NYC NOW - The New York Ideas That Changed America

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

WNYC & Gothamist arts editor Matthew Schnipper introduces a new series exploring the ideas, traditions and cultural touchstones that began in New York before spreading across the country. He also tells us about a dance party offering free dental screenings and recommends a few upcoming events. Photo: Edith Young for Gothamist -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. Happy 4th of July. Whatever you're doing to enjoy the holiday, I certainly hope staying cool is part of it. On today's episode, it's our bi-weekly arts and culture check-in. But before we get into that, here's what's happening in New York City. A longtime confidon and aide to former Mayor Eric Adams wants his day in court as soon as possible. Frank Carone said as much outside of court this week. Prosecutors accuse him of taking more than $100,000 in bribes.

In exchange, they say he used his power to steer a multi-million dollar contract to a hotel owner. Defense attorney Andrew Goldstein says an indictment unsealed last week is full of holes. Mr. Caron did not in any way betray his office. The attorney says there's no evidence of a corrupt agreement between Caron and the hotel owner. Corona and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to bribery and some other charges. A judge set a tentative trial date for late August, but said it will likely be pushed back. New Jersey Republican Congress member Tom Kane Jr. returned to Congress on Tuesday after a previously unexplained 116-day absence, during which he missed more than 100 votes. I believe that I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey's 7th District, to my colleagues in this district.

chamber and to the American people for my absence. Several months ago, due to health concerns, I entered the hospital for some testing. I did not believe that this would result in a long-term stay. I was given the diagnosis of depression. WMYC's New Jersey reporter, Michael Sol Warren, says the timing of the Congress member's absence was unfortunate. It was a big mystery, right? Where has the Congress been gone. And there was just a lot of attention on the district, and it was a pretty inopportune time for him to go missing. Kane represents New Jersey's seventh district. District seven is by far the most competitive of New Jersey's 12 congressional districts. And not only is it the most competitive, it's also a swing district. Republicans hold about a 3% registration advantage

over Democrats in the district. But the seat has been on Democrats' radar ever since President and Donald Trump only carried it by 2% in 2024. The following year, Governor Mikey Cheryl flipped the district from red to blue, winning it by about 1%. Michael says a main point being made by people in a political sphere is that many of Kane's constituents work in jobs where an absence of that length wouldn't be tolerated and that the Republican Party hasn't been particularly supportive of policies that enable access to mental health treatment.

We got the statement from Rebecca Bennett, who is his Democratic Challenger this fall, where she basically said, wishing them well in a full recovery, but immediately pivot to his time in office, which he considered his failure to stand up to Trump policies that have harmed people in the 7th District, including cutbacks to health care. And that has been the sentiment from a lot of constituents that I've spoken to as well. Although Congressmember Kane is expected to face a hard re-election campaign this fall, Michael says his Republican colleagues are still confident. There's a lot of confidence being projected from local Republican candidates that the congressmen will be able to pull off his reelection campaign and that people, voters in the district, will be sympathetic to his need to take time away for his personal health.

So, you know, they're showing support and confidence, but we'll have to see. That's WMYC's Michael Soul Warren. Back in New York City, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says officers will be doing 12-hour shifts as they work to keep the city secure. during America's 250th birthday celebrations and a dangerous heatwave. The commissioner also says the NYPD will be on top of a certain celebrity wedding, wink, wink, that may or may not be happening at the world's most famous arena. I would be remiss not to mention an event that we are tracking at Madison Square Garden on Friday night. The NYPD will, of course, have a detail in place.

As for the heat wave, dangerous temperatures are. expected to linger at least into Saturday night. All right, we're going to take a quick break and return with our arts and culture check-in. Stick around for the conversation. Welcome back to another edition of our bi-weekly arts and culture check-in. A look at what's been coming across the Arts and Culture Desk here at WMYC and our news site, Gothamist. And, of course, joining me to walk through it all on this 4th of July weekend is our newsroom's Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schnip. What's up, Matt?

