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.
Episodes
January 12, 2026 • 29 mins
Not even two weeks into the big job, Zohran Mamdani and his team are up and running — yet still struggling to get their footing.
Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel dig into that and much more, including the new mayor's responses to pro-Hamas chants in Queens, and to two fatal police shootings in the same day.
This episode was engineered by Noah Smith.
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January 9, 2026 • 50 mins
An iconic restaurant in Fulton Mall became an Arby's, before it was revived amid the pandemic.
St. John Frizell, one of the stewards of Gage and Tollner joins Lit NYC hosts Amy Sohn and Harry Siegel to talk about the craft of the cocktail, the business of Brooklyn, the nature of the great good place, and much more.
This episode was produced by Amy and Harry, and engineered by Noah Smith.
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January 8, 2026 • 15 mins
Way back in March of 2025, when Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani was at one percent in the Democratic primary polls, he promised THE CITY's FAQ NYC his very first sit-down interview as mayor.
On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Mamdani made good on that promise, sitting down with hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel for a wide-ranging conversation that covered the ICE murder in Minneapolis and "a year of cruelty," his softening stance on...
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January 5, 2026 • 37 mins
Back when he was a longshot Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani said on this podcast that it would be his first interview as mayor — we're still here and with lots of questions to ask.
Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss that and much more, including his inspiring inauguration and how longtime Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is already finding his voice and stride as a partner to this mayor instead of a foil to Eric...
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December 29, 2025 • 30 mins
As the mayor elect races to get ready for a big show and the big job, Eric Adams has been awfully busy in his final few days in office. Christina Greer and Harry Siegel discuss all that and much more — including then longshot Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani's public promise way back when to give our podcast his first interview as mayor.
This episode was engineered by Noah Smith.
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December 28, 2025 • 50 mins
In 1980, a movie narrated by a sociologist once described as Jimmy Stewart’s urban planner cousin, and full of surveillance footage of the city's public spaces, delivered perhaps the richest and wisest look ever made at how New Yorkers use the city's public spaces.
Municipal Art Society president Keri Butler joins LIT NYC hosts Harry Siegel and Amy Sohn to discuss William H. Whyte's brilliant The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces...
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December 22, 2025 • 40 mins
Zohran Mamdani has promised to have 1 percent of the city budget go to the Parks Department — but so did Eric Adams, who never came close to delivering. Three experts and advocates discuss all that and more with host Katie Honan.
Plus, Katie and Harry Siegel talk about all the latest developments from another wild week, and with just over a week to go before a new adminsitration takes power.
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December 19, 2025 • 66 mins
“In my quest to be more American than Americans, I wanted to know more than American music [and in 1972] I was staying with a great fiddle player and banjo player in North Carolina named Tommy Jarrell and he was puzzled, because a lot of the people who had come from up north to study with him were Jews and Italians — people for whom this was not their continuity. Tommy was a very inquisitive guy and at one point he asked me, ‘Hank,...
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December 15, 2025 • 25 mins
The FAQ NYC hosts discuss terror fears here, a slow transition and a marathon listening session for Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, a time capsule for outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, and much more — including a man dressed as a hamburger with some serious small business concerns.
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December 8, 2025 • 26 mins
Amid the silly season of transition speculation, New Yorkers are waiting to see how Zohran Mamdani, a brilliant messenger, handles the levers of power and who else he's bringing inside of City Hall to help him run the huge machine.
While those staffing decisions are playing out, slowly and behind closed doors, the outgoing administration is taking some swipes at Mamdani, including about the mayor elect's pledge to end homeless enc...
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December 5, 2025 • 46 mins
“I bought myself an electric bike to take my kids to the beach and started charging it outside after seeing stats on how many battery fires there were. I looked at other countries that are doing battery-swap networks and I said, ‘We should do this in New York… My plan, if I can be this ambitious, is to build a city-wide battery-swap network everybody can use."
Ineffable and inimitable gadfly and entrepreneur Baruch Herzfeld joins ...
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December 1, 2025 • 22 mins
It turns out that the count of our mayors has been off by one, dating back to when the city had a population of just 2,500 — meaning the mayor-elect will be New York’s 112th mayor, though still the 111th person to serve.
FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss that breaking 17th Century news, as reported by Eliabeth Kim at Gothamist, and much more, including Julie Menin’s early Speaker win and the World...
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November 24, 2025 • 57 mins
Are theater kids Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump having a bromance now, and did Jessica Tisch help bring them together? Is anyone not running for Congress? The FAQ NYC hosts discuss all that and much more before having an in-depth conversation with Crystal Hudson, the Brooklyn City Councilmember who’s one of the leading candidates to be the body’s next speaker in the first of a series of interviews with the contenders .
This episod...
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November 17, 2025 • 26 mins
Is anyone in this town not running for Congress? Is it time for Democrats to finally usher an older generation out of Washington, and is there a way to build a party whose representatives are better distributed in terms of age, identity and geographic distribution? Is it time to finally feel hopeful about New York City's future? All that and more gets mulled over by hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel.
This episode was engineer...
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November 15, 2025 • 48 mins
Michael Rohatyn and Peter Yost, the creators of the acclaimed new documentary about Gotham’s close brush with bankruptcy in 1975, Drop Dead City, discuss the film, the city that was, how its near collapse led to the city of today, and how Michael’s father Felix helped pulled it back from the brink with Big MAC, or the Municipal Assistance Corporation.
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November 10, 2025 • 27 mins
With the mayor's race decided and 2026 election moves just beginning, the FAQ NYC hosts talk about the Council Speaker's race that drew lots of attention at Somos, where Gov. Kathy Hochul got hit with another chant of "tax the rich!"
There are only 51 votes that count in a closed-door campaign where the narrative question is whether the Council wants to speed up, or slow down, a Mayor Mamdani and his agenda next year. It’s a conte...
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November 7, 2025 • 51 mins
In our final episode of City Hall Free For All, we talk about the future of New York City under Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani and who he will surround himself with to help him accomplish his vision. We’re also joined by Patrick Gaspard, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, former key Obama aide and now key advisor to Mamdani, to talk about this historic moment.
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FAQ NYC and Max Politics are teaming up for a limited seri...
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November 5, 2025 • 47 mins
Ben Fractenberg, visuals editor for THE CITY, joins LIT NYC hosts Harry Siegel and Amy Sohn for a wide-ranging conversation about street photography, photo journalism and much more.The interview comes just before the opening reception for Ben’s solo show, In Tension, this Friday evening from 6-9 at Gallery 198, at 198 24th St. in Brooklyn, with his work then on display there through November.
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November 5, 2025 • 35 mins
The Election Night results are in: Zohran Mamdani will be New York City’s 111th Mayor. Our hosts react to Mamdani’s big win over Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, with over 1 million votes out of more than 2 million cast, and discuss his rousing, defiant victory speech and what comes next.
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FAQ NYC and Max Politics are teaming up for a limited series, coming to you every Tuesday through November, featuring special guests who will hel...
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November 1, 2025 • 33 mins
Alex Brook Lynn, FAQ NYC's original executive producer, rejoins the podcast to talk with Harry Siegel about New York City's election, and how and why Paris — which has all the same big urban issues — has taken a different approach to providing things like affordable housing for working class people, childcare, and more.
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