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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC Studios in SoHo. Whether you are a new listener or you've been with us for the past five years, I'm grateful you are here. Later on today's show, we'll tour Chelsea's Landmark Arts Building. A couple of weeks ago, I walked in to see one gallery show, and emerged hours later after having seen a lot of wonderful art. We'll be joined by three of the artists whose work is on display there now. That's next hour on the show. The plan today is to get this started with a little birthday celebration.

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Exactly five years ago, and one day, All Of It launched on September 17th, 2018. In that time, we've aired well over a thousand radio episodes with an average of five segments a day, every weekday, 12:00 to 2:00 P.M. That's getting us up to around 6,000 interviews with artists, musicians, filmmakers, actors, authors, playwright, doctors, scientists, historians, a secretary of state, an ambassador, botanist, organizational gurus, financial journalists, a fungus expert, a catsultant, and one child podcaster.

We've had Grammy winners, Oscar winners, Pulitzer winners, MacArthur Fellows, and a Nobel laureate. We've done countless on-air series like Good Vibes, The Big Picture, South By South Of Houston, Listening Party's 2022 debuts, Silver Liner Notes, Small Stakes, Big Opinions, I Need a Minute, Full Bio, and more. We also launched Get Lit, our book club with the New York Public Library. Our rough count, the book club has led to around 200,000 ebook checkouts at the library.

All that time you've been right here with us, tuning in from your homes, your offices, your lunch break, and your cars. Sometimes people even jog and call in. As we start today's show by reflecting on our fifth anniversary, we want to know what's been going on in your life for the past five years. You hear from us, two hours every day. We want to hear from you, call or text. What's changed for you since 2018? A promotion, a new job, a family, or just tell us something that you've learned in the last five years. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC.

You can call in and join us on the air. You can also text to us at that number. Our social media is available as well, @allofitwnyc.

Let's talk about some of the fun stuff. We've spoken to so many interesting people over the last five years and taken on some serious subjects, but we've also had a lot of fun. For example, we've had the pleasure of hearing Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead's laugh after asking a question that caught him a little off guard.

Colson Whitehead: I'm always planning before and trying to figure out the genre.

Alison Stewart: Are you a different person to be around when you write one versus the other?

Colson Whitehead: No, [laughs]. I'm more into sharing jokes with my wife. If I think of something that's hilarious to me, I want to share it.

Alison Stewart: Colson's got the best laugh. We love your interaction with us on Instagram @allofitwnyc. For example, that time we posted that sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer decided to be my agent.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer: First of all, Alison Stewart, a wonderful interview. Now, I'm not going to tell you give her a raise in salary because you are going to say I should pay for it. However, I want you to know an excellent, well-prepared interviewer.

Alison Stewart: One of the joys of doing a show of back-to-back interviews is that sometimes you find that one guest is a fan of another guest who's booked on the same day. The combination isn't always what you'd expect. Just last week, the singer mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran turned out to be a huge fan of chef JJ Johnson. Dave Davies of The Kinks once took a fan photo with Robert Pattinson in our green room.

Another example from 2019, Jake Gyllenhaal and playwright Nick Payne were apparently really excited to learn that the guest after them was the director of Russian Doll. Nick Payne and Jake Gyllenhaal. Guys, thank you.

?Nick Payne: Thank you for having us.

?Jake Gyllenhaal: Thank you very much

?Nick Payne: Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: Stick around, the director of Russian Dolls is up next.

[crosstalk]

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Sometimes we get to bring together longtime friends. Sometimes we make introductions between mutual fans who've never met before. That is what happened when Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness joined the same day as musician and actor Olly Alexander. Roll the tape.

Jonathan Van Ness: I also follow you on the Graham, hardcore. You know that, I love you so much, like secretary of your fan club right here.

Olly Alexander: You're so amazing, Jonathan, and thank you so much really, and thank you for introducing us like this, because we haven't been able to properly speak.

Alison Stewart: Sometimes you get very special callers. Like the time we did a segment on the popularity of Formula One racing, which my son's obsessed with. Hi, Isaac. Are you there?

