WEBVTT - Brian Lehrer Comes to Here's the Thing 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.400 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:10.399 Brian larr is the best of New York City. When 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.240 New Yorkers want a fair Mayorld debate, we call Brian. 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.439 Let me jump in and Mr Mayor, if you have 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.600 the right approach, why has your rezoning plan resulted in 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.919 so much opposition in neighborhood after neighborhood where you're trying 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.000 to w n YC needed someone to help us process 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:33.360 our own me to moment. We called Brian. I've been 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.680 shocked to find it in our own house. The pressure 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.320 needs to be on us, guys. As I mentioned, and 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.120 when Brian got the Peabody Award for Broadcast Excellence for 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.000 his daily public affair show on w n y C, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.240 the jury put its finger on exactly what he represents 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:58.040 real engagement, respectful dialogue and getting to the truth. Brian 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.240 Lara on w n YC and Governor Culomos joins us 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.120 now to talk about a few things. The grassroots group 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.399 Make the Road released an anti Amazon statement. Do you 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.120 think that's just petty politics? First two is Make the Road, Brian, 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.080 do you want to characterize it? No? I don't know 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.880 who they are you don't know at this point, as 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.080 active as they have been in New York politics for 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:23.960 this long. You don't know who make the road is? 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.520 Should you know? Who make the road is? The very 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.880 thing that makes Brian so good at his job makes 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.840 him a tricky subject. It's not about him, which is 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.679 exactly what New Yorkers have craved for over a generation. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:45.039 We are in our thirtieth year. This is the world 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.960 has not ended, but nor has it improved all that month. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.800 How's the show changed? Well, the show changes depending on 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.040 the state of the world. When we started in September, 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.760 it was this incredibly optimistic moment. The fall of communism 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.240 was taking place right at that moment. We started in 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.880 late September nine. By six weeks into our run, the 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.400 Berlin Wall had fallen and New York City had elected 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.760 its first black mayor, and there was all this optimism 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.880 at the local level and at the national and international level. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.400 Freedom was breaking out around the world, Democracy was breaking out. 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.519 What a heady time. Well, let's jump ahead, oh thirty years. 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:33.480 Optimism is just not in right now. But also you nine, 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.760 you say, interesting, how New York contradicts the national trend. 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:42.160 Maybe George the first becomes president in Dinkins becomes mayor 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.240 in eighty nine, and so in New York. Sometimes not always, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.560 but sometimes interesting how they go contrary to the national trend. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.720 That right right, There are parallels too, though. Um. You know, 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.800 when I think about the ninety nineties, it was the 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:58.120 Clinton era and the Juliania in aberration in New York 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.200 that a Republican in order candidate would be elected mayor. 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:07.920 But New York is thriving in many ways. The economy 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.919 is growing, crime is going down. Um. At the same time, 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.280 the economy is growing and crime is going down nationally, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.360 and the Democrats are saying, look, we have a liberal 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.520 in the White House and everything's getting better. And the 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.880 Republicans are saying, look we have a conservative in city 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.200 Hall and everything's getting better. So sometimes it's just the 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.960 larger trends of history and whoever wants to latch onto 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.440 it politically, you know, you're so measured, you're so careful, 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.640 like what pisces you off without naming names and getting 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.560 you know, stepping outside your role. Is Brian Larris sitting 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.080 there in the bathroom with a bob of vaka in 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.880 his hand, throwing a plate of haggandahs at the TV. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.320 There's plenty that pisces me off, and you can probably 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.880 hear it on the show by the way I frame 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.640 a question or by a monologue that I'll do introducing 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.200 a segment. But at the same time, I want to 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:04.440 invite everybody in. So sometimes people have said to me, oh, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:09.320 your show is the opposite of Rush Limbaugh. And it's 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:14.680 not because he's conservative and on liberal. It's because he 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.080 makes no secret about the show is about what he thinks. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.280 There's a joke I've heard him tell that this show 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.559 isn't about what you think, it's about what I think. 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.400 And he says it in this kind of jokey, pompous way, 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.200 and it's a joke, but it's also true. And that's 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.040 the commercial radio formula. This isn't just about Rush Limbaugh. 