BURNING GOTHAM 001: MOVING DAY

May 1st, 1835 — It’s a cold and rainy Moving Day. Every renter in New York is out on the street looking for lodging. Most of the city’s quarter-million live below Houston Street in buildings four stories or smaller, but construction is booming.

New people are pouring onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets by the thousands. Rich and poor, many come to earn an honest living. Others for more nefarious reasons. It’s the perfect place to begin.

Aaron Columbus is an illegitimate son, desperate to make his fortune. Together with Aaron’s brother Wyndham Bowen—an African man born in Europe—they involve themselves in backroom deals, Abolitionism, potential war with France, and City politics.

Aaron has struck an illegal import deal with John Jacob Astor, America’s richest man. The import? Two exiled Russian Countesses; Sorina and Raisa Zubov, and their inheritance—eleven pounds of diamonds.

The two women have just arrived in New York.

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Download Episode Transcript

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Written By:

Olga Lysenko & James Scully

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Cast:

Eirik Gislason

Kacie Laforest

Roland Lane

Mary Murphy

Anna Pirogov

Nancy Pop

Matt Roper

James Scully

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Music:

The Hesperus Early Music Ensemble

The Itinerant Band

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Engineer:

Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio

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Director & Post-Producer:

James Scully

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