherhood (her son actually makes a cameo in this episode).
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A poet, essayist, and cultural critic, Abdurraqib is the author of numerous books, including 2021’s National Book Award finalist “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance." Abdurraqib, who is also a 2021 recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, is the curator of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s diverse and eclectic Spring Music Series. Today we talk about the series and the thinking behind it, and we talk about the role of the curator and critic in 2022. We discuss his writing and we talk about grief. We also talk about Aretha.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Ralph McDaniels has forgotten more about hip hop than most people have ever known. The creator and host of the New York City public access show “Video Music Box,” which debuted in 1983, McDaniels had a decades-long run documenting the evolution of hip hop from the front row and backstage. Now the show and McDaniels himself are the subjects of a new documentary, out on Showtime, called “You’re Watching Video Music Box,” directed by Nas. We discuss his life in hip hop history.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
But don’t take our word for it: He’ll be the first to tell you. The actor, playwright and "Torch Street Trilogy" icon’s new memoir, “I Was Better Last Night” is out this week—and it is as wry, smart, sassy and self-aware as its title. Fierstein has had iconic roles in "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Independence Day" and "Mulan," of course. But we don’t talk about his Hollywood years here. Today we focus on the early portion of his life and career, his childhood in Bensonhurst, growing up gay in post war Brooklyn in an observant Jewish family, a brush with Andy Warhol and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Pause for a second and reflect upon what it must take to be David Byrne’s musical director. No pressure. For percussionist Mauro Refosco, it’s a gig. A great one, for sure. And he takes it, like he does everything else, in steady rhythm. A Brazilian-born, classically trained drummer, Refosco has been working with Byrne off and on for nearly 30 years. And as “American Utopia” enters the final stage of its Broadway run, we discuss the intricacies of putting on such a dynamic show—wirelessly. We get into his background and his work with Byrne. And we talk a little about Brazilian music and politics. Just a little. We also discuss his beautiful hair.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com Email: hello@bkmag.com Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine Twitter: @brooklynmag Instagram: @brooklynmagazine Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
There are some 2.6 million people living in Brooklyn right now. But there are only two Brooklyn Mavens: Lauren Riley and Merlyn Oliver comprise the social media outfit dedicated to highlighting the best of the borough, old and new. The two twentysomethings have over 20 thousand followers on Instagram, where they shout out Black-owned small businesses, historical curiosities and explore neighborhoods that are new to them. Today, we talk about gentrification, the things people get wrong about Brooklyn, recent discoveries, influencers and what’s next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Steve Keene is the most prolific artist you’ve probably never heard of. By some estimates he’s given away or sold north of 300,000 of his paintings on plywood, which he produces multiple copies of at a time. If you are a fan of the bands Pavement or the Silver Jews or Dave Matthews Band, you may have studied his album art. His paintings are all over the borough: In bars, coffee shops, homes, sometimes left on sidewalks. Now, at 65, he has a book coming out in June, the first to focus solely on his work. And today he joins us from his home in Greenpoint to discuss that work, the book, his reputation and his agenda … or lack thereof.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The first female Muslim city councilmember, Shahana Hanif was politicized early in her life. She was 10 on 9/11 and came of age during a time of discrimination against people who look like her. At 17, a diagnosis of lupus galvanized her to become interested in community infrastructure. Born and bred in Kensington, where she still lives today, Hanif represents a swath of Brooklyn that is both old and new. She takes a high profile seat that was most recently held by her former boss, Brad Lander, now the city comptroller. Today, we talk about accessibility, policing, immigrant communities, what she is prioritizing in her new role—and where to eat in Kensington.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
No one is safe when Pete Wells chooses to turn his gaze their way: Not Guy Fieri, not Peter Luger, not even Per Se. The restaurant critic for the New York Times since late 2011, Wells has helped expand the scope of what it is a reviewer does at the paper: He is the first to give starred reviews to restaurants in all five boroughs. And he’s gone out of his way to surface eateries that exist under the radar. We discuss the highs and lows of what can only be called a dream job, and how the pandemic was so devastating to the restaurant industry. He breaks down his process and shares a brief itinerary for how to spend a day eating your way through Brooklyn.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
