NYC NOW - Where to Watch the World Cup Final in New York City

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

The World Cup final is this Sunday, and if you're looking for a place to watch in the city, WNYC arts and culture editor Matthew Schnipper has some ideas. He also joins us with a summer reading list of New York City books and culture reporter Sonia Rao stops by to explain why jorts are peaking in popularity around the city. Photo: Jordan Bank/FIFA via Getty Images -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 Jene Pierre. Spain and Argentina go head to head in the World Cup final this weekend. Plus, they're not jeans, but they're not really shorts either. The George's trend is leading summer fashion in New York City. We'll get into it all on this week's edition of the Arts and Culture Check-in. But first, here's what we're following. An examination of the structural plans for Midtown Office Building

are raising new questions about what led to a near catastrophic collapse last week. WNYC and Gothamist reporter David Brand reviewed hundreds of pages of official structural drawings for the Office to Housing Project on East 42nd Street. It shows that engineers called for the reinforcement of two steel columns that later buckled beneath a 14-story expansion of the building. David will share more of the findings with us next week, so be on the lookout for that episode on Monday. Elected officials in New York City are getting a pay raise, their first in a decade.

On Thursday, the City Council voted in favor of the increase for themselves, the mayor, public advocate, borough presidents, controller, and district attorneys. But not everyone was on board. Mayor Zora Mundani is refusing to take the nearly 18% raise. Council member Joanne Ariola of Queens voted against it. We have no money to put extra cops on the street. We have no money to pair E. them ask what they're worth, then how dare we say there is money to give ourselves raises?

Assembly Speaker Carl Hasty says he supports the pay hikes in hopes that it might trickle up to the state legislature, even though they saw salaries rise four years ago. When the Trump administration took over the redevelopment of Penn Station last year, it also promised to find ways to run more service. WNYC's transit reporter Stephen Nesson went through a new report and shared findings on ways that they plan to do that. To move 33% more trains into Penn, the feds recommend extending some of its platforms and adding more staircases.

He says that would reduce the time it takes for riders and crews to get on and off trains. It also says four hourly NJ Transit and L-I-R trains could share tracks. It's called through-running and would free up space at Penn. Stephen says these tweaks could allow eight additional trains per hour to run between Midtown and New Jersey. The feds are working on a more in-depth analysis on how to implement these findings. Have you ever heard of a moon tree? There's one on the campus of the Bronx Community College that was planted a couple years ago.

Students there think it's good luck. Anyway, a moon tree is a tree grown from a seed that has literally been to the moon. This was an idea that first came up within the 70s by an astronaut named Stu Smokey Rusa, just a huge tree lover. That's Lulu Miller, host of WNYC's Terrestrials podcast. She says this astronaut, Smoky, went to the moon on Apollo 14 back in 1971. Every astronaut gets to bring a tiny bag that they can bring one basically special object. And he chose tree seeds.

And he brought about 500 seeds of redwoods and sweet gums. And he wanted to see if they would survive and then if he brought them back if they would grow. Lulu says NASA planted about 500 trees all over the planet, but many of the locations have been forgotten. So in 2022, when Artemis 1 went to the moon, astronauts tried again. Now Lulu says a moon tree is growing tall in Manhattan's Madison Square Park. It's a sapling. It's about the height of me. You know, it's got a tiny trunk right now, the size of a crayon. It's a sweet gum, so it's got these big green leaves.

And, you know, it's got a ton of. of life ahead. I am happy to see the weekend. It's been quite a week. We've had a heat wave, a parasite outbreak, and smoky skies. And forecasters say the weekend will be grim, bringing more smoke, dirty rain, flash floods, and high winds. More Canadian wildfire smoke is expected to roll in Saturday morning, creating unhealthy conditions for anyone outdoors. There's also chances of rain and severe storms Saturday, with possibilities for localized flooding and damaging winds. The rain could even leave a film of soot on cars and roadways, thanks to the ash coming over from Canada. But meteorologist Jay Engel says Sunday will be a reprieve.

