The Update with Brandon Julien

Today’s Update Journal is a study in loss, confusion, and national priorities. We say a proper goodbye to the $6 Dunkin’ Deal—a brief but meaningful chapter in American history where coffee, breakfast, and hope briefly aligned. It was affordable. It was customizable. It got us through inflation, seasonal depression, and mornings we absolutely did not consent to. Gone now, but never forgotten. We w...

While I was on vacation doing absolutely nothing productive, New York City decided to enter a brand-new mayoral era, set a cabinet in motion, declare a snow day a “baby-making day” on live television, and remind us all that New Year’s resolutions are a work of fiction written entirely in pencil. In this Update Journal, we catch up on the first few days of the Mamdani era, including cabinet picks t...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

When the MTA tells you “real-time information is unavailable,” that’s not an update — that’s a warning label. Plans are canceled, vibes are ruined, and suddenly you’re standing at a bus stop like it’s 1997, guessing. From there, we somehow end up deep in Dr. Seuss lore, trying to decode what a Sloo-Slunker is, why the Grinch has been angry for 53 years straight, and whether Roast Beast is a food o...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

In this edition of The Update Journal, we solve three great holiday mysteries. First: yes, Freeform does exist on Spectrum — it’s just hiding like it’s in witness protection and apparently moved sometime during the Obama administration. We eventually found it, felt victorious for about six seconds, and immediately forgot the channel number again. Then, we take a moment of silence for the MetroCard...

What started as a perfectly innocent trip down mid-2000s Nickelodeon memory lane somehow turned into a reminder of why my producers no longer trust me with Google. We revisit Danny Phantom, arguably one of the greatest eras of kids’ TV, and give Ember McLain the respect she deserves as an iconic, name-chanting, power-ballad-fueling villain who absolutely did not need to be searched with SafeSearch...

Today, I attempt to understand Dandy’s World, a sentence I never thought I’d say out loud, and immediately regret every life choice that led me to that moment. While the kids confidently explain it like it’s common knowledge, the rest of us are left staring into the void, wondering when cartoons started feeling like a group chat we weren’t invited to. Meanwhile, adults across America have reached...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

This week in The Update Journal, I officially accepted that I am no longer the target demographic for… well, anything. First, we begin with kid trends—specifically Ice Spice, Big Guy, and a SpongeBob movie song that had an entire cafeteria dancing while I stood there wondering when exactly my youth filed a missing persons report. Then, part two of The Last Week Wait: a trip to Target for Bane’s su...

Today, we reopen the Home Alone case files and ask the hard-hitting questions Hollywood never wanted answered—like why Mr. and Mrs. MacAllister were allowed to keep custody after losing their child not once, but twice, across international borders. TSA? Fine. CPS? Nowhere to be found. Then, at the same time, a very modern mystery: why can I find 400 channels I’ve never heard of, three versions of...

In this edition of The Update Journal, I issue what can generously be described as a retraction regarding the St. George Ferry route—though in reality, it’s less an apology and more an admission that I simply did not read the schedule. At all. Turns out the boat does go where it says it goes… when you look. Meanwhile, it’s the final week before Christmas, which means every Target, Five Below, and...

Today’s Update Journal starts where all modern NYC problems begin: the turnstile. OMNY promised a sleek, futuristic transit experience, but forgot one crucial feature—the emotional honesty of the MetroCard telling you immediately that you’re broke. Now you tap, walk, and find out later via email that you owe the MTA fifteen cents and your dignity. Then we revisit Home Alone—the original film where...

In today’s Update Journal, we unpack the 48-hour period where being a Mets fan felt like getting hit by a city bus, backed over by an MTA supervisor, and then charged an extra fare because you “didn’t tap.” Edwin Díaz packed his trumpets for Hollywood, Pete Alonso sailed off to Baltimore like he’s auditioning for a reboot of The Wire, and In-N-Out removed “67” from the menu for reasons no living h...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

We've done a lot of episodes throughout our many years of #TheUpdate, but some of them are my personal favorites. Every month, we're going to go into The Update vault and play one episode from my personal list of favorite episodes. I hope you enjoy them as much as i did hosting it.

Today’s Update Journal is brought to you by the three stages of emotional processing: grief, disbelief, and nostalgic reflection. We begin with grief, as Edwin Díaz packs his trumpets and heads for Dodger Stadium—because apparently the winter meetings weren’t chaotic enough without Mets fans curled on the floor whispering “all good things must come to an end” like it’s Shakespeare in Queens. Then...

In The Update Journal, we have brand-new recurring side-series: Great Ideas… On Paper, where we take a fond look back at brilliant concepts that absolutely should have worked — until reality showed up wearing sweatpants and holding a melted McFlurry. Today’s inaugural lesson: McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast. A concept so perfect, so universally beloved, that it crumbled the moment someone tried order...

Welcome to December, where everything is changing whether we asked for it or not. The St. George ferry route is taking its final bow in the most New York fashion possible: quietly, awkwardly, and with at least one person yelling, “If it ain’t broke, WHY are we fixing it?” into the cold harbor wind. Meanwhile, inside the halls of government, we’re counting down two weeks until City Hall hands over...

In today’s edition of The Update Journal, we proudly present the “Fare Inspector Era — Part 2,” because nothing says New York quite like a stranger in a reflective vest asking if you tapped your OMNY. Then, in The Last Word, your wallet delivers its annual holiday plea: “Stop. Please.” And finally, because we’re professionals who totally keep track of milestones, we’re celebrating the 1900th episo...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...

Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of 2020- or as we call it around here, Year 4 of The Update. It was a weird year- starting off in the WKRB studios and then going out on the road (in the middle of a pandemic no less!), but somehow, we found a way to make it wor...