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.160 For me, I have opinions. I sometimes state my opinions, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.680 or I sometimes frame questions in a leading way that 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:48.320 suggests an opinion. But the show is not about what 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.120 I think. So if I'm expressing a point of view, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.400 which I'm allowed to do on the show, you know, 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.520 I'm not a robot, and nobody wants me to be 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.240 a robot. But If I do express an opinion, it's 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.640 in the context of Okay, this is what I think. Now, 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:08.080 everybody else who agrees or disagrees, come on in and 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.360 let's have a meaningful conversation about it. That's how it's 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.240 different from Rush Limbo or you can pick any liberal 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.600 or conservative or opinionated host. Now, when you mentioned Limbo 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.279 and the reporter asked you, I think it was in 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.320 two thousands of sixteen you were talking to the observer. 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.880 He asked, you know why left wing radio had failed? 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:26.800 I think you said to him, but that failure was 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.440 a mystery to you. It's still a mystery to me. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.560 There are plenty of liberal or progressive people in the country, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.680 though there are a smaller percentage than there are conservatives, 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.279 by you know the surveys over the years. Um. But 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.520 the way you're asking the question, UM, feels like you 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.280 think you know the answer. So sometimes when people say 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.160 they think they know the answer to that, it's sort 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.640 of a corporate conspiracy. There's no company because it's not 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:00.760 in the interest of corporate America to put liberal media 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.919 out there. Um, Is that where you're going with it? No? No, 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.880 I mean I wasn't. I don't think I had an answer. Uh, 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.840 my thinking has always been that I've always felt and 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.520 this is a pejorative, this is a judgment at the 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:16.640 very least that the conservatives need their media predigested more 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.320 than liberals do. I don't want to judge all conservatives 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.960 are all Fox News viewers or the majority of them 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.320 by saying conservatives need their opinions predigested for them, but 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.080 I will say that it's been a problem for the 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:33.960 Democrats relative to the Republicans in the political space. Where 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:39.280 Republicans do digest very simply what there for? You know, 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:46.680 wherefore family values, a strong enforcements, and free economy. Democrats 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.279 struggle with it. Chuck Schumer wrote a book a number 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.800 of years ago that I don't know the title of it, 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.159 but one of his main themes was Democrats have to 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.400 learn to say what therefore in seven words? And that 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.039 was hen fifteen years ago. And I don't think Chuck 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.800 Schumer himself has figured out how to do that yet. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.479 And the Democrats as a party have not figured out 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.400 how to do that yet. For whatever reason, they think 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:17.720 more in terms of complexity and um, so it sometimes 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.840 does not accrue to their benefit. Earlier, in your career. 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:22.920 You had a TV show for ten years. I had 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.600 a weekly public fairs TV show on the old w 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:30.280 n y C TV when that existed, that was Channel 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.040 thirty one. That's part of the history of w n 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.200 y C. When it was owned by the city. There 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.000 was the radio station and there was the television station. 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.560 And when Rudy Giuliani became mayor and decided he was 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.680 going to get the city out of the broadcast business 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:49.120 because that wasn't a function for city government. Fair enough, 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.480 but it was a threat to public broadcasting in New 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.360 York City. Um, w n y C is not where 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.640 on the radio dial public radio stations usually are. There's 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:05.920 a nonprofit public radio zone below FM, and we have 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:12.520 got this technically commercial frequency of point nine. So Giuliani 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.760 considered selling all of w n y C into the 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.600 commercial sector, and ultimately there were a lot of people 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.120 who really valued w n y C Radio w n 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.880 y C TV maybe not so much who ever heard 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.840 of it, even though they were doing some good things, 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:33.920 And that was sort of the deal that was struck. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.839 The city sole channel thirty one for I think two 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.280 fifty million dollars, and that helped make it okay to 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.280 let public radio sort of retain our license. But anyway, 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.319 that was the l w N y C TV. Did 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.679 you enjoy that? I do enjoy television, but they're really different. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.200 On television, you have to look at the camera, and 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:58.760 you know, radio is sort of an open book test. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.200 People say, oh, you seem to know so much about 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.400 the topics that you're talking about. Well, I have notes 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.680 there in front of me for everything, and I refer 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:11.240 to things, and you can cheat and you can look 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.280 down and you don't have to make eye context. So 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.960 that makes radio a little bit easier. But television is fun. 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.000 It's nice to be seen, it's nice to be able 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.280 to play with visuals. You know, they're very different media. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:25.400 What I liked about it was you can read the 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.360 person's expressions in their faces and you and there's something 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:29.840 to be said about that in an interview, how do 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.840 they behave? The other thing about live radio as opposed 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.640 to podcasts, people are constantly coming and going, so you 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.600 have to reset right, this conversation has to make sense 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:43.800 if you tune in at ten o'clock or if you 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.559 tune in at ten oh eight. We have to constantly 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.640 be thinking, okay, if this person tuned in to this 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.000 half hour segment seventeen minutes through. We wanted to be 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:55.920 able to make sense for them, but at the same 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.599 time be able to progress for the people who have 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:00.959 been there since the big inning. It's just sort of 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.200 a whole other layer of presentational awareness that you don't 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.040 have on television and they don't have on podcasts. That's 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.160 one of the interesting thing about podcasts having come in 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.120 and become such a dominant form in the world. A 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.280 podcast is like a private space. You go into the podcast, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.160 you know you've chosen to subscribe and download, and you 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.400 can start it and stop it. Um And in a 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.080 way it's even more intimate than live radio because it's 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.600 really just you and the podcast talking right in your ear. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.880 I think it also a podcast there's something about portion control. 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.520 You know. Thank God for my producer, because you know, 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:41.440 I would argue, I'd say, let's do the podcast like 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.720 an hour and a half, and then they'll be like, no, no, no, no, no. 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.440 Podcasts are like the right size. I've been told that 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.559 one popular podcast, I'm not going to call them out 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.680 because I may have the story wrong. UM figured out 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.960 exactly what the average length of a commute is in 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:02.280 New York City and set their podcast for that length, 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.640 So that's targeted. But look at old news Radio ten 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.600 ten wins. You give us twenty two minutes, we'll give 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.559 you the world. You know why, because the average length 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.880 of listening is no more than twenty two minutes. They 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.160 go through the whole cycle and they start over. So 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.640 if we wanted to do the most commercial show we 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.920 could possibly do in my format, we would take the 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.480 lead story of the day and do it three times 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.880 an hour and three times the next hour. For the 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.040 two hour show, twenty minutes discussions about the one thing 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.880 that people most want to talk about. Because for us 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.560 to the average length of listening is probably about twenty 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.720 minutes per person per listening day, even though for many 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.400 people your shows on later in their day, they're out 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.200 the door by then. I when I'm not working, I 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.800 wake up, I take a shower, I have breakfast whatever 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.199 with my kids. But ten o'clock is right and when 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.199 I might maybe I'm going to shave and comb my hair. 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.360 So for Brian Larra's research, people figure out how long 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.920 does it take the average man to shave and style 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.160 his hair? That's how long like a segment should be. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.880 And one of the nicest things anybody can say to 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.960 me is you made me late for work. You have 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.600 maybe laid for work. Believe it now. Um, when the 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.760 TV show ends without your choice, could you have gone 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.800 on you wanted to change? Yeah, I would have gone 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.120 on at that time if if I could have. You 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.000 were doing a radio show years ago, and I guess 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:30.280 in the beginning of your careers, as in Albany Music Program. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.200 And I read that in the seventies you said I 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.360 think I'll just open the phone lines. That true, Well, 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.720 it was a little more complicated than that. Um. When 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.920 I was coming up, my real goal was to be 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.400 an FM rock DJ. They were some of my role models. 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:52.640 Dennis Elsis be Dennis ELS's, Vin Scalca, Pete for a tell. 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.319 And these people, this is when I was a teenager, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.960 were more than what we think of as DJs spin 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.600 in the hits. They were kind of radio artists. They 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.960 were playing an eclectic mix of music that you could 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.920 play on the radio in those days on the FM 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.200 rock stations when they were new. Musically speaking, yes, it 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.720 was rooted in rock, but they played jazz, they played folk, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.960 they played bluegrass. I remember sitting on the beach one 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:27.559 summer during college, listening to the old ny WFM, and 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:29.959 there was I think a Rolling Stone song and the 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.040 next thing that came on was Miles Davis during an 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.600 electric track from his album Bitches Brew, and it blew 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.480 my mind and I was like, what is this? And 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.880 I've never heard anything like that before, and I was like, 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.480 I want more of this. Yeah. I said to people, 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.720 I said, I wanna have my own show, and they said, 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:48.719 what do you want to do with it? I want 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:50.679 to do anything. I want to play old Cheech and 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.880 Chong clips and then I'm gonna go from like uh 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.840 Emerson Lake in Palmer to Rosemary Clooney like who Cares? 