We should see less smoke, better air quality to a degree on Sunday with more in the way of sunshine, and temperature is warm, but not nearly as humid, not as warm and muggy. He says it's still too early to tell whether more smoke could return to the tris-state. area next week. We got to take a quick break, but when we return, it's our bi-weekly check-in with WMYC's Arts and Culture Desk. Stay close. Welcome back to another edition of the Arts and Culture Check-in.

I'm Jenei-Pierre, and joining me for this bi-weekly conversation is WNYC's Arts and Culture editor Matthew Schnipper. Matt, I'm thinking it's time to change the name. I think we could do probably better. A lot better, I think, too. This is like, you know, it's like when your magazine is called like car and drive You know? Yeah.

We have arts and culture check-in. It's literal. It's very literal, you know? It's what it does on the tin. It's time for that to kick rocks. Kick-Rox. So maybe we should call it. Kick-Rox?

I like that. Kick-Rox. Kick-Rox with Jeney and Schnipper. You know, kick-Rox is actually get out of here. We want to welcome people. Yeah, that's true. Don't kick rocks. Collect rocks.

Collect rocks. And bring them to us. I don't know. But we're workshoping some names for this segment. If you have any ideas. is hit us up at NYC now at WMYC.org. Okay, so, Matt, I am having a wonderful summer. How are you doing?

I'm having a pretty good summer, actually. Yeah, I would say I'm scared of the national diarrhea that is going around. A diarrhea summer, yeah. Yeah, I'm not trying to do that. It's wildfire craziness. Right. Yeah, I don't love that stuff. But the rest of it seems pretty good.

Yeah, it's definitely no pun intended here, Canada lit. Oh. Well, we're still riding high. I mean, the World Cup final is happening this weekend. Spain and Argentina are going to go head to head. But, you know, there have been so many watch parties and street takeovers in certain neighborhoods. I know that your desk put out a story about how locals can experience the World Cup for the final time this Sunday. Yeah, there's a bunch of different places you can.

can watch. If you want to head out and be rooting for Argentina, like Boca Juniors and Elmhurst is the spot to go to. I was having a debate with my boss about this. There's two big general watch parties that I would just recommend. There's the Central Park, and they said they're expecting 50,000 people in Central Park. I mean, that's a lot of people, but it's a big park. But the other thing that seems cool is that they're hosting a party in Governor's Island. I have an inkling that Momdani is going to be there. It's like says Office of the Mayor. They're using the same design for the flyer that he's been using kind of for the jerseys and everything, but he's hosting a party in Governor's Island.

He's not hosting the party himself. But I kind of like that idea of heading out to Governor's Island. Not everyone is going to go because there is a sort of barrier to entry. But it's going to be a big watch party. They'll have lots of screens. It's with rooftop films. They're, you know, they said they'll have DJ's activities, the kind of stuff you want to have when you're hanging out with people.

If you were looking for a place to go out in the city and you're not like already watching with a whole bunch of people consider Governor's Island. Yeah. Who are you rooting for? There was no scrappy underdog that I was hoping I would be rooting for. Same thing. All of my teams are out, you know? So I am rooting for everyone to just have a great time.

That sounds nice. In American fashion, also with the World Cup being here in New York, New Jersey, this is the first World Cup with a halftime show. So I'm rooting for the halftime show. Beaver. Yeah. Beat-S. Shakira? Do you remember Shakira had that anthem?

She had the anthem, what is it? 10 or 20, 15 years ago. She seems to be a World Cup staple. Yeah. Lionel Messi and Shakira. I need that Shakira jersey. Oh, that's a good idea. A-Sat.

I think it's interesting, Bieber, because you remember at Coachella, Bieber was like, playing his own YouTube videos for his performance. It's like pretty lazy. I thought it was cool. But he can't do that at the World Cup, right? No. I mean, he's sharing the stage with other artists and they have a good. grand total of 11 minutes. Is it really?

