Love, Death, and German Immigrants in 19th Century New York
If you were a corrupt or incompetent official in 19th century New York City, Philip Merkle was your worst nightmare: an idealistic German immigrant with subpoena power. As city coroner […]
Agent Orange on Long Island
We finish out our special three-part series on Long Island’s Vietnam veterans by looking at a second battle they faced in the years after the war: the effects of Agent […]
Joe Giannini and the Vietnam War
Jack Parente and the Vietnam War
Born and raised in Oyster Bay, Jack Parente found himself drafted into the Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam from 1968-1970 as a member of a reconnaissance unit of […]
A Cinderella Story from 1950s Long Island
Elizabeth Letts has a knack for finding good stories and evoking a time and place. In her New York Times bestselling book The Eighty-Dollar Champion, she uncovers the secluded equestrian […]
The Life of Marion Hollins
Imagine you were a woman born at the height of the Gilded Age with a passion, not for fashion or society, but for sports. And you grew up riding bareback […]
The Life Story of Primo Fiore
Primo Fiore was born in Brooklyn but raised his family in Deer Park while working as a physical education instructor in West Islip. His gifted speaking voice, combined with a […]
Restoring Thornhill’s Pharmacy with Matthew La Piana
Thornhill’s Pharmacy has overlooked the center of Sayville from the corner of Main Street and Gillette Avenue for over a century. This is actually the second location of Sewell Thornhill’s […]
Long Island Migrant Labor Camps
Mark Torres has uncovered a little-discussed chapter of Long Island history, the conditions under which many migrant farm workers labored on area farms from World War II into the early […]
Lost British Forts of Long Island
Since moving to New York from his native Canada, David Griffin has made it his mission to find and document the Revolutionary War-era forts that the British used to help […]
The African American Museum of Nassau County
Joysetta Pearse, director of the African American Museum of Nassau County, joins us to discuss the mission and operations of the museum. She shares a number of inspiring stories, many […]
The Glacier That Made Long Island
A wall of ice dominated the landscape of Long Island thousands of years ago. During the Pleistocene Epoch, a large mass called the Laurentide ice sheet stretched across most of […]
Brentwood and Local Media
We’ve got two segments for you today. The first is a conversation recorded online through the Brentwood Public Library during a podcast demonstration last year. Our participants recall some childhood […]
Mickey Quinn and St John the Baptist High School
It’s the early 70s in West Islip and St John the Baptist High School is gearing up for a crucial game against St. Agnes of Rockville Centre. But for freshman […]
Francis “Two-Gun” Crowley
Over the span of a few short months in 1931, 19-year old Francis Crowley was on the minds of everyone from the Bronx out to Long Island. Known for always […]
Mary L. Booth: Always an Independent Woman
Mary Louise Booth wrote her own story. A single woman from Long Island, she rose to prominence in the world of New York publishing as an acclaimed author, translator, and […]
The Long Island Archaeologist
Allison McGovern has been digging history for a long time. Fascinated as a child with ancient Egypt and visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she went on to become […]
Shudder Island
Robert Ottone is no stranger to the strangeness on Long Island. An Islip native, he has been attuned to the Island’s darker hues from an early age and has worked […]
Return to Plum Island
Anyone attempting to invade Long Island Sound at the turn of the last century would have faced a gantlet of artillery guns mounted in forts across the islands that stretch […]
The Plum Island That Time Forgot
Plum Island is poised between its past and its future. Looking back, it contains evidence of its time as a coastal defense in the Spanish-American War, as well as a […]
The History Press
Banks Smither oversees the publication of Long Island-related books from the History Press. As Acquisitions Editor, he has built up a catalog of the lost, abandoned, haunted, and forgotten corners […]
Baseball in Riverhead
A July night at Riverhead Stadium in 1950. Two baseball legends face each other without even realizing it. Satchel Paige, fabled Negro League pitcher, is on the mound for the […]
The Synagogues of Long Island
Brad Kolodny spent four years documenting every synagogue in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that he could find. The result is his comprehensive coffee table book from Segula Publishing. On today’s […]
Remembering Lillian Barbash
We’re rebroadcasting our interview with Lillian, Cathy and Susan Barbash about their family and their fight to stop Robert Moses from driving a road down the middle of Fire Island. […]
Preservation Awards: Oakdale Historical Society
Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society, joins us to discuss the organization’s role in preserving and celebrating the history of Oakdale. Located in Islip on the south shore […]
