Weekend Explorer - podcast cover

Weekend Explorer

The New York Times•www.nytimes.com

Weekend Explorer is a feature that appears occasionally in the Weekend section. A series of walking tours through areas of New York, in which a reporter, John Strausbaugh, seeks out still-visible traces of the city's layers of history.

Last refreshed: August 14th, 2025 at 9:37 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Floyd Bennett Field

Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, formerly New York City's first municipal airport, is a place New Yorkers go to camp out under the stars, put kayaks and canoes in the water, hike nature trails, and go bird-watching and rock-climbing. Published: July 10, 2009

Dec 01, 2009•19 min

Lowest Manhattan/Wall St.

Lowest Manhattan, home to Wall Street and the nation's first Congress, has endured a history plagued by massive fires, terrorist attacks and a string of stock market crashes dating back to the 1700s. Published: January 2, 2009

Dec 01, 2009•18 min

Brooklyn Heights's Gilded Age

More has gone on in Brooklyn Heights than its quiet streets and patrician houses will profess. Published: October 3, 2008

Dec 01, 2009•20 min

Weegee's Naked City

Weegee, the famed crime and street photographer, shot thousands of images that defined Manhattan as a film noir nightscape in the 1930s and '40s. Published: June 20, 2008

Dec 01, 2009•2 hr 40 min

Religious Freedom in Flushing, Queens

Flushing is a place where immigrants from around the world have been coming for more than 350 years. It has always been a cradle of cultural and religious freedom. Published: May 2, 2008

Dec 01, 2009•2 hr 23 min

Manhattan's Photobooths

The original photobooth may now be a relic of 20th century pop Americana but our love affair with it continues. And it began in New York City in Times Square. Published: March 14, 2008

Dec 01, 2009•2 hr 3 min

Turf of Gangs and Gangsters

Hell's Kitchen has a history that's rich with gangsters and ghosts, streetwalkers and speakeasies, mysterious disappearances and gruesome murders. Published: August 17, 2007

Dec 01, 2009•15 min

Paths of Resistance in the East Village

For a long time the East Village was an urban frontier. It was a toehold in America for generations of new immigrants, but it was also an area of intense cultural activity that changed the world. Published: September 14, 2007

Dec 01, 2009•25 min

On the Trail of Brooklyn's Underground Railroad

The City of New York gave Duffield Street in downtown Brooklyn an alternate name: Abolitionist Place. It's an acknowledgment that long before Brooklyn was veined with subway lines, it was a hub of the Underground Railroad. Published: October 12, 2007

Dec 01, 2009•22 min

When Barnum Took Manhattan

Today New Yorkers may think of Phineas Taylor Barnum only when the circus comes to town. But for almost 60 years he was one of the most celebrated figures in the city. Published: November 9, 2007

Dec 01, 2009•18 min

In the Mansion Land of the 'Fifth Avenoodles'

The Upper East Side (from 59th to 96th Streets and Fifth Avenue to the East River) contains the city's most exclusive residences, private schools and social clubs. Published: December 14, 2007

Dec 01, 2009•21 min

The Lively Canyons of San Juan Hill

Long before Lincoln Center existed, its surrounding neighborhoods, once called Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill, were already part of a thriving arts center. Published: February 1, 2008

Dec 01, 2009•16 min

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