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.360 So there was that part of the art to it. 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.000 There was also the spoken word part of the art 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:09.439 to it because these DJs or hosts were telling stories, 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.920 they were sometimes reading poetry very much made an impression 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:19.120 on me as a teenager that Roscoe, that particular DJ 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.360 on the old ny WFM would sometimes read poetry, as 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:30.120 I recall, and they would do political monologues, they would 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.160 do social commentary in between playing rock records, and of 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.920 course they would talking about music and in the context 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.400 of the times, and I was like, I want to 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.240 do that. Well. In college I did a lot of 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.880 that on the camp's radio station at Albany State. I 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.880 also did news. And after college I got my dream job. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.240 There was an FM rock station in Albany that was 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.800 just starting out and they were hiring DJs, and I 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.560 got um a job like that, and they said it's 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.040 a six day a week job, so, okay, you have 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:06.440 your after show. No no, no, I have graduate. They said, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.080 it's six day a week job, so you have your 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.640 Monday through Friday show and you have to come in 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.120 and pick a weekend shift. And because I was also 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.720 interested in news and talk in the world, I said, well, 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.160 can I come in late Sunday night and open the phones? 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.560 And to my shock, they said yes, and the reasons 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.400 they've been doing that before. No, but in those days 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.200 you needed public affairs credit with the f c C, 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.880 with feral government. Even if you're a music station that's 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:37.840 all gone now you don't need it. I probably would 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.520 never have been able to break into this business under 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.200 you know, contemporary rules, But at that time, even a 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.360 music station needed some news and some public affairs. And 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.480 they must have been like, oh, this kid wants to 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.680 open the phones for midnight three on Sunday night. What 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.320 have we got to lose? And we get to check 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.480 the box that we have our public affairs credit. Well, 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.120 what happened was, over time I realized that I was 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:08.560 putting much more mental energy and really time into preparing 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.200 my three hour a week middle of the night talk 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.840 show than my five hour a day, five day a 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.800 week music show. And I realized this is really who 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.360 I am. Was that an unconscious wish fulfillment for you? 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:25.320 It was conscious wish fulfillment. By then. It was just 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.720 because I was curious, and I like the idea of connection, 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.440 and I like the idea of talking to strangers. But 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.640 then after a while I realized this is actually a 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.120 form of journalism, and I feel woefully underqualified to do this, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.720 and I went back to school. I actually quit that 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.760 job and went to grad school for journalism so I 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.680 could try to do it more seriously. Now, when you 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.960 see I like to talk to strangers and that curiosity 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.160 you have, is there anything in your childhood that signaled that. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.280 Did you grow up with your parents? Were you sitting 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.240 with your dad by the radio? What was the home 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.400 life like in terms of media. Um. The home life 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.640 was very average American in terms of media. Uh, you know, 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:10.399 we watched definitely candid camera. I mean my parents were, 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.159 you know, pretty cultured. They would I mean, considering that 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.960 they grew up poor in the South Bronx. Um. He 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.920 was an electrical engineer and then a home inspector, and 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.000 my mother was an elementary school teacher. Um. And you 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:26.760 grew up in the city, grew up in the city, 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:32.080 grew up in Queens And they also though took us 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:34.760 to theater. They took us to a lot of UM 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.800 summer stock which was the way we could afford seeing 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.880 Broadway plays. And they had Broadway cast albums that had 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:46.119 classical music. At home. Um, and we watched you know, 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:52.959 regular television. Media was was average. But for some reason 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:59.800 I got curious about talking to people not like me. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.879 Here's a certain way to look at my progression in media. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.159 By getting so much out of those DJs who are 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:13.159 also radio artists. When I was a teenager and feeling 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.120 like I was learning a lot about the world by 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.040 sitting in my bedroom and hearing these people who were 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.159 more connected to things in the outside world, I was like, 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.919 I want to do this someday and connect with kids 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:30.879 like me. Also, then as I got older, I thought, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.600 I want to do this and connect to people not 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.679 like me. When I realized that that was a revelation 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.040 that helped motivate me to want to open up the phones, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.359 that helped motivate me to get into journalism. There was, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.280 you know, maybe a social consciousness and that realizing that 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.679 I was growing up in a fairly comfortable We certainly 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.800 weren't rich, but I never had a worry where my 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.800 next meal was coming from kind of middle class home. 