Friends From New York: In Conversation

Friends From New York
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

FFNY In Conversation is a New York culture podcast from Friends From New York, bringing together the people shaping the city across art, music, fashion, film, nightlife, hospitality and design. Hosted by photographer, filmmaker and Friends From New York founder Heidi Hartwig, each episode sits down with artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, DJs, designers and cultural voices shaping New York. Friends From New York brings together the people shaping New York culture through cultural programming, stories, collaborations and community.

  1. Sep 23

    Michael “Kaves” McLeer: Lordz of Brooklyn and A Brooklyn Dream

    Michael “Kaves” McLeer has spent his life building for Brooklyn. From writing graffiti in Bay Ridge and forming Lordz of Brooklyn with his brother, to painting, tattooing, filmmaking, The Brooklyn Firefly and The Brooklyn Pop, Kaves moved between worlds and made each one his own. Heidi Hartwig sits down with Kaves to talk about Brooklyn, family, ambition, loss and the place carrying him through his darkest days and brightest ones. Kaves did not build a career around Brooklyn. He built a body of work for Brooklyn. A Brooklyn Dream returns Saturday, September 26, at The Brooklyn Pop in Industry City. TICKETS https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/thebrooklynpop/items/746868/calendar/2026/09/?full-items=yes&back=https://thebrooklynpop.com/ Watch or listen to Friends From New York: In Conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

    Michael “Kaves” McLeer: Lordz of Brooklyn and A Brooklyn Dream

  2. Sep 14

    FFNY In Conversation: Clayton Patterson on Documenting the Lower East Side

    Clayton Patterson has spent decades documenting the people, streets, artists, activists, outsiders and underground communities of New York’s Lower East Side. In this conversation, we talk about the camera that gave him access to worlds most people never saw, the 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot, the Pyramid Club, tattoo culture, community, gentrification, and what it means to preserve the people behind a city. Clayton’s archive holds thousands of hours of Lower East Side life, documenting a New York often overlooked by traditional media and institutions. His footage of the 1988 Tompkins Square Park riot became one of the defining records of that night. Some of the people we speak with you’ll know. Some you won’t. That’s part of the point. FFNY In Conversation is a living history of New York, told by the people who shaped it, carried something forward, built something here, or are helping decide what comes next. This isn’t celebrity culture.It’s city culture. Everybody wants a friend from New York.This is where you meet them. Watch FFNY In Conversation on YouTube and follow Friends From New York for new episodes.

  3. Aug 24

    G-Bo the Pro: From East Harlem Block Jams to the Keith Haring Foundation

    Heidi Hartwig talks with G-Bo the Pro (Gil Vasquez) — a man living a double life as a New York mixtape legend and a fixture of the Keith Haring world, where the two rarely overlap. From East Harlem block jams and teen nights catching Little Louie Vega at Heartthrob to the art market's games and Haring's staggering output, G-Bo and Heidi get into duality, reinvention, and finding your tribe. Plus the Knicks, bringing back the cassette, and where to find Keith's murals still standing around the city.

  4. Aug 5

    DJ MOS on Reading a Room and the Secret-Weapon Reset Record

    Ask DJ MOS how to save a stuffy, confused room and he doesn't hesitate: Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" to open it back up, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do" to send everyone home happy. In this episode, Heidi Hartwig sits down with the veteran New York DJ — born Masoud Obana Semple — to talk about the craft of reading a crowd and the thrill of dropping a record no one saw coming and watching them go off. Born in Brooklyn and raised in South Side Jamaica, Queens, MOS traces his obsession back to hearing "Sucka MCs" on a boom box across the street and seeing Run-DMC on Reading Rainbow — a childhood also full of classical piano, his dad's jazz and yacht rock, and soca at home. He tells the story of chalking his ID as a teenager and sneaking out of his parents' White Plains house to catch the train to The Tunnel, timing the whole night around the 5 AM train back so he'd never get caught. That first taste of club culture — house upstairs, hip-hop in the library with DJ Riz and Scissor Hands — turned him into one of the DJs he used to stand and watch in awe.

  5. Jul 13

    DJ Hesta Prynn: Music Is a Medicine Cabinet

    Heidi Hartwig talks with DJ Hesta Prynne (Julie Potash) — from her Hot 97 upbringing and feminist rap group Northern State to a Rolling Stone review that got Questlove to bring them on tour with The Roots. He later taught her to DJ, leading to Bonnaroo, Q-Tip, and eight years spinning for Spotify. Now a licensed therapist building Music Connection Therapy, she and Heidi get into why music heals, what the dance floor is really for, and a younger crowd that calls Passion Pit "grandpa."

