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PODCAST

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers, Greg Young

The tides of American history flow through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.

history places & travel

All Episodes

01:05:03

19th Century NoHo: Glamour, Greed, Money, and Murder

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/12

Today's New York neighborhood called NoHo, wedged between Greenwich Village and the East Village, holds the stories of many people and places that then went on to become deeply associated with the great Gilded Age.The Astor family began their dynasty here in both investment and real estate as did the well-known Dutch-American merchant family the Schermerhorns.Caroline Schermerhorn, who became the famed Mrs. Astor, grew up right here on Bond Street along with many members of her family. NoHo today

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00:49:15

The Boy Mayor of New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/05

As New York City enters the final stages of a rather strange mayoral election in 2025, let’s look back on a decidedly more unusual contest over 110 years ago, pitting Tammany Hall and their estranged ally (Mayor William Jay Gaynor) up against a baby-faced newcomer, the (second) youngest man ever to become the mayor of New York City.John Purroy Mitchel, the Bronx-born grandson of an Irish revolutionary, was a rising star in New York City, aggressively sweeping away incompetence and snipping away at

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01:06:27

#468 Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue": A Jazz-Age Drama

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/29

On January 3, 1924, 25-year-old George Gershwin was shooting pool in a Manhattan billiard hall when his brother Ira Gershwin read aloud a shocking newspaper article: "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto." There was just one problem—George had never agreed to write any such piece.What happened next would change American music forever. In just five weeks, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants raced to compose what would become "Rhapsody in Blue," breaking down the barriers between popular

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00:32:49

History Daily: Pirate Tales!

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/22

We love the podcast History Daily, a co-production from award winning podcasters Airship and Noiser, so we're presenting two episodes with a very similar theme -- pirates!-- July 6, 1699. The arrest of Captain William Kidd ends the reign of plunder of one of history's most infamous pirates and sparks rumors of buried treasure-- November 16th, 1720. The trials of notorious pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John Rackham began in Spanish Town, Jamaica.Subscirbe to History Daily wherever you get your

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00:48:53

#467 The Brooklyn Theatre Fire: The Forgotten Gilded...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/15

On the evening of December 5, 1876, the glorious Brooklyn Theatre caught fire, trapping its audience in a nightmare of flame and smoke. The theater sat near Brooklyn City Hall (today's Brooklyn Borough Hall), and the blaze which destroyed it could be seen as far away as Prospect Park.The terrible truth emerged by the morning -- almost 300 people died in this disaster. To this day, it remains the worst disaster in Brooklyn's history in terms of lives lost. Of individual one-day disasters in New York

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01:23:56

#466 Pete's Tavern and McSorley's Old Ale House

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/08

The ultimate bar crawl of Old New York continues through a survey of classic bars and taverns that trace their origins from the 1850s through the 1880s.And this time we're recording within two of America's most famous establishments, joined by the people who know that history the best.In Part One, we introduced you to the origin story of New York City tavern life in the Dutch and colonial periods, and we ventured into Fraunces Tavern to witness the creation of the United States itself. Then we

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01:20:03

#465 The Oldest Bars in New York City

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/01

We’ve put together the ultimate New York City historic bar crawl, a celebration of the city’s old taverns, pubs, and ale houses with 18th- and 19th-century connections. And along the way, you’ll learn so much about the city’s overall history — from its changing shoreline to the everyday lives of its working-class immigrant populations.Being an old historic bar isn’t just a novel curiosity for history lovers. It can be good for business and many of the most popular landmark pubs literally wear their

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01:24:27

#464 New York: The City of Oysters

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/07/25

Once upon a time New York City oysters were not only plentiful and healthy in the harbor, they were an everyday, common food source. The original fast food!For that reason, the oyster could be an official New York City mascot. Oyster farming was a major occupation. Oyster houses were an incredibly common place for people to eat. The greatest restaurants in the city served oysters, as did the small basement dives.In many ways, they united all New Yorkers, not just from the Lower East Side to Fifth

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01:27:10

#463 Gilded Age Golden Girls (Live At City Winery)

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/07/18

A special presentation of our live show Bowery Boys History Live, recorded at City Winery, July 2, 2025Bowery Boys History Live is a storytelling cabaret of all-true tales and spellbinding secrets from the past, hosted by Greg Young of the Bowery Boys Podcast and brought to you by a rotating roster of the city’s greatest historians.And for this show, Greg’s has invited a premier lineup of special guests, including author Elizabeth L. Block (Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing),

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00:54:03

Spirits Podcast: Urban Legends with Greg Young

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/07/11

Ready for a little summertime spookfest? This week we're thrilled to present to you a podcast appearance Greg made back in April on the Spirits Podcast. Hosted by Amanda McLoughlin and Julia Schifini, the Spirits Podcast is a weekly conversational show about all things ghosts, mythology, folklore and urban legends. If you like fun spooky things, add the podcast to your regular rotation! And as a sample, here is Greg's appearance on the show, talking about all sorts of New York City ghosty things.Get

