FAQ NYC

For the first time, New York City’s sitting mayor is now a criminal defendant — one who says the 57-page case against him is a pack of “lies” and that the federal government and the city’s permanent powers are trying to bring him down for doing right by New Yorkers. In an “emergency” episode marking this historical moment, Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel dig into the case against the mayor, his public defense, where the city looks to be going from here, how the example of Donald Trump looms over all of this, and much more.

Venture capitalist and political strategist Bradley Tusk joins hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel to discuss his new book, Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Saving Democracy, proposing a tech solution to the seemingly intractable problem of low-turnout local elections leading to ever-more radical politics. And Tusk, who’s a supporter of the podcast, digs into the mess Eric Adams has made for himself, and how the mayor could still dig his away out of it. That starts, he says, with not getting indicted — and then defining himself as a mayor who's produced for New Yorkers while boxing in his challengers to compete for the progressive share of the primary vote in a citywide contest that includes many more moderate Democrats.

The hits keep coming as Eric Adams' chief counsel walked away, effective immediately, on Saturday night, an associate director of a mayor's office got fired after he allegedly told a business member to pay off the former police commissioner's brother, two former FDNY chiefs just got charged with corruption, another Democrat launched a run again the mayor and a Republican announced his plan to run if Adams can'f finish his term. Hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel talk about all that, and how the mayor on Monday tried to turn the page and reassert his narrative about grinding away and getting stuff done on the issues New Yorkers care about, explaining that "I want to write my own story—and this story is how great we have done.”

The FBI raided the homes of Eric Adams' closest allies last week in what look to be two new federal investigations of the mayor and his inner circle altogether, making four . This isn't normal and it isn't good, but the mayor — comparing himself to the biblical character Job — says he's done nothing wrong, stands by his police commissioner who just his phones seized, and is going to stay focused and keep grinding on behalf of New Yorkers. Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss all of the "gossip and hearsay" inside and outside of City Hall, and much more — including the cautious responses so far from the Democrats aiming to challenge Adams in next year's primary, which looks to be the first competitive one against a sitting mayor since David Dinkins upset Ed Koch in 1989, and the question of "why would Eric Adams say anything," when "shutting up is free."

Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel dig into the mayor’s insistence on seeing through the nomination of a chief lawyer for the city even after lawmakers made it clear they wouldn’t approve his nominee. They also discuss what a second Trump administration would mean for New York, the possibility of a strong challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul from within the Democratic party, what's wrong with journalists who "discover" news after reading about it in other people’s reporting, and much more.

Hosts Christina Greer and Katie Honan discuss Mayor Eric Adams’ low profile at the DNC in Chicago, the so-called Central Park Five’s powerful appearance there, and why it’s good that Beryoncé didn’t show up after all. They also dig into the city’s surge in COVID cases, the latest death of a detainee at Rikers and, speaking of Central Park, RFK Jr.’s bizarre shaggy bear story.

Hosts Katie and Harry discuss the federal investigations into Mayor Eric Adams, at least of one which appears to headed to either charges or its end soon, and why those matter even if "ordinary" New Yorkers mostly don't care. They also dig into the NYC subplots of this week's Democratic Convention in the Second City, George Santos' guilty plea, stranded air travelers, weekend beach closures, what to expect from protesters in the Fall, and more.

In the debut episode of Lit NYC, the FAQ NYC Podcast Network's off-cycle show covering books, art, music and more, you'll be hearing from Ross Perlin, author of the brilliant Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues, and co-director of the Endangered Languages Alliance. He sat down at the Alliance's office in Manhattan to talk with Haidee Chu, Queens reporter for The City and a native Cantonese speaker, and monolingual Harry Siegel, to discuss his work mapping the languages spoken here in what may be the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the world, why our melting pot is also a threat to some of those languages, and much more.

The New Yorkest podcast takes a minute to shout out the New Yorker article about us, and the mayor, and then to fill listeners on the upcoming LIT NYC, which will be the new home of arts, books, culture, music and more coverage while FAQ NYC sticks to politics. After that, hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry get down to business, talking about another bizarre week of bad headlines about Mayor Eric Adams' friends in the NYPD brass, including Yaov Gonan's latest report in The City about the commissioner who still counts as a cop when it comes to carrying a gun but not when it comes to being subject to civilian oversight, why most New Yorkers don't care about any of that, and much more.

The public advocate joins FAQ NYC for an extended interview about how "the law-and-order mayor chooses not to follow the laws that are passed," the very different conversations he used to have with Borough President Eric Adams, the merits of ranked-choice voting and much more. That includes Williams’ view of why “if anybody had a mandate, it wasn't him. It was the rest of us” who were elected at the same time “with a very different vision of public safety.”