It's 11 minutes. Yeah, I believe so. I mean, whatever, that's fine. That, like, Trump is going to, I know is giving out the trophy, but it's like Trump, Bieber, B. B.T.S. Shakira, messy. That's just a lot of people in one place. All right.

So that's happening this weekend for folks who aren't really into sports and are into books. You know, summer is also a great time for that summer. reading list and just to get through some new reads. What are you reading? What are you eyeing? Yeah, I am a big reader. And I realized a few of the books that I had read this year, I took place in New York City. And I asked some of my colleagues, have you guys read other books from 2026 that take place

in New York? And a few people in the office actually said, yeah, they had. So we put together kind of a list of the first half of the year of interesting books about New York. But my personal ones, the three that I like is a book called Don't Step into My Office by David Fishkind. Love this title. It's a great title. No New York, which is a memoir by Adel Burtai, and The Hill by Harriet Clark, which is, yes,

is a New York book, but a lot of it takes place kind of just outside of the city in a women's prison. And before you go any further, Matt, I just want to define what a New York City book is. It's obviously like books set in New York City. Yes, we thought a book set in New York City, a book about New York City, not just a New York City author, but sort of a book that is in around about New York in one way. So we have a book in our list on Gothamette.com. We have a photo book of photos taken from the elevated trains. We have Lena Dunham's FamSick, her new memoir.

Both of these things are New York. Don't Step into My Office is a novel that I think has flown under the radar and I think is delightful and bizarre. It's about a guy who in his late 20s is definitely doing a lot of drugs, lives in Coney Island, witnesses a murder on the beach, tries to put this out of his mind, and of course it comes back to haunt him after he cleans up, meets a woman and spends a lot of time with her wealthy family in the Hamptons. It turns out that, you know, they have a connection to the murder, you know,

how does it all happen? This is a book that has so much plot, like an unbelievable amount of plot, but it also doesn't matter what the plot is kind of at all. You're just sort of barreling along with this guy, Jacob Garlicker, the protagonist. I loved reading it. A friend of mine was like, do you think the end was too much? And I was like, yeah, of course. But that's why it was great. I was like, of course it was too much.

The whole thing is too much. That's very, very bizarre. It's weird. Everything is weird and it gets weirder. So I think it's fun. If you're looking for something kind of unexpected. I would say pick this one up. Okay.

You know, my summer reading list is getting longer and longer mad. Yeah. There's another book by a really great author I'm trying to get my hands on. It's called Rise Above. I was like, what's that? I knew. Janaya's been trolling me in the office wanting for me to talk about this. So, yes, I have a book coming out on Tuesday.

Humble Guy. Called Rise Above, which I guess technically is a New York book. It certainly takes place in New York. I talked about it for a second. And I think the last time I was on here, but this is a memoir that I wrote about kind of what happened after my son, who was 22 months old after he died very suddenly from a genetic disorder we didn't know he had. And kind of what happened, this was he died about four and a half years ago. And so I spent after I was working at Vice at the time and I wrote an essay and got an opportunity to turn that into a book, which I basically like then signed a book. Dylan panicked for like six months and didn't write anything until Vice went bankrupt and

then I was like, I got to get out of here. And then started going to the Center for Fiction, if there's any Center for Fiction, regulars listening and sat there for about a year and a half and wrote this book, which kind of helped me figure out what had happened, what I wanted my life to kind of be like after that, sort of how to kind of survive, to be honest. And in that kind of process of writing it, I sort of ended up doing the service. surviving itself. And then the last chapter, sort of the last chapter, the second last chapter, I guess,

is sort of the first year of my daughter's life, which was went against the exact advice I was given by the editors when I started. They were like, don't write into the present. They're like, don't try to catch up with right now. I did do that. So I'm glad you're excited about it. I appreciate it. I'm excited about it.

