FAQ NYC

In our second episode, the hosts debrief about Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to drop his re-election bid. New York Attorney General Tish James also joins us to talk about the cases she and Donald Trump have brought against one another, and her support of Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani. FAQ NYC and Max Politics are teaming up for a limited series, coming to you every Tuesday through November, featuring special guests who will help us dig into the latest in the mayor's race – and what's at stake for New Yorkers. City Hall Free For All is brought to you with generous support from Jamie Rubin and Vital City. This week's episode was hosted by Christina Greer, Katie Honan, Ben Max and Harry Siegel. Our Senior Producer is Giulia Hjort, and Noah Smith is our engineer. Our series consultants are Jess Hackel and Courtney Harrell. Music from Epidemic Sound.

"The tabs were this incredibly paradoxical force in New York during these years. On the one hand, they were totally polarizing, turning the world into into heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys — like comic books for adults. On the other hand, everyone is reading the Post and the News and Newsday, and they were unifying all of New York around these storylines." Jonathan Mahler joins LIT NYC hosts Harry Siegel and Amy Sohn to discuss his new "The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990."

In our debut episode, Public Advocate Jumanne Williams joins us to talk about his arrest outside of 26 Federal Plaza, what the mayor and other elected officials can and should be doing in response to President Trump's threats, and why Williams thinks it's time for New York Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs to step down. FAQ NYC and Max Politics are teaming up for a limited series, coming at you every Tuesday through November, featuring special guests who will help us dig into the latest in the mayor's race – and what's at stake for New Yorkers. City Hall Free For All is brought to you with generous support from Jamie Rubin, Vital City, the Charles H. Revson Foundation and P&T Knitwear. This week's episode was hosted by Harry Siegel, Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Ben Max. Our Senior Producer is Giulia Hjort, and Noah Smith is our engineer. Our series consultants are Jess Hackel and Courtney Harrell. Music from Epidemic Sound.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro, the author of "The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon," joins Harry Siegel and Amy Sohn to dig into what they don't tell you in the children's books about the life and death of the world's most famous female flier.

While Eric Adams says Andrew Cuomo is spreading fake rumors that he’s out, even Donald Trump seems resigned to the idea that Zorhan Mamdani will be New York City’s next mayor — and is threatening to punish the city and the state now that Gov. Kathy Hocul has endorsed the Democratic nominee. The FAQ NYC hosts discuss all that and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City.

The incumbent mayor polling in the single digits regained the spotlight after Labor Day as he insisted he was running to somehow win a second term, not auditioning for a job as the Trump administration's new ambassador to Saudi Arabia. But even then, he seemed at least as concerned with dragging down Andrew Cuomo as he did in lifting himself up. The hosts run down all that and more more from a week so wild that the thing where the Adams campaign invited Muslim leaders to City Hall to celebrate the Prophet Muhammed's birthday, but told the press that it was a mayoral endorsement event, hardly got noticed.

As summer wraps up, the political landscape in New York City heats up with Jerrold Nadler's Congressional departure signaling a call for generational change. The mayoral race intensifies as Zohran Mamdani pulls ahead, bringing focus to urgent issues like public safety and affordable housing. Campaign strategies are being shaped by small dollar donations, showcasing a divide in voter engagement. Meanwhile, potential changes in NYPD leadership loom as discussions swirl around law enforcement challenges. The buzz isn't just political; cinematic risks are also on the table as Spike Lee's latest film gets mixed reviews.

Just two lawyers have remained inside 26 Federal Plaza every day as it’s become the epicenter of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda in New York City, with “large masked men with guns” stationed outside of courtrooms to drag away people showing up for civil hearings. Allison Cutler and Benjamin Remy of the New York Legal Assistant Group’s Immigrant Protection Unit talk with Harry Siegel about what what’s different now than in Trump’s first term as he’s now targeting institutions as much as individuals, what they’ve witnessed inside the courthouse building in Lower Manhattan — and why those scenes are coming soon to a street near you.

Katie Honan never wants to be the story and is "tired of telling the story" but she recaps and reflects on a very weird week, why she's "filled with sadness about Winnie," and the film-noir feeling of getting left, quite literally, holding the bag full of crumbled chips and $300:

It's an Off Cycle episode, with photographer Stanley Greenberg sitting down with Harry Siegel and guest host Lizzie Walsh to talk about the epic new Waterworks: The Hidden Water System of New York. He discusses how the DEP tried to stop his first edition of Waterworks from being published after 9/11, how COVID helped lead him to create a totally new second edition, and much more.