  6. Jun 16

    Scram Jones: From a Fisher-Price Turntable to Hot 97

    DJ and producer Scram Jones sits down with Heidi Hartwig of Friends From New York to trace his journey from break-dancing at a Pepsi picnic as a six-year-old to becoming one of New York's most respected selectors and beatmakers.Scram breaks down how he went from a Fisher Price turntable to spinning vinyl at Lower East Side open mics every Sunday, building his craft one basement cipher at a time. He talks about the moment he knew he was truly in the game — working with Havoc from Mobb Deep, landing a beat for Harlem battle rapper J Mills that got Flex dropping bombs on Hot 97, and nearly signing to EPMD's Death Squad straight out of college.Beyond the career highlights, this conversation gets real about burnout, what happens to creative output when your personal life gets toxic, and why relationships are the real currency in New York's music scene. Scram also shares his thoughts on where DJing is heading, his complicated feelings about AI in music production, and the experimental non-hip-hop music sitting on his hard drive waiting to be released.If you love authentic New York hip-hop history, honest conversations about the creative grind, and the culture that built the music we all love — this one is for you.

  7. Jun 1

    DJ Evil Dee: Black Moon, Hot 97, and the NYC Mixtape Hustle

    DJ Evil Dee — founding member of Black Moon and one half of legendary production duo The Beatminerz — sits down with Heidi Hartwig to trace his journey from the block parties of Bushwick, Brooklyn to the airwaves of Hot 97 and beyond. Evil Dee breaks down how he learned to DJ by sneaking into his older brother Mr. Walt's room, how a neighborhood joke became his iconic "Evil Dee is on the mix, come on kick it" drop, and how he built a underground mixtape empire — pressing hundreds of cassettes a night and placing them in every cab company in Bushwick before the internet existed. He shares the full story of how Black Moon came together, how house music legend Gladys Pizarro helped them land their deal at Nervous Records, and how performing at the very first Hot 97 Summer Jam earned him a Monday night radio residency from 1994 to 1997. Plus, the moment Brandy walked into the wrong studio session and he broke her debut single on air. Evil Dee also gets real about the state of New York nightlife today — why DJs need to actually DJ, why crowds need to get off their phones and back on the dance floor, and why his Saturday Night Dance Party on Twitch has become a club for people who gave up on clubs.

  8. May 18

    Christina Visca: Sound Factory, Paradise Garage & Building NYC Nightlife's Golden Era

    Nightlife legend Christina Visca sits down with Heidi Hartwig to tell the full, unfiltered story of how a girl from White Plains became one of the most important figures in New York City club history. If you've ever wondered what it actually felt like to live through the golden age of NYC nightlife — from Studio 54 to the garage to Sound Factory — this is the episode. In this episode we cover: Growing up around the fashion world and gay culture — and what that shaped in her Her first experiences at gay clubs in Baltimore and Washington DC in high schoolNights at Studio 54, Xenon, Danceteria, and the FIT college scene in the early 80sBeing discovered by Peter Gatien and throwing her first professional parties at LimelightWorking the door at Palladium, 1018, and what it means to truly curate a roomThe final years of Paradise Garage and the Saint, and the hole they left behindHow she handed flyers out at the last Garage party and launched her own clubsCo-founding Baseline and then Sound Factory with Junior Vasquez and Phil SmithThe after-hours police cat-and-mouse game at Sound Factory and why it was worth itWhy Sound Factory was the most diverse nightclub in NYC historyWhat's missing from nightlife today: community, membership culture, and dressing upHer vision for what a perfect modern club would look likeThe future of NYC nightlife, 24-hour districts, and the end of bottle service cultureChristina's story is ultimately about community — the sense of belonging she found on a dance floor as a teenager and has been building for everyone else ever since. This is essential listening for anyone who loves New York, dance music, or the culture that shaped a generation.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

FFNY In Conversation is a New York culture podcast from Friends From New York, bringing together the people shaping the city across art, music, fashion, film, nightlife, hospitality and design. Hosted by photographer, filmmaker and Friends From New York founder Heidi Hartwig, each episode sits down with artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, DJs, designers and cultural voices shaping New York. Friends From New York brings together the people shaping New York culture through cultural programming, stories, collaborations and community.

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