The Update with Brandon Julien

Brandon Julien
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New York is a city full of stories. On The Update with Brandon Julien, we just happen to have many of them. Wherever you may be or however you may listen to us, get caught up on everything that you need to know because anything can happen in New York.

  1. The Update (Year 5 Archives)- March 15th

    9H AGO

    The Update (Year 5 Archives)- March 15th

    Hello everyone! We're going into #TheUpdate vault to play one of our many episodes throughout our many years of the show. For today's episode, we go into the world of Year 5 of The Update. When we first started this then-show at WKRB in 2017, the first year had a lot of things going on. Donald Trump's first year in office, mass shootings worldwide, and the Great American Solar Eclipse to name just a few. In Year 5, it was more of the same. There was the Russian war in Ukrane, more mass shootings in America, and the overturning of Roe V. Wade to name just a few that we'll mention. But also, after more than two years out on the road, we made our way to a new studio at UD Team in the summer of 2022. Oh, and one last thing- be on the lookout for some WKRB highlights as we looked back on five years of memories.

    1h 3m
  2. The Update (Brandon's Favorite Episodes)- March 14th

    1D AGO

    The Update (Brandon's Favorite Episodes)- March 14th

    We've done a lot of episodes throughout our many years of #TheUpdate, but some of them are my personal favorites. Every month, we're going to go into The Update vault and play one episode from my personal list of favorite episodes. I hope you enjoy them as much as i did hosting it.

    1h 3m
  3. The Update- March 12th

    2D AGO

    The Update- March 12th

    Today in The Update Journal, we begin with a historic moment in culinary exploration: my first ever trip inside Buffalo Wild Wings. That’s right. After years of walking past those glowing televisions and the smell of fried ambition in the air, I will finally step through the doors like a rookie entering the big leagues. I’m told there are roughly 47 sauces, half of which are designed to test your pain tolerance and your will to live. We’ll see how that goes. Then, from the continuing saga of “Answers on The Weakest Link That Make You Question the Future of Humanity,” we revisit a contestant who was asked which famous TV personality made her first vowel movement in 1982. Now the rest of us at home immediately shouted the correct answer: Vanna White. Simple. Easy. A layup question. The contestant, however, confidently answered… Ellen. Yes. Ellen. Apparently somewhere out there is an alternate universe where Ellen DeGeneres has been casually flipping letters on Wheel of Fortune since the Reagan administration. And finally, in news that may temporarily stop Americans from crying while looking at their bank accounts, McDonald’s is preparing a new lineup of menu items for $3 or less. That’s right — in this economy, you can still walk into a McDonald’s with a couple of dollars and leave with actual food instead of just a napkin and emotional support. So today we’ve got wings, vowels, and budget burgers—which honestly sounds like the name of a very strange law firm. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Thursday, newly released surveillance video appears to show a man buying a fuse at a fireworks store days before authorities say he and another man brought homemade bombs to a protest outside Mayor Mamdani's residence. Mayor Mamdani spent his first in-person appearance at his “rental ripoff” hearings appealing to public housing tenants after he was heckled and previously accused of ignoring their plights. And in Washington, the January collapse of a pipe as wide as a car dumped so much sewage into the Potomac River that officials tracked a spike of gut-wrenching bacteria drifting slowly past Washington for weeks, prompting an emergency declaration and federal assistance.

    1h 32m
  4. The Update- March 11th

    3D AGO

    The Update- March 11th

    In this edition of The Update Journal, I try to solve a mystery even Scooby-Doo might struggle with: what exactly was The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, and why does it feel like a fever dream from 1985? Then the tone shifts—just a little—as we look back six years to the day the world basically pressed the pause button, when sports stopped, travel bans began, and suddenly everyone became an amateur epidemiologist. And finally, in Brandon’s Take, we’ll tackle the great generational divide: snow days. For students, it’s a magical winter holiday. For staff? It’s “working from home,” which mostly means answering a couple emails while standing in front of the fridge wondering if this technically counts as productivity. Expect nostalgia, mild existential reflection, and the realization that adulthood has completely ruined snow days. ❄️ In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Wednesday, Two former NYPD officers who prosecutors say stole a brothel key and then robbed and groped a sex worker are now facing federal charges after their initial state charges were dismissed on a technicality. A Honduran migrant was arrested for randomly shoving two strangers — including an 83-year-old man — onto Upper East Side subway tracks over the weekend, according to authorities. And major storms whipped up tornadoes in parts of Illinois and Indiana that leveled homes, killing at least two people and injuring others, and another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region, authorities say.

