The Jiffy: Stories From Upstate New York

The Jiffy: Stories From Upstate New York

A documentary audio zine about upstate New York, with host James Cave as your bumbling Virgil. So far, The Jiffy has taken you to Pinksterfest in Kinderhook, vintage base ball games in Kingston, the elephant-filled corner office of the Ulster County Clerk, a forest of quaking trees in the Catskills, and up into the clock tower in Chatham – it's a show about New York's non-Manhattan regions, forever in search of the Kinderhook Blob.

Episodes

August 30, 2026 12 mins
I took a boat ride out to the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse to catch up with my friend Rodney Russo. Rodney volunteers with the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society to provide history and information to touring visitors. His station is at the top o...
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Over at The Jiffy Newsletter, I've been working on a series that looks at the culture and industry of the local cinema scene here in the Hudson Valley. I'm calling it "The Jiffy's Summer At The Movies." In part one, I interviewed Mike Burdge and Diana ...
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August 2, 2026 35 mins
It's part two in this year's Jiffy CSA (A Content Series on Agriculture).And we're at Hawthorne Valley farm in Ghent, New York, on a day that experienced an "Emergency Heat Warning" declaration from the National Weather Service.
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July 19, 2026 24 mins
Every year, cows across the Hudson Valley skip, prance, spin, and leap into grassy pastures for the first time of the season. At Hawthorne Valley in Ghent, New York, this event is a rite of spring. To kick off my annual CSA series (A Content Series on ...
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July 5, 2026 12 mins
Independence Day in America, the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. I spent the morning riverside at Umpachene Falls with my friend Monique Tyndall. Moniqe (Lynx Clan [maternal], Citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band...
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June 21, 2026 11 mins
While producing an upcoming series on agriculture, I'm sharing this special episode featuring local news and gossip from the Rough Notes newspaper of the 1800s, available through the New York State Newspapers Archive. I'll be back to normal programming...
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June 7, 2026 18 mins
While I produce the next batch of new episodes for the feed, I want to re-share a previous episode that's become a listener favorite. It's a trip to the ball field for the season-ender, double-header vintage base ball game between the Kingston Guards a...
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This is part three of my three-part series on Frederic Church, on the life and legacies of Church, Thomas Cole, and the Hudson River School. Betsy Jacks spent 21 years as executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New Yor...
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This is part two of my three-part series on Frederic Church, recorded on the grounds of Olana on the occasion of his 200th birthday. Victoria Johnson spent six years writing "Glorious Country: How The Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America...
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This year marks the 200th birthday of Frederic Church, the Hudson River School painter whose mountaintop home, Olana, helped shape how Americans imagined upstate New York. To kick off a three-part series for Frederic Church 200, James starts where Chur...
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April 12, 2026 47 mins
In this first episode of season two (!!) I'm taking an overdue look the concept of an "upstate" New York. What is it? Where is it? Can I go to it? And who is it for? We start at Ward's Point, the southernmost point in New York, and look northward, and ...
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February 15, 2026 16 mins
The podcast is still on a bit of a hiatus while I produce "Little Pod" ( https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/little-pod/id1872097328 ) (a limited series with Olivia Muenter). I'll be back with new episodes here soon, but in the meantime, I'm re-shari...
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January 18, 2026 55 mins
Mother Ann Lee is one of the most consequential (and least understood) figures in early American religious history. In just ten years in the colonies, during the chaos of the American Revolution, she helped give rise to a movement that would shape comm...
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January 4, 2026 22 mins
In the first episode of the New Year, we get as close to the concept of time as possible: by climbing into Chatham’s 1872 clock tower with village timekeeper Stephen Piazza. Here are some things we learned: It's very steep to the top and hard to do wit...
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Send a text Dylan Tupper Rupert joins the show today in my first-ever feed drop to take us on a ride-along with her podcast "Music Person!" It's the first part in a three-part series for her show, dedicated to mapping out how the Hudson Valley’s histor...
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December 7, 2025 12 mins
Send a text While on a holiday break in December, I'm sharing this special episode featuring local news and gossip from the Rhinebeck Gazette of the 1800s, available through the Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers Archive. I'll be back t...
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November 23, 2025 44 mins
Send a text What is the job of a County Clerk? In Ulster County, it can mean managing DMV processes, preserving 300-year-old land records, and keeping the legal paper trail of everyday life in order. But earlier this year, that job landed one local off...
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November 9, 2025 22 mins
Send a text Sometimes things get too stressful here at The Jiffy, a podcast about upstate New York that really takes you places. And when this happens, I lace up my hiking boots and guide you on a restful Sleep Hike, where I do the hiking, while you do...
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October 26, 2025 17 mins
Send a text It’s a brisk October afternoon in Kingston, New York, for the final game of the Vintage Base Ball 2025 season between the Kingston Guards and the Ulster Nine. We're at Herzog Field, beside the Catskill Mountain Railroad Station and the Hann...
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October 12, 2025 16 mins
Send a text It’s peak leaf peeping season, and I'm bringing this episode to you from The Leaf Watch Desk deep in the Woods of the James Cave Instagram Feed. This year’s official Leaf Watch Leaf, as voted by listeners, is the Northern Red Oak, and it’s ...
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