I am happy to hear that this book writing it has helped you in your grief. I'm wondering how do you feel now that it's out. I mean, I got my copies in the mail yesterday. And I was sad. I mean, I miss my son. And I think in a way, obviously, that our relationship has changed my relationship with grief. My relationship with him has changed over time. As anyone who has ever lost, someone knows it does change.

But it made me feel even seeing the books closer to him. It's strange. I think I always wanted to write a book. this is not the book I wanted to write. In a sense, I'm proud of it, but it's also, it's kind of just, I feel kind of sad, to be honest, you know, for lack of a sort of more complex emotion. It's sort of like, we read these books to my daughter about like how you mix different colors together.

It's like you color in all the colors and then you just get brown. It's like, it's kind of that. I think I feel brown. Yeah. It's just like, yeah, if there's some happiness, there's some fear, there's all kinds of stuff, you know. Yeah. I tried to make it valuable. Yeah.

It was valuable to me, at least. Well, go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Thanks, Jeney. Right there. Yes, that's, yeah. It's got a beautiful cover. Shout out to Daniel Arnold, to the photographer who shot that cover. I'm proud of that, for sure.

Nice. I usually like to tell a joke or something to get out of awkward moments. That's not awkward. Okay, you know, you just got a segue, you know. It's like, okay, where do I? It's a hard, you know, I was in the office the other day and telling our colleague, Julia, who's been on the show, about it a little bit. And we were just chatting about it.

She knew about it. She was asking, like, I was feeling about it. And another guy, one of our other colleagues from another part of the office was like, oh, that's cool. You wrote a book. What's it about? And I told him. And he's like, oh.

And I was like, it's okay. You know, like, he didn't, you know, people don't know what to say. And like, which I understand. I hope this book will kind of help, you know, be like, it is okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's not awkward for me. It just, it is, you know.

All right, Matt. What do you call? jeans that look like leggings. Do you don't have a transition out of that? You told me I didn't mean. I'm trolling you. I'm sorry. Oh, man.

I'm trolling you. Yeah, okay, sorry, I'm going to stop the trolling. What do you call jeans that look like leggings? I think that's jaggings? Yeah. All right. What do you call big baggy jeans that aren't jeans at all? They're actually just really big.

Shorts. Would that be jorts? Jing ding ding ding ding ding ding ding jing jing jing jing jing. Jing, yes, I like that. Actually, you know, this is a trend that I have been seeing all over these New York City streets, the big jorts with the tube socks and loafers. You know the look. The emphasis on the big of the jorts.

Yeah. This is not a short cutoffs thing. We're talking ginormous jorts. Now we're not doing a summer fashion trend segment right. now, but I do want to bring in one of your reporters because she worked on a story looking at this trend. Let's welcome Sonia Rao. Sonia, welcome. Hi, thanks so much.

Senior Jorts reporter, Sonia Rau. Getting into business cards as we speak. Jorts enthusiast. Jorz enthusiast. It's a good one. Yeah. Jorts. Tell us how the story came about.

Dr. Jorts. Dr. Jorz. Dr. Jorz. This story came about because I am relatively new to the city. And so I've been walking around with my eyeballs wide open. And they were assaulted by jorts. And I say assaulted even though I own jorts. But they're just everywhere.

And I think, you know, they skew younger, I think, jorts wearers. I think there's a lot of 20-somethings. But, you know, there are 30-somethings. There are 40-somethings. There are 50-somethings who've been wearing these all the time and aren't aware of the fact that they're trendy, I think. And so I just really noticed it everywhere and was thinking to myself, has this always been a thing? Is it true that this is more recent? So I did kind of just run around the city talking to people wearing jorts.

Okay. What did you find? I found that, yes, I think it is a more recent trend. I'm calling this peak jorts this summer because I think it's been building for a couple years. But, you know, I went to a woke vintage, one of the locations. And the person working there was like, oh, everybody is coming in looking at. for low-rise baggy jorts. Very specific.

