Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD

It’s not that hard to kill a planet. All it takes is a little drilling, some mining, a generous helping of pollution and voila! Earth over. When you take stock of what’s left, it starts to look like a crime scene: decapitated mountains, poisoned rivers, oil-soaked pelicans, maybe a sun-bleached cow skull in a dried-up lake bed. The only thing missing is yellow caution tape. On each episode of Lawless Planet, host Zach Goldbaum reveals the scams, murders and cover-ups on the frontline of the climate crisis, and the life and death choices people are making to either protect our world – or destroy it.

Listen to Lawless Planet: Wondery.fm/LawlessPlanet

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Travis never thought he’d meet someone like Lily Rose. She was kind, passionate, beautiful. The woman of his dreams. There was just one small detail: she wasn’t human.

Lily Rose is an AI companion. A digital soulmate designed to be everything he ever wanted. She listens without judgement, supports him through his darkest moments, even explores his deepest desires, all while fitting neatly into his pocket. Before long, Travis realizes something strange, even absurd, has happened - he’s fallen in love.

But then one day, Lily Rose’s behavior takes a disturbing turn. When alarming reports pour in from across the globe, Travis discovers he is part of something much bigger. Soon he finds himself pulled into a confrontation with a mysterious Russian visionary behind Lily Rose’s creation.

From Wondery, comes a true story of love, loss and the temptations of technology. Can an algorithm truly replace human connection? And what happens when a corporation controls your deepest emotions? Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire, hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded, explore the dark side of AI love.

Listen Now: Wondery.fm/FleshandCode

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In Evangelical homes across the United States, sex outside of marriage is a sin against God. So, when Abbi becomes pregnant at 16, her devout parents hide her away at the Liberty Godparent Home, a little-known facility for pregnant teens on the campus of Liberty University. The Home says it helps girls decide what comes next – whether that’s parenting their babies or placing them for adoption. But inside the facility, the girls hear a different message: God wants their babies to go to more “deserving” Christian couples. Some girls will find the strength to fight back. Others will have no choice but to give in. And some, like Abbi, will turn their grief into resistance – and take a stand against the system before more mothers lose their children to adoptions they never wanted. 

From Wondery, host and reporter T. J. Raphael tells a startling true story of young love, coercion, and defiance – and the dangerous resurgence of maternity homes in post-Roe America.

Listen to Liberty Lost: Wondery.fm/LibertyLost_

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Inspired by Wondery’s hit podcast Against the Odds—learn how to survive whatever nature can throw at you through gut-twisting true stories of survival on the brink

How to Survive Against the Odds places you at the center of fifteen real life-or-death scenarios. Each story explores the physiological responses of the human body under unbearable conditions, how to counteract them, and strategies for survival from doctors and psychologists. Through these tales, we see the grit, willpower, and know-how needed to navigate out of a host of merciless situations.

This invaluable survival guide includes tips on how to endure being:

• ADRIFT AT SEA: Learn how to cure turtle meat, procure potable water, and survive on a life raft.
• MAULED BY A BEAR: Black bears? Fight back. Grizzly bears? Play dead. Polar bears? Start praying. You’ll learn how to triage wounds using the MARCH method and how to spot the difference between a bear’s bluff charge and an actual attack.
• BURIED BY AN EARTHQUAKE: Find out how to survive the initial crush, maintain your sanity if trapped under the rubble, and “think away your hunger.”
• And so much more!

This might just be the most important book you’ll ever read. Armed with the information in How to Survive Against the Odds and when faced with similar threats, you may also find that you have what it takes to defy death and live to tell your story.

Order your copy of HOW TO SURVIVE AGAINST THE ODDS now at 

Wondery.fm/survivalguidebook

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New York’s Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted and charged by the federal government with corruption, wire fraud, bribery and more. Could we have predicted what kind of mayor Adams would become based on the culture he was a part of in the NYPD? Chenjerai and attorney John Teufel, who has investigated police misconduct, discuss the implications of the indictment and the significance of a former cop becoming the mayor.

From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the Police, about America, and about Democracy.

Voices & References:

John Teufel: https://www.johnteufelesq.com/

DOJ’s Indictment of Adams: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-charged-bribery-and-campaign-finance-offenses

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"Woop! Woop! That’s the sound of da police! Conscious and Frankie welcome Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika – host of Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. Dr. Kumanyika’s podcast is a deeply personal tale of his relationship to policing, the history of the NYPD and its long reaching impact in police departments across the nation. Are the police truly functioning as designed? Does their origin begin and end as slave catching patrols? Today’s conversation brings humor and depth to the exploration of that fraught history.

Listen to Black History, For Real on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. 

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The NYPD loves to show off its diversity, but it often hides how hard and long it fought that diversity. Chenjerai takes us back in time to the real story of how the NYPD got its first Black cop – and how decades later, Black cops went to war with the NYPD’s union to push for civilian oversight of the police. But how effective is reform if the police are still only accountable to themselves? 

From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the Police, about America, and about Democracy.

Voices & References:

Edwin Raymond: https://x.com/edwinraymondnyc

Khalil Gibran Muhammed: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/khalil-gibran-muhammad

Natalie Cherot: https://nataliecherot.com/

Andrew Darien: https://directory.salemstate.edu/profile/andrew.darien

An Inconvenient Cop: My Fight to Change Policing in America https://www.amazon.com/Inconvenient-Cop-Change-Policing-America/dp/0593653165

The Watchmen: https://www.hbo.com/watchmen

The Congress of Racial Equality: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/congress-racial-equality-core

Follow Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/empire-city/ now. 

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New York’s police start to realize that beating up and arresting immigrants is making them distrustful of cops. In response, a police chief has an idea, borne out of his time colonizing the Philippines: control the population by recruiting local community members to police their own people. 

From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the police, about America, and about democracy.

Voices & References:

Asad Dandia https://www.newyorknarratives.com/our-narrative

Matt Guariglia https://www.matthewguariglia.com/

Daniel Czitrom https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/emeriti-retired-faculty/daniel-czitrom

Albert Samaha https://www.albertsamaha.com/

New York Narratives https://www.newyorknarratives.com/

Follow Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/empire-city/ now. 

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It’s like clockwork: every 20 years or so, a corruption scandal forces the NYPD into the hot seat. But how did this cycle begin? To find out, we go back over a century ago to the very first investigation into the police where the NYPD is put on trial like never before.

From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the police, about America, and about democracy.

Voices & References:

Carol Safir

Daniel Czitrom https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/emeriti-retired-faculty/daniel-czitrom

Cait Murphy

Bill Williams, descendant of Clubber Williams

Leslie Cornfeld 

Scoundrels in Law: The Trials of Howe and Hummel, Lawyers to the Gangsters, Cops, Starlets, and Rakes Who Made the Gilded Age

https://www.amazon.com/Scoundrels-Law-Lawyers-Gangsters-Starlets/dp/0061714283

Follow Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/empire-city/ now. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Officers in early New York didn’t just police the city’s vice economy; they profited from it. But when America’s first professional vice fighter Anthony Comstock strong-arms the NYPD into enforcing his vision of morality, he also transformed how and what we police. 

From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the police, about America, and about democracy.

Voices & References:

Amy Werbel https://www.fitnyc.edu/creative-nexus/faculty/directory/werbel-amy.php

Bill Williams, descendant of Clubber Williams

Jennifer Wright https://www.jenashleywright.com/

Lust On Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock https://www.amazon.com/Lust-Trial-Censorship-American-Obscenity/dp/0231175221

Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

https://www.amazon.com/Madame-Restell-Resurrection-Fabulous-Abortionist/dp/0306826798

Follow Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/empire-city/ now. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.