What is the role of a chamber of commerce in 2022? Joining the podcast today is Randy Peers, the CEO and President of the 104-year-old Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the incredibly difficult two years the small business community has endured—and what the chamber is doing to advocate for them. He’ll also explain what he was doing in the metaverse recently.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Prospect Park has been an invaluable oasis to a pandemic-weary Brooklyn over the past two years. But the park itself has had a big year: On his way out of the office, Mayor Bill de Blasio cut a $40 million dollar check for the park for the restoration of the Vale of Cashmere and the Rose Garden in the northeast corner of the park. Over the course of the pandemic alone, the Endale Arch entrance to the Long Meadow was restored to glorious 19th-century effect; the park got two new entrances along Flatbush Avenue; the music pagoda was restored. Today we take a deep dive into the past, present and future of Prospect Park with Sue Donoghue, the official park administrator and the president of the Prospect Park Alliance.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Liara Roux is a multi-hyphenate sex worker—a high-end escort and indie porn producer, an activist and community organizer, a writer who has written for Vice and HuffPost among others, and is most recently the author of a new memoir called “Whore of New York: A Confession.” Roux, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, joins the podcast to discuss her memoir, growing up in New York, sex and the city, power, stigma and safety.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
As improbable as it seems, They Might Be Giants is turning 40 next year. John Linnell is one half of that duo, the other half being John Flansburgh. Linnell is a singer-songwriter who plays accordion, baritone and bass saxophone, clarinet, and keyboards. He also released a solo EP this year ... sung entirely in Latin. (And yet he still wonders why some people think he's a nerd.) Join us for a delightful and delightfully wide-ranging chat about the history of the band and Linnell's own life.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Bicycling has enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in New York during the pandemic, and the influx of new riders is revealing some of the bigger stresses on the system. Oonee is a Brooklyn-based, Black & Brown-led team of advocates, designers, and policy experts looking to change the dialogue around cycling in the city. Prior to founding Oonee, Shabazz Stuart was the deputy director of operations at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. He joins us to discuss what Oonee is but also look at the bigger picture of bicycling, infrastructure and transportation policy design in the city.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The right to an abortion may soon vanish. Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and a majority of the justices appeared inclined to overturn both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. It is in that context that we revisit this July interview with Amy Sohn, author of “The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age,” about Anthony Comstock, an anti-vice activist and U.S. Postal Inspector behind the 1873 Comstock Law which penalized the mailing of contraception (and information about contraception) with long sentences and steep fines.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
“Beautiful Country” is a spare and moving memoir in which Qian Julie Wang tells the story of the first years of her family’s life in America—where they arrived from China in 1994, and where as an impoverished undocumented girl she was never allowed or able to be her full self. In telling her personal story, she reveals a side of the American Dream familiar to so many immigrants as more of a nightmare. A Brooklynite, Yale Law graduate and managing partner of her own firm, Gottlieb & Wang LLP, Wang discusses her journey and the healing act of telling her own story.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
When New York was sent into covid quarantine, Jeremy Cohen was already a steady working photographer specializing in social media fare for brands, portraits and big music festivals. But in 2020 the lockdown forced him to stay home … and sit still. Quarantining had the surprising effect of sparking creativity in a personal level—and ultimately go super-viral. We re-visit that experience, find out more about who he is and why he’s thinking about NFTs.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley did not win the race for Gracie Mansion. The next mayor will be Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. But Wiley had a strong showing in her first-ever run for office and enhanced her own profile as a champion for the causes she holds dear, from police reform to affordable housing and beyond. We discuss her mayoral race and what it was like being thrown into the political gauntlet. A former top counsel for Mayor Bill de Blasio, she reflects on the outgoing mayor’s legacy and what she hopes an Adams administration might be able to accomplish. And we’ll get into what she’s thinking about doing next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Iranian-born actor Marjan Neshat is especially busy this season. Beginning November 17, she’ll be in the play “Selling Kabul,” followed by “English” and then “Wish You Were Here,” all written by Middle Eastern playwrights. Neshat herself is a child of the Revolution: She was just 4 when the Shah fled the country. Her parents pulled her and her sister out a few years later, in 1985, after a number of incidents threatened not only their freedom but their safety. We talk about her background and her career on stage and in films—plus raising a son in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
