Have you ever thought about what New York City was like before Europeans settled the area? This is just one of the many questions answered by Michael Kimmelman’s latest small gem of a book, The Intimate City: Walking New York. The book combines Michael’s own knowledge of the city with other points of view. He invited planners, professors, and architects to join him on walks around the quiet streets of pandemic New York. Kimmelman is the architecture critic for the New York Times and was previously the chief art critic based in Berlin. He’s also a two time Pulitzer finalist and the founder of a new project from the Times called Headway which focuses on Global affairs. Today we’ll talk about Michael’s book, his work for the Times, and his own upbringing as the son of a leftist doctor in Greenwich Village.

Ezra