THE EAGLE: A Times Union Podcast

In 1969, filmmaker Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot more than 50 hours of footage of the Beatles as they wrote their final iconic album, "Let it Be." From the first rehearsals to the impromptu rooftop concert that turned out to be their last performance, the intimate clips captured the final days before the Fab Four split. Today, those recordings are featured in "The Beatles: Get Back," a new Disney+...

World Series champ Ian Anderson returned home to Clifton Park earlier this month, still taking in the enormity of winning MLB's grand championship during his rookie season with the Atlanta Braves.  "American Idol" finalist Madison VanDenburg came home to Cohoes, fresh from Nashville where she recorded her new single, "The Light of Christmas." On this episode of The Eagle, Times Union reporters Jam...

Appointments at pediatricians’ offices and pharmacies across the Capital Region were snatched up fast this week as providers began offering Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to 5- to 11-year-olds. On this episode of The Eagle, Kristi Gustafson Barlette shares how local parents feel about the process, which she learned through social media. Also, Casey Seiler and Rob Gavin deliver a dramatic reading from t...

Rick Ross spent more than a decade fighting lawsuits leveled against him by Keith Raniere and NXIVM, after the cult deprogrammer publicly criticized the purported self-help organization’s practices. In 2018, Ross ended up testifying at Raniere’s trial, which ended in a conviction on sex-trafficking and other crimes, and earned him a sentence of 120 years in prison. Today, Raniere is in prison, and...

The city of Mechanicville gets its drinking water from a small reservoir in Saratoga County. A few busy beavers who also call the area home are determined to dam up the lone tributary that leads there. The situation has pit the two in a high stakes chess match of late, with city officials frantically tearing down dams to save the water supply, and beavers building them back up practically overnigh...

A decade and a half ago, Steve Barnes made the case to write a blog: “There’s a real appetite for restaurant news,” the food and entertainment writer argued to an audience of skeptical editors who finally relented. Today, Table Hopping is the go-to source for dining and restaurant happenings in the Capital Region. Whether it’s a tiff between competing restaurant owners, the debut of a new ethnic c...

More than 400 refugees will settle in Albany this year, but what happens after they arrive? On this episode of The Eagle, reporter Massarah Mikati shares how the lack of quality affordable housing in the region is burdening local refugee support organizations trying to help people who have fled violence and oppression in their home countries settle down in the U.S. Also on this episode, subpoenaed...

In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln's coffin traveled from Washington to Illinois on a historic funeral train. It stopped in Albany along the way, offering lawmakers and citizens a chance to pay their respects. And on the anniversary of that posthumous visit, many have reported that the ghost of the funeral train still rumbles through Albany. It's one of the city's most famous supernatural...

New York's vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers took effect this week, forcing hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities statewide to put workers on unpaid leave with a single directive: get vaccinated, or lose your job. It has spawned several lawsuits, including one that seeks to exclude those who claim religious exemption. In the Capital Region, providers including Albany Medical Cent...

When Pulitzer prize-winning author William Kennedy put his five-year-old son Brendan to bed one night many years ago, he made up a story about a boy whose belly button was stolen. The improvised bedtime story went on to become a published children's book in 1986, co-written with his then-teenaged son. Almost 40 years later, the pair is hoping their story and others will inspire a love of literatur...

During a week that saw rising COVID-19 positivity, escalating tension between police and social justice activists in Saratoga Springs, and continued political fallout from a potentially illegal leak in the state's ethics oversight commission, a little levity came from news of the return of an annual naked stroll through Howe Caverns. Also on this episode, Kristi Gustafson Barlette talks about her...

In the two decades since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, annual memorials have been an opportunity for many to reflect and heal. For others, they are a constant reminder of shock and loss that remains as fresh as it was 20 years ago. On this episode of "The Eagle," Times Union columnist Paul Grondahl recounts his experience covering the aftermath of the attacks from Gr...

TV news anchor and reporter Paulina Bucka left Newschannel 13 this year after just four months on the job. On this episode of The Eagle, she talks to Kristi Gustafson Barlette about why she left the station, why she thinks so many of her fellow local broadcast journalists are leaving the industry, and why she’s starting a new podcast. Also on this episode, nearly three years after a tragic limo cr...