On this special repeat episode of the podcast, the “Goodfellas” actor “Younger” star talks about growing up as a wild child. She has stories upon stories about the late 1970s and ‘80s downtown club scene, becoming besties with Madonna, and hanging out with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and others. We talk about how she got into acting, moving to Italy last year, her experience with a particularly rough (and funny) case of covid, and how her wild youth informs her parenting today.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A Brooklyn-based community leader and cannabis activist, Solonje Burnett is working to connect communities, break stereotypes, and dismantle structural inequities in the cannabis space. Burnett is a co-founder of Humble Bloom—a cannabis consulting and education platform—who predicts that New York is on the verge of becoming the weed capital of the world. She just wants to help it happen with humanity and equality.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Daniel Hernandes shot to stardom as Tekashi 6ix9ine, or Tekashi69, after the release of the video for his song "Gummo." His unraveling came just as quickly as his ride to fame. Shawn Setaro, who wrote the book on Tekashi, unpacks his story, one that involves shootings in public, a kidnapping by estranged gang members and, notoriously, the near universal blacklisting of him for informing on members of the Trey Nine Gangsta Bloods.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter’s third album is out this week. “Una Rosa” will be released on October 15 and, as with so much of Xenia Rubinos’ music, it defies labels. It is rhythmically and melodically complex, infusing elements of funk, rock, hip-hop, jazz and more. On the podcast we discuss her career, her approach to music making and her upbringing in Connecticut.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Yes that’s his real name. Smokey Hormel discusses his fascinating family, growing up in L.A. and taking the long road to becoming a sought after session musician, a guitarist who has recorded or toured with Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Beck, Nora Jones, Adele, Joe Strummer and on and on. You can catch him Wednesdays this month fronting his Western Swing outfit, Smokey’s Roundup at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
What happens when media, entertainment, and technology collide? That's the question that guides Peter Kafka, senior correspondent for Recode. If you interact in technology in any way, and chances are you do—a lot—Kafka’s reporting will most likely give you something you can chew on. He joins us from his home in Bay Ridge, an unlikely zip-code for a member of the New York media elite. We talk about that, his career, technology and parenting, technology and culture and, briefly, another Kafka.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Developers tend to get a bad rap. Tucker Reed understands that. The co-founder and principle of the development firm Totem joins us to discuss Brooklyn’s housing crisis and how he would like to see the city build its way out of it—proactively and responsibly. We also discuss his own projects in Sunset Park and Bed-Stuy, as well as his history at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership … and as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s college dorm neighbor.
BKSi
After a decade running SPACE at Ryder Farm, a non-profit artist retreat and organic farm in Brewster, New York, Emily Simoness is stepping down as co-founder and executive director. She’s not sure what next for her, but whatever it is, she’ll be doing it with the support of her husband, Michael Chernus, a busy film, television and stage actor probably best known for his role as Cal in “Orange is the New Black.” The two of them join us today to discuss their respective careers, starting a pro-Biden tie dye t-shirt side hustle during the pandemic and the Grateful Dead. Plus a quiz!
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Jean Eddy Saint Paul lives here in Brooklyn but is from the south of the island, at the site of the epicenter of last week's earthquake. He discusses the root causes of Haiti’s impoverishment and breaks down why there is such a large Haitian population in Brooklyn, which can be traced through three separate waves of immigration going back decades. He’ll also tell us how you— yes, you — can help.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Don’t follow Clay Williams on Instagram if you don’t want to get hungry. A Brooklyn-based photographer specializing in food, drinks and events, Williams is a prolific shooter for The New York Times, The James Beard Foundation and Zagat. Williams is also a founder of Black Food Folks—“a fellowship of Black professionals in food and drink, promoting and supporting one another for mutual success."
