The Untapped New York Podcast

If you're following the heist at the Louvre, discover the heists that have occurred at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, including the infamous "Valentine's Day Heist" of 1979! Untapped New York founder Michelle Young talks with Nicole Saraniero, our editor and director of events who wrote the article, " 10 Major Art Heists at the Met Museum ." If you l...

Maybe you saw our latest  Instagram reel that's going viral , making NYC horological history cool again! On the podcast, in honor of fall back time this week, we deep dive into the Barthman clock, a historic clock beneath your feet in the Financial District. Michelle, Justin and Nicole talk about the history of the clock, share their experience going down into the secret room/basement underne...

Did you know there's a mini version of Grand Central's ceiling mural inside the  terminal's wine shop, Central Cellars? And that it used to be part of a movie theater? We talk to the experts: the authors of a book about the artist who did the painting, the passionate and informed store manager and employees, and historian Justin Rivers, Untapped New York's Chief Experience Offi...

Michelle Young and Justin Rivers of Untapped New York discuss the neighborhood of Morningside Heights. Michelle and Justin will discuss five hidden and unique spots including Columbia University's Alma Mater, the Guastavino Dome at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Riverside Church’s Labyrinth, Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb, and the meeting of 125th and 129th Streets.  This podcast episode was...

Sad news from Queens...After multiple patchwork repairs, a set of colorful mosaics depicting highlights from the 1939-40 and 1964-65 World's Fairs have been completely replaced with pavers. Michelle, Justin and Nicole discuss this piece of very sad news, broken by Untapped New York and the most read article this month so far. The Passarelle Plaza mosaics were installed in 1997 to commemorate...

In this episode, we’re talking about a very adorable secret: pandas in New York City! Who doesn’t love pandas? In fact, the story of how pandas came to America is deeply tied to New York City. We're joined by an expert on this story, Nathalia Holt, author of The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda . Learn the New York City origin sto...

We delve into one of our favorite New York City secrets: the champagne and wine vaults inside the Brooklyn Bridge. If you haven't heard of this delicious tidbit, you're in for a ride through a bygone New York. If you do know about it, Michelle and Justin from Untapped New York are sharing additional insider secrets about this subject that are not publicly known, or have ever been written...

A conversation between Michelle Young, Untapped New York's founder and Justin Rivers, our Chief Experience Officer, about Michelle's newest book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland . Michelle and Justin delve into who Rose Valland was and the brave things she did, the story of Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg and his family, which allowed Mich...

We’re kicking off season 4 of the Untapped New York Podcast with New York City literary sensation, Laurie Gwen Shapiro, whose newest book The Aviator and the Showman , just came out about Amelia Earhart’s marriage with publisher George Putnam, which set her on a collision course with fate. Because we’re a New York City obsessed podcast, we’ll be talking with Laurie about all of Amelia’s New York C...

In the latest episode of the Untapped New York Podcast , Michelle Young , author, journalist, and the founder of Untapped New York, tracks down the answer to her latest burning question about New York City: Why is the FDR Drive Purple? If you’ve been wondering or…have yet to notice, prepare to have your mind blown. A lot of myths abound, none of them true. No, the New York State D.O.T. did not jus...

The new book The Blood and the Badge , by former New York Times editor  Michael Cannell , chronicles a true tale of police corruption, mafia, and murderous mayhem in 1980s New York City. Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy describes the book as a “harrowing story...Cannell misses nothing." In our latest episode of the Untapped New York podcast, Untapped New York founder Michelle Young (the au...

The Stolen Queen , the newest historical fiction novel by New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, publishes today, January 7, and is set in the hallowed halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When the Met’s prized Egyptian artifact goes missing, an unlikely female duo—curator and anthropologist Charlotte Cross and eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins from the Met’s costume department—team up t...

The newest edition of Secret New York, An Unusual Guide , is out! Michelle Young, founder of Untapped New York and author of "Secret New York," interviews her co-author Hannah Frishberg, a native New Yorker and arts and culture reporter with Gothamist/WNYC. Discover some of the exciting new entries in the guidebook, including the IFC Center's spy holes, the Hess Triangle, a section...