Happy, what is it? Semi quintessential, quintessential? I don't know. Happy Pride, it's still. That's still the vibe. Happy 250, America and Janay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Any plans for the 4th of July? I'm going to go to my in-laws in suburban Long Island and swim in a pool with a three-and-half-year-old. I'm looking forward to it. What are you doing? I think I'm going to rest. Yeah. I have been on the go every single weekend, some weeknights. And I'm tired.

Spicy. I am tired. And so I think I'm going to use this holiday weekend to rest. To chill. Yeah. Sounds good. But I do plan to go on to the roof of my apartment building and check out the fireworks. That's always a cool view.

That'd be fun. So what's going on? What's popping on the arts and culture desk? So speaking of America's 250th birthday, New York City is at least over 100 years older than America as a whole. Yeah. And there is so much that has come out of New York. And so we are doing a series of stories that we are kind of subtitling kind of cheekily like, you're welcome America with stuff that New York invented, created, iterized, et cetera. Yeah.

So we launched this with a story that basically was about. pizza. How? New York didn't start pizza. No, New York did not start pizza, but we were kind of saying it did. The idea of the pizza slice, the dollar slice, the pizza slice, the pizza on a white paper plate, the utility slice that kind of has defined what pizza is in America is very much a New York idea. So we talked to a pizza tour guide, a pizza historian, a pizza scholar. Oh. A gentleman named Scott Weiner. He leads pizza tours around New York, and people from out of New York come and they're kind of like, all right, great, I'm going to have a slice with, you know, it's going to have

mushroom on it and this and it's that and pepperoni and sausage and he says, you know, when he does these stores, people are, I want to say not allowed. I don't think it's illegal, but he does not allow people to have toppings on the pizza. It's like a New York slice is about eating a piece of regular pizza. Yeah. And he says when people sit down and they eat it depending on where they go, they are just kind of like, oh, it's hitting. And that is the thing

I think that people have tried to emulate. And his His take was that like the world now is like eating American pizza and America is eating New York pizza. Yeah. And the world is coming to visit New York City with the idea of, hey, I need to find the best slice. Yes. He took us. We went down to Sonia Rao, who was a great new reporter on the culture desk, went down to Defara and Midwood and ate some slices with him. So go down there and grab a slice if you can. Or go to the crappiest dollar slice place you can and enjoy that as well. What's your favorite pizza spot? My favorite pizza spot. I love close to a place called Impasto, which I love, and they have great slices. And they also have great gelato, which I recognize is not pizza, but they do have a soft served gelato machine.

I feel like I've talked to you about that before, and it's... You love it. Impasto is excellent. And then there's a place that I went to recently called Andreas on Second Ave, which they go up in about a year ago. Have you been there by any chance? I haven't. That's great. Okay.

Yeah, that's a great slice shop, classic slice shop with the red benches. Loved it. I would definitely recommend that. and I've been thinking about how I can get there again soon. I'll have to go visit really soon. Yeah. But shout out to my favorite pizza spot, Tonys in Bushwick. Yeah.

I'm not always in Bushwick, but listen, when I want to slice, I'm going to Tony's. What's special about Tony's? I think it's vibe. I think it's crust and I think it's hot honey. Oh, the hot honey. Yeah. I want a shout out. I was talking to someone about this recently, Mice Hot Honey, who was my first work friend.

Oh. When I worked at Pudamayo World Music, we used to work at a place where you would call whole food's up and be like, can we do a restock our Turkish groove CD? And then I would have lunch with my friend Mike every day. And then he's like, I think I'm going to quit this job at the World Music CD company so I can start a honey business. Wow. So he's done well.

And you know what's cool about that is he now actually employs our old boss, which is tight. That's a flex. Anyway, shout out to Mike Kurtz, a honey legend. All right. So pizza opened up this series. What else? Well, we have another story that I really like. So there's a writer and his name is Alphonse Pierre.

Well relation. Oh, yeah, that's true. Alphonse is a critic, a writer at Pitchfork. You know, he's been awarded an Asme Next Award for Journalists Under 30. For my money, there is no one better writing about hip hop right now. He has an extremely wide vast array of knowledge of both the underground and the above ground. He's pretty discerning. But I also think he's very fair and very loving.

