In 1969, John Lindsay’s first term as mayor of New York City was coming to a close. After a series of labor disputes and a botched snowstorm recovery that shut down the city, his poll numbers were at an all-time low. Somehow, even after losing the Republican primary, he found a road to reelection. In the final installment of this three-part podcast series by Spectrum News NY1, Errol Louis explores Lindsay’s unlikely path to victory, his second term as mayor and his ill-advised presidential run. ...
Jan 02, 2025•34 min
From the moment he became mayor of New York City in 1966, John Lindsay faced a city in turmoil when subway workers walked off the job and went on strike for 12 days. In many ways, it never got any easier for Lindsay, who ran the city in a time of national upheaval. In part two of a three-part podcast series by Spectrum News NY1, Errol Louis explores John Lindsay’s chaotic first term, in which the mayor tried to continue pushing forward, combating a string of labor disputes while attempting to cr...
Dec 19, 2024•39 min
In 1965, New York City was teetering on the edge of an uncertain future, but a Republican congressman from the Upper East Side was determined to save it. Fighting traditional power brokers and machine politicians, John Lindsay improbably was elected mayor that year; his eight years in office became one of the most tumultuous and transformative times in New York’s recent history. In part one of a three-part podcast series by Spectrum News NY1, Errol Louis explores John Lindsay’s turbulent New Yor...
Dec 12, 2024•35 min
This week, Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie officially launched his campaign to challenge Eric Adams in next June’s Democratic mayoral primary. The senator also unveiled an ambitious housing proposal that looks to build one million new homes across the five boroughs, or 70,000 homes per year. Sen. Myrie joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss his bid to unseat Adams. They also talked about the dire situation surrounding the city’s prisons complex on Rikers Island, the importance of surrounding your...
Dec 05, 2024•26 min
A fierce New York intellect, Nicole Gelinas has closely followed the trials and errors of urban public policy in her columns for the New York Post and her work for the Manhattan Institute. In a new book, Gelinas looks at what has happened with New York’s transportation system in the wake of Robert Moses, whose legacy was painstakingly dissected in Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker.” Gelinas picks up where Caro left off in “Movement: New York’s Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car.” Speak...
Nov 27, 2024•31 min
Since Donald Trump’s victory two weeks ago, some people are worried about one of his main campaign promises — to launch the largest deportation operation in American history. What does that really mean, and how feasible is it that it will happen at the scale the president-elect is promising? This week, NY1’s Errol Louis spoke to three experts — Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project; Elora Mukerjee, director of Columbia Law School’s Immi...
Nov 21, 2024•37 min
One week after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, many across the country are wondering how he won so soundly and what this means for the country moving forward. Trump has wasted little time naming cabinet members to his incoming administration, while Democrats are scratching their heads and pointing fingers about what went wrong. At the same time, while the president-elect won all of the swing states on his road to the White House, Democrats either held onto or won Senate seats in four of tho...
Nov 14, 2024•36 min
Easily winning on Election Day, Donald Trump will be returning to the White House as the nation’s 47th president. While New York was one of the few states Vice President Kamala Harris won, the margin of victory was significantly lower than usual for a Democrat, marking the party’s worst presidential performance in the state since 1988. Down-ballot, however, New York Democrats won some key congressional House races, as they will retake some of the seats they lost in the midterm elections in 2022....
Nov 07, 2024•37 min
State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani announced his mayoral run last week, looking to unseat Mayor Eric Adams, who faces an uphill battle for reelection as he fights federal corruption charges. Mamdani is running as the most progressive candidate in the crowded race so far and has already received the endorsement of the New York City Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss his decision to run for mayor. The conversation also touched on his thoug...
