Cityscape

Questions like “how’s your social life?” or “did you spend time with family this weekend?” aren’t typically asked during an annual check up at the doctor’s office. Most physicians tailor their questions to how a patient is physically feeling, not the status of their social calendar. But, our guest on this week's Cityscape focuses on how factors like friendship and compassion can lead to a healthier life.

Dr.  Kelli Harding is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her new book is The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness. It focuses on the science of human connection rather than traditional biological health.

Frank Romeo is an artist, an educator, and a Vietnam veteran who was diagnosed with 100 percent post-traumatic stress disorder. In March of this year, Frank walked over 750 miles across New York State to raise awareness about PTSD. 

During the walk, which was completed in June, Frank stayed in homeless shelters and visited veterans facilities. He documented his encounters and is hoping to turn the footage into a documentary. Frank is our guest on this week’s Cityscape.

New York City is home to a variety of alternative art spaces, but perhaps none have a story like this.

In the mid-1980’s a group of squatters took over an abandoned building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They broke in using a sledgehammer and made the place their own, even putting on art shows and plays in the space. They called the location Bullet Space (find out why in this episode of Cityscape).

Andrew Castrucci and Alexandra Rojas are artists and residents of Bullet Space. Andrew’s been living there for over thirty years and was one of the original squatters. They recently took Cityscape on a tour of the building, and explained why Bullet Space is far from just another transformed tenement in the concrete jungle.

A lot of people's fondest memories revolve around food, whether it be a birthday dinner with friends or cooking in the kitchen with grandma. Our guests on this week's Cityscape relate to that:

• Rozanne Gold is a chef, author, journalist, philanthropist, and now a podcast host. Her podcast is called One Woman Kitchen. Each episode features a woman making a unique impact in the culinary world.
• Priya Krishna is a regular contributor forThe New York Times, Bon Appétit, The New Yorker and others. She’s also the author of a new cookbook called Indianish: Recipes and Antics From a Modern American Family. It’s filled with Indian-American hybrid dishes inspired by her own mother’s cooking.

One could argue that nothing comes close to the quality of grandma’s home cooking. So when you go out to eat, you might miss that authenticity. But, a restaurant on Staten Island says you shouldn’t have to.

This week we’re heading to Enoteca Maria, where the chefs are a rotating cast of nonnas.

For generations, the American Museum of Natural History has been wowing visitors with its diverse exhibits, from its vast collection of dinosaur fossils to its Hall of Ocean Life, complete with a blue whale model that hangs from the ceiling.

But, how did the museum become the major hub of education, research and innovation we know and love today?

Our guest this week is Colin Davey. He’s the author of a new book titled The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way.

50 years ago, throngs of music lovers descended upon the small town of Bethel in New York’s Catskill Mountains. An estimated 500,000 people drove, hitchhiked and walked to get to the Woodstock Music Festival. It was billed as a three-day festival, but spilled into a fourth day -- from August 15th to the 18th. Dairy Farmer Max Yasgur agreed to host the event on his land after the town of Wallkill, New York backed out of holding the festival. But, unlike most music festivals today, with tight security and ticket scanners, the idea of accepting tickets was abandoned as the crowd grew ever larger. So the festival was essentially free for anyone who just showed up.

By 1969, the country was well into the Vietnam War. With a lot of young people fed up with the political climate, Woodstock served as a respite -- a weekend of “Peace and Music,” which was the slogan used to promote the festival.

And music was a central part of Woodstock. The lineup featured top artists of the day -- Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Jefferson Airplane to name a few.

But, rain, mud and a lack of food plagued the festival. Still that didn’t discourage concertgoers. What it did was create a lifetime of memories.

The legacy of Woodstock means something different to everyone. In Back to the Garden: Remembering Woodstock, people who were there 50 years ago reflect on some of the most iconic performances in music history, and share some of the most memorable experiences of their lives.

Tony Cruz is an award-winning graffiti artist from the Bronx who's working to spread the word about protecting your eyesight. That's because he himself is losing his eyesight everyday from type two macular telangiectasia. Cruz joins us this week to talk about his vision protection awareness campaign.

Thousands of people flock to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx every baseball season to take in a game. Many, of course, will purchase something while there -- a hot dog, a beer, a hat perhaps.

On this week's show we’re looking at Yankee Stadium, not from the fan perspective, but from the view of a vendor, and a long-time one at that.

Stewart J. Zully began vending at Yankee Stadium when he was just 15 years old, and he continued working there into his 50s. Zully describes his experiences as a vendor in his new book My Life in Yankee Stadium: 40 Years As a Vendor and Other Tales of Growing Up Somewhat Sane in The Bronx.https://www.wfuv.org/cityscape