Episode 470: The Mayor Mamdani Interview: ‘Is It Right To Hope?’

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.

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 abolishing the NYPD's gang database, his message to Jewish New Yorkers who haven't been convinced by his messaging so far, and much more. This episode was engineered by Giulia Hjort.

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 Adams. This episode was produced by Noah Smith.

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.

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, which of his zen koans about those spaces have stood the test of time in a technologically transformed world, and much more. This episode was produced by Amy Sohn, and engineered by Noah Smith.

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.

“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, don't your people got none of your own music?’… That sent me scuttling back to Brooklyn to begin the same kind of research that I had done for hillbilly music.” Henry H. Sapoznik, the author of the Tourist’s Guide To Lost Yiddish New York City and a Grammy-nominated musician and producer, sits down with Lit Nyc hosts Harry Siegel and and Amy Sohn for a wide-ranging conversation about assimilation and adaptability, the difference between faux music and folk music, the overlaps between kosher, halal and Chinese foods, and much more. This episode was produced by Amy Sohn and Noah Smith, and engineered by Noah Smith.

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.

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 encampment sweeps. Episode hosted by Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel, and engineered by Noah Smith.

“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 LIT NYC hosts Harry Siegel and Amy Sohn to talk about schemes and dreams, the thousand-dollar bet he lost to  a Fugee but hasn’t paid, the guys who climbed telephone poles when Williamsburg was wild, and much more. This episode was produced by Amy Sohn, and engineered by Noah Smith.