FAQ NYC

FAQ NYC

A weekly dive into the big questions about this city of ours, hosted by Christina Greer, Azi Paybarah and Harry Siegel, and produced by Alex Brook Lynn.

  • 58 minutes 21 seconds
    Episode 390: How a Gilded Age Anti-Sex Law Bred the Modern State’s Criminalization of ‘Dangerous’ Speech

    Author and veteran columnist Amy Sohn talks with Harry Siegel about her book, The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age, and explains why the “zombie” Comstock Law still on the federal books kept coming up during 2024’s presidential election.

    Sohn details how the lives of two “sex radicals,” Ida Craddock and Sarah Chase, were upended as they crossed paths with Anthony Comstock, the mutton-chopped celebrity behind the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and self-described “friend of women” who boasted about driving his enemies to suicide.

    It’s a story about how the government’s original anti-sex law — suppressing information about birth control as a form of obscenity — created mechanisms used to this day to suppress unpopular thoughts.

    20 December 2024, 2:00 pm
  • 34 minutes 26 seconds
    Episode 389: Ingrid Out

    The mayor says he’s the same as he’s ever was even as his closest allies have left under fire and he’s executing what Trump’s incoming border czar says is “a complete 180” on immigration. 

    In the last regular episode of 2024, hosts Chrissy and Harry discuss the mayor's maneuvering — "I don't know if the mayor is purging his old crew, or if his old crew is purging themselves before they have to perjure themselves." They also dig into the unprecedented number of car crashes following police pursuits on Eric Adams' watch, the Democratic challengers lining up early to take on Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026, Brad Lander's sit-down with the New York Editorial Board, and more.

    16 December 2024, 10:00 pm
  • 25 minutes 16 seconds
    Episode 388: What a Diff’rence a Day Makes

    Just after Katie Honan and Harry Siegel recorded on Monday morning, a jury acquitted Daniel Penny of negligent homicide, the NYPD found the man they believe shot down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the City Council sued the mayor for declaring a state of emergency rather than implement the solitary confinement ban they passed into law.

    Ahead of all that, the hosts dug into how Trumpworld is reportedly laughing at a“Thirsty” Eric Adams, the limits of the mayor’s new “cancel me” appeal and his new talk about scaling back New York’s “sanctuary city” law even if lawmakers won’t go along, and much more, and much more.

    9 December 2024, 10:00 pm
  • 31 minutes 49 seconds
    Episode 387: Are We All Centrists Now?

    Eric Adams seems to think so, and that Trump’s victory proves the left has lost its way.

    FAQ hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the mayor’s solid political instincts and his dubious press strategy, why he’s still talking about Andrew Yang, and much more.

    2 December 2024, 11:00 pm
  • 28 minutes 18 seconds
    Episode 386: A New Police Commissioner, Again

    Why was Mayor Eric Adams swearing in Jessica Tisch as his fourth police commissioner in not even three years on Monday?

    FAQ hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the historic turnover from an historically unpopular mayor, Rep. Ritchie Torrees' prospective challenge of Gov. Kathy Hochul, and much more. Plus, Katie digs into the Brooklyn diocese and the church that (sort of) tied together Sabrina Carpenter and Eric Adams.

    26 November 2024, 3:00 am
  • 39 minutes 23 seconds
    Episode 385: Is ‘Urban Supremacy’ Killing New York City?

    She’s joined for this one by author Joel Kotkin, the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and director of its Center for Demographics and Policy as well as senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin.

    He’s been asking the same question for decades, highlighting Americans’ demonstrated preference for suburban life and the waning of “urban supremacy.” The two dig into New York City at the latest of its many historic crossroads, at a moment when the high cost and scarcity of housing mask troubling signs of decline and a need for grassroots renewal.

    23 November 2024, 8:00 pm
  • 31 minutes 34 seconds
    Episode 384: The Mayor Meets the Donald at the Fights

    Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul have been tight to this point but the two centrist Democratic executives seem to be taking different approaches to dealing publicly and perhaps also privately with Donald Trump, who the mayor just hung out with at the UFC title fight at Madison Square Garden.

    FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel talk about that and much more, including the evidently widening space between the electorate and the people they’ve elected in New York.

    18 November 2024, 11:00 pm
  • 33 minutes 26 seconds
    Episode 383: New York Leaders Are Scrambling to Respond to Trump’s Foreseeable Win

    It wasn’t a secret that Trump could be president again, or that his plans — starting with a mass deportation push — would have a huge impact on our New York City. So what are there so few specifics about what City Hall and others plan to do in response?

    FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Harry Siegel and Katie Honan discuss that, park fires, Weiner’s return talk and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City .

    11 November 2024, 9:00 pm
  • 56 minutes 57 seconds
    Episode 382: Blood in the Water

    Guest Ben Max joins hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel to start sifting through what Donald Trump’s win and Republican gains in the city mean for New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams and next year’s elections here as there's red all across the deep blue city. .

    They also discuss the stages of mourning, a grandma’s advice, the difference between a socialist and a dentist and much more.

    7 November 2024, 12:00 am
  • 31 minutes 48 seconds
    Episode 381: Two Cops, One Photo

    In the calm just before the election-day storm, hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss the screaming match at the Marathon, reportedly over a photo op, between the police commissioner and his newly appointed chief of staff still doing double duty as the department's (reporter loathing) press secretary..

    They also talk about subway surfing and the NYPD's ongoing efforts to use drones to try and stop that, handing out beers to marathon runners, and much more.

    4 November 2024, 11:00 pm
  • 25 minutes 51 seconds
    Episode 380: Adams and Trump Are Singing from the Same Hymnbook

    Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss Trump's last days rally in his old Manhattan stomping grounds, and the mayor's defense of the president and the president's public praise of the mayor that's  sure to re-circulate in 20025 ads from the Democrats running to replace him.

    They also discuss the NYPD's usual suspects who still seem to be the public face of the department rather than the interim commissioner who vowed the police would be speaking with one voice now, the rapper who turned down the key to the city, and much more.

    28 October 2024, 9:00 pm
  • More Episodes? Get the App
© MoonFM 2024. All rights reserved.