The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Seventeen years ago (officially on June 19, 2007) we recorded the very first Bowery Boys podcast, appropriately about Canal Street, the street just outside the window of Tom’s apartment on the Lower East Side. That’s right! If our podcast were a person, it would be preparing to graduate from high school next year. (For more information,… Read More
The epic journey begins! The Bowery Boys Podcast heads to old Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to find traces of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement which became New York. We begin our journey at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station and spend the day wandering the streets and canals, peeling back the centuries in search of New… Read More
The Bowery Boys Podcast is headed to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for a very special mini-series, marking the 400th anniversary of the Dutch first settling in North America in the region that today we call New York City. But before they go, they’re kicking off their international voyage with a special conversation… Read More
Announcing an epic new Bowery Boys podcast mini-series — The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands. Exploring the connections between New York City and that fascinating European country, in honor of the 400th anniversary of the first Dutch settlement in this region. LISTEN TO A SNEAK PREVIEW HERE: Simply put, you don’t get New York… Read More
Consider the following show an acknowledgment – of people. For the foundations of 400 years of New York City history were built upon the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape, the tribal stewards of a vast natural area stretching from eastern Pennsylvania to western Long Island. The Lenape were among the first in northeast North America to… Read More
Tom and Greg are out on the road again — and this time, they need their passports. The Bowery Boys are currently recording material for an EPIC new mini-series which will begin arriving to your podcast feeds in June. To get the details now and to follow their adventures, become a supporter on Patreon at… Read More
The New York City subway system turns 120 years old later this year so we thought we’d honor the world’s longest subway system with a supersized overview history — from the first renegade ride in 1904 to the belated (but sorely welcomed) opening of one portion of the Second Avenue Subway in 2017. New Yorkers… Read More
The story of a filthy and dangerous train ditch that became one of the swankiest addresses in the world — Park Avenue. For over 100 years, a Park Avenue address meant wealth, glamour and the high life. The Fred Astaire version of the Irving Berlin classic “Puttin’ on the Ritz” revised the lyrics to pay… Read More
Few areas of the United States have as endured as long as Flushing, Queens, a neighborhood with almost over 375 years of history and an evolving cultural landscape that includes Quakers, trees, Hollywood films, world fairs, and Asian immigrants. In this special on-location episode of the Bowery Boys, Greg and special guest Kieran Gannon explore… Read More
New York has never suffered severely from the effects of an earthquake. Most recently, the one felt in 2011— reportedly of 5.8 or 5.9 magnitude, centered around Virginia and affecting many Northeast metropolitan areas — ranks quite high on the list of tremors felt here. There’s no way to compare that local event to the really early quakes, as the Richter… Read More
Fashion historian and author, Dr. Elizabeth L. Block returns to The Gilded Gentleman podcast for a truly “undercover” investigation. This time, Liz joins Carl to take a look at the world of corsets, bustles, straps and stockings all of which comprised the undergarment engineering to make the glorious gowns by Worth and other designers appear as glamorous as they did. … Read More
James L. Swanson’s gripping history Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer was one of the key books which inspired the Bowery Boys podcast in 2007. The book was released the previous year, in 2006, and it has taken this long to finally get a screen adaptation — Manhunt on Apple TV+. The streamer seems… Read More
Tom visits the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side to walk through the reconstructed two-room apartment of an African-American couple, Joseph and Rachel Moore, who lived in 1870 on Laurens Street in today’s Soho neighborhood. Both Joseph and Rachel moved to New York when they were about 20 years old, in the late 1840s… Read More
Today marks the 113th anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire. For information on commemorations and other activities, visit Remember the Triangle Coalition. For stories of the struggles faced by employees of the shirtwaist industry, check out our 2020 show on the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909: And for more information on the Triangle Factory Fire itself,… Read More
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is a perfect novel to read in the spring — maybe it’s all the flowers — so we are presenting to Bowery Boys listeners this marvelous literary-themed episode from the Gilded Gentleman. The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s most famous novel, an enduring classic of Old New York… Read More