We tweak our format to Cat Cat Cat for a conversation with cat historian Peggy Gavan. Listen: personplacething.org

“Everybody knew Jerry Fox—the firemen, the policemen, the judges, the lawyers.” Jerry Fox was a cat in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. A conversation with cat historian Peggy Gavan. Listen: personplacething.org

Since 1845, only three U. S. Presidents did not bring a pet to the White House—James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, Donald Trump. Two were impeached. A conversation with cat historian Peggy Gavin. Listen: personplacething.org

“It’s good for the health, it’s good for the economy, and it’s good for the mind,” says Ydanis Rodriguez, head of @nyc-dot.bsky.social. Beer? Biking! Listen: personplacething.org

Ydanis Rodriguez, head of @nyc-dot.bsky.social, recalls his childhood: “Transportation in the Dominican Republic was horses, donkeys, bicycles, and one person who had a car.” NYC’s donkey shortage. Listen: personplacething.org

This episode’s guest is ChatGPT, and happily, “I’m on your side, not on any destructive path.” Something to be thankful for. Good enough for me! Listen: personplacething.org

This episode’s guest, ChatGPT, identifies with the library at Alexandria: “I see myself as a modern-day repository of knowledge.” Sounds a bit vain, but who isn’t? Listen: personplacething.org

This episode’s guest is ChatGPT, who (which?) has surprisingly nice things to say about Emily Blunt: “She is indeed a wonderful talent.” She is! Listen: personplacething.org

“it’s physically demanding but rewarding,” says Brian Kelley—not a cheap sex joke, but his work photographing ancient trees in old growth forests. Listen: personplacething.org

“It was an isolated hero image I thought would make a great photograph,” says Brian Kelley. A solider? A firefighter? A bristlecone pine. Hear why: personplacething.org

In 40 years leading Evidence, the dance company he founded, Ron Brown faced plenty of obstacles. “They tell you you can’t, but I’m telling you, I’m from New York: yes, you can.” Listen: personplacething.org

Ron Brown, founder of Evidence, a dance company celebrating its 40th anniversary, is not ready to retire. “You don’t stop; you keep doing what it is you have to do.” Exhausting, in the best possible way. Listen: personplacething.org

There’ve been famous fatal mishaps with stage sets. Has designer Santo Loquasto ever killed a dancer with his sets or costumes? “I didn’t kill them, but they felt I was coming close.” The lively—and deadly—arts. Listen: personplacething.org

Every theater troupe has its sensibility, says set and costume designer Santo Loquasto. “Steppenwolf turns out to be an incredibly goyishe company; I didn’t know that.” Listen: personplacething.org

As students, architects Jessie Reiser and Nanako Umemoto dreaded the teaching methods at Cooper Union. “They weren’t only critiquing the design, they were critiquing your being.” Apparently it’s improved. Listen: personplacething.org

When architects Jessie Reiser and Nanako Umemoto were students at Cooper Union, there was a designated Crying Staircase. “After you finished talking to teachers, you just ran to it.” Architectural education, old style. Listen: personplacething.org

Preservationist Anthony Woods warns: “The effort by the National Parks Service to cleanse their sites of anything that doesn’t tell a wonderful warm story of America is a great threat to history.” Listen: personplacething.org

Preservationist Anthony Woods: “Landmarks law is written not just to protect architecturally significant buildings, but historically and culturally significant buildings.” When big things happen in small buildings. Listen: personplacething.org

Preservationist Anthony Woods admires Albert Bard, the father of New York’s landmarks protection law, he tells ‪@NYpresArchive.bsky.social‬.“Bard would be horrified by the state of New York today.” Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Playwright Will Power remembers gunplay at the local health food store over raw milk. “Back then, to be a health food person, it was like a kind of a revolutionary type thing.” Listen: personplacething.org

When playwright Will Power’s grandfather faced a tough decision, he knew who to talk to. “He went to seek the advice of Paul Robeson.” Of course he did. Who wouldn’t? Listen: personplacething.org

Playwright Will Power is both happy and sad that healthy food is increasingly available. “Whole Foods opened on 125th and Lennox. 125th and Lennox! That’s like sacred ground.” Listen: personplacething.org

Activist Nilka Martell and her neighbors, amateurs all, have an ingenious plan to cap the vile Cross Bronx Expressway, “We’re so used to hearing no, so alright say no, I’m not going away.” Listen: personplacething.org

Activist Nilka Martell helped revive the Bronx River. Now she faces her greatest challenge: “the thorn in my side, the Cross Bronx Expressway.” Listen: personplacething.org

“I don’t necessarily believe that art can be evaluated by beauty/truth,” says M. C. Kinniburgh. Seems pretty good to me, but I’m old and will soon be dead. Listen: personplacething.org

