The Hell Gate Podcast

This week in NYC news: The UK is installing a new hypercapitalist project in the form of pods, or tubes, or maybe it is an airlock, or maybe a pneumatic network meant to shoot gymgoers onto ellipticals with the force of wads of cash. In any case Jessy and Chris explain how and why PureGym, formerly Blink Fitness, is forcing us into their mysterious tubes. Also, Brad Lander is running for congress....

The team pulls an Eric Adams this week and leaves the city to go hang out somewhere quaint and European, but hotels are expensive and so are flights, so they end up in Atlantic City (the New York of New Jersey). It's bleak out there. It's giving post-apocalyptic preview of what New York can expect from the parade of casinos coming soon to the metropolitan area. It’s cold, and dad’s not coming home...

We’re here this holiday week to mull over NYC’s Thanksgiving highlights and consider the benefits of escaping to Sharlene’s for 5 small beers after your mom tells you “there’s never a ‘good’ time to have kids, you know.” Then, updates on Mamdani’s transition committees and some news about leadership in the city—and whether or not they’ll help Mamdani answer questions like “Where does the NYPD end...

What’s going on Mamdani? Getting scared of doing what you said you’d do? Or is big bad Jessica Tisch giving you the creeps? The team is trying to make sense of what you’ve been saying and it’s not quite adding up to the same spunk we saw just a couple weeks back. And how was the meeting with Trump today? Did the fish filet go over ok? We’re betting yes. (Spoiler: Total Mamdani victory—listen to th...

This week, Max, Chris, and Nick (the boys) discuss the Mamdani transition so far—the incoming first deputy mayor knows where all the (metaphorical) bodies are buried in Albany, while the incoming chief-of-staff is hoping to keep the administration honest to its progressive ideals. Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign is transcending to higher and higher planes as they attempt to ret-con the plot of the gen...

Zohran won! The sun rose this morning on a city with a democratic socialist, Muslim, immigrant, shockingly young mayor-elect. The team was up late covering the respective victory and concession parties, and this morning—a bit weary—they rolled out of bed to reflect on the evening and the mayoral race as it came, finally, to a close. What’s next for Zohran? And what does it look like when a progres...

This week we have whiz-man, superstar data boy, and mayoral poll vibe-checker Michael Lange to give us the block-by-block for this week’s election. How it’s looking from both the birds-eye and the street-level. Then, the team debriefs about Mamdani’s performance on the stage last week at the live taping of the Hell Gate Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Friday night, just a few hours before the start of early voting, Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani sat down for an interview with the Hell Gate Podcast in front of a live audience at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.  During our 45-minute conversation, we grilled Mamdani about his desire to keep Jessica Tisch as his NYPD commissioner, and how he plans to combat attempts...

Max reports back from the big Mamdani rally, where the candidate got the stamp of approval from some big-time establishment Democrats. Then: Are you confused about the housing ballot propositions you have to vote on soon? Luckily Chris has the breakdown for you, to clear it up completely, with no further questions. We close out with some speculations on what Eric Adams's new gig will be. Full time...

Eric Adams went on a taxpayer-funded vacation to Albania. What? Why? Regardless, we're in favor of it. While Zohran Mamdani is beginning to don the mayoral sash, the team considers whether it seems as though Cuomo is gaining any “Cuo-mentum”—after all, bigger polling gaps have been closed. Then, Jessy Edwards breaks down her reporting that illustrates just how bad a housing crisis the new mayor of...

It’s a cold world, get a sweater. Eric Adams dropped out of the race. What’s going to happen to our beloved mayor? Who is going to take care of the crypto man babies? Who will flag down the wait staff at the Table of Success? We really thought he was in it to win it. The team freewheels a discussion on what’s next for our mayor, and then, for the public good, a watch party of the trailer for the h...

Bluestockings, home of narcan training polycule meet-cutes and queer activist utopian prefiguration, has shuttered its doors effective immediately. Meanwhile, District 2’s CEC meetings have finally given in to the anger of parents trying to keep their trans kids safe—although it seems like the plot may be teed up for a sequel showdown… and in Brooklyn, perhaps the sloppiest union busting job of al...