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.800 And I was realizing there was a lot going on 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.720 in the world that wasn't like me, and there was 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.200 a lot going on that would broaden my perspective on things, 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.879 and I was curious. I wanted to learn more about 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.680 the world, and that got me interested in talking to strangers. 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:17.960 When you took phone calls back then in the beginning, 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:20.479 what kind of people were calling you on a Sunday 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.720 between twelve three am. Well, it was a combination of Oh, 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.760 I would say, you know, rock music, stoners who were 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.119 up in the middle of the night and had an 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:34.119 outlet because I was inviting them to call in. Also 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.040 older people that was interesting to me, because they were 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.359 certainly not the music audience for that FM rock station. 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.520 But there were real talk radio listeners who tended to 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:49.960 be older people who maybe were retired or insomnia. Then 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.919 they wanted some company, absolutely right. Um. Sometimes some of 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.560 those folks would try to call me off the air 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.280 later and just sort of strike up a friend ship. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.720 And that was one of my early lessons in how 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:11.160 radio is companionship. Brian Larr the City's companion for more 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:16.840 than thirty years. Another wonderful fixture of New York media 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:21.000 is Philip Galanas. He's a novelist and attorney who writes 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.080 the legendary Social Cues Advice column in the Sunday New 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:30.600 York Times. But advice wasn't the Gray Ladies original idea. 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.560 First they wanted me to do a column, you know, 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:37.359 one of those you'd know everything about me and my 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.240 boyfriend and my dog. And it was because supposed to 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:42.480 be about my life, the life of you know, a 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.840 metropolitan gentleman philippin New York going around to the movies 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:48.840 and what I saw at the theater, and I thought 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:53.000 people will be so fucking like it's like I can 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.680 see that. For three weeks to hear what advice New 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.879 Yorkers are really looking for. Download my full interview with 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:08.240 Philip galanas at Here's the Thing dot org. More. Brian 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:28.240 Larrer coming up. This is Alec Baldwin. Here's Brian larr 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:31.880 on what he calls the paradox of modern New York. 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.800 The city is cleaner, it is safer. We don't want 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.399 to go back to the nineties seventies where you couldn't 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.320 walk down the street and there was a fiscal crisis. Uh, 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:44.639 you know, the city and states finances have been in 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.600 fairly good shape in recent years, and obviously crime is down, 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:52.760 but at the same time, homelessness is at record levels. 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:58.400 All of these spectacular contradictions, and hopefully there's a policy 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.040 way out of those things. But I think kind of 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.440 that's the state of New York to meet. New York 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.159 is dirtier than it's ever been. The homeless thing is 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.200 a problem again. The housing thing is a problem again. 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.680 The subways a mess. Also, this construction thing they upperstamp 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.600 every building. There's scaffolding and obstructive driving. If you could 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.000 wave a wand and solve off the top of your 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.480 head two or three problems right now and this is 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.920 a fantasy in the city. What would you address, Well, 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.800 at large, it would be affordability. The real estate industry 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:32.080 holds incredible power in this city and this state. And 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.560 look at Mayor du Blasio, who I would say, as 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.200 trying to do something about inequality in the city. If 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.920 he could wave a wand and say you can only 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:47.560 build affordable housing for the next eight years in New 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:52.000 York City and actually get affordable housing built, he would 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:56.600 do it. But there's enough power by the industry that 0:22:56.760 --> 0:23:00.600 if they don't get a certain amount of hearn on 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:05.000 their investment, they're just gonna blow it off. And it 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:09.199 takes a certain investment to bring the return that can 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.080 makes it worth it for developers, big risk to put 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:16.480 their money up um. But the city owns land as well. 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:18.680 What prevents the city from not taking land they own 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.320 and designing properties there that could be affordable. Well, there 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.200 was a lot of that in the nineties when Ed 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.440 Coach was mayored. There was so much more abandoned space. 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:31.000 At that time it was a lot easier to do. 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.800 Now there isn't as much, though there certainly are advocates 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.879 who say the city should be taking still more of 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:43.639 land that they own and turn it into affordable housing. Um, 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.480 do they need the state's permission to do that? Is 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:48.320 it time for the city to be given back more 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:51.000