    1h 32m
  5. The Update- March 10th

    4D AGO

    The Update- March 10th

    In today’s Update Journal, we revisit the cinematic nightmare that united an entire generation: the THX sound. Not the movie. Not the trailers. Just the sound. That deep, metallic “BWAAAAAAAAAA” that shook theater walls, rattled your bones, and made every kid in the audience think the speakers were about to explode. For many of us, it was our first experience with surround sound… and mild emotional trauma. Then we move to The Weakest Link, where a contestant commits what can only be described as a breakfast felony—confusing butterscotch Munchkins and a strawberry Coolatta with Starbucks. Starbucks! That’s like walking into Yankee Stadium and asking where the Mets bullpen is. Somewhere, a Dunkin’ employee felt a disturbance in the force. And finally, in today’s honorable mention, Harry Styles reveals his chaotic “boy dinner” habit—basically a collection of random food items that looks less like a meal and more like what you’d eat at 11:45 p.m. while staring into the fridge with the light on. Naturally, a fast-food chain saw this and said, “Perfect. Let’s monetize that.” Because nothing says culinary innovation quite like a celebrity’s questionable late-night eating decisions. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Tuesday, investigators are trying to learn more about two Pennsylvania men accused of bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of Mayor Mamdani. Luxury real estate agents Tal and Oren Alexander and their brother Alon were convicted of sex trafficking for using their vast wealth to drug and rape numerous women they lured into their twisted orbit. And overseas, the widening Iran war has upended oil production and shipping across the Middle East, straining energy supplies worldwide.

    1h 32m
  6. The Update- March 9th

    5D AGO

    The Update- March 9th

    In this edition of The Update Journal, we begin with a man who quietly built a media empire while the rest of us were still trying to figure out how to program the VCR. Byron Allen has more channels, production credits, and executive producer tags than a CVS receipt, and if you blink during the credits you might miss the part where he basically owns the entire network. Then we move to one of those late-night TV moments that only happens when you’re awake at 2 A.M. watching American Greed, wondering where your life choices went wrong. The episode features a mayor who apparently believed that holding public office meant never having to pay for dinner. Because nothing says “public servant” quite like walking out of a restaurant and sticking the taxpayers—or the waiter—with the bill. And finally, we discuss the Monday after Spring Daylight Saving Time, the one day of the year where the entire country collectively wakes up angry. We lose an hour of sleep, gain an attitude, and suddenly every minor inconvenience feels like a federal offense. Coffee isn’t strong enough, alarms feel like personal attacks, and everyone at work looks like they’re operating on about three percent battery life. In other words: media empires, midnight scandals, and a nation running on one less hour of sleep. What could possibly go wrong? In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Monday, a device thrown by a counterprotester at an anti-Islam demonstration in New York City on Saturday was confirmed to be an improvised explosive, according to a preliminary police analysis. As the investigation continued, the NYPD said they were looking into a second suspicious device found in the same area of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Four people were shot during a Brooklyn bar brawl, as an eyewitness said one of the victims had his foot blown off. And overseas, Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader, has been named as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, authorities announced, as Tehran widened its attacks across the Mideast to strike oil and water facilities crucial to its desert sheikdoms.

    1h 26m
  7. The Update- March 6th

    5D AGO

    The Update- March 6th

    Somewhere between a 1940s household manual telling wives to always smile and never contradict their husbands, a completely unnecessary on-air confession about childhood cartoon crushes, and the simple fact that we somehow survived weather that felt like living inside a freezer, today’s Update Journal went in… several directions. We examine the baffling rules of post-war marriage advice (spoiler: if you tried that today, someone would absolutely get punched), I make an administrative admission that probably should have stayed off the record, and we close things out celebrating the small miracle that we all made it through the tundra outside. In other words: history, humiliation, and hypothermia — all in one episode. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Friday, a 4-year-old Brooklyn boy who dashed away from his mom was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, just steps away from a local hospital, police and sources said. A jury in Manhattan federal court started deliberating in a case that could put twins Oren and Alon, 38, and Tal, 39, in prison for the rest of their lives. And in Washington, President Trump fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.

    1h 32m
  8. The Update- March 5th

    5D AGO

    The Update- March 5th

    In today’s Update Journal, we begin with a Weakest Link moment that raises serious questions about the state of breakfast knowledge in America—because apparently not everyone knows where to get a Rootie Tootie Fresh ’N Fruity. (Hint: it’s not an ice cream shop.) From there, we travel back to 2008 to investigate Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue, a show so strange that many of us are still unsure whether it actually aired or if Cartoon Network collectively hallucinated it. And finally, United Airlines introduces a tough new rule aimed at stopping one of the most blood-boiling passenger habits known to mankind—because nothing brings society together quite like mutual irritation at the airport. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Thursday, a brazen duo – including one career criminal with dozens of prior arrests – was arrested for allegedly setting a sleeping man on fire inside Penn Station this week, authorities said. A high-ranking Jersey City official running to be a town mayor has been reassigned after humiliating footage showed him using his position to try to get out of a drunk-driving arrest — and admitting to cheating on his wife. And in Rhode Island, Catholic priests preyed on hundreds of children for decades, and were protected by bishops more concerned with the church’s reputation than the victims, according to a new report on clergy sexual abuse that echoes findings elsewhere.

    1h 27m
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New York is a city full of stories. On The Update with Brandon Julien, we just happen to have many of them. Wherever you may be or however you may listen to us, get caught up on everything that you need to know because anything can happen in New York.

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