Isaac: Hi, mom. Yes, I'm here.

Alison Stewart: Yes, I'm here. We've also tackled a lot of tough issues on the show. Subjects as diverse as burnout, disordered eating, sexual assault, gun violence, book banning, religion, racism, and other forms of bigotry. We've spoken to experts on the subjects, journalists on the front lines, and medical researchers. We've also spoken to laypeople and artists and writers with personal experiences of these issues. Here's actor Sharon D. Clarke on her performance in the all-Black production of Death of a Salesman.

Sharon D. Clarke: We wanted the audiences to see a wonderful example of Black love on stage. If you can feel their love and devotion to each other, you understand why they are together in this situation, and why Linda is ever supportive of her man. In a time 1949, when you're dealing with mental illness, which is a subject we're only just starting to talk about now. How do you support someone going through that when you don't know, the avenues to go through to help them?

Alison Stewart: We've also had so many great performances from Regina Spector, Madison McFerrin, Ben Folds, Steve Earle, Béla Fleck, Phony Ppl, Rufus Wainwright, Tank and the Bangas, and the list goes on and on, but a shout-out to a frequent guest who joined us to perform on our very first show, Ani DiFranco. One very special live music moment of the show was brought to us by Ben Thornwell of the band Jukebox the Ghost. He joined us for Get Little, where he turned listeners' names into songs live on the air. Here's his song for our caller, Colette.

Ben Thornwell: Colette, we have C-O-L-E-T-T-E.

[MUSIC - Ben Thornwell: song for Colette]

Alison Stewart: Colette, your reaction.

Colette: That's the nicest thing that's happened to me in a long time. Thank you.

Ben Thornwell: Colette, I am honored.

Alison Stewart: Oh, love that. Listeners, we want to hear from you. What has been going on in your life in the last five years? What has changed? What's something exciting you want to share with us? 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. We want to hear what's new for you. What's come new for you in the past five years? Let's go to line 1. Let's talk to Jefferson calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Jefferson. Thanks for calling.

Jefferson: Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me. In the last five years, I've begun balding.

Alison Stewart: How's that going for you?

Jefferson: Oh, it's fine. I'm looking forward to being that balding fox. I've been a huge fan of the show in the whole run.

Alison Stewart: Well, thank you so much for calling in and making me smile. I'm sure a few listeners smile, too. Let's talk to Hollywood calling from Brooklyn. Hi, Hollywood.

Hollywood: Hi. How are you doing, Alison?

Alison Stewart: I'm doing great. Love your name.

Hollywood: Thank you. I moved to New York five years ago, and about two years in, people were telling me that I could sign up for college with aid from the state and the city. I did that, and now I'm driving up to City College, so I'm grateful for that. It was life-changing all in the last five years.

Alison Stewart: Hollywood, thank you so much for sharing your story. It's a lot can happen in five years. Let's talk to Sherry calling in from Roosevelt Island. Hi, Sherry. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Sherry: Hi, there. I really enjoy listening to your show, and I love the musicians that you've had on and the interviews with the actors, and I love the segment about the theatrical productions, but the one thing I really loved, especially during the pandemic, was I Need A Minute because I always made sure that I made it to the kitchen to listen to that because that's where the radio is. I always just stopped everything, whatever I was doing or not doing or beginning to do. I took that minute, and it was really very, very nice, very lovely, so thank you.

Alison Stewart: I'm so glad it was able to help you out. We've heard that from a lot of folks, especially during the pandemic. Someone's texted to us. I started grad school and completed my master's in clinical rehab counseling. Love to listen to the show while studying. Congratulations on grad school. Let's talk to Paulina calling in, oh, from my hometown Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Hi, Paulina.

Paulina: Hello. How are you?

Alison Stewart: I'm great.

Paulina: Well, I wanted to share that many changes have happened these last five years. I went from being a babysitter, to work in The MC Hotel in Montclair, to cardiologist practice, a job that I enjoy a lot. I also moved from Bloomfield, New Jersey to Kinnelon, so from little town to a mountainous and woodsy area, so it's been a lot.