Oct 31, 2024•25 min
The first indictment in modern history against a sitting New York City mayor has dominated local headlines. Where is the case headed? What will this mean for the administration’s ability to move forward with day-to-day operations? And what are the political implications if Mayor Eric Adams runs for reelection — or steps down? Vital City and the Columbia Journalism School hosted a virtual conversation featuring perspectives from law enforcement, journalism and government on the political and lega...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr
Since 1984, American historian and professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted nine of the last 10 presidential races. Lichtman, however, does not use polling data. Instead, he has developed a set of 13 metrics — or, as he calls them, keys. Lichtman appeared on the podcast in February to discuss his elaborate forecasting system, and he promised he’d return after he announced his pick for president. Now, Lichtman joined Errol to discuss why he believes Kamala Harris will be victorious in Nov...
Oct 17, 2024•23 min
With less than 30 days until Election Day and early voting already underway in some states, how we hold elections — and whether the results will be honored — is on the minds of many Americans. Ari Berman is the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine and the author of “Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It.” Ari joined Errol to discuss his book, as well as the stakes of the upcoming election. They also talked about the in...
Oct 10, 2024•36 min
This week, Mayor Eric Adams appeared in court, where federal prosecutors said they might bring additional charges against him and indict others. Adams has maintained he will fight the charges and continue doing his job effectively. Many others have called on him to resign. The charges were brought by Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the southern district. NY1’s Errol Louis discussed Williams’ resume and how he became the first and only Black U.S. attorney in the 235-year-old history of the...
Oct 03, 2024•36 min
Oath is a tech platform that provides data-driven recommendations for Democratic donors to make campaign contributions based on their issue interests, geographic focus or other criteria to maximize their impact. The platform connects donors with candidates and ballot initiatives they never would have found otherwise. Brian Derrick is a political strategist, activist and tech entrepreneur who is revolutionizing civic engagement as the CEO of Oath. He joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss why he cre...
Sep 26, 2024•28 min
In 1974, it would have seemed unlikely that a massive biography of a New York urban planner would become an essential volume in the library of almost every American politician and pundit. But, if anything, Robert Caro’s exhaustive examination of the life and legacy of Robert Moses has become even more important and relevant as time passes. “The Power Broker” is often enthralling reading, and NY1’s Errol Louis tackles how it continues to captivate its readers, 50 years after its publication. Thro...
Sep 18, 2024•31 min
Since the Twin Towers fell, Lower Manhattan has gone through a tremendous overhaul. This week, NY1’s Errol Louis sat down with developer Larry Silverstein to talk about his long effort to rebuild the World Trade Center and the surrounding area. The conversation took place in 7 World Trade Center, which was also destroyed on Sept. 11. It was the first building that was re-constructed by Silverstein, who had signed a 99-year lease for the World Trade Center Complex on July 24, 2001, just seven wee...
Sep 12, 2024•28 min
One person was killed, and four others were injured after gunfire broke out at the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon. Despite the NYPD’s efforts to increase security at one of the city’s largest parades, the shooting left both the NYPD and the mayor on the defensive. This week, NY1’s Errol Louis was joined by L. Joy Williams, the president of the Brooklyn NAACP and Brian Saunders, the president of the Community Council at the NYPD’s 77th Precinct,where the shooting ...
Sep 05, 2024•52 min
In the 1970s, the Mafia still had a powerful presence in New York City. Near the end of the decade, a series of events transpired that ushered in the downfall of the notorious five families that controlled the streets of New York. In 1979, Carmine Galante, a powerful boss in the Bonanno crime family, was killed while having lunch in an Italian restaurant in Bushwick. The murder would become a cornerstone in the Mafia Commission Trial, the case that forever hamstrung organized crime in the United...
Aug 29, 2024•32 min
With hundreds of thousands of children already back to school across the country, there’s a renewed focus on making sure their classrooms aren’t health hazards. Lead pipes, substandard air filtration, lack of light and even bad acoustics have all proven to affect students, both academically and physically. Spectrum News national health reporter Erin Billups visited two school districts working to create safe and healthy environments for their students in a new Spectrum News special, “Curing Our ...
Aug 22, 2024•31 min
In 2021, New York state passed legislation aimed at limiting solitary confinement in prisons and jails. But a new report from state Inspector General Lucy Lang says that the state needs to modernize its record-keeping capabilities in order to comply with the law, known as the HALT Act. Lang joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss the antiquated record-keeping systems — currently done by pen and paper — that have made it difficult to track the use of segregated confinement. They also talked about cra...