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00:48:58

#462 The Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/07/03

TERROR ON THE BEACH! Seaside resorts from Cape May, New Jersey, to Montauk, Long Island, were paralyzed in fear during the summer of 1916.Not because of the threat of lurking German U-boats and saboteurs. But because of sharks.On July 1, 1916, Charles Epting Vansant was killed by a shark while swimming at a resort in Beach Haven, a popular destination on the Jersey Shore.At first, this terrible tragedy received only limited attention. After all, millions were flocking to the beaches along the Jersey

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01:29:27

The Gilded Age Mansions of Fifth Avenue

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/06/27

At the heart of New York’s Gilded Age — the late 19th-century era of unprecedented American wealth and excess — were families with the names Astor, Waldorf, Schermerhorn, and Vanderbilt, alongside power players like A.T. Stewart, Jay Gould and William “Boss” Tweed.They would all make their homes — and in the case of the Vanderbilts, their great many homes — on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.The image of Fifth Avenue as a luxury retail destination today grew from the street’s aristocratic reputation in the

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01:36:11

#461 The Story of Inwood and Marble Hill

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/06/20

People who live in Inwood know how truly special it is. Manhattan's northernmost neighborhood (aside from Marble Hill) feels like it's outside of the city -- and in some places, even outside of time and space. Unlike the lower Manhattan's flat avenues and organized streets, Inwood varies wildly in elevation and its streets wind up hills and down into valleys.It's a twenty minute walk from the mysterious "Indian caves" to some of the best Dominican food in New York City. You can experience the ghosts

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00:50:01

Children of the Gilded Age

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/06/13

The children of the Gilded Age were seen but not heard. Until now!Listener favorite Esther Crain, author and creator of Ephemeral New York joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look at the world of children during the Gilded Age. As she shared in the episode “Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York” with writings by actual servants, Esther has uncovered documents written in children’s own voices that capture their world and reality. From a 12-year-old boy in Gilded Age Harlem to a

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00:52:03

#460 The Brooklyn Museum and the Birth of a New City

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/06/06

While you may know the Brooklyn Museum for its wildly popular cutting-edge exhibitions, the borough's premier art institution can actually trace its origins back to a more rustic era -- and to the birth of the city of Brooklyn itself.On July 4, 1825, the growing village laid a cornerstone for its new Brooklyn Apprentices Library, an educational institution to support its young "clerks, journeymen and apprentices." This was a momentous occasion in the history of Brooklyn, a ceremony overseen by the

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01:09:38

#459 Moses vs. Bard: The Battle for Castle Clinton

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/05/23

In 1939, Robert Moses sprung his latest project upon the world -- the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge, connecting the tip of Manhattan to the Brooklyn waterfront, slicing through New York Harbor just to the north of Governor's Island.To build it, Moses dictated that the historic Battery Park would need to be redesigned. And its star attraction the New York Aquarium would have to be demolished.The aquarium was housed in the former military fort Castle Clinton which had seen so much of New York City's history

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00:49:18

The Trial of John Peter Zenger (Rewind)

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/05/16

A long, long time ago in New York — in the 1730s, back when the city was a holding of the British, with a little over 10,000 inhabitants — a German printer named John Peter Zenger decided to print a four-page newspaper called the New York Weekly Journal. This is pretty remarkable in itself, as there was only one other newspaper in town called the New York Gazette, an organ of the British crown and the governor of the colony.But Zenger’s paper would call to question the actions of that governor, a

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00:56:35

#458 Parkways and the Transformation of Brooklyn

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/05/09

When Prospect Park was first opened to the public in the late 1860s, the City of Brooklyn was proud to claim a landmark as beautiful and as peaceful as New York’s Central Park. But the superstar landscape designers — Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux — weren’t finished.This park came with two grand pleasure drives, wide boulevards that emanated from the north and south ends of the park. Eastern Parkway, the first parkway in the United States, is the home of the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn

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00:59:46

#457 FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/04/25

On October 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford walked into a press conference at the National Press Club and, using more precise, more eloquent words than legend remembers, but in no uncertain terms, told New York City that the federal government was not going to bail it out.The following day the New York Daily News -- the city's first tabloid newspaper summarized his blunt, castigating speech into one succinct and memorable headline -- FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.Of course, the president never literally

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00:59:07

#456 Walking New York: Manhattan History on Foot with...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/04/18

Join us for an interview with Instagram historian Keith Taillon (@keithyorkcity), whose detailed posts about New York's history have earned him nearly 60,000 followers and launched a successful tour business.Keith shares the story behind his remarkable pandemic project of walking every single block of Manhattan in 2020, capturing the empty city in photographs that now appear in his first book, "Walking New York: Manhattan History on Foot."From his childhood fascination with urban history to his

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