Kathy Hochul has finally endorsed Zohran Mamdani. Brad Lander was arrested again at the immigration courthouse. The wheel keeps turning in New York City and even the billionaires are throwing tantrums. The team breaks down how the money flow is making the march toward casinos seem unstoppable. Meanwhile, happy birthday Modi? Why are you in my fridge?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

Life's a game, but it's not fair. I break the rules, so I don't care. Eric Adams is running for office, and into Hell Gate at the gym. Did he fumble his chance to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia? With his stock dropping fast, his media appearances are as weird as ever. Meanwhile, the team checks in on Mamdani, to find that he seems to be inching toward the center on the NYPD, with Jessica Tisch pote...

Eric Adams is up to something. While everyone else was getting back to work this week in our fine city, Adams was in Florida. Doing what exactly? Could he be dropping out? To vacation indefinitely at Mar-a-Lago? To cruise in first class, riding high off oil money from Saudi Arabia? To take selfies with celebrities and smash champagne flutes on the deck of a cruise ship filled with crypto bros? Wit...

In this end-of-summer special, the gang calls in from their Italian villas and Fire Island cabins to look back on our hellish summer in New York. What were you doing when Trump was bombing Iran? Some of us were on boats, watching Shakespeare, swimming in sewage, or DJing sweet beats. Then, reporter Arielle Gordon breaks down the clown renaissance taking our fine city by storm, and reminds us all t...

This week, some breaking news: A bag of potato chips (sour cream and onion), a pantsuit, and a bike lane are making us wonder what the hell is really going on behind the scenes in NYC politics. The Adams crew continues to cook up bribery and corruption, and we are here to feast at the table. Though, all things being equal—as we’ve established—seafood is always a good deal.  Hosted on Acast. S...

Andrew Cuomo is leaning so hard into twitter he’s falling off. Millennials posing as Zoomers posing as Cuomo are taking on Mamdani and Mamdani is responding in turn. The team takes apart some of the false arguments getting tossed around, and despite the heat, nothing is sticking. Then, the Summer Youths make it rain thanks to the Parks Department, Katie breaks down what’s hot at the Rockaway Film...

Our city's fine rats are bathing in fountains and tanning on lily pads, Cuomo and Trump are reportedly gabbing it up, and Elizabeth Warren is back on CNBC to dish it out against our raging billionaires. It's the dog days of summer and the anti-Mamdani coalition cooked up a new set of logos but it doesn’t seem like anybody is quite hitting the mark. Then, the team interrogates the biases in John Ca...

A mass shooting in Midtown earlier this week left four dead, and one of the victims was a cop. True to form, Cuomo and corporate media have taken this as a cue to attack Mamdani for his stance on the NYPD, and, similarly true to form, totally miss the point. The team unpacks how the shifting demographics of voters in the city—and its cops—complicate the cookie-cutter picture they’ve been painting...

The team talks about the Trump administration's escalating pressure on our fair city, beginning with Columbia University's massive, humiliating settlement. Was it worth it, Columbia? Which then brings us to the federal government suing the Adams administration over New York City's sanctuary policies—how is Mayor Eric Adams reacting to Tom Homan finally being "up his butt"? Then, our intrepid corre...

We begin with the obligatory unpacking of Trump/Epstein and soon move on to our own local sex pest attempting to make a comeback using Zohran Mamdani’s social media strategy. Katie breaks down why Curtis Sliwa is neither the hero Gotham needs nor deserves, but why he should stay in the race anyway... And finally, Max wraps up the pod with a saucy surprise…  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

The Failing New York Times is at it again, digging into the depths of Mamdani’s college applications and collaborating with a eugenicist to… what end exactly? This week the team talks race, and unrelatedly, why Sid Rosenberg is so red. (Is it because John Catsimatidis is making him that way…? Maybe.) The anti-Mamdani coalition is mustering its forces, and Mamdani is fielding it all. Finally, we po...

The ranked choice ballots have been counted and Zohran Mamdani’s win is even more decisive. Now that we’ve entered the valley between the primary and general elections, what is the landscape looking like? The team digests the state and country’s (mostly racist) immediate reactions to Mamdani’s primary win, and considers who in the field is worth really paying attention to. Meanwhile Adlan gets a m...

The editors gather in the early morning to commiserate and lick their wounds over Cuomo’s tragic loss… How did we get here? How could a democratic socialist run a campaign in this city and win? We’re kidding, the Mamdani campaign threw a perfect game, and rewrote the electorate.  Last night the team was running around the city covering the election—at watch parties for Adams, Lander, Cuomo, a...