This week's "Take the 5" podcast episode is all about the pets and animals of New York City. We recorded the episode on Election Day, not knowing who would become President. But regardless of the outcome at the time, we hoped it will be a respite from political news for all of you! Michelle, Justin, and Nicole talk about the new Pets of NYC exhibition at New York Historical, the for...

The newest episode, "How Long Does it Take to Be a New Yorker?" features guest host, audio journalist Francisco Kilgore, and members get early access to the episode! Francisco is a more recent transplant to New York City, and spent many months investigating how long it takes to become a New Yorker. Everyone has a different take on this question. Francisco went on the ground to interview...

The Untapped New York team is excited to revive our weekly (ish) show, Take the 5 ! In this short five(ish) minute episode, Michelle Young (Founder), Nicole Saraniero (Editor + Director of Events), and Justin Rivers (Chief Experience Officer) will discuss all of the timely, weird, wacky, and fun current events we covered over the week. We’ll also which upcoming Untapped New York events we’re most...

Ah...scaffolding. That ubiquitous, necessary, and perpetually present part of New York City’s landscape. In this episode, we do a deep dive into the history of scaffolding, reveal just how much scaffolding there is in the city, why it exists, how long it stays up, why it's always green, how much it costs, and answer everything you've ever wanted to know about this scourge/icon. You’ll he...

In this episode, we do a deep dive into one of New York City’s most recognizable pieces of street furniture: fire alarm call boxes. You know what we're talking about. They're (often) red and sit prettily on sidewalks with the ability to call the fire department and the police. Fire alarm call boxes have been around for more than a hundred years and come in different shapes and sizes, fro...

New York City's lost opera houses are having their fifteen minutes of fame, thanks to the HBO show, The Gilded Age , which brought their dramatic histories to life in the most recent season. We dug into these former opera houses in our new extended episode which weaves in clips from The Gilded Age.  We'll cover some of the earliest of opera houses (some of which where were Italian!), the...

Did you know there's a Main Street in New York City? Most people probably associate the idea of Main Street with quaint American towns and villages but New York City has not just one but five Main Streets. Join Untapped New York's founder Michelle Young as she goes on a quixotic mission to find all of NYC's Main Streets. The Untapped New York Podcast is produced by Michelle Young an...

This episode is all about Oppenheimer, as the movie heads into the Academy Awards with thirteen Oscar nominations. Michelle Young and Justin Rivers from Untapped New York first delve into J. Robert Oppenheimer's early life in New York City where the character and moral beliefs of the precocious future scientist were forged. Our hosts also discover their mutual connection to the atomic bomb it...

When the young and beautiful Vivian Gordon was found strangled in Van Cortlandt Park in 1931, the case to find her killer unveiled the dark underbelly of New York City political power and policing. In this episode, author Michael Wolraich of the new book The Bishop and the Butterfly , which the New York Times calls  a “propulsive” “political thriller," recounts this story along with Pulitzer...

The newest episode of the Untapped New York podcast  is out! Discover a dozen of the most interesting places in the Bronx, from the book The Bronx Nobody Knows :  An Urban Walking Guide by William Helmreich, who walked every street in New York City’s five boroughs. That's more than 6,000 miles! The book was published posthumously, as Helmreich sadly passed away from COVID in 2020. His wife, H...

This episode of the Untapped New York podcast features a reading and interview with Maria Smilios, the author of the book The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis . Her eloquently and meticulously researched narrative non-fiction book is told with first hand interviews with the Black Angel nurses of Sea View Hospital on Staten Island.  In the episode, Smilios b...

In this week's Take the 5, Michelle and Justin discuss the anniversary of opening day of the George Washington Bridge along with a new alligator art installation you can find in Manhattan. The  Untapped New York Podcast is produced by Untapped New York. Music by Kittens Ablaze ("Gloom Doom Buttercups"). New York City skyline in icon by Bernadette Moke, the Downtown Doodler. If you l...