He's also very funny. And, you know, the story of how hip hop came out of new. New York City has been told. You know, DJ Coolherk, at a party, you know, at Sedgwick and Cedar in the Bronx in 1973. We didn't want to rehash this story. We didn't want to say, okay, here's the deal with hip-hop again. You know, it was the 50th anniversary of hip-hop a couple years ago.

Everybody's talking about this. So, you know, I thought, let's talk to Alphonse. He grew up between Canarsie and Staten Island. And we wanted to hear about his own journey, essentially, with music and how he became a critic and how New York kind of helped shape that. And he talked about so much. It was really interesting to hear. I set up this interview with him and I asked him, you know, okay, well, what do you think about Jayze?

There's the Jayz, the biggies of the world, Nas and Cardi B. There are these huge people. And he said, yeah, you know, New York is a lot about myth making in, you know, in general. And that carries over to rap. But the things that he talked about that really hit for him, you know, he was like, when he was in school, little mama's lip gloss, you know. He was eating chicken noodle soup. Jake talked about chicken noodle soup. And he's like, were these the biggest songs in the world?

Were they the biggest New York rap hits ever? No, but he was like they felt like they were his. This felt like it was from New York for New Yorkers. And he talked about a boogie with a hoodie. And he talked about Fabulous. And he talked about Max B. And he talked about being a teenager and loving Joel Santana. But he also talked about living in Staten Island when he was a kid and learning that Wu-Tang was so embedded in the fabric of everybody's lives in Staten Island.

It was almost this like New York tribalism. Yeah. He was like, yeah, the Italian kid down the street. He's like he could quote me all the like all the lyrics from, you know, from Cuban links, you know. And he's like families would have Wu-Tang flags in their yards as though that was like their political clan. Like it was, you know, that was the tribal that they belonged to was Wu-Tang. And it was a cross-race. It was around neighborhood essentially.

And for him kind of hearing somebody who is a critic who can identify and talk about kind of trends at large and, you know, certainly has smart things to say about Jay about Knaz, about Cardi, whoever, you know, about the drill scene, about pop smoke, whatever, for him to say, look, the thing that actually really makes a difference to me is like chicken noodle soup because it feels like it was ours. It was just nice to hear actually almost, yeah, we know this was a big thing, but what did it mean to New York, you know? It was cool. And so that was a great conversation with him.

And it really made me think a little bit more about the things that I've almost sort of kind of been like, oh, this is kind of a funny, you know, chicken noodle soup is a silly song, you know, but he's like, this was a foundational text. for me. Little mama is happy to hear it. Little mama, you're right. And to me, that's a New York story. You know, the place that you go to, that means more to you than any, you know, the restaurant

that you go to, that is yours. The bar that you go to, that is yours. The bodega that is yours. I mean, even like the bookstore that is yours, the coffee shop, that is yours. And I think that's interesting that that extended into hip-hop and into culture and then led him into, you know, becoming a critic. He said the reason he became a critic is he went to college for the first time he left the city and he was like, oh my God, everybody isn't spending all their time talking about rap.

He's like, I miss this, so I want to write about it. Nice. Yeah. So it's like for him, that was the entire world. I'm definitely looking forward to checking out that story and all the others that's coming out of this series. All right. So one of the more unexpected stories from your desk takes us to a dance party where people

can get a dental screening. I thought this was the coolest thing. Julia, who was on your show a couple of weeks ago. Julia Hayward, yes. Julia, she's the best. And she's like, hey, so there's this rave called Body Hack. And I'm like, okay, cool, rave, yeah, what's the story? She's like, yeah, you can go get a dental screening at it.

And I was like, oh, I'm sorry, what? I was like, there's a lot of things you can do at a rave, but I don't think, like, get your teeth checked up on is the first thing I was thinking about. And, you know, as she started talking to me, because at first you're just like, this is silly, you know, but she then was like, this is what the story is. So the body hack is a monthly party. It happens at the club nowadays in Queens. And essentially, you know, it's geared towards a queer and trans community, people of color mostly.

