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Events Mysterious Stories

The Bowery Boys Live: Ghost Stories of New York TICKETS NOW ON SALE

It’s never too late to start planning for the spooky season with all your seasonal favorites — new sweaters, pumpkin spice latte and Bowery Boys ghost stories podcasts. And once again this year — on October 30 and 31 — you can hear those ghost stories LIVE. Tom and Greg return to Joe’s Pub at… Read More

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Podcasts Politics and Protest Preservation

The History of Jefferson Market and the Women’s House of Detention

In the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Jefferson Market Library, a branch of the New York Public Library, and a beautiful garden which offers a relaxing respite from the busy neighborhood. But a prison once rose from this very spot — more than one in fact. While there was indeed a market at Jefferson… Read More

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Events

New Live Event: The Bowery Boys at Caveat (September 1)

Join Tom Meyers and Greg Young as they celebrate their 15th year of making the Bowery Boys Podcast with a special live podcast recording at Caveat on the Lower East Side.  Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 7pm. Greg and Tom will be joined at this show by special guest Hugh Ryan,… Read More

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Museums Science Those Were The Days

Analog City: A new exhibition celebrates New York before everything went digital

Index cards. Levers and buttons. Wheels and wires and paper. Stone-gray mechanical boxes and intricate machines of gears and pulleys. It was these things — and probably a lot of coffee — that kept New York City operating before the advent of computers. From the subway to the Wall Street trading floor, life functioned in… Read More

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Podcasts Those Were The Days

New York Calling: A History of the Telephone

Just a few months ago, most of the remaining phone booths were removed from the streets of New York City, oft neglected, a nostalgic victim of our increasing use of cellphones. For almost a century public phones have connected regular New Yorkers with the world. Who doesn’t have fond memories of using a payphone with… Read More

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Film History Podcasts

Capturing History: Ric Burns and James Sanders on “New York: A Documentary Film”

In today’s episode, Tom discusses the vast span of New York history with filmmakers and authors Ric Burns and James Sanders, creators of New York: A Documentary Film. Tom, Ric and James discuss the 8-part documentary (which aired on PBS in installments in 1999, 2001 and 2003) and its newly updated companion book, “New York:… Read More

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Amusements and Thrills It's Showtime

In the Pleasure Gardens of Old New York

It has become a name so associated with American sports and entertainment that you barely think about it. In New York City, when you say you are going to The Garden, you aren’t going to see flowers. Most likely, you’re going to see the Knicks. Or possibly Billy Joel. New York City’s many actual gardens… Read More

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Neighborhoods Preservation

History repeats itself? Protesting demolition at Penn Station

Sixty years ago today — on August 2, 1962 — the Action Group for Better Architecture in New York (AGBANY), a group of young architects and activists, held a most curious protest outside of Pennsylvania Station, the old train station designed by McKim, Mead and White. “The best dressed picket line in New York City… Read More

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Bowery Boys Bookshelf

Spending the summer with two Pulitzer Prize winning histories

Two books won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History this year, underscoring the excellent offerings on the history shelf in 2021. They are two wildly different stories but they share a similar theme — the complicated relationship between the United States and foreign nations. In Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice… Read More

Categories
Gilded Age New York The Gilded Gentleman The Immigrant Experience

Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York

What was life like for a valet, a cook or a scullery maid in the mansions of late 19th century New York? How were houses with large staffs even managed? What were the hardships? And what were the benefits? Join The Gilded Gentleman for a look below stairs! Carl is joined by Esther Crain, author of The Gilded… Read More

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Religious History Women's History

In honor of Mother Cabrini: Places to pay tribute to the American saint

Frances Xavier Cabrini was born on this date (July 15) in 1850 in today’s Italian region of Lombardy. She entered the sisterhood at a young age, and by 1880 had formed her own order with seven other women — the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  The good works performed by the order soon got… Read More

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Bowery Boys Bookshelf Bronx History

‘Freedomland’: A New Book Explores the Story of Co-Op City

Most New Yorkers have probably never been to Co-Op City, the massive residential development in the Bronx. And that’s partially by design. This historic development, built upon the site of the old Freedomland amusement park, is the largest single residential development in the world. It is a true city-within-a-city — and also a place seemingly… Read More

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Bowery Boys Bookshelf Brooklyn History

That Kid From Bensonhurst: ‘The Adventures of Herbie Cohen’

Playboy Magazine called Herb Cohen “the world’s greatest negotiator” and whether or not that was true, Cohen could convince you that it most certainly was. He wrote You Can Negotiate Anything and in 1982 it became a best-seller during a wave of self-help books. A year before its release, Cohen became involved in the Iran… Read More

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Black History Neighborhoods Podcasts

A Walk Through Little Caribbean in Brooklyn

What wonderful surprises await the Bowery Boys in Little Caribbean? The Brooklyn enclave in Flatbush is one of the central destinations for Caribbean-American life and culture in New York City. Since the 1960s, thousands of immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean nations have made this historic area of Flatbush (mostly… Read More

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Brooklyn History Neighborhoods Podcasts

The Story of Flatbush: Brooklyn Old and New

Over 350 years ago today’s Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush was an old Dutch village, the dirt path that would one day become Flatbush Avenue lined with wheat fields and farms. Contrast that with today’s Flatbush, a bustling urban destination diverse in both housing styles and commercial retail shops. It’s also an anchor of Brooklyn’s Caribbean… Read More