This week the Capital Region saw a tropical storm, the installation of New York's first woman as governor, the tragic drowning of a state trooper, and a call for the attorney general to investigate an alleged leak of confidential information from the state's ethics oversight commission. But none of these headlines came close to the traffic the Times Union saw on its reporting on Captain, former Go...

Should kids be forced to wear face coverings at school this fall? As COVID-10 cases increase across the state, most schools will implement a universal mask policy – but some parents strongly oppose mask mandates.   On this episode of "The Eagle," Times Union Editor-in-Chief Casey Seiler and Managing Editor Susan Mehalick discuss the week's top headlines, including the story of an Albany mom who is...

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has submitted his resignation. What comes next? Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, will become the first female governor in New York's history. But she inherits a state still reeling from the scandal surrounding her predecessor, and facing rising delta variant positivity. On this episode of "The Eagle," Times Union Editor-in-Chief Casey Seiler and Managing Editor Brend...

One of the women who has accused embattled New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment is a current staffer named Brittany Commisso. Referred to as "Executive Assistant #1" in State Attorney General Tish James' scathing report released last week, Commisso alleges the governor groped her at the Executive Mansion in November. She has come forward and identified herself this week in an exclusi...

Embattled New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo faces a hailstorm of troubles this week—including growing calls for his resignation—after New York State Attorney General Letitia James released a scathing report that determined he sexually harassed 11 women, and broke several state and federal laws. On this episode of The Eagle, Times Union Editor-in-Chief Casey Seiler and Capitol Bureau Managing Editor Br...

Is there a cache worth millions ensconced somewhere in the Hudson Valley? Treasure hunters have long believed the early-20th century New York gangster Dutch Schultz hinted at hidden money and gold during delirious ramblings to police on his deathbed. Nothing has ever been unearthed, yet the area in and around Phoenicia, New York, remains a destination for those who are convinced it exists. On this...

From Secretariat and American Pharoah and Tiz the Law and Bodacious Tatas, what goes into naming a thoroughbred racehorse? And what are the rules? On this episode of The Eagle, Times Union sports reporter Abigail Rubel explains common strategies and naming conventions, and what's not allowed by The Jockey Club. Also on this episode, education reporter Rachel Silberstein speaks to UAlbany President...

What happens to used cooking oil after restaurants have finished with it?  A criminal syndicate has developed a sophisticated scheme to steal the grease from Capital Region eateries and sell it on the black market. On this episode of The Eagle, reporter Pete DeMola talks about his investigation into the claims of a Buffalo-based oil recycling outfit that estimates the string of recent thefts are c...

A federal judge sentenced Allison Mack to three years in prison this week for her role supplying sex "slaves" to NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Times Union reporter Rob Gavin and Eagle host Jessica Marshall traveled to Brooklyn for the hearing, where one of Mack's victims compared her to Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged enabler of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. On this episode of The Eagle, Gavi...

Former television actress and high-ranking NXIVM member Allison Mack awaits her sentence June 30 for crimes involving Keith Raniere’s cult-like organization. On this episode of The Eagle, reporter Rob Gavin talks to Tabby Chapman, a former NXIVM coach who worked closely with Mack for a time. Chapman shares her thoughts about the sentencing and experiences with Mack, recalling both an infectious ch...

As the country prepared this month to celebrate Juneteenth National Independence Day, Collectiveffort's Jamel Mosely spent time getting to know Alice Green, Barbara Smith and Earl Thorpe, three trailblazing Black elders in the Capital Region. His filmed interviews became part of Hearst's Lift Every Voice project, which shared stories, experiences and reflections on being Black in America.  On this...

Nearly a third of the population of the city of Albany is Black. The vast majority of those residents live in only three neighborhoods: West Hill, Arbor Hill and the South End. These neighborhoods have the city’s highest poverty rates and lowest percentages of homeownership. On this episode of The Eagle, reporters Massarah Mikati and Eduardo Medina discuss their investigation of how the process of...