by Bruce
In 2017 I had a chance to serve as a guest host on the excellent Ottoman History Podcast alongside Sam Dolbee. While their normal focus is in the former Ottoman lands of the Near East, Sam and I explored the connections the Ottomans and their history had to New York City. In the episode I take Sam all over the city from a walk-up … Read More Ottoman New York
by Bruce
Quick note: If you’d like to receive a monthly newsletter with my newest writing, NYC history book and podcast reviews, and current recommendations for my favorite things happening in the city you can sign up here. You will also instantly receive a pdf of my four-step guide to visiting NYC – it includes this key piece of advice below! I’ve been writing about how … Read More Visit New York – Eat Tiny Ancient Gods
by Bruce
In this episode we are going in search of the execution ground of one of George Washington’s personal guards—Thomas Hickey—tried, convicted and executed for mutiny and sedition just one day before the King’s Army’s flotilla arrived in New York City to put down the rebellion of the colonies once and for all in June of 1776. Come join us through the iTunes podcast … Read More Ep 12 – A Hanging on the Lower East Side – Betrayal in the Rebel Ranks
by Bruce
If you have been following this loose “guide” to visiting New York, you already know how to avoid Museum Headache and to Ride the Subway. Now you have earned a third piece of wisdom about traveling to New York and how to honor its four centuries of history: go get a drink. It may not be obvious, but New York City loves its history. … Read More Live New York History: Get a Drink
by Bruce
Ride the subway. The New York subway system is unforgivable. This ancient warren of tunnels, bridges, and elevated rails has not aged well over the last one hundred years. As you descend to the depths of the New York subway all kinds of smells—human, animal and chemical—assault the senses. Screeching train wheels, synthesizers of subway musicians turned up to 10, incomprehensible intercom announcements, and irate … Read More Ride the Subway
by Bruce
In this episode of the City Between we travel to the heart of the Anti-Revolutionary War – New York City in 1781. This city teeming with Loyalists and the headquarters of the British in their campaign against the Rebels received a visit from the Royal Family, a 16-year old prince looking for a good time in war time. We follow his adventures in Manhattan and … Read More Ep 9 -To Kidnap a Prince – Hanover Square
by Bruce
For a long time, I have been working on the diagnosis of an affliction I and many others I know have experienced: Museum Headache. But I also have been hard at work on a cure, which I am pleased to finally share with you, at no cost. Enjoy! New York City is full to the brim of world-class museums—we all know that. By some … Read More Museum Headache – CURED!
by Bruce
In this episode of the City Between podcast we go on a walk in Greenwich Village in the cold winter of 1864 with two men – one who was contemplating the worst treachery – as they took a walk around the neighborhood, stopping to drink for the courage to lay bare the plan. LISTEN: Listen to the episode right now, just here to open player. … Read More Ep 8 – Conspiracy Afoot – A Walk in the Village
by Bruce
In this episode of City Between – the podcast of New York History’s forgotten and mysterious corners – we go on a slightly Quixotic hunt in Brooklyn for a remanent of the farm of Anthony Jansen van Sale, New York’s first documented Muslim. This farm dates from 1639 and to make our journey 400 years into the past we follow old Indian and Colonial … Read More Ep 6 – A Pirate Farm in Brooklyn – The Turk’s Plantation
by Bruce
In this episode of the City Between Podcast–a show where we explore New York City’s uncommon history–we seek out the lost village of the Mohawk Indians near downtown Brooklyn. We search for the traces of this neighborhood known today as Boerum Hill, but whose past its residents called Downtown Kahnawake, after their reservation in Quebec. We’ll visit one of its last echoes, a saloon … Read More Ep 4 – A Vanished Mohawk Village in Brooklyn
by Bruce
This is a very special episode of City Between, a podcast about the hidden and forgotten corners of New York City’s history.Today we are going hunting for a lost and forgotten bottling factory in Tribeca, a neighborhood on the Lower West Side of Manhattan. Though the factory is forgotten, its chief spirit it bottled is not. In fact it is still produced in its … Read More Ep 5 – Fernet Branca: Made in NYC
by Bruce
In this episode we travel to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn to a last sign of the Lost Kingdom of Ice, the Rubel Coal and Ice Corporation building. Once upon a time natural ice ruled, cut from the lakes of Upstate New York and New England, it shipped to the streets of New York City, where ice trucks clattered across the cobblestones to deliver the … Read More Ep 3 – The Kingdom of Ice