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Greg Hildreth had been on a roll when Covid shut down Broadway in 2020. After a run playing Olaf the snowman in “Frozen,” he had lined up roles in a satiric riff on Chekov’s “Three Sisters” called “Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow,” and in the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.” He was set to appear in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s "Company" when the world went dark. Hildreth, who will return to the stage in "Company" this fall, talks about Broadway, his career, growing up weird and what to do in a pandemic with no prospect of work.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The Brooklyn borough president is almost certain to become the next mayor of New York City. In June, Eric Adams won the Democratic primary in a city where registered Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. Adams was also the first guest on "Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast," recorded late last year, just as he declared his candidacy. Our conversation was deliberately not tied to the news cycle and still serves as an introduction to Adams, a former New York City police officer and state senator. Listen now for am primer on your next likely mayor.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
In "The Man Who Women," Sohn's first work of narrative nonfiction, we meet Anthony Comstock, the anti-vice crusader behind the Comstock Law, passed in 1873, which made it illegal to mail contraception—or even information about contraception—punishable by long sentences and steep fines. Sohn highlights the struggles of eight remarkable women charged with violating state and federal Comstock laws before 1915. Each would fight back in her own way and, in the process, risked imprisonment and even death, as they charted new ways of understanding birth control access as a civil liberty.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
At just 19 Sage Adams became the creative director on singer-songwriter SZA’s 2017 smash album “Ctrl”—all because of an Instagram DMs. A gender non-conforming artist and curator, Adams still works with SZA as well as brands like Nike and Facebook. They are also a founder of Art Hoe Collective, a platform that promotes works by queer artists of color and other marginalized people. Adams is currently at work on a play, written with their mother.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For Ivy Mix, it all started with an outsized bar tab in Guatemala … and a stint spent smuggling mezcal across the border. Today, she is one of the most celebrated bartenders in the country. Co-owner and head bartender of the Latin-inspired Leyenda on Smith Street, Mix is also the co-founder of Speed Rack, an all-female bartending competition designed to highlight up-and-coming women in the cocktail industry that has raised more than $1 million for breast cancer research over the past decade. She is also an author—“Spirits of Latin America” came out just as the pandemic was hitting full swing—and as of this year, the co-owner of Fiasco!, a bottle shop in Crown Heights with an emphasis on female, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ producers.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
It’s hard to find someone in the comedy world as universally well-liked as Josh Gondelman. A stand-up comic and a stand-up guy, Gondelman has been a writer and producer for the popular Showtime show "Desus & Mero" since 2019 (which may not be where you’d expect a self-described goofy white kid from the Boston suburbs to land). He is also the host of the positivity-driven comedy game show podcast "Make My Day,” which gives us license to subject him to a trivia quiz of our own.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
An award-winning writer, bartender and owner of Red Hook’s beloved Fort Defiance, St. John Frizell is part of the team—with partners Sohui Kim, and Ben Schneider—that has re-opened Gage & Tollner. After years of fundraising, research, blood, sweat and tears, the trio were set to re-open the landmark restaurant on March 15 2020—the week the world went into lockdown. The restaurant finally officially reopened on April 15 and it is, by just about any measuring stick, a triumph. Frizell discusses that roller coaster, plus Fort Defiance’s own innovative pandemic pivot.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A self-described Black, queer, college dropout, Chi Ossé was working freelance jobs in nightlife when the pandemic hit. By the summer he found himself leading some of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that took over the borough. From there, Ossé and several other engaged protestors formed Warriors In The Garden, a social justice collective. It didn’t take long—on Juneteenth 2020, to be precise—before Ossé announced his candidacy for New York City Council as a representative of District 36, which encompasses Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, where he grew up.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Justin Brannan is not your average New York City councilmember. For starters, he probably has more tattoos than all of them combined, ever. Before entering politics, he was a founding member of two successful hardcore punk bands: Indecision and Most Precious Blood. Today Brannan reps the area where he grew up: the 43rd District, including Bay Ridge as well as Bath Beach, Dyker Heights and Portions of Bensonhurst. He is up for reelection this year (with an eye on the speaker’s seat) in a race that will see a massive restructuring of city government.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Dianne Morales’ mayoral campaign is in disarray—in all eight staffers have quit or been fired just in the past couple days. Those developments unfolded rapidly—and after this interview was recorded. Morales is a first-time candidate for any office. And If elected she would be the city’s first woman, first LatinX, and second person of color to be mayor of New York. A Bed-Stuy native and single mother, she is a non-profit executive and former educator who has worked both in the school system and in the Department of Education. She had also frequently been characterized in the mainstream media as the most progressive candidate in the slate of top mayoral contenders.
In conversation, Emma Straub is as charming, easy going and accessible as her writing—and like her writing, she can be sly and wry and almost sneakily profound. Straub is not only the New York Times-bestselling author of four compulsively readable novels and a short story collection. She is also the owner of Books Are Magic, an independent book store in Cobble Hill. Her fifth book, “All Adults Here,” is newly out in paperback, one year after its release in the early months of the pandemic. We’ll discuss what the last year has been like for Straub, from running the store and raising kids to carving out a successful writing career. Plus she gives us a hint of what she’s working on next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A non-binary activist and artist (pronouns: they/them/God/Goddess) in their late twenties, Prince will be the youngest candidate to appear on the ballot at next month's mayoral primary. They are also the most flamboyant—and most-likely to freestyle 20, 30 bars unprompted. Prince, who lives in Bushwick, had not reached the fundraising threshold to qualify for last week's mayoral debate. But although their top priority is to "spread love," don't call Prince's campaign performance art: They want to see $2,000 monthly universal-basic-income payments for every resident. Free healthcare. A 3½-day work week. Canceled rent for anyone who fell behind during the pandemic. “Love Centers” where residents can get therapy, classes, hugs and more. Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
As the co-founder and managing director of the Red Hook Art Project, Davis has dedicated the last 12 years of her life to helping at risk kids in the neighborhood. At any given time the Red Hook Art Project, or RHAP, provides around 50 kids free visual art and music lessons and homework help. Raised in Bed-Stuy by a single mother who was an addict at the peak of the crack epidemic, Davis herself became a mother at just 14. She talks about her childhood and how it's driven her to help her kids and her community break out of the systems and cycles that hold them back.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
To know Linda Belcher is to love her. Linda is the happy-go-lucky, social, silly and sing-songy wife of Bob Belcher on the long-running animated Fox show "Bob's Burgers." She is voiced by John Roberts, who created the character based on his own mother, Marge, born in Bensonhurst. Roberts joins the podcast today to discuss the show, finding his voice and his own musical side career. Alriiiight!