Alison Stewart: Sounds like it's all been really positive for you so far.

Paulina: It has been, yes, new beginnings everywhere. When you just brought up the question is, "Wow." All of a sudden, I realize, oh my goodness, so many things have happened in this five years.

Alison Stewart: Sometimes we just have to take a moment to stop and reflect. Paulina, thank you for calling in. Let's talk to Laurie calling in from Leesburg, Virginia. Hi, Laurie. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Laurie: Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me. It's been a whirlwind of five years, I've moved three times from Connecticut, to Massachusetts and down to Virginia. Lots of change in regards to my home life, changes in regards to my relationship. A few sad things. I had a wonderful, dear, sweet, adorable kitty that passed away, and I had her for 10 and a half years so that was one of the saddest things. I have adopted a new little kitty from a shelter that has brought so much joy to my life, and I'm honestly in one of the best places of my life I've ever been with relationships, the new home that I just moved into three months ago. Work is going fantastic. Some ups and downs, but right now it's on a high, and I'm loving it.

Alison Stewart: Laurie, thank you for calling in. Let's talk to Charlotte from Larchmont, New York. Hi, Charlotte.

Charlotte: Hi, Alison. It's such a pleasure to be on live. I've gotten a call into your show a few times in the past few years. Five years ago, I was teaching in the public schools in New York City and never barely even got a lunch break. On my days off, I would love to listen to All Of It. It's something I look forward to like, "Oh, I have Columbus Day off, I can listen during lunch." Then, of course, COVID hit, teaching remotely. My crazy COVID schedule, teaching kids on a computer worked out that I could listen to you during my lunch break again.

Then going back into the school system, long story short, basically now I'm a homeschool teacher, and I work for a family, and I teach their kids, full time for two kids. Basically, long story short is I get a lunch break every day from 12:00 to 1:00, and I listen to All Of It every single day. It's been a real, I don't know, a strong thing in my life. It's a great consistent pattern and it's just something I look forward to each and every day, so I'm so grateful for you. I'm so glad you're healthy and well, and just thank you for all you do.

Alison Stewart: Oh, well, thank you. I didn't want to turn this into an appreciation segment, but I really appreciate it. Let's see. We've got, "Hi, All Of It." This is a text. "This is Molly from Washington Heights. In the last five years, I left a decade long career in television production, went to nursing school and became a nurse. A big, yet wonderful change." Molly, good on you. Thanks for texting us and letting us know what's going on in your world.

Let's talk to Stuart, who has pulled over on Route 3 in New Jersey to talk to us. Hi, Stuart.

Stuart: Hi, Alison. Thanks for taking my call. We moved from the Upper West Side to Kalamazoo, Michigan, dodging deer while we were driving, and then move back to Weehawken. All that time, we listened to WNYC. We've been members all along, and it's nice to be back in civilization.

Alison Stewart: Stuart, thank you for calling in. Hey, listeners, what's been going on in your life in the past five years? What is something that has changed? We would love to hear from you. Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can text to us or call in, and join us on the air as we reflect back on five years. Coming up after a short break, a tribute to one of our former colleagues. We're going to tell you about a little bit of a fifth anniversary celebration project we have going on, and we'll hear from more of you after a quick break.

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This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Longtime listeners might recognize that we've been playing the same clip to open the show since our very first day. It's this one.

[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: City Streets]

That City Streets by the band Luscious Jackson, who when we launched the show kindly allowed us to use their songs as our theme music and our bumper music. We want to thank them again for that gift along with the countless other creators and recurring guests who have given their time and energy to the show. There were so many, too many to name, but we think about you often friends of the show. While we're talking about Luscious Jackson, we also want to acknowledge the loss of band member, Vivian Trimble, who died earlier this year, after years of battling cancer.

