Talk To Me PodcastOne

Talk to Me tells the inside story of how the field of hostage negotiations was created. In the wake of major 1970’s tragedies such as the Attica prison riot and the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the NYPD realized there was an urgent need to develop a system for handling hostage incidents. With news archives and first-hand accounts from hostage team founders Frank Bolz and Harvey Schlossberg, we bring to life cases large and small to explore what worked—and what didn’t. The world’s first hostage negotiation team pioneered the use of psychology in saving lives and created a model that is still used around the world today. The series is written and narrated by Edward Conlon, a veteran South Bronx detective and New York Times bestselling author.

An XG Productions Series.

When inmates riot at Attica prison in September 1971, 47 hostages are seized in a standoff that lasts for days. With no guidelines in place for negotiations, over 30 intermediaries scramble to make a deal that neither side is willing to accept. After Governor Rockefeller decides that the time for talking is over, 39 people are killed and 89 wounded in the brutal retaking of the prison

The 1972 Olympics in West Germany turn from a global celebration to a nightmare as radical Palestinian group Black September takes 11 Israeli athletes hostage. With multiple governments involved, chaos ensues, and a series of tactical and communication failures lead to heartbreaking catastrophe as the world watches in horror

In August 1972, a botched robbery at a Brooklyn bank turns into a hostage standoff—and media circus—that would inspire a classic movie starring Al Pacino. Real-life FBI Agent Jim Murphy tells the inside story of how he drove the robbers and the hostages to JFK Airport, where the often-comic drama reached its tragic conclusion.

After Munich, it becomes clear to NYPD Chief Simon Eisdorfer that police can’t just improvise their response to hostage crises as they occur. Enter Harvey Schlossberg, a patrolman with a PhD in clinical psychology who is assigned to come up with a plan. Schlossberg’s revolutionary insight—that police don’t have to react right away, or try and retake control—meets resistance in an organization that believes the only thing cops should say to criminals is, “Come out with your hands up!” But a training program begins weeks after the Israeli deaths at the Olympics.

When another officer doesn’t want to run the new hostage program, detective lieutenant Frank Bolz is given the opportunity of a lifetime. Bolz and Schlossberg form a bond, and together they begin to introduce their radical new concept—that it’s better to wait, that it’s possible to talk—to the most action-oriented cops in the department: the SWAT team, which the NYPD called the Emergency Service Division. Within months, the new program is put to the test.