The Bowery Boys: New York City History
For the end of the year, we’re going to try a new experiment — a year-end question show, where we ‘unplug’ for a bit and answer reader’s mail. Give you a true behind-the-scenes of how we produce the show and what our personal thoughts are about New York City and history in general. This is… Read More
Thanks for voting! The poll is now closed. We’re off to turn your opinions into future Bowery Boys podcasts. Top results: More neighborhood-centric history, true crime and law enforcement, and shows on early history. Previously: We’ve got our podcasts planned out for the next few months, but we need your help in determining the types… Read More
Seven years ago this evening, Tom and I recorded the first Bowery Boys podcast. The topic was Canal Street and Collect Pond, a subject we re-recorded for our 50th episode. Maybe, one day, we’ll let you all hear that original show! It was very bad, but it does linger on a laptop somewhere, and there… Read More
The Bowery Boys are now on the photo-sharing service Instagram, traipsing through the city streets in search of quirky places and historic oddities. Follow up as we wander through all five boroughs this spring and summer, looking for surprising and stunning details hidden among the city’s avenues, parks and coastlines. If you have an account, just… Read More
Looking up Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, 1910. This is the corner with the gigantic glass H&M Store on it today. (Cleaned up photograph courtesy Shorpy) Over the past couple months, Tom and I have been guests on other people’s podcasts, talking a lot about what it takes to build a podcast (and talking a… Read More
Are you a new listener to the Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast? Here are some answers to a few questions you might have: Where can you listen to the Bowery Boys? You can download us through traditional podcast aggregators like iTunes or you can stream our shows directly from such services as Stitcher,… Read More
Here’s a recap of all the Bowery Boys podcasts from 2013 — from the most shocking art show of all time to the weirdest mayoral election in history, from the corridors of New York’s scariest psychiatric ward to the altar of the city’s most transformed church. From colonial America to Sesame Street, through several feet… Read More
Our designer is the exceptionally talented Thomas Cabus. You can take a look at some of his other work — including the design of the award-winning Circle of 6 app — at this link.
Frank and Al Capone, with Nelson Van Alden (played by Michael Shannon), at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero, although I suspect this was actually filmed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. (Courtesy HBO)BOARDWALK EMPIRE: I’ve been up to my regular Sunday Tweet-alongs with historical-based television shows, this time around following the newest season of Boardwalk… Read More
Street life at Oak Street and New Chambers Street, 1935. This is in today’s neighborhood of Two Bridges. Neither of these streets exist today, swept away by grand housing projects. Sepiatown has the approximate location of where this photograph was taken. (Pic by Berenice Abbott, courtesy NYPL) The nominations for the 2013 Podcast Awards are… Read More
Six years ago today, Tom and I sat down to record our first episode of what would become The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast. We’ve recorded 152 episodes over that time, covering a broad spectrum of the city’s history. Here’s the intros from every single one of those shows (with a couple exceptions).… Read More
Above: The new Superman movie might be great, who knows? But it doesn’t have Linda Lavin in it, like the 1966 Broadway musical ‘It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman’ which played at the Alvin Theatre (today’s Neil Simon Theatre). Encores! recently did a revival of this forgotten musical gem earlier this year. We… Read More
This Monday, April 1st, in support of Lit Crawl NYC, I’ll be appearing at the literature event ‘Geek Love‘ at The powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn. I’ve done a reading with Lit Crawl NYC in the past, and it’s a terrific (and intense) way to enjoy local literary stars under the guise of visiting a… Read More
Thanks to the profile on the Bowery Boys podcast which ran on NPR:Morning Edition a couple weeks ago, we’ve seen a lot of new listeners to the show. Welcome aboard! We’re grateful to have you join this amazing community of history lovers interested in the story of New York City. If you’ve just discovered the… Read More
The Bowery Boys were featured in a profile this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition! You can give the segment a listen here. You can also download the segment from that site. Our sincere thanks to NPR and to Caitlin Dickerson for featuring us on the show. If you’re interested in any of the particular episodes… Read More