You know, and the organizers realized that they had an opportunity to reach this community, which maybe was not always getting health insurance, getting information about care that they, you know, that they may need. And they said, first day, we're kind of pamphleting and other things like that. And they said, well, why don't we just bring the care here? Instead of telling you how you can go do it, let's actually just make it happen. So Julia talked to this dentist who remained anonymous. The dentist is not, I think theoretically not supposed to be practicing in the backyard. I don't know who knows. But like this is a licensed dentist.

We saw their dental license. For now. And doing, I'm not trying to narc. Oh, gosh. But doing screenings. You know, they're not doing dental work there. No cleanings or anything. They're checking you out.

And they're saying, yeah, you're good. Or actually, you do need to go. get this checked out and here is the scope, you know, scope of time you need to do that in, et cetera. Just like leading you towards that care, you know, but better than kind of giving you like, you know, a business card and saying, come into the office if you can. And, you know, apparently the lines have been crazy. It's like, you know, going to a super crowded restaurant and they'll give you like, they'll like, we'll text you when we're available.

And I think that's great. Wow. So this was a hit. I think it was a really cool story. It's the last one happened during Pride. They'll be doing another one later this month, later July. And people are going to continue there. What I'm interested in is following the story and seeing who else they can get in there.

At the end of Julia's story, she said they were talking about giving up flu shots in the fall. And I was just like, this is a great idea because they're looking to find people where they already are. I don't know about you, but like I will miss a doctor's appointment, but like I won't miss like the one fun thing I had planned for the month or whatever, you know? Definitely won't miss any fun. Right. And it's like a little bit of a spoonful of sugar or something like that. If you can make that happen, I think it's a really genius idea. I would love to show up there and it's like, okay, this club has a backyard.

You know, you're dancing in the front and the back. You're getting flu shots. You're getting, you know, maybe you get some blood test. You get a, you know, a dental checkup. Maybe you can get your hair done. You know, it's just like, what did they make this a whole, like, kind of one-stop shop? Yeah. I thought it was great.

I love that. You know, meet people where they are. And they're at raves. I think a lot of them are in New York City. Cool. So check out body hack if your teeth are kind of messed up. I mean, actually, if your teeth are messed up, please go to the dentist. Go to the dentist.

Welcome to July. by the way. It's hot, man. Yes. How are you keeping cool? I'm sitting in this air-conditioned studio with you. When you're not at work. Well, can I tell you, people are so stoked about these tall ships that are coming into port.

I don't know if you've been hearing about the ships. You're over the ships? I don't give a ship. You don't give a ship. Okay, I am not going to go to see the tall ships most likely. But I know it's nice and cooled down by the water. So I encourage people to go do that if they want to. Okay.

You know, one thing I, another place that I do think is cool, though, is the Village Vanguard in the West Village. And I am excited because Tyshaun Sauri is going and playing drums there. He is an incredible drummer. He's also a composer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for, you know, for composition. But he's really just like a beast of a drummer. So he has a trio that with Chris Davis that's going to be playing there a couple of shows later this month. So if you're been to Village Vanguard, you have.

You have, you know. So I'm going to descend the steps into the cool dungeon of the night. Yeah, yeah. see some jazz. I really love him, so I'm excited to see him play. That's the show that I think I'm, like, personally, most excited to go see. Okay. I did say last time I was here that I was going to go see Buttecno. Do you remember this? Yes. Did you go? I went to Buttecno. I had never, because I'm a thousand years old, I had never been to mansions in Ridgewood, I got Ridgewood East Williamsburg border. Right by the gigantic Western beef. I thought this club was great. Carpeted

dance floor. Whoa. It was great. But can I tell you, like, people dancing with their shoes off? No, they have shoes on. Nice little backyard. It was great. I had a great time. Look at you. Just collecting cool points everywhere you go. Anyway. The other thing I'm excited to do is to go to Film Forum, which is actually right around the corner from our office. On July 10th, they are showing a premiere of the director Ross McAwey's new film remake. And it's about his son who died as a young adult. And he's going to be there talking about the movie.