She says high-rise jorts are not it right now. What? Low-rise. I'm a high-rise kind of girl. I'm a high-rise chick myself as well. Because low-rise, what are we doing? No, I'm not like... I'm not bringing too early 2000s.

Right? Not at the same time. No, no, no. That's like Avengers assembled. But, you know, I learned that a lot of people are just wearing them because they're, you know, they're comfortable. One guy was like, I just kept losing my keys and all my... Jorts have a lot of loops, and he would loop his keys onto his shorts.

He's just trying to justify it. I think utility was the big thing. But then there's the way that, you know, I want to say the girlies are styling it, which is little tank top, big pants, which have been a trend in recent years, and like kitten heels or ballet flats, which is such a delicate touch for such a ginormous short. And so I love it. I think that they really bring everyone together. Okay, and have you seen this as an all-day look or like nighttime?

Black-tied jorts? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're talking all washes here. So there are dark jeans. There are black denim jorts, if you will. I think some people are really good at styling them up. I'm not sure I would like go to the mat gala in shorts. But, you know, I think people are wearing them out.

They're wearing them to nice-ish occasions. And I think that's where it comes down to styling, right? Like if you do the big t-shirt, Adam Sandler style, that's casual, that's groceries, that's daytime hang, whatever. I think if you do the tiny top or a blouse even, perhaps. You can probably get away with going out for dinner, perhaps. Maybe. Okay. If you're, like, young and cool and pull it off, you don't have to be young, but just cool.

Yeah. One of the things that we've been wondering about is what is the difference between a long jort and a short pant? And I'm wondering, like, if something is sort of just skirt. hurting the ankle. Like a Kula? Yeah, but like maybe it's just a call it when you see it. But there are some things that I was like, those are a jort. And then others, I was like, that's a pant, you know?

Totally. I think they definitely have to be above ankle. First off, of course, that's just, I guess, the definition of pants versus not. My parents, they're from India. They call them flood level pants, which I love. High waters in America, I think it's more so what people say. So, yeah, I think that's a long. short, I would say we are getting into Kulat

territory. And, you know, when I was going around the city, I had a photographer with us, Rafael Rios, he's great. He would kind of point out someone a block away and say, should we chase them down? And I was like, those are culots. We can't. We can't. We can't. And I think, you know, part of it is

just an internal feeling, which isn't a helpful answer. But I also think there's something about the rigidness of these pants because they're denim, right? Like, these are still denim shorts. The heavier the denim, I think, the better the jort. Yes, absolutely. And I think if they flow a little too much, you're like, is this even real denim? What is this now? Like the chambray type shirt? Because again, it's back to utility, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, a long jort, maybe shin, it hits you in the shin somewhere. Once you're going past that, their pants. Yeah. Interesting. I want to say, I think there is below the ankle jorts. I want to make a controversial call and say it is, it's about width as much as it is about length. I think it is a sort of spiritual commitment to the jort that kind of will overtake an inseam. That is my personal feeling that you might say, someone would say, well, you have pants that are shorter than that and they would say, these are shorts. Like, that's just what the deal is. Jans. Jans.

I guess jeans is the word. It exists. Chins. Reinventing the wheel. I love it. So for more on jorts to see how it's styled, because there are also some great photos going into this piece, check it out, look for it on our news site, got them miss.com, early next week. Thanks a lot, Sonia. Thank you.

And available on our news site, gotamist.com right now is actually the America 250 series that the arts and culture desk kicked off a couple weeks ago. Matt, where do things stand with that series now? Any other stories? Yes. This was about kind of ideas that New York had championed, had begun. But we have two stories about what New Jersey did because we wanted to kind of show some love to our Jersey brothers and sisters. Okay.

So reporter Michael Saw Warren talked to Kevin Smith. I didn't know this. Did you know the idea of Hollywood, the film industry originated in New Jersey? I heard something about that with the recent tax deductions that they have going on. Oh, they're trying to bring it back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Edison had a whole bunch of patents and innovations. And Edison also then was like, okay, I'm going to start a movie studio. Like he figured out how to do the technology. So he had a movie studio in Jersey called Black Maria. The whole place would lift up and spin around depending on what the light from the sun would be. It was pretty crazy.