A lot can happen in five years. In five years, you can experience a lot of good. Our first senior producer who was in the control room five years ago, now as twins she's raising with her wife, so shout out to Rosie. You can also experience a lot of loss. In the five years, there's been so much. It's been hard when the pandemic hit the city, hard in the spring of 2020. Hundreds of people died per day because of COVID. Many more lives were lost in the subsequent months and years, and many survivors continue to suffer from its long-term effects, not to mention the waves of cases we continue to see today.

In the midst of this, 2020 was also a difficult and confusing time to make a local radio show in New York, just as it was difficult and confusing for everyone in all aspects of life. WNYC didn't have a roadmap for evacuating the offices who ever had to evacuate their office in a pandemic. Our show had only been on the air 18 months at that point. We had to figure out a lot on the fly, and how to keep things going using remote connections, Zoom, and other tech, our engineers and board ops figured out quickly and spectacularly might I add, while still coming into the offices.

We had to rethink what a show about experiencing arts and culture, and each other sounds like when the world is shut down. Then how to be a source of information and connection when the murder of George Floyd mobilize many to take to the streets. We started to open up our phone lines a lot more to hear from listeners. We also started our segment, I Need A Minute, to remind everyone to take a moment, to just breathe, meditate, and relax with whatever they were going through. Sounds like a couple of you are going through things as well. Let's talk to Brian on line 7 from the Upper West Side. Hi, Brian.

Brian: Alison, hi, happy anniversary. Love All Of It, love the show, maybe one of my favorite things I've found in the past year and a half, two years, so thanks for that. I'm calling because I've done so much adulting over the past five years. Unfortunately, I lost my dad during the COVID when it broke out in 2020, and so that changed things a bit. I ended a relationship with someone I thought I was going to marry. Then I moved from Chelsea to the Upper West Side. All of this stuff just really changed my life, and quickly, I want to say, I woke up I have COVID, tested positive today.

Alison Stewart: Oh gosh.

Brian: Yes, it stinks. I'd heavy heart this morning, but I read something, because we're reflecting on life, and I read something today that said, we have memories so that we might have roses in December. As we look back now, I'm going to try to look back on all the happy things that I've had over the past five years and all this, so I can have that warm feeling of, not to sound corny, but the warm feeling of having roses in December.

Alison Stewart: I like corny, and I like that message. Thank you so much for calling in. As we're reflecting back, we want to acknowledge one of the people who was absolutely essential to our team during the pandemic was Blakeney Schick, who sadly passed away this summer at just 40 years old. Blakeney joined All Of It in early in the pandemic, in April of 2020, after having worked in various parts of New York Public Radio going back a decade. Blakeney was the definition of a team player. She was always asking how she could help her colleagues, picking up last minute perhaps in the morning of a show, and volunteering to fill in the gaps. She was a tireless problem solver.

She was also an avid runner, a certified yoga instructor. She's smartest person in virtually any room. Our team would joke that she read the entire New York Times and Washington Post front to back every morning before going to work, and it probably wasn't a joke. She was the first voice in my headphones, telling me what had happened at the Capitol on January 6th. Blakeney died at the age of only 40 on July 24th of this year after sudden cardiac arrest.

Blakeney's death was felt by many here at New York Public Radio, who still mourn our friend and our colleague. After leaving All Of It in 2021, she worked as a producer in Kara Swisher's podcast, The New York Times. Oh gosh, I tried to get her to stay, but that was a really good gig, so she had to go for it, and followed her to New York Magazine.

In a moving tribute from Nayeema Raza, one of Blakeney's colleagues on the podcast, she described, "A life that was too short but had so much impact precisely because she did what she could with what she had, where she was." We want to note that Blakeney was an organ donor. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. We'll also talk about another way that we can all give back.

On the show we talk about how we can be useful to you, listeners, and provide a public service. As a live radio show, usually, the best way to do this is to invite guests on who can give you some news you can use, or open up the phone lines so you can ask questions you need answered and share your stories.