Preservation Awards: The Fordham Mill
The Fordham Mill (also known as the Tuttle-Fordham Mill or the Brick Mill) in Remsenburg was a local landmark long before it caught the eye of John Kanas. Growing up […]
Preservation Awards: Babylon’s Oak Beach Life- Saving Station
Welcome back to the awards ceremony. Today we hit the beach to talk to Mary Cascone, Babylon Town Historian, about the Oak Beach Life-Saving Station. Perched between the Great South […]
Preservation Awards: Sea Cliff Firehouse
The preservation awards ceremony continues! Today we speak with Erinn McDonnell of the village of Sea Cliff in Nassau County. Erinn managed the restoration of their 1931, Tudor revival-style firehouse […]
Preservation Awards: SANS Sag Harbor
It’s a preservation party and you’re all invited! We’ve teamed up with Preservation Long Island to help celebrate their 2020 Preservation Awards. Over the next week we’ll be posting interviews […]
John Warren’s Almanack
We travel this week to the Adirondacks (virtually speaking) to talk with John Warren, founder and publisher of New York Almanack. Formerly known as the New York History Blog, the […]
Where Old New York State Newspapers Live On
Our sojourn through the hallowed pages of the Suffolk County News from 1920 hit a speedbump this week when it turned out that no digital copy was available online. To […]
Someone Lived Here
The places we live are filled with the stories of our lives, told room by room like chapters in a book. So how do you read a home? That’s what […]
Suffolk County News, May 14, 1920
We wade once again into the cool stream of the digital past to fish for items from the Suffolk County News of 1920. Today is Friday, May 14th in the […]
Suffolk County News, May 7, 1920
If this is Friday, than it must be 1920! We continue mining the seam of digitzed microfilm out of the New York State Historic Newspapers site, looking at the Suffolk […]
We Were the Whalers
We return today to the sea to consider the whale. More specifically, we talk with Brenna McCormick-Thompson of the Whaling Museum and Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor. Brenna is […]
Suffolk County News, April 30, 1920
If it’s Friday and we’re still in self-isolation, then this is another edition of the Suffolk County News, give or take one hundred years. We’re reading through the newspaper as […]
Suffolk County News, April 23, 1920
The latest edition of last century’s Suffolk County News is here, for April 23rd, 1920. We continue easing our home isolation by reading what was going on in our region […]
Living with the Pandemic
Two museum directors, one public librarian, an artist, a researcher, and a journalist. We’re spending time today catching up with past guests to see how they’re faring. The result is […]
Suffolk County News, April 16, 1920
We continue our trek through the local news of a century gone by. Today we read the Suffolk County News from April 16, 1920. We find stories of bootleggers, war-torn […]
Long Island Freemasons
The Freemasons have been with us since the beginning of our country. And no, they do not have secret repositories of hidden gold. They do have a long history of […]
Suffolk County News, April 9, 1920
We continue our journey through the past, reading our way through the Suffolk County News of one hundred years ago. Today we cover Friday, April 9, 1920. Cars are quickly […]
Suffolk County News, April 2, 1920
We’re using our home isolation to look back – reading issues of the Suffolk County News of 1920 week by week. For April 2, 1920: Al Smith, Fatty Arbuckle, and a cow […]
A Light in the Undark
Today our guest, Erin Elizabeth Becker, recounts the story of her great grandmother, Marion Murdoch O’Hara, who worked for the US Radium Corporation in New York City. Through genealogical and […]
Suffolk County News, March 26, 1920
We’re using our home isolation to look back – reading issues of the Suffolk County News of 1920 week by week. They had quarantines back then too, it turns out, […]
The LaGrange Inn on Higbie Lane
The LaGrange Inn was a storied stopping point along Montauk Highway from the 1700s when it opened for business with a Higbie at the helm. It remained a local landmark, […]
Still There on Christian Avenue
History is not the full story if not everyone gets to tell it. And in places where the traditional records are scarce or silent, where do you look for answers? […]
A Burning Question
Warren McDowell, former publisher of The Fire Island Tide, has been pondering the mystery of how Fire Island got its name all his life. This burning question has been answered […]
A View to a Kiln
Mark Smith, last heard talking bottles on episode #63, returns to explain his other collecting passion: pottery! Take a walk with us through Mark’s private collection and see the astonishing […]
A Writing Life on Long Island
Theresa Dodaro survived a life-threatening illness, waking from a coma determined to make the most of the time she had been gifted. One of the promises she made to herself: […]
The Noble Experiment
America tried something new from 1920 to 1933: outlawing the production, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors. In that same spirit of social experimentation, we made this episode something new. […]