Aug 15, 2024•24 min
The subject of autocracy is on the minds of many. We often hear about an existential threat to our democracy in the United States. But is fascism truly possible in America? Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, propaganda and democracy protection. Her most recent book, “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” explores what modern authoritarian leaders have in common and how they can be stopped. She joined NY...
Aug 08, 2024•42 min
Since Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris has been riding a Democratic wave, raising over $200 million in a week with 66% of the donations coming from first-time donors. Vote.org said there was a massive increase in voter registration, with people under 35 making up nearly 85% of the new voters registering. And at a recent Zoom call for Harris supporters, over 100,000 people attempted to log on, which broke Zoom. All of this is welcome news for Democrats, as are the mem...
Aug 01, 2024•37 min
The States Project is an organization that believes state legislatures are the strongest force for change in the country. The Democratic-aligned group was founded by former New York state Sen. Daniel Squadron in 2017 and is focused on winning governing majorities by making state legislative campaigns more effective and better funded. The actor J. Smith-Cameron and author Melissa Walker are two members of the States Project team, and they say they’re starting to see the fruits of their grassroots...
Jul 25, 2024•20 min
This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, a man who was placed in an illegal chokehold by police who were arresting him for selling cigarettes illegally on a Staten Island street. Garner’s dying words to police, “I can’t breathe,” became a rallying cry for protesters who were outraged at the police brutality. Debi Rose was a former Staten Island councilwoman whose district included the block where Garner was killed. Reverend Kirsten Foy is an activist who was a major o...
Jul 18, 2024•24 min
When it comes to local politics, it’s already been a sticky summer. From congestion pricing being put on hold to the 2025 mayoral race already heating up, there’s been plenty of major news in New York City beyond the fight for the White House. This week, NY1’s Errol Louis was joined by two journalists who cover City Hall: Katie Honan from the news outlet The City and Jeff Mays from The New York Times. They examine the events of early summer, as well as looking at the mayor’s complicated relation...
Jul 11, 2024•43 min
The Jewish community in New York was devastated by the surprise attacks that took place in Israel on Oct. 7. With over 1.3 million Jewish residents, New York City has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the rise in hate crimes and antisemitism has had a profound impact on the community. The fallout from the conflict in Gaza has also played a part in key congressional battles and the race for president. Jacob Kornbluh is the senior political reporte...
Jul 03, 2024•39 min
Early detection of cancer remains the single-best way to combat a disease that is the second-leading killer in the world. But many of the resources in the fight against cancer are devoted to relatively ineffective late-stage treatments. Bruce Ratner, known by many New Yorkers for his real estate projects, is entering the cancer battlefield, co-authoring a book that’s calling for a new approach to combating the disease. Ratner, who sits on the board of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center a...
Jun 27, 2024•43 min
Karen DeWitt has been covering the statehouse since 1986. She joined the press corps at a time when very few women were in the industry, and quickly became a trusted voice on New York public radio, covering multiple governors, budgets, scandals, a pandemic and more. Recently, she announced that she’d be retiring and stepping down from her role as Capitol Bureau chief for the New York Public News Network. Dewitt joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss her long and storied career in journalism. They a...
Jun 20, 2024•25 min
Protesting is American as apple pie; it’s right there in the First Amendment. Regardless of what side of the aisle they are on, many Americans at some point in their lives have taken to the streets. Most recently, pro-Palestinian student protesters set up encampments at colleges across the country in a bid to get their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel. One person who knows a great deal about demonstrations and encampments is Marisa Holmes. Holmes is an author, organizer ...
Jun 13, 2024•41 min
Two years after a racially motivated mass shooting killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, Errol spoke with Jackie Bray, the first female commissioner of the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Bray joined NY1’s Errol Louis to discuss a new task force that was created to prevent mass shootings by leveraging public health tools and targeting the hate and radicalization of perpetrators. They also discussed the impact propaganda has in driving people toward dange...
Jun 06, 2024•32 min