But apparently Edison was kind of like a patent passed. And so a lot of people as the industry kept growing, he was like, well, you got to pay me for this or you don't have a patent for this. people moved, they're like, let's get out of here. The sun is better in California and Edison isn't here. And the industry picked up basically and moved to California, but it really did begin in Jersey. So Michael talked to Kevin Smith about the history of this.

And then he also talked to him about like the history of a Jersey film and why he is sort of the ultimate Jersey, Jersey film icon, which he very much is if you've not watched, I'm feeling like, have you ever seen clerks? No. Yeah. I feel like this is in our age gap. If you've not watched clerks, if you've not watched dogma, if you've not watched mall rats. Like, you see none of those?

No. Yeah, like, get on and watched some of those. Great New Jersey film history. He said, get on. Come on. You got to do that. So that was fun. And then we also have a series we'd learned about hot dogs, basically, were invented in Brooklyn. That's right. National Hot Dog Day was this week. And that was a really cool story. It's kind of crazy. It's invented by a German immigrant who, you know, was making sausages and then was like, how do I kind of capitalize on this? Making a whole meal. Yes. And so he was like, oh, he was already making buns. And he was Like, if I make them longer, you can hold the sausage. And, you know, he was doing great.

And then all of a sudden he started getting undercut by his employee Nathan. And Nathan's hot dogs exploded. So Nathan's just came from being cheap at success. So that was kind of sad. But a great, you know, a really great story, real interesting story. And the other thing that came in also via Edison sort of, well, he's inspirational for it, is the tattoo gun. The modern tattoo machine came out of New York City. which I think was really cool.

Did you know the tattoos were illegal in New York for like 50 years? I had no idea. Yeah. This woman who was talking about it said she was like, I used to even tattoo cops, like they didn't care, but you couldn't open up a tattoo shop from like, I can't remember the exact date. Wow. Yeah, exactly. I had no idea.

I felt like a bozo for not knowing this. I didn't know. I didn't know either. I didn't know. Speaking of tattoos, I have been seeing more and more of the New York Knicks logos tattooed on folks. Oh, that's cool. More than ever. And I'm like, this is really happening.

That's cool. We knew it. We predicted it. Wow, wow, wow. That's cool. Are you getting one? Not as of this point. I mean, I haven't been that drunk. I don't think so. I don't think so. We'll see. You'll be the first to know. Well, the second. The second, I guess the tattoo artist. So yeah, so many Knicks tattoos, but I don't think I'll be in that number unless something awful happens and I lose a bet or whatever. Oh, my God. Godspeed to you. You know, speaking,

of something awful happening. I want to say, the one last thing I really want to talk about. We talked about diarrhea at the beginning of the show, and I do want to talk about flashulence now. Chuck Schumer farted. On the Senate floor. Excuse me, I can set a floor. Quite loudly.

Quite loudly twice. And like just, I just, Jay just played it for us earlier. I had read about it, but I hadn't heard the fart itself. And he acknowledged it. He was like, oh, you know. look, I'm not shaming him. I don't think anyone should experience fart shame at all, but I wouldn't do it.

We don't know if it was the parasite. We don't know. Oh, they're trying to yell at us. Just in case I have to cut that. No, we're not cutting that. Please don't do this to us. Do you really want that on record? Yes. Are you kidding me?

I have a tear in my eye. I have never been happier. I need this. Okay. If you can tie it into New York City arts and culture. He's our New York representative. Fart is an art. The art of fart.

You can't spell fart without art. Do it. We're going to get out of here, but I want to say this. You can't spell the word fart without art. It's true. And this is the arts and culture segment. So with that in mind, that's WNYC's Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schnipper. Matt, thanks so much again for joining me today.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.