He's just one of my favorite filmmakers. He's pretty famous for a film that he made. He went down south to do a movie about Sherman's March, which was a part of the Civil War. It's an amazing movie about the South and about kind of being an artist and about love. It's just fantastic. Filmform is showing that as well when they show remake. And it's a sad movie. His son died.

He had done another film about and with his son. And so he's kind of talking through that. I haven't seen the film yet. I'm really looking forward to seeing this. I have read that it is extremely powerful. I have a son who died as well. And he was much younger. He's 22 months old.

Ross's son, I think, was in his early 20s. It's a very different thing, but to me, the idea and the power of making something out of this. And you think, I think in some ways you're making something so that you can help other people. I think he's making something so that he can help himself, you know, to get through it. So I'm really curious to see it in the day of your talking. Yes, absolutely. It's a strange thing to wrap your head around when you've done stories about yourself. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, this isn't the story you want to tell.

But it's kind of the one you have to. Yeah. So anyway, check out Sherman's March at least. That is an amazing movie. but if you can't go see Remake, I'll be there watching him speak on the 10th. I'm definitely going to check out Sherman's March. That sounds like a really, really good one. It's just great.

It's a classic movie. I just have this sort of picture in my head of just him with a huge camera, like pointing it in the mirror. You know, and it's like he was doing it, you know? I like people who are still in the game, too. It's been a long time. You know, Matt, I know you haven't been with the WNYC team very long, but we've had some really great conversations. And I'm just wondering as we, on the business. side of things come to an end on this fiscal year. What do you think is like the most rewarding

work you've done so far? Oh, that's a great question. You know, I think one of the things that's really interesting about this job is that we have a lot of trust to make the stories that we really want to make. And our bosses, they kind of say, what do you think is important to talk about? And I have the funny job of being the counter-programming. You know, we're a news publication, and I'm sort of like, hey, you want to hear about some movies? They're weird, you know? The fun stuff. The fun stuff. I take the fun stuff seriously.

That's always been the way I think about stories. You know, yes, go find the silly thing, but talk about it in a serious way. I really loved we got to do a story about this woman who makes music on like a 12-string fiddle, Hardinger, Amor, which felt like I was making the consummate public radio story, you know. Yeah. It's like, oh, this is a Norwegian fiddle played by this person, you know, and it's like, I was like, this is great. You know, I was like, I loved doing that. My colleague, Hannah, she loves to do stories about boats, and she did this story about a college in Long Island where they have a boat race and you make the boats out of cardboard. You can only make use cardboard and tape.

And they went and everybody goes in this pond and everybody sinks. Of course. And this year the theme was video games. So they were all dressed up like Mario, you know. And we have these amazing photos of these people just eating it in the pond, desperately flailing around, trying not to drown. And this is just a fun story. You know, I think to be able to show people, like, these were kids who were just sort of like blowing off steam during finals. Just to show people that culture encompasses a lot, you know, and to be able to bring like a touch of it, you know, I think it's really nice.

Early on when I was here, I did a story about a guy walked into a record store and he saw a record he had released about 20 years, 30 years, gosh, I don't even know, earlier. And he was like, why is the selling for $200? He had no idea it was a valuable record. And he's like, oh, I have like 200 of them sitting in storage in Maine where he was living. So he connected with the record store and talked to the people who had put the out, you know, the musicians who it is. And he brought the original copies down. And so instead of this being a $200 record, $150 record, they were just selling brand new copies of it, you know, for 30 bucks a pop. Nice.

It was nice just to tell that story. So that's what I like is something that's just like a little bit of forgotten history, you know, to be able to bring it to the people. I think that's what I like to do is say, hey, this thing over there, it's cool too. And I know it's a losing game from the start. We can't tell all of them. But if I can try to get some of them out there, I feel like I'm doing my job well. Well, to check out some of our arts and culture stories, you can visit our news site, got themists. That's WMYC's Arts and Culture editor Matthew Schnipper.

Thanks once again for joining me. Thanks, Janay. Happy July 4th. Thank you for listening to NYC now. I'm Jeney Pierre. Enjoy your holiday weekend. See you next time.