Brooklyn Magazine: The Podcast Brooklyn Magazine

The Good Liars are comedians Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig, and for nearly a decade they have been doggedly traveling the country — most notably to presidential campaign rallies for both political parties — trolling attendees and politicians in fearless interviews that often go viral. All with an eye towards exposing hypocrisy, hubris, absurdity and just plain stupidity. The two have launched a new podcast, “The Good Liars Tell the Truth,” where they replay and re-examine some of their more viral moments — like being on the scene during the January 6 insurrection, or, more recently, attending a Trump rally and trying to sell their own satirical version of Donald Trump’s bible to his supporters. They’ve also taken their live act, “The Good Liars Fix America,” first performed in Brooklyn, on the road.
 
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope

Dan Perlman is a comedian, writer and director in Brooklyn He co-created, wrote and starred in Showtime's critically acclaimed comedy series, “Flatbush Misdemeanors” which was sadly not renewed after its much lauded and pitch-perfect two season run. Don’t count Dan out though. He just keeps making things — short things for now. Much as Flatbush Misdemeanors got its start as a web series he made with fellow comedian Kevin Iso, Perlman has made two short films — one in 2020 and one at the end of 2023 — both starring the same two New York kids, non-actors playing versions of themselves. The first one, “Cramming,” has just been announced as the recipient of a grant from Rooftop Films so it can be made into a feature film. The second, “Practice Space,” will have its world premiere at the Lower East Side Film Festival this year. That announcement just dropped … today.
 
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope

Rapper, singer, artist, producer and, since 2010, one third of the Brooklyn hip-hop group the Flatbush Zombies, Erick the Architect has dropped his first full-length solo album, "I've Never Been Here Before.” The title is a sly allusion to where he's at in life — emotionally, physically, professionally, musically — and the 16 tracks within feature collaborations with a range of artists from Lalah Hathaway to James Blake to Joey Bada$$ to George Clinton and more. The result is a kaleidoscopic mix of psychedelic hip-hop, Jamaican dancehall, classic boom-bap rap and neo-soul that reflects an omnivorous musical palate. Today, we discuss his so-called “villain era,” loss and growth, what he hates about contemporary hip-hop, Brooklyn and more.
 
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope

Robert Simonson writes about cocktails, food and travel for the New York Times, where he’s been a contributor since 2000. He is the author of seven books about cocktails — he literally wrote the book on the old-fashioned and one on the martini. His latest tome, out now, widens the lens — by a lot. “The Encyclopedia of Cocktails: The People, Bars and Drinks, With More Than 100 recipes” is a delightful omnibus, an alphabetical compendium of the most notable drinks, influential bartenders (living and dead), and important bars that have shaped the cocktail world — all in shot glass-sized entries from absinthe to the zombie.
 
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope

For 17 years Maria Popova has kept an online literary journal of sorts, a catalogue of what she’s been reading, contemplating and grappling with across multiple disciplines — literature, science, art, philosophy, poetry and what she has called “various other tentacles of human thought and feeling.” She started her site, the Marginalian, under a different name — you may remember it as Brain Pickings — as an email to a few friends and colleagues, a personal record of reckoning with her own search for meaning. Today it consists of hundreds of thousands of entries, cross linking ideas and connecting metaphysical dots. It is fundamentally a personal project, a map of one woman’s quest to understand this weird experience called life. And yet over the years it has proven to have a universal appeal, attracting millions of readers from all over the world who take comfort or pick up wisdom from her lyrical close readings.



Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope

What makes a story a New York story? Maybe it’s seeing a drag queen emerge from a manhole cover on Canal Street in a full look at 6:30 a.m. Or it could be a woman carrying a bag of live eels on the subway to the shock of no one. The thing is, you know a New York Story when you’ve got one, and Dan Saltzstein has collected a whole book’s worth of little vignettes — short stories and curated tweets that perfectly distill that New York moment to a second or two. Saltzstein joins us today to discuss his book, “That’s So New York: Short and Very Short Stories About the Greatest City on Earth," and the makings of a great New York story.
 
Brooklyn news and views you can use: bkmag.com
Email: hello@bkmag.com
Follow along on Facebook: Brooklyn Magazine
Twitter: @brooklynmag
Instagram: @brooklynmagazine
Follow Brian Braiker on Twitter: @slarkpope