Today, we're announcing something a little bit different to commemorate the shows being on the air for five years and to be useful. We have something we want to share with you, and it has a news peg. Here's the deal. All Of It is partnering with the New York Blood Center to host a blood drive here at WNYC. I found myself giving blood a lot during my evaluation as a kidney donor for my sister, and along the way, I learned that New York City's blood supply is critically low, and New York Blood Center has declared a blood emergency. The drive's going to happen in October, on the 30th. You can sign up for a slot by going to wnyc.org/giveblood. We'll give you a lot more details as we get closer.

Now here's the news, peg. As of today, the New York Blood Center is adopting the FDA's new inclusive guidelines to determine eligibility for blood donations, which includes posing the same questions to all prospective donors and eliminating a decades-old rule prohibiting sexually active gay men from being blood donors. We are calling it a bloody good thing to do.

We'll have more details on our blood drive over the next few weeks. Let's take a few more calls of what's been going on with people. On line 8, we talked to Brent from Bay Ridge. Hi, Brent.

Brent: Hey, there.

Alison Stewart: Hey.

Brent: It took about three and a half years, but I wrote a book, and that was very exciting and nerve-wracking, and gave me something to really laser focus on during the pandemic, which I really needed and was helpful. It was about a three-and-a-half-year process total and ending now with promotion of the book, and then before that, final edits, and then the year before that actually writing it. It was a whole new thing to me, and it was a lot of fun.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for calling in. Let's talk to Linda, calling in from Montclair on line 3. Hi, Linda. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Linda: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. I've been a fan since probably day one. Thank you so much for all you do, and all that you did to help keep our communities together during the pandemic. For me, a lot of changes over the last five years but during the pandemic and the rise in anti-Asian violence that came along with that, I found my voice and found deeper community and deeper connection. I've been a lifelong volunteer, like since high school volunteering, doing advocacy work and activist work.

During the pandemic when we were all remote, a local mom approached us about an incident that happened to her child in one of our schools, and we decided to form an organization to address that anti-Asian sentiment and to support our children as they were about to return schools. This happened in the wake of the Atlanta spa shootings.

I'm so proud to say that our organization has grown into an incorporated nonprofit, and we've been working on both the local and state levels, working in coalition with more established groups as well as grassroots organizations around the state. We were a partner in the work to get Asian American, Pacific Islander studies passed in the state of New Jersey.

Alison Stewart: Oh, excellent.

Linda: It's a challenge for the state and the nation to do that. We've involved in Get Out the Vote efforts, advocacy work, and in that process, we've grown our community to defined our collective voices for greater visibility and connection, and recognition as the API community segment of our community and our town is growing.

Alison Stewart: Linda, I'm going to dive in. Thank you so much for calling in. I've got a text. "In the past five years, I met my boyfriend. We moved in together. I moved from a garden apartment in Bloomfield, New Jersey to a house in Clifton. We are both in our 60s, and we met at Rock Lodge Club in Stockholm, New Jersey." Someone texted, "I finally moved back to New York City from the San Francisco Bay area, and living my bliss on the upper best side." Not a typo.

Alicia from Queen says, "In the past five years, I've worked in cryptocurrency. I've worked in human rights. I lost my job. I lost my baby sister, and somewhat lost myself. The past summer, I've spent riding my bike around New York City, and getting to know the nooks and crannies and wonderful special things about the city. As I heal and find my path again, I don't know what the future holds, but I'm thankful to the city for holding me." I love that.

Longtime caller, first-time texter. "Five years ago, I was an actor with 10 years of beard growth and an unsuccessful candidate for school board trustee a second time. I lost my 90-year-old grandfather in June 2018, who I was very close with. I got a job working for the police department that August that made me shave, and I felt like I lost my identity. My daily tour with the police department led me to my discovery of WNYC. Love your segments with chefs and cookbook authors. I always write down the ingredients every time."

I think we're going to start to wrap this up. Yes? Sheila has posted an adorable picture of her dog on X, formerly Twitter, that says, "Past five years, moved from Bergen County to WaHi, and got this pup this year. Say hi to Elke." Hi to Elke.

Hi to everybody else who called in as well and texted to us. Thank you for helping us celebrate our fifth anniversary. We have a lot more in store this year, and hopefully, next five years to come.

 

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