Glitter & Doom

Nini Nguyen’s run on Top Chef may have been short, but it was mighty. The fierce co-founding culinary director at Brooklyn’s own Cook Space, Nini joins us in the studio to talk about immigration, inspiration, and haunting sauces. Then, a restaurant is only as good as its front-of-house staff.  Alejandra Guanipa, wine director at Roman’s in Fort Greene and 20-year restaurant veteran, joins us to talk about the thankless job of directly interacting with hangry guests, how harrowing this work can be, and why you should be nicer to your servers.

Tony Rotunno, Editor-in-Chief of Brooklyn Paper, joins us to talk about the 19 stories the paper will be keeping its eye on in 2019, from canine outlaws, to amoral upzoning, to marijuana. Then, are you extremely beautiful? If not, then consider yourself lucky. 112BK’s resident Extremely Beautiful person Brian Enck shares with us the plight of genetic lottery winners.

The New York City Sirens and an enterprising L-Train commuter embrace bike culture - one to smash the patriarchy, and the other to survive the looming L-Pocalpyse.

Salon politics reporter Amanda Marcotte joins MacKenzie in the studio to talk about the passing of George H.W. Bush, and how the media upheld his virtues to shame Trump, when Trump is merely an extension of the post-Cold War Republican politics Bush helped birth. Then, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke phones in to talk about a proposed Trump administration rule change for qualifying criteria for Green Cards and Visas to the U.S., and a deadline for public comment. And then, Santa-Con will soon be upon us—hear from Brian Enck on how to avoid the calamity.

The number of hate crimes is spiking all over the country, and Brooklyn is no exception. This past Tuesday, New York City Council Members announced their intention to create an Office of Hate Crimes Prevention. To talk about these developments, Katurah Topps, Policy Counsel at NAACP Legal Defense Fund, joins MacKenzie in the studio.

Billions of gallons of untreated sewage flow into New York City’s rivers, creeks, bays, and canals every year, due to a flaw in an older sewer system. This violates the Clean Water Act—which the city has been under pressure to address for decades. Though the city has made some progress, we’re entering a critical new phase of this work and advocates want a bigger role for public input. To talk about what the next part of the clean-up plan could look like, Jarrett is joined by Julie Welch, program manager for the SWIM Coalition. Interested in getting involved? Attend a citywide meeting at CUNY School of Law in Queens, NY on Wed, Dec 5 at 6:30PM.

The Pink Tax—it's basically gender-based price discrimination that sees a surcharge on products marketed specifically to women—like those beautifully frilly pink razors. Now comes a new report that women also pay more for transportation in the city. This Pink Tax amounts to hundreds of dollars per year for women, according to the study. To tell us more about it and what, if anything, is being done to counter it, we're joined by two of the report's authors and researchers with NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation, Gloria Campbell and Christopher Polack. Plus, Aaron Gordon, freelance journalist and author of the newsletter Signal Problems phones in to talk about fare evaders on MTA buses and subways—and how much they're costing the MTA every year.

To make an argument for the intact body and against circumcision, Brian is joined by Anthony Losquardo, the founder of Brooklyn-based action group, Intaction. Then, on the subject of body autonomy, we look into a new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has found the FDA has allowed breast implants companies to hide the extent of harm caused from the public.

Earlier this year, the NYPD revealed that 42,334 individuals were on its “gang database,” officially named the “criminal group database.” 95% of those listed are people of color, which raises all kinds of questions: How does the NYPD define “gang” and “gang members”? How is the list being used by the Department? What other resources can be used to circumvent gang violence? To address some of these questions, and to talk about what’s being done to introduce transparency into the Department’s use of the database, community organizer and writer Josmar Trujillo and activist Taylonn Murphy join MacKenzie in the studio.