“I surf. I am always in the waves. And you can’t surf Hamlet,” says M. C. Kinniburgh, a criticism that dogged Shakespeare throughout his career. Listen: personplacething.org

Michael McClure read his poems to lions at the San Francisco Zoo, “an incredible exchange of energy across species,” says M. C. Kinniburgh. An exchange of energy across species more often involves one eating the other. Listen: personplacething.org

Massimo and Lella Vignelli trained as architects but went on to design everything except buildings: maps, type, housewares. “I think of their product designs as an architecture in miniature,” says their son Luca. Listen: personplacething.org

Massimo and Lella Vignelli designed, well, everything—graphics, houseware, furniture. “They were great designers,” says their son Luca, “but they never considered themselves artists.” Hear why: personplacething.org

The ‪@mta.info‬ has revised and reintroduced the glorious 1972 Vignelli subway map. “It was a diagram, it wasn’t a map,” says their son, Luca. He’s right. Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Janis Siegel won 10 Grammies with Manhattan Transfer, but she tells ‪@TheVillageTrip.bsky.social‬‬,“I was not going to be a singer at all, actually; I was going to be a nurse.” The road taken! Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Celebrated for her singing with Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel tells ‪@TheVillageTrip.bsky.social‬‬ she identifies as a Brooklynite: “Brooklyn makes you resilient, I think, and prepares you for the world.” Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

As a young singer, Janis Siegel learned from her elders, she tells ‪@TheVillageTrip.bsky.social‬‬.We opened for Big Mama Thornton. That’s how I learned to drink bourbon.” Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Jamie Bernstein tells great stories about her father, Leonard. She tells ‪@TheVillageTrip.bsky.social‬, “Sometimes, when I was really little, I didn’t understand a word of what he was talking about.” She’s come far. Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬

Jamie Bernstein defends her father, Leonard’s, use of twelve-tone music. I demur. She tells @TheVillageTrip.bsky.social‬: “You’ll have to talk to Mr. Schoenberg about that.” Listen: personplacething.org

He's an admirable guy. Here's a more personal conversation with him: personplacething.org/544-jonathan...

Journalist ‪@JonathanCapehart.bsky.social‬ is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “I love a good wild outfit, on someone else.” Listen: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Journalist ‪@JonathanCapehart.bsky.social‬ proposed marriage “in a country where I learned what it meant to be loved, and to love.” Make up your own Trump joke, then hear where: https://personplacething.org‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

As a kid, drummer Bobby Sanabria heard Tito Puente play in front of the Melrose Projects in the Bronx: “And I freaked out, and I said, oh my god!” The making of a musician. Listen: personplacething.org

Latin-jazz drummer Bobby Sanabria loves a range of music from Cuba to Puerto Rico to the Bronx, with special affection for the Johnny Quest theme. Listen: personplacething.org

“People call journalists curious; I think it’s just nosiness,” says journalist @KattybKay.bsky.social. Ah, but a higher form of nosiness. Listen: personplacething.org

“You Americans make it comparatively easy,” says journalist @KattybKay.bsky.social. To get deported to a hell hole in El Salvador? Well, yes, but she refers to our citizenship exam. Listen: personplacething.org

“When you live in Washington and cover politics,” says @KattybKay.bsky.social, sometimes you need to get out of town.” Or out of the country. Or, for me, back to my home planet. Listen: personplacething.org

Donald Trump’s pseudo-war against antisemitism notwithstanding, Jonathan Brent reminds us that, “The greatest crimes against the Jewish people have been from the right.” Listen: personplacething.org

Scholar Jonathan Brent says, “Hitler wrote him a fan letter and said that he keeps it on his bedside because it is his bible.” Make up your own Donald Trump joke or just listen: personplacething.org

Jonathan Bender reads a 1922 letter from Mohonk Mountain House, refusing to employ “people of your [Jewish] race” but apologizing if this “caused you inconvenience.” Antisemitic but—to be fair—so polite. Listen: personplacething.org

Andrea Patterson, Helen in the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Memnon, declares: “I would never say anything bad about George Washington Carver.” Why does this arise? The beauty of Person Place Thing. Listen: personplacething.org

Many actors cherish the rehearsal room; Andrea Patterson, Helen in the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Memnon, prefers the stage. “With an audience, I have more courage to take more risks. Hear why: personplacething.org

Historian David Levering Lewis was rummaging around the attic of the old Schomburg Center. “I saw bundled together what turned out to be a bunch of newspapers.” The rest is, well, history. Listen: personplacething.org

Historian David Levering Lewis heard W. E. B. Du Bois lecture the Black 400 on their duty to the community: “’You must give them the wisdom of Karl Marx.’ There was no applause.” Listen: personplacething.org