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The music executive who developed Stone Temple Pilots, Katy Perry and Lorde has been a tireless advocate for the innocent for 28 years. On this episode we go deep on his surprising side hustle: We break down the scope of the problem of wrongful convictions and its main drivers, from junk science to incentivized witnesses to false confessions. Plus why Brooklyn is a hotbed for wrongful convictions. Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
As the founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Charlie O’Donnell and his firm manage approximately $30 million across three funds. (Think of it as Shark Tank, but with less drama.) Among the more surprising insights he shares after a year of lockdown? “It’s an exciting time to be in New York City.”
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Legendary gossip columnist Michael Musto—who wrote the La Dolce Musto column for the Village Voice for nearly three decades—joins the podcast to talk about growing up gay in Bensonhurst, the only son of Italian parents. We discuss nightlife in the 1970s and ‘80s, how the nature of celebrity and gossip has evolved over the decades—especially with the arrival of the internet. And we talk about what a nightlife columnist does during a year of pandemic when there is no nightlife.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
On March 16, Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna signed a lease on a storefront for their new ice cream business The Social. As it happens, March 16 was one year to the day that Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna filed for personal and Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Ample Hills, the ice cream company they founded a decade ago. The couple, married for nearly 20 years, joins the podcast to discuss the spectacular rise and fall of Ample Hills—and what they're up to next.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The blog Black-Owned Brooklyn started in 2018 as a passion project to provide a curated guide to Brooklyn-based Black-owned brands, shops and businesses—and to tell the stories of the people behind them. Now, in 2021, Black-Owned Brooklyn is that and much more. The site has become a vital borough-wide resource and place for building community, with nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram. Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa, the Bed-Stuy based couple that runs the site, don’t fixate on the ills of gentrification but rather celebrate the rich tapestry of culture that not only remains in Brooklyn but is thriving.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The iconic designer and TV personality who first burst onto the fashion scene with his 1988 runway debut is about to close out a spectacle of a different sort: his annual run at the Café Carlyle. In this interview, Mizrahi discusses his campy-fun cabaret show and his lifelong yen to perform. We get into his upbringing in East Flatbush, attending the “Fame” high school, escaping Brooklyn through fashion—and more.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The Resistance Revival Chorus is a collective of more than 60 women and non-binary singers who sing songs of resistance and uplift, born in the fraught months following the election of Donald Trump. The group carries on the tradition of the protest song—at scale. And now the Resistance Revival Chorus has an album of their own, "This Joy" a collection of traditional songs, covers and originals. "Joy is an act of resistance,” says chorus member and activist Zakiyah Ansari on this episode of the podcast. Give a listen to find out what she means. Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Hard as it is to believe, The Hold Steady have been holding steady since 2003. This month, the Brooklyn-based indie rock band released its eighth studio album, “Open Door Policy,” recorded before the end of 2019 and subsequently mixed and hashed out over Zoom. To celebrate, the band will be live-streaming two live shows from Brooklyn Bowl on March 5 and 6. But first they join us on the podcast to discuss the album, the band and holding steady during a pandemic—and in general.
Brooklyn-based photographer Josh Paul has shot for Road & Track and Outside magazines; he captured iconic imagery on Ground Zero for the New York Times magazine. And he publishes his own magazine: Lollipop is a lush tribute to the world of Formula 1 racing—but more than that, it’s a work of art in its own right. Paul is a familiar face in the F1 press pool: In normal years, he can be seen lugging around a hulking 100-plus-year-old camera around Europe with him to snap stunning and vintage-feeling images of some of the fastest cars on earth.
