Borrowed & Returned
Episodes
Librarians, Live!
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’re getting in your ears to tell you about our first ever live recording of Borrowed! It’s free, at 5pm on Sunday, January 26 at Union Hall, ...
Plunging into the New Year
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To ring in the new year, take a dive into the stories of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. We hear from voices from across New York City—a cop spea...
Blocks and Brownstones
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps Brooklyn’s most iconic neighborhood is Bedford-Stuyvesant. The tree-lined streets and grand brownstones have been here for over 150 years, ...
Our Garbage, Ourselves
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the edge of Brooklyn, there’s a beach covered with glass bottles, nylon stockings, rusting kitchen appliances, and decaying batteries. The trash...
Throwing It Out
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're talking trash at the library today. Specifically, the story of a 3,000-ton garbage barge that made a scene in Brooklyn in the 1980s… and...
Free Brooklyn
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Four hundred years later, this country has yet to reckon with the legacy of slavery. And that is no less true for Brooklyn. This episode, we’re tak...
Getting Home
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not an uncommon experience to be unstably housed in this country. From Brooklyn to San Francisco, communities often turn to public libraries f...
Check This Out
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Libraries are truly amazing no matter where you go. This season on Borrowed, we’re going to celebrate that, and bring you stories that challenge y...
New Americans
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Immigration is a pressing topic in our political landscape right now, with concerns about ICE raids and immigration bans. In this episode, we listen t...
A Writer Grows in Brooklyn
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s something about Brooklyn that makes you want to write. “Everything is alive here,” says poet Mahogany L. Browne. And thank goodness we h...
Teens Take Over
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kairi Hollon tried to go to the library when he was a teenager in Brooklyn in the 1980s, but he kept getting kicked out. Years later, he came back to ...
Work in Progress
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From “the most expensive pigeon roost in the world” to one of the world’s most unique libraries, Brooklyn’s Central Library has many stories t...
For Kids' Sake
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It turns out that libraries weren’t always so friendly toward children. That started to change around the turn of the 20th century, thanks to a libr...
Weathering the Storm
07 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, in the wake of natural disasters, the library becomes an information center, a shelter and a community space. We travel to Coney Island, Re...
Across the Reference Desk
23 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Online search engines are basically universal, so questions at the library reference desk are changing. We follow the story of one question, “I want...
Something to Offend Everyone
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” So goes the quote from librarian Jo Godwin. From Dr. Seuss to kosher books to...
Oil Spills and Moldy Paper
26 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Preserving history is about more than battling mold and disintegration. We took a trip to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to learn about how an environmental dis...
Books Are Not Dead
12 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Books on conveyor belts, book vacuums and books in the mail. This episode of “Borrowed” will take you behind the scenes to see how books travel ar...
Introducing 'Borrowed'
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Brooklyn has so many stories to tell, and a lot of them start at the library. Every other week, “Borrowed” brings you stories that start here and ...