Our Hamptons

While Esperanza and Irwin both share their personal connections to the Art Barge, this extraordinary story speaks for itself. While Victor and Mabel's lives were devoted to Art, they couldn't have been more different. Victor was one of 11 children of Italian immigrants, Mabel an only child descending from the original settlers of our country. Victor created the education department at MOMA, while Mabel was the Art Department Chair at Rye High School. But it's their arrival to remote Lazy Point, Amagansett in the 1940's, and tugging a decommissioned naval vessel from Jersey City to the shores of Napeague Bay remains a source of wonder to this day.

Esperanza and Irwin go back to a far quieter Springs, September 1970. George Sid Miller's farm field became the launch site for a dream — and the scene of a tragedy. Three young adventurers set off in the Free Life, a hot air balloon bound for Europe, in a daring attempt to cross the Atlantic. But the balloon and its passengers vanished without a trace, leaving behind a mystery that still haunts the community today.In this episode, we explore how the Free Life launch shook the close-knit Springs neighborhood that embraced it as its own, and the lingering questions asked for over 50 years. What drove the crew to take such a risk? And how did this brief moment in aviation history leave such a lasting impression. A story of youth, ambition, community, and loss — told from where it all began.

In this special episode, we sit down with Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger to revisit his seminal 1983 New York Times article, "The Strangling of a Resort." Over four decades later, we explore how his observations about overdevelopment, zoning failures, and the clash between preservation and profit still echo through the East End today. What has changed? What hasn't? And what does the future hold?Join us as we reflect on the past, examine the present, and consider what it will take to preserve the character of eastern Long Island in the face of relentless growth.

Esperanza and Irwin discuss all things Yard Sale with Sheril Antonio. Sheril's professional career as Senior Associate Dean and Professor at Tisch School of Arts at NYU speaks volumes, but on a different platform. In the early 2000's, Sheril and Irwin were a yard sale couple, spending countless Saturday mornings traveling the back roads from Southampton to Montauk. The journeys may have started as a quest for objects, but the story line quickly changed. It became less about the object, more about the stories, the culture, the people. Most of all, the indelible memories that remain.

Discover the fascinating world of Ben Heller, a pivotal figure in abstract expressionism who passionately collected art when it was largely overlooked. His unyielding commitment to the artists shaped the New York art scene and redefined collecting as a heartfelt journey rather than mere investment. Hear personal stories and emotional connections with pieces like Jackson Pollock's work. Reflect on how events like the sale of 'Blue Poles' transformed art valuation, blurring the lines between passion and commerce in an evolving market.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome author Mark Torres, author of Long Island Migrant Camps: Dust for Blood. Mark's background as a labor lawyer helps us dig deep into a shameful, and not well known recent history. There were numerous labor camps on eastern Long Island to house workers for the numerous farms of eastern Long Island, on both the North and South Forks. The 29 camps in 1951 grew to 134 by 1958. Riverhead to Greenport was nicknamed"Migrant Alley". Living conditions were dismal, mistreatment rampant, with clear racial undertones. Mark shares these unsettling stories from his research. We'll bring it into the present day, and how the service workers of today are often living in overcrowded conditions, or in the woods.

Esperanza and Irwin delve into the Prohibition Era, 1920 to 1933. There apparently were lots of hands in the till, making money from Prohibition on Long Island, or Liquor Island, as one prominent minister was quoted as saying. Carl Fisher, who's Island Club on Montauk's Star Island was the most glamorous speakeasy of its time, with patrons like Ernest Hemingway and NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker. Arthur Benson, where $250,000 worth of alcohol, a staggering amount in 1925, was confiscated from his 4000 acre estate. But it was the fishermen and baymen involved as well, eluding not just the authorities like the Coast Guard, but pirates and mobsters, like Al Capone, while transporting alcohol throughout Long Island and into NYC. With further involvement from Temperance Societies in the early 19th century, to the KKK's support of prohibition in an effort to appear patriotic, we were amazed at all the story lines that converge in this podcast. Listening is Believing.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Mary Foster Morgan. The Sherrills and Parsons are two of the East End’s oldest families, here for generations. Mary shares her Grandmother Sherrill’s stories of the two Sherrill houses. One, opposite the Dominy workshop on North Main, the second on Main Street, East Hampton Village. Mary grew fascinated by who lived in these historic homes, and tells us of old East Hampton values that resonate to this day.

Esperanza and Irwin discuss the trajectory of the Hampton Classic over the years. It's origins started as the annual Horse Show in Southampton in the early 1900's, overlooking Lake Agawam. It flourished to the point of some horse enthusiasts forming the Southampton Riding and Hunt Club in 1922. The depression created a long hiatus for the show until the early 1950's, and its rebirth as a fundraiser for the Parrish Museum. In the 1970's it moved to Dune Alpin Farm in East Hampton for a bit, and has been at its current Bridgehampton location since 1982. Its expansion into one of the premier events of its kind in the world, mirroring the ever rising profile of eastern Long Island.

Esperanza and Irwin didn't intend for this podcast to go 59 minutes, our longest episode to date. Jerry Torre's fascinating story, as a teenager in his friend Billy's Lazy Point fishing cottage, to his work on the Geddes estate on Lily Pond Lane is riveting. But his years living and working for the Beales at Grey Gardens, his involvement in the Maysles documentary and his personal recollections is at the the heart of this special podcast.