As the former city sanitation commissioner, Garcia has a penchant for process and has been in city government long enough to believe she can direct the whole thing herself. So she’s running. Garcia is a Brooklyn native—she lives in Park Slope, where she grew up—and is a mayoral candidate in an increasingly crowded primary field. She also doesn’t mind talking a little trash.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
“We Are: The Brooklyn Saints” is a four-part Netflix docu-series about a boys’ youth football program in East New York. A group of kids, aged 7 to 13, learn the fundamentals and hope for a shot at the championship in Florida. If you think you know where this story is going, you’re probably wrong: “Saints” is really a story about community, character, love, fatherhood and resilience, shot from Valdez's fly-on-the-wall vantagepoint.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
"The Baptism” is a new 11-minute visual poem by Carl Hancock Rux commissioned by the Lincoln Center as a memorial to civil rights titans John Lewis and C.T. Vivian. It is just one of the latest projects that Rux has recently been involved with. An award-winning multi-hyphenate writer, poet, essayist and recording artist, Rux reflects on a year of pandemic and civil unrest, his work, his influences and the "tragedy" around his own birth.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The host of NPR’s comedy quiz show “Ask Me Another” is a funny lady who has experienced her share of trauma. The two—humor and pain—are indelibly linked in comedy, and her own brutally honest approach is no exception. But where Eisenberg could easily have infused her comedy with bitterness, she has refused to let anger get the better of her. And her work, as a result, is full of keen observation and empathy. Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
For Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, we look at the ways in which New Yorkers have advocated, agitated, and exercised their power to shape the discussion around civil rights. MLK himself is connected to the city in ways that may be both obvious and surprising. With Sarah Seidman of the Museum of the City of New York, we explore his legacy as well as others, including those of Brooklyn CORE, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, and the BLM movement.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The senior vice president and chief of operations at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn joins the podcast to describe the current state of Covid here in the borough. We discuss whether we can expect another surge (we can) and what it will look like (hopefully not as bad as last Spring). And we discuss some good news: namely, the vaccine—facts and myths alike.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Dick Zigun is the co-founder and artistic director of Coney Island USA, the arts nonprofit behind the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, and the Coney Island Museum and Burlesque at the Beach. He is also the self-appointed, non-elected unofficial mayor for life. On this episode of the podcast, he traces his journey from Yale Drama School to the boardwalk in the late 1970s. He laments the impact the coronavirus has had on the performance community he’s so much a part of, and looks forward with a note of optimism to 2021.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Steve Hindy has an unorthodox history for a beer baron: He started out as a Middle East Correspondent for the Associated Press in the early 1980s. There, he covered the hostage crisis in Iran and the Iran-Iraq War. He was kidnapped in Lebanon, and was seated behind Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when he was assassinated in 1981. Today Steve Hindy is the 12th largest exporter of American style craft beer. And on this episode of "Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast," we'll find out how he got from point A to point beer.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
A respite from social unrest throughout the city—and from the boredom and stress brought on by the pandemic—the Good Company Bike Club took on a life of its own this summer with weekly rides to all corners of the city. It is a self-described celebration of Black joy on two wheels: Good Company has fostered a community among its predominantly Black members by leveraging a shared love of biking to create a platform of inclusivity, positivity and visibility in Brooklyn’s mostly Black inner-city communities. In today’s episode, Andrew Bennett and Marv Marcel break it all down.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
In this funny and frank conversation, Debi Mazar—OG b-girl, Madonna BFF, Ray Liotta's "Goodfellas" mistress's best friend, "Younger" star and all around icon—discusses her insane 2020, which includes a move to Tuscany and probably the most (the only?) hilarious story about how she learned she had come down with Covid. Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
The former NYPD captain is the inaugural guest on a new weekly long-form interview show with prominent (and almost-prominent) locals. Host Brian Braiker sits down with Adams to look back at a tumultuous 2020, dig into Black Lives Matter and police reform, revisit growing up in Brownsville in the 1960s and how a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes changed Adams' life for the better.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope
Every week, the Brooklyn Magazine podcast highlights prominent (and soon-to-be-prominent) Brooklynites as we explore the vast and diverse borough through the lens of culture, community and commerce. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Brian Braiker, the show features intimate conversations with cultural luminaries, community leaders and compelling locals. These are the people who move us, entertain us, feed us and inspire us. There are a lot of little Brooklyns, and we are all a little Brooklyn.
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope