Glitter & Doom

Marion Stokes famously recorded TV news 24 hours a day for 35 years. When she passed away in 2012, she left behind over 70,000 VHS tapes containing hours and hours of footage. Filmmaker Matt Wolf set out to document this obsessive documenter in his new film, "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project," which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month. And then, the Crew talks about one of Wolf's earlier films "Teenage" and recollects their own tender years.

As a culture, we love a good scam story. But it's less entertaining if you yourself fall victim to a scammer. That's what happened to our first guest, journalist Abby Ellin, who almost married a man who turned out to have a complicated relationship with the truth. Her experience inspired her to write a new book, "Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married." 

One in six men will experience contact sexual violence over the course of his lifetime. We rarely hear their voices, which is why Zeke Thomas -- DJ, advocate, and son of basketball hall-of-famer Isiah Thomas – is doing such important work by sharing his story. Thomas is the first male spokesperson for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and he joined us recently here at 112BK.

The talented ladies behind 112BK – AKA the Crew – weigh in on getting hassled by real Twitter bots, buying fake IDs on the internet, and keeping your older relatives safe from online scammers.

On a typical day, the Human Trafficking Intervention Court sees scores of women who have been arrested for selling sex and are victims of trafficking. Their approach—to not view defendants as criminals or degenerates but rather as people in need of support services—is revolutionary. Filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal joins us to talk about this court and their work, which has been documented in her film "Blowin' Up," now in theaters.

And then, the infamous racist "one-drop" laws of the Jim Crow South inform the way we think about blackness to this day. Guest Bill Posley spent decades grappling with his own identity, finally channeling it into a new solo show called "The Day I Became Black," now playing at the Soho Playhouse and just extended through May 26th.

Before Papi Juice and Bubble T, there were the saloons around the Navy Yard, the boardwalks of Coney Island, and the St. George Hotel.  In his new book, "When Brooklyn Was Queer," Hugh Ryan does a deep dive into Brooklyn LGBT history, and he joined us to talk about the inverts, fairies, drag queens and kings whose legacies helped shape the queer Brooklyn of today.

Hear from the folks from behind the camera talk Joe Biden, Mussolini's granddaughter, and bad ayahuasca trips. Then, the Democrats took control of the New York State Senate last fall, the first time in a decade. With a Democratic legislature and governor, passing a progressive budget should have been a cakewalk—so how’d we do? Jarrett Murphy, Executive Editor of City Limits, brings us up to speed on what made it in (and what didn’t).

He's on a mission to walk the nearly 9,000 miles of streets, parkways and cemetery paths of New York City. Matt Green will talk about the ongoing effort, the documentary chronicling his steps, and cat sitting. And then Mike Piazza talks about teaching kids (theater?).