New Yorkers Overcome Obstacles - With Maryam Banikarim

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the New Yorkers, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, content creator, podcaster, above all else, New Yorker. What's funny is I say this every week and I have to read it. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, the next Brooklyn bound train in Mount Biden. [00:00:24] Speaker A: Stand clear of the closing doors, please. Foreign. But today I have my friend that I've known for a few years now, Miriam. How do you say your last name specifically? Say it again. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Banner. [00:01:11] Speaker A: I wanted to make sure I said it right. Banakaram. Miriam Banakaram. She was the former chief marketing officer of many global organizations. She is the co founder of Longest Table, which I can't wait to talk about shortly too, and host of the podcast the Messy Parts, which I actually know very well too, because you were a guest. Yep. And I loved it. And. But above all else, she is also a New Yorker. Well, Miriam, welcome to the show. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me. [00:01:39] Speaker A: How are you doing? [00:01:39] Speaker B: I'm good. A little cold because it's been a little cold in our city. [00:01:43] Speaker A: It is really cold. And you know, I said this to you and Jay a moment ago that I love winter. I love snow in New York City. I love it. But I'm also, at the same time, hate it because, you know, I'm outside all day, every day. I have to wear 40 layers and it's just a lot. And I just, you know, once summer comes, I run out the door and do work around the city, so to speak. And yeah, less easy, you know, it's less layers. So how are you doing? Tell us, tell us how your day is going. [00:02:10] Speaker B: I'm good. You know, we're on the precipice of war, so there's that. Yeah, other than that, you know, I just like, take the subway and come and meet you. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, you know what? That's a. I love that you said that. Because I like to ask my female guests how they feel about riding the subway. Because I get that question often. Having a tour business and the podcast and as a man, it's a different experience. Just, you know, sadly, women in this world have to be a bunch more aware of their surroundings. So how do you feel, you know, as a woman, as a New Yorker, taking the subway and how often do you take it? [00:02:44] Speaker B: I take the subway all the time. Um, but I took the subway in the 80s, so, you know, it's much safer now. [00:02:50] Speaker A: Oh, how was that? [00:02:52] Speaker B: It was fine. I was in college at Columbia and I Used to take the subway to and from nightclubs at all hours of the night, which is probably not advisable, but it worked out fine. As you can see, I'm here. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Yes, I love to hear that. And you. So let's. Then let's back up. Tell us your story. You were born where, when did you move the U.S. let's hear about this. [00:03:11] Speaker B: I was born in Iran, which is why I'm paying attention to the news at the moment. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Correct. [00:03:16] Speaker B: We Left Iran in 1979 in the Middle of the revolution. We first moved to Paris and then to Northern California. I can now say my parents didn't want us to be the Shahs of Sunset, so we didn't move to la. Instead we moved to Northern California. And then I came to New York for college. I went to Barnard and that's where my New York story begins. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Wow. And so I assume you're Muslim. Correct? [00:03:41] Speaker B: I was born Muslim, although in a very non religious family. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:45] Speaker B: And maybe a sad example of that is that when I was three, my parents were in Boston for school and they sent for me. And so I went to preschool in Boston and in preschool in Boston we celebrated Christmas. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:57] Speaker B: So when we moved back to Iran, we celebrated Christmas there too. Because who doesn't want presents as many days as possible? [00:04:05] Speaker A: Christmas is, you know, people don't, are, don't understand that just because, you know, it's a Muslim country in certain areas of the world that people do celebrate Christmas everywhere still. [00:04:15] Speaker B: Well, they tend to be Christian if they're celebrating Christmas. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Right, right, exactly. [00:04:18] Speaker B: In the Middle east. But in our case, I loved a good ornament and a tree and presents. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Do you celebrate Ramadan? [00:04:26] Speaker B: I do not celebrate. I mean, I really grew up in a house that was not religious. In fact, I'm married to somebody who's Jewish and he said to me when I wanted to, when we got married and I wanted to celebrate Christmas, he said Jews don't do that. And I was like, well, neither do Muslims. And I still do so like celebrate Christmas. So I try to celebrate as many holidays as possible. [00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I need a little joy, right? Yeah. I don't consider myself very religious though, [00:04:48] Speaker B: but, but now I go to iftars because it's like a thing now in. You get invited to iftar meals. [00:04:52] Speaker A: You know, I, I have too. Well, tell people what an iftar is. Most people don't know, I assume. [00:04:57] Speaker B: Well, it's basically a breaking of the bread during Ramadan, which is the holy month. So it's a whole month. It's not. [00:05:02] Speaker A: So every night you have iftar, Is that correct? [00:05:05] Speaker B: Okay, well, because I'm not religious, maybe I'm not the perfect person to explain this. All I know is that a few years ago, I started getting invited to iftars. [00:05:14] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:14] Speaker B: And that hadn't even been something I'd ever been invited to before. So I've been going every year since when somebody invites me. [00:05:21] Speaker A: That's amazing. [00:05:22] Speaker B: I'm kind of interested in what happens. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Is it free food, though, then? [00:05:26] Speaker B: It's definitely free food. But the first one I went to was being held in Chelsea Market at that refugee kitchen. [00:05:32] Speaker A: That's pretty cool. [00:05:33] Speaker B: And I'd always wanted to go to that refugee kitchen. Somebody told me about that. And so I thought when they first invited me, and it was a very personal note from somebody I didn't know, and I said, unfortunately, I wasn't free. But then as the day came closer, my plans fell apart. And I live close to Chelsea Martin. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:48] Speaker B: So I said to my husband, are you okay if I skip dinner? Because I was curious to go to this iftar where I knew nobody. [00:05:55] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:55] Speaker B: So I showed up at the iftar, which was in Chelsea Market at Eat Offbeat, and I sat with, like, two tables of people I did not know. And I sat next to a Muslim influencer with over a million followers. So I was learning new things, like, off the bat. And then it turned out that the people I was sitting across, Shyna, and I'm going to forget his name for a second, they had started a Gen Z marketing company. [00:06:25] Speaker A: Nice. [00:06:26] Speaker B: And so I was hearing about sort of their upbringing and their Gen Z marketing company, and having been a marketer myself, I was kind of curious and sort of at the end of that conversation, they want to know who I was. And then it turned out that I'd been a CMO for a long time, so they knew of me, but they were kind of hysterically surprised that I had shown up to an event where I knew no one for a meal I knew nothing about. [00:06:49] Speaker A: I think that's interesting. You know, I've been to an iftar, and I've also been to a Seder. [00:06:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I've definitely been to a Seder. [00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. Your husband's. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Andy's family. Yeah. Was definitely more observant. [00:06:58] Speaker A: I think it's very important to, you know, participate and celebrate in all these different cultures in the world. [00:07:04] Speaker B: Yes. And also, breaking bread is as old as time, right? [00:07:08] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:07:09] Speaker B: So it's probably not coincidental that it's connected to the longest table. I mean, we all come to a table and share a meal and find commonality and food brings us together. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Completely agree. And then we'll get to the longest table. Certainly. Which I can't wait to talk about. So let's talk about. So you're here in the United States. You said you moved back to Iran. [00:07:28] Speaker B: No, we left in 79 and we never moved back. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Okay, that's what I thought. I thought maybe I was missing. [00:07:34] Speaker B: I mean, I went back to visit a couple times after 93, but we never moved back. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Right. And how, how was Iran? Interesting, because it is obviously in the news right now. How was Iran when you'd visit when you go back? [00:07:48] Speaker B: When I graduated from business school at Columbia, I went back with my mom and sister. We hadn't been back since, like me and my sister hadn't been back since we'd left in 79. She was 3. When we left and we went back, my grandparents actually still lived in the house that we lived in. We were in a multi generational house. We lived upstairs and they lived downstairs. My father had passed away, so the three of us went back for three weeks. And, you know, it was really remarkable to go back because I had vivid memories as a child because I left at the end of fifth grade. But we went back to the house that I had left overnight, not realizing I was never gonna go back. And my room was exactly as I had left it. Wow. With my Richie Rich comics and my Archie comics and my Barbie dolls. As if, you know, I had Richie and comics. [00:08:36] Speaker A: A lot of pop culture is also in Iran, all over the world, which I. Which is amazing, you know? [00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So I remember like finding my old Barbie dolls and thinking that was kind of amazing. [00:08:46] Speaker A: That is pretty cool. So, you know, you're a very accomplished. [00:08:51] Speaker B: That's how I like to think. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, you. You really are. So let's start then. Or let's talk about when, as you. We move forward. You're a teenager, you're going to school here? I think it was in California. Right. And then. Then where'd you go from there? [00:09:04] Speaker B: Well, I went to junior high and high school in California, and then I came to Barnard College. I don't know why, but I always wanted to come back east and particularly to New York. My mom equated Columbia with journalism school. She knew of it as a journalism school, although that had nothing to do with the undergraduate program. And so when I was applying, and this was in the days before the Internet, so you had these like very thick books with all the colleges in it. And so she sort of suggested I apply to Columbia Journalism School in her mind. And I went to look at that entry, and it said, women apply to Barnard. Because Columbia had only just begun to matriculate women. [00:09:41] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:09:42] Speaker B: And they had a woman's college, which was Barnard College. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:45] Speaker B: So I applied. I applied to 11 schools. My choices came down to Barnard and Berkeley, but I had gotten wait listed at Barnard. And so in August, my mom said, why don't we just go to New York for a visit? And I hadn't been since I was a very little kid. So we came and for some reason we decided to go visit Columbia. And we. I don't even know why. We stopped by the admissions office and they were like, can we help you? And I said, oh, I'm waitlisted. And they. They took a meeting, and by the time the meeting was done, they said if I wanted to, I could come. So I declined Berkeley, went home, and three weeks later came back and started Barnard. [00:10:22] Speaker A: Nice. [00:10:22] Speaker B: So I got into Barnard off the waitlist. [00:10:24] Speaker A: Very cool. And then from where. What. What did you do from there? [00:10:28] Speaker B: I mean, to me. And I think this sort of goes back to our love of New York. To me, being in New York was like being a kid in a candy shop. There was eight of every single kind of person. So there was no homogeneal. Homogeneity. What is that word? Because where I grew up in California, it was very homogeneous. And here you could just be whoever you wanted to be and you could change who you were every semester if you wanted to. And I had an internship pretty much from the word go. So, you know, I had classes and internships. And I remember being in the Village when the Village was still the Village, and going to food, the co op, and to galleries and nightclubs and. I mean, New York was like. And is still amazing. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, just knowing about you and I feel like everything you've sought out to do or just thought about doing, you do it. [00:11:20] Speaker B: You know what I think I was. Yeah. I mean, I. It's funny because I was definitely young. I was 16 when I was young, [00:11:27] Speaker A: even at that young age. Yeah, 16. [00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And I came here and I remember, you know, I had this fantasy of Greenwich Village and I got to Barnard. My roommate Olivia was a New Yorker, so she dropped off her stuff during orientation and never came back for like three weeks. So I didn't really have, like, the person to hang on to, like, who was my roommate. And I went to everything. I signed up for everything and went to everything at orientation. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Like you said. I'm sorry, you said too, which I thought was really, really cool, is you tried out for cheerleading, like at one grade, you're like, well, you know what? I'll get it. And then the next year try it again and got it. Yeah. The first year I did not get it any age. [00:12:03] Speaker B: You know, I didn't take rejection personally. I mean, it hurt, but I kept. Kept going. But I so distinctly remember in those first two weeks, I mean, I just want to say. So they had this program for, you know, new students at Columbia and Barnard where you got to sign up for different things that you could try for the city. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:24] Speaker B: And so I must have signed up late. So the only thing that was available, and I don't think I've told this story in a while, if ever. So I signed up for Chippendales, not knowing what Chippendales was. For those of you who don't know what Chippendales is, it was a men's. It was like a male dance club. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So I. I was in that. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Of course you were. I'm just even mighty might. What was that? What was that? [00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. What's that called? [00:12:49] Speaker B: Right, exactly. [00:12:49] Speaker A: Magic. [00:12:50] Speaker B: Magic Mike. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Chippendale said. [00:12:52] Speaker B: So basically Magic Mic. And so I remember. Well, that. No, it was not a sought after thing. That's the one I. That's the one I got for. So I showed up to Chippendales completely having no idea what I was going to. [00:13:04] Speaker A: That's funny. [00:13:05] Speaker B: And being so confused by that experience. But, you know, I always think, like, you have to try everything once. So I will say that is probably the one and only time I went to a club like that with no judgment. Except that it just was. It was like a sociology experiment. I was like, why are people putting dollar bills into naked men's. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Pants or whatever they were called. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That is so funny. There's another thing you say that I love. There's no obstacle. There are obstacle courses. So tell us about that. [00:13:36] Speaker B: I had to give a TED Talk a couple years ago, which, by the way, is a very terrifying thing because you have to. It's like a stand up comic routine because you speak for 12 minutes with no notes. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Right. You did a great job. You've done a few. [00:13:48] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:13:48] Speaker A: And you've done a great job in them all. [00:13:50] Speaker B: One TED Talk. I mean, you know. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Oh, you did a couple. Well, maybe they're split up because I've seen a few of you. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:56] Speaker A: Maybe it's not a TED Talk. Maybe A couple talks, though, even keynotes, [00:14:00] Speaker B: and even a commencement talk. But a TED Talk is different because you get no notes. [00:14:04] Speaker A: I loved it. [00:14:04] Speaker B: You did. No notes, no slides. And so you have to memorize. Yeah, very stressful. And like you said, I've given keynotes before, but that is particularly hard because you have nothing to fall back on. Right. And you have that fear of, like, forgetting your line. Because also, it's taped live, right. So if you mess up, you can't go back and redo it. And so they did a special ted, and I was invited to apply, and then I was selected, and then I had six weeks to write the speech, memorize it, and perform it live. So it was very stressful. But when I had to do the speech, and it was actually about Iran, funny enough, it was about an Iran diaspora thing that they were experimenting with. And so I'm always very focused on when I get asked to speak, how I can be useful to the audience, because why should you give 12 minutes to listen to me? And I want to make sure that I leave you with something that's helpful. So I was trying to come up with something to talk about. And I remember actually when we were organizing the longest table the first year, we had no idea if it was going to work. And the night before the table happened in Chelsea, there was a wedding happening at the Highline Hotel. And so with one of my neighbors, Nathaniel, we thought, like, why don't we go find the people who are organizing the wedding and ask them if they would give us their leftover centerpieces because they weren't going to use them. So the two of us walk over to the Highline Hotel, we track down the person we're supposed to ask, and we very eagerly make a pitch for getting their centerpieces, and they very bluntly say, no. So we're leaving, and Nathaniel says to me, can I just ask you a question? Nathaniel is a neighbor I'd gotten to know in the middle of COVID He said, how did that feel? Like, we just expended all this effort. We walked over, we found the person, and we were very bluntly told. Now, I said, well, it feels terrible, but I have six other problems to go solve. And he said to me, you don't see things as an obstacle. You see them as an obstacle course, because I want to go home and roll up like a bone. And it was this insight that basically became the theme of my TED Talk. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really. I. I loved your TED Talk. And, you know, you were. It was so Professional. And you're so well worded. And, you know, it's. And that's my whole point. I was you. We try to picture. Sometimes we watch things like that and we picture ourselves in that situation. Like, I could not do that. [00:16:22] Speaker B: Yes, you could. Everybody can. [00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:24] Speaker B: I mean, you know, everything like that requires practice. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:28] Speaker B: So I practiced like crazy for six weeks. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:31] Speaker B: By the third week, my family was like, please, God, do not speak. So I would walk the dog at 6am and give the talk out loud. Loud. [00:16:38] Speaker A: The dog's like, please marry him. [00:16:41] Speaker B: That's correct. And in fact, I would go to Little island and I would stand on a rock and I would just like, say the speech out loud. These are things that you have to do which are embarrassing, but helpful. [00:16:51] Speaker A: Right. That's amazing. And, you know. So let's talk about the longest table. I. I love the longest table. As you know, it's. But I want you to tell us about it, how it came about and. And what. You have an idea moving forward with the longest table. [00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah. In Covid, we were all here in New York, and New York was hit early and hard. [00:17:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:12] Speaker B: So Covid got here early, and it really was not a great time. And we were in Chelsea. We'd been living in Chelsea for a long time, and we were all getting to know our neighbors because they were our lifeline, and we need to know them to know where to get Lysol wipes. I mean, it was, you know. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. That's right. [00:17:28] Speaker B: It was dire times. And I remember by that summer, I was actually at the time, working at Nextdoor. So I took the job at Nextdoor, which is the app that helps you figure out who your neighbors are or where to find your lost dog. And three weeks into taking that job, Covid happened. So all of a sudden, Nextdoor was on fire in a good way. And that people were using it because neighbors were your lifeline. So. But by that summer, people started saying New York City was dead. And I don't know if you remember, there was a guy who wrote a famous article that they circulated. I think his name was like James Alchel or something. And I said to my husband when he came back from getting groceries and then wiping them down, like, what are we going to do? And he said, what do you mean? I said, well, we have to do something to help the city, because even my board of directors thought that New York was dead, and most of them lived in San Francisco. And so I had sent an email to 20 friends saying, I don't know what to do, but I'm game to figure it out. And this was, you know, when we were not leaving the house, whose game to get on a zoom call to try and figure out what we should do. The 20 people all said yes. I mean, we were all home in lockdown. Right? [00:18:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:35] Speaker B: So the bar was not super high, I suppose. But that Monday we got on a call and we created a spreadsheet. We talked about all the different problems New York had. Like, you know, schools needed computers, there were kids without computers. So how are they gonna distantly learn? You know, there was a problem around unhoused. There's all kinds of problems. [00:18:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:53] Speaker B: But pretty quickly we landed on this idea of could we raise a little money from friends and family, pay the artists who are not making any money. Because if you remember in Covid, they did not have, you know, they didn't perform, they didn't get paid. [00:19:06] Speaker A: Correct. [00:19:06] Speaker B: And my husband had seen a video of Jimmy Fallon and Miley Cyrus busking in the subway in disguise and then taking off their wigs and sort of that being this like only in New York moment. So they're like, well, what if we did pop ups like that that we captured on digital and social media as a way to say that we're still alive. So we, we had no idea if it was gonna work or not. But we decided to at least try that. We figured we had some chance of making that work. Cause we didn't know enough about some of the other problems that were obviously equally important. So we did one in Chelsea to test and learn. So we were somebody on the call and the group kept growing. Somebody on the call knew a Grammy award winning jazz quartet. So we got them to come and perform, we paid them a stipend and we captured it. And then there were open air restaurants and so we tried to bring those in to support the restaurant. Anyway, that was the first one we did. It was like a test and learn moment. And then the next one we did was Bernadette Peters and 24 Broadway performance. [00:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I promise. I remember that specifically. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Right on the red steps of Times Square. [00:20:04] Speaker A: Beautiful. [00:20:06] Speaker B: And I think that that moment of community where we stood there and these performers sang this song Sunday from Sunday in the park with George. And tears were streaming down their face and they had masks on because it was Covid and you had Covid producers was really like a transforming moment for all of us involved. Because we said we all found purpose out of despair. I mean, it's a very dark time. But we all came together and New York City Next, which is the organization that puts on the longest table, basically all of a sudden had 700 volunteers because it gave you something to do that made you feel useful to help the city. And I definitely feel like this is the city that gave me voice and it was an opportunity to give back to it. So we did about 14 of those, and then in different boroughs. And then we, the Governor Cuomo at the time basically borrowed the idea to do a version called New York Pops. And I called and I said, why don't you take these volunteers? Because this isn't about us. It's just about New Yorkers. Then they won't move to Miami because they'll be vested. And they said, well, you know, the professionals have got it. Which is also New York, New York. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Right, right, right. [00:21:11] Speaker B: I mean, we're all. I mean, we're kind, but we also are very competitive. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Correct. [00:21:15] Speaker B: So we were all a little depressed. And then I think with Tom Kitt and Josh, a couple of us came up with this idea of approaching Billy Joel for the rights to New York State of Mind. It was a song he'd written in the 70s, late 80s, early 80s, at a time where New York had a lot of difficulties too. So we thought we could reimagine that song. So anyway, we do this exercise where we're miraculously able to get Billy Joel to grant us the rights to that song for free. We shoot a video with iconic New Yorkers and iconic locations, and it gets released and it blows up. And then the following year, we all win Emmys. It was like a totally out of body experience. But in doing all that, I sort of become interested in this idea of who are these people who just step in and help, like, for no reason, no gain of their own. [00:21:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Like this woman who they called the Trash queen of Hell's Kitchen, who was picking up garbage in Hell's Kitchen. Like, people who just see a problem and are willing to, like, roll up their sleeves and help. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Right, exactly. [00:22:07] Speaker B: And so I saw a neighbor who lived in an apartment building, so he couldn't really invite people to eat socially. Distantly. He put a sort of a camping table out in front of the apartment building and on 22nd at a meal. Yeah, on 21st. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Oh, wow, 21st. [00:22:20] Speaker B: And then I saw this picture of what I now know to be Egypt and iftar, of people having a meal together out on a street. And we were on what they called in Covid, a closed street, an open street, which meant it was closed. And I was like, why don't we do it. Do that. Why don't we put a table down and meet our neighbors, the ones we know and the ones we don't know. So I'd left next door by this point, and I posted it on my personal next door. Got lots of positive comments. At the time, I had been asked to quit my day job and help the Partnership for New York do the We Love New York City campaign. And I tried to do it as part of that, and they did not think that that would be appealing to their constituency. So I meet a bunch of neighbors, and one of them says, I think this is a good idea. So I go home and I say to my husband, I'm just going to try it. And he said, you know what? That is one too many. Because by this point, we'd started working together, and he was like, you know what? We're already, like, knee deep in this We Love New York City project. Like, really? Are we going to take on one more thing? And I was like, oh, you don't have to work on it. We're just going to do it without you. Which turned out not to be the case. But so we. So that was kind of the idea. Like, what if we do that? We had no idea if it was going to work. We rented tables and chairs, and the proposition was, we'll bring the tables and chairs. You bring friends and food. And so the first year, 500 people came, then 700, then 1,000. And this past year, we had over 2,000. But what's been amazing is that just like New York City next was never about us, as people found out about this idea and wanted to do their own. We gave them a toolkit and some coaching to learn from our mistakes. And so this year, 50 happened across the country. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Wow. Oh, just in New York. [00:23:56] Speaker B: 15 in New York alone. [00:23:57] Speaker A: Right. I was going to say just in New York alone is the Upper west side. You know, there's Chelsea. I mean, I'm sorry, West Village, Astoria. I mean, they're all over. I mean, I think it's fascinating. I mean, this is year. I was like, wow. You know, because I love to record them. And that's how I met you. [00:24:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:24:12] Speaker A: You know, and. But there's too many now. In a good way to record, I mean, but not enough. Well, I also went to the one down. Down by the Gotham park downtown a little bit more. I forget the name. I think it was Gotham. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Gotham Park. [00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Also, I mean, what I love is that now it's become a thing that people look forward to in Chelsea. But in other places, too. And what was interesting is, you know, two happened in Harlem, and I would run into people who would now go from table to table. [00:24:44] Speaker A: Oh, Harlem. I saw it, too. Yeah. [00:24:45] Speaker B: And so, Eric, I remember running into in Washington Heights and then in Harlem and then in Gotham Park. I mean, it's. And by the way, I never even knew Gotham park existed. Like, Rosa and those guys have made an amazing thing out of that underground area below the bridge. And it was amazing to experience the longest table in that space that they really revitalized. Right. And so our third spaces, which is where longest tables usually happen, either a library, a street, a church parking lot, it can happen anywhere. But third spaces belong to all of us. And I think that that equalizing factor to the table and the fact that it's really organized by neighbors for neighbors, is a key opportunity. Right. A key opportunity for us to realize that we have agency. Going back to the woman who picked up the garbage. [00:25:32] Speaker A: Right. [00:25:32] Speaker B: Just to do something so that the world ends up in a slightly better place than we found it. [00:25:37] Speaker A: I agree. I love how each neighborhood I've seen via social media and in person is. It's not just that, you know, people take full advantage of it. I mean, it's the whole few city blocks in their neighborhoods. And I think it's incredible. I think it's beautiful. And they all coming together, New Yorkers hanging out together, and it's. [00:25:53] Speaker B: It makes a city of 8.5 million into a village. [00:25:57] Speaker A: It really does. [00:25:58] Speaker B: It really does. And it's changed my experience of my neighborhood in Chelsea. I'd lived there for 27 or 28 years, and in the four years I've done the longest table, I know way more about my neighborhood and my neighbors. I mean, not, like, intimately. I'm not, like, in their business, but I now go to the coffee shop, and I can say hello to people. If I'm having a bad day, I can go out and it'll change my mood. It's led to people starting tenants associations, block associations, pride bunting. It inadvertently led to the Vanderbilt University taking over the seminary. I mean, when you connect neighbors to each other and, you know, it's probably not coincidentally, I grew up on Cheers and friends, right? Like, that idea of people near each other, sort of proximity, making us feel like we belong, which I think goes back to where I came from. Right. Having lost that sense of belonging and always wanting to have that, not just for myself, but I think also for others. And so what's amazing about the longest table is it's a very loose framework. The people make their own, and in organizing it, they invite other people. And everybody who hosts a table or two people or 10 people, makes that section of the table their own. So it's like a collective and an individual thing. [00:27:07] Speaker A: I love it. One of my very good friends for years that I met in Orlando that also lives up here, Michael Baguandan, you [00:27:13] Speaker B: know, on my blog. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Yep. Is just a few doors down from you. You know, right there. I love to see. [00:27:18] Speaker B: And honestly, I didn't know Michael until we did the longest. [00:27:20] Speaker A: Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah. [00:27:22] Speaker B: And so that's the thing. Like, you. You didn't really have a chance to inter. We were always running to the subway or wherever, but all of a sudden, in Covid, we had to connect to each other. But then the table creates this two hours or three hour window where people want to find out, like, where did you get that red velvet cake? [00:27:40] Speaker A: Literally, everybody's talking to everybody. [00:27:42] Speaker B: Brought it from Melba's to Chelsea. Right. Somebody else's mom made dumplings. Somebody else's mom made samosas. And that's what New York is about. [00:27:49] Speaker A: So what's your vision for the longest table moving forward? [00:27:52] Speaker B: Well, we had 50 happen last year. I think we're well on the way to have a hundred happen across the country this year. I think last year we had 15 in New York. I'm gonna bet we're gonna have at least 30 in New York City by the time we're done. Floyd Bennett park, they're doing one Brooklyn. Anybody who does one generally repeats. So there's a whole bunch already in the works. Just three I know of on the Upper west side. Right. And really, my dream has been to do one across the Brooklyn Bridge. [00:28:20] Speaker A: I love that dream. And I know you're gonna do it, though. [00:28:23] Speaker B: I know I'm gonna do it too. It's just a question of when. I mean. And the thing is, the reason I love the Brooklyn Bridge is there's many reasons. One is it's an incredibly beautiful structure. Two is you bring people together across a body of water. You don't have to say we're bridging the divide. You're showing it. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:40] Speaker B: The thing about doing an iconic one like that is that it will inspire other people to do them in the neighborhood, which is really where the magic is. Right? The magic is in running into people locally. But you will inspire people. And to me, that's almost a version of the Christo gates. Right? It's like almost. I mean, it's public art in a way, because food is like art. It's a form of art. [00:29:01] Speaker A: I see it in just the United States now. I've seen it in other countries, which is incredible. [00:29:06] Speaker B: But I mean, it's not a new idea. Yeah, like we said, right? If. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:29:11] Speaker B: I mean, people have been breaking bread since the dawn of life, really. Whether you sat at a software or a table or squatted down someplace, like, that's just the deal. We sit together. Sebastian Unger says tribe is like the person you're willing to share your last piece of bread with. Right. And so everybody wants that. I mean, Maslow's hierarchy of needs says we all need belonging right after shelter and food. So I think that the nice thing about it is you don't have to say lots of things. You can just do this and people discover each other's humanity and then they can solve the big problems. But it's. But the interesting thing is it rebuilds trust. [00:29:48] Speaker A: It does. [00:29:49] Speaker B: And We've done research three years in a row, and eight out of 10 people who come meet somebody new, they feel a sense of belonging. They feel lonely. They interestingly want to get involved after coming, and then they feel better about where they live. And don't we all want that? Don't we all deserve a neighborhood that feels like home? Sort of like Norm and it cheers. Yeah, it all comes back to that. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, New York City feels like home. And then we. Then we have these neighborhoods that make us feel like home. I love it. I love it. You know, real quick too. I do want to talk a second about the We Love NYC campaign. Yeah, I didn't know that was you until, you know, recently since I've gotten to know you a lot more. But tell us about it. I just love it. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Well, I mean, having done a lot of the New York City next work. Cathy Wilde, who at the time was the head of the Partnership for New York, had gotten to know her work and had become a fan. I think she loved the grassroots part [00:30:40] Speaker A: of the whole thing. [00:30:42] Speaker B: And so every so often she would ask me to go to meeting with her. I went to meeting with her with the guy who had founded Chelsea Pierce, actually Chelsea Market. And he said to her, you need to do. Michael, who used to. He sold it. I think he said, you need to do an effort to help New York City. You need to do a marketing effort to help New York City. You can't wait for the mayor and the governor. The head of the Partnership for New York sits at the intersection of the business Community and the mayor and the governor. And she said, yes, I agree. Meet Miriam. And I was like, wait, what's happening? And we left. And I was like, I was at a day job. We left. And she said, would you consider quitting your job to help? And I said, you know, everybody loves that Billy Joel, you know, New York City, fine video. I said, kathy, the favors are over. Covid's not in its height anymore, and that's going to be hard. We have to raise real money. And so she said she's famous for her fundraising abilities. And so she convinced me to quit my job and with my husband and a few other people for whom it was a passion project. Right. It was not a money making venture. We all dug in to come up with a campaign, really an effort to revitalize our city. And, you know, like all things, it meandered and became lots of different things. But what we ended up going to market with was this We Love New York City campaign. And we all know the iconic I Love New York Milton Blazer sign. I mean, if you come from the world of marketing, you know, it's like a amazing iconic thing. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Worldwide known. [00:32:07] Speaker B: Worldwide known. [00:32:08] Speaker A: Definitely. [00:32:08] Speaker B: The interesting history of the I Love New York is that it was a tourism campaign and it's owned by the governor's office. And so we had to go to the governor's office to get permission because we iterated on that mark. We took the I and made it into we because it was a moment for we and not I. And then we animated the heart into emojis. And so we had to bring them along on that journey. And Graham Clifford, who worked on the typeface, actually used the lettering of the subway because we think the subway is the artery that connects all New Yorkers. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Really agree. [00:32:41] Speaker B: So fine. So we had a logic to it. We actually hadn't raised a ton of money. So the campaign was very much about lines and texts. And we, like all good things. We were like. It was a Hail Mary moment. Like, let's just go and see what happens. And we launched the campaign and there is vitriol for 24 hours. [00:33:01] Speaker A: I remember, like, literally, like the New [00:33:04] Speaker B: Yorker, the Olsen twins, I mean, late night tv, they were all like, shitting on the campaign. Now, I will say, you know, first of all, nobody. Nobody reads. That's how, you know, you broke into pop culture. Nobody reads. [00:33:18] Speaker A: That's funny. [00:33:19] Speaker B: And so they assumed that we were getting rid of I Love New York and replacing it with we love New York, which is crazy, because who would get rid of a Milton Glaser, Mark. It was supposed to live with it. And it was actually a mark for the city, not for the state. Anyway, so we, you know, founders, who was our agency partner in that, Tanya and Chetche. I mean, we all sort of had 24 hours of like, oh my God, like the world is ending. And then they came to me on a Tuesday and they said, we have an idea. So the campaign was very line heavy because we didn't have money to shoot. And so we'd sort of assembled like a writer's room of people with New York attitude to write lines for us. And so, for example, one line was, we get more done by 8am than Boston does in advance. [00:34:05] Speaker A: I loved it. I loved that one. [00:34:06] Speaker B: Okay, so Mark Katz, who wrote that line, I mean, you know, the mayor of Boston got on TV in Boston to take us on about that. So, you know, there was another one about we don't have room for hate except for the Red Sox, you know, that also went crazy. And so, you know, you have to be a real New Yorker to write those lines. That's not just like any copywriting. [00:34:24] Speaker A: I thought they were genius. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker B: So they came back on a Tuesday after, like, it's just going crazy. People are just tearing it apart how terrible it is. Ryan McGinnis, who I was just texting with, had done an article in the Times about how many better logos there was. I mean, it was just, it was crazy. [00:34:39] Speaker A: I just, you know, on my social media I was posting it too, and I just got like a. This much compared. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Oh, it was an awesome. [00:34:44] Speaker A: We're dealing with. It was an awesome. And it was a lot for me. Yeah. So, yeah. [00:34:48] Speaker B: So they came back and they said, I think we should do this ad, which was, we love critics, we love New York. [00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:55] Speaker B: And you know, everyone in New York is also a critic. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Correct. [00:34:57] Speaker B: I mean, you know, the thing about New York is that it's amazing in its complexity. It can be kind and it can be competitive. So we put that out. And so that cultural conversation just kept going. And we leaned into the meme and we took all of the hate ones and put em together in a collage. And we got two times the impressions of a Super bowl in 48 hours. [00:35:18] Speaker A: Wow. [00:35:19] Speaker B: And to this day, people will send me a screenshot of a Spike Lee movie where the we hate. We have no room for hate except for the Red Sox, like behind them, which is not a coincidental shot because it keeps living on. And then other people, you know, they did a concert in LA called We Love LA after the fires. And somebody sent that to me because the mark just keeps living. [00:35:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:41] Speaker B: And, you know, honestly, what it did for the I Love New York mark is it made it more relevant. It didn't take it away. It actually made it more relevant, reminded people why they loved it, and it actually created energy for both marks. And really, like, it reminded us why we love New York, that we're willing to complain about it, because, you know, we also do love to do that as New York. [00:36:00] Speaker A: And what year was. Did that campaign come out? [00:36:03] Speaker B: It would have been 20. [00:36:04] Speaker A: 21. [00:36:05] Speaker B: No, it would have been 22, maybe. [00:36:07] Speaker A: 22. Yeah. Because we're kind of coming out of the pandemic at that point. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:36:11] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:36:12] Speaker B: And it was a fascinating thing to work on. It was fascinating to learn about the partnership for New York. We then, I mean, founders moved on, but we stayed on and helped with a bunch of different things, including doing. One of my favorite campaigns was doing a Writer's Choice Award, because, as you know, we have all these buskers in the subway. I told you, the whole New York City next started with the busking of Miley Cyrus and Jimmy Fallon. And so we said, what if we actually invited New Yorkers to vote? Kind of like an American Idol for, like, a. A busker, basically. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:41] Speaker B: And so we did an effort called. What was it? It was basically about sort of the people who busk on the subway. And so I got to learn a lot about that. And then one of the. We had three finalists, and one of them won, and they got a nice check. And it was. I mean, there's so many things that are incredible about New York. So many. It's actually hard to pick. [00:37:00] Speaker A: I agree. I just by luck happened to catch. Oh, gosh, what's her name? You ought to know the singer. I say her name all the time. And now. [00:37:12] Speaker B: Now I. I'm having one of those days where I remember nothing. [00:37:14] Speaker A: Oh, geez. What's her name? I caught her and Jimmy Fallon in the subway, and then they took off their. [00:37:22] Speaker B: But an Ed Sheeran did it not that long ago. Yeah. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was Alanis Morrison. Alanis Morrison with Jimmy Fallon. And I just happened to be there. Well, I saw something happening. I mean, I saw them setting up, kind of like fixing the lights and everything. So I knew. I'm like, this is something. So I did. But it was still. We didn't know who it was. People said, oh, you know, what's happening? I'm like, I had no idea who it was or what was happening. And no idea. And then Jimmy Fallon and Alanis Morissette came. Alanis Morissette came down and it was. I was right up front and it was really one of my favorite moments in the city. It was magic. [00:37:53] Speaker B: And honestly, that moment where I stood in Times Square and I watched Bernadette peters and the 24 Broadway performers sing that song. I mean, at a time where there were not that many people out, I remember thinking, how did a 12 year old Iranian immigrant kid get here? I mean, it really was that moment [00:38:09] Speaker A: of like, that's really powerful what you said. I love it. [00:38:13] Speaker B: How did that happen? Right? And there were actually. There was construction going on and we were going to be recording it and we had to go up to the Teamsters and ask them if they would pause for just five minutes, which was the length of the song. I mean, it just required a lot of orchestration. [00:38:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:38:27] Speaker B: And so many people who gave of themselves, including Gary Vayner, who gave us free pr, Clear Channel, who gave us boards, Andrew Gollum who did ads that we put up on the Clear Channel boards, you know, Tom Kidd, who orchestrated it, along with Michael McElroy, all the performers who sang. It was really just a dark time, but also an incredibly profound time. [00:38:48] Speaker A: This shows how New Yorkers always band together no matter what happens. [00:38:51] Speaker B: But don't remember, they were like doing the pans. And then there was the Broadway singer who was singing out his window. I mean, you know, that is kind of the energy of New York. [00:39:01] Speaker A: Took me back to when we were clanging our pans. [00:39:04] Speaker B: Yeah. At 7 o'. Clock. Yeah. [00:39:05] Speaker A: Yep. It's 7pm for the essential workers. Essential workers. So let's talk about your podcast. Miriam, I love your podcast. You had me on as a guest. I'm so grateful. And tell us all about it. [00:39:18] Speaker B: You know, I'd had this idea. I've always loved other people's stories. I mean, as a marketer, you know, you're a storyteller. And I really do love other people's stories more than my own, which is why it's funny being on somebody else's podcast. And so I played with an idea of, you know, a podcast I wanted to do. Could I do it as an intergenerational podcast? I had many ideas that are on the cutting room floor. But last year, at the beginning of the year, I had the chance to have access to a studio. And so I decided to just try it. I mean like the longest table. I had no idea if it was gonna work. There was no business plan, there was no no real idea. It was just a. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Let's wing it till I get it. [00:39:56] Speaker B: And with my husband, who I have to give him a lot of credit because he's come along both the New York City Next and Longest Table. Now the podcaster. [00:40:03] Speaker A: You know, I thought I would see your husband here today too. [00:40:05] Speaker B: Oh, well, no, he's doing Longest Table calls at home. [00:40:07] Speaker A: He's homework. [00:40:08] Speaker B: He's homeworking. So he said, let's just try it. And so we started off. I think Vicky Freeman might have been my first guest. She's a New Yorker. She's the one who owns Vicks and Cook shop in Chuquette. She came on and said yes, right. With like, you have no history, no knowledge whatever, the first person who says yes. And she's not my best friend. So that was amazing. And we shot three or four episodes in Newstand Studios at Rockefeller center. And then the setup was a little too constraining, so we pivoted to shooting in the house and now we shoot in the brownstone in Chelsea, which is beautiful. Which is, you know, I say to people all the time, I'm grateful for my husband because not many husbands at 6am would be pushing the sofa around to make room for. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Right. You know, real quick, I walked into your home to do the podcast as a guest and I walked in, I'm like, this place is gorgeous. It's this beautiful brownstone. Yeah, but go ahead. [00:40:58] Speaker B: But you know, we move the. We literally move the dining room table where the couches and the couch. I mean, it's the whole thing. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Right. [00:41:04] Speaker B: And so it's like a labor intensive move. Besides the fact that, you know, we hadn't produced a podcast before. And I have to say we have an amazing store in B and H because my husband spent a lot of hours there to figure out what kind of equipment to use. And we've. Good thing. We called it the Messy Parts, which by the way, it started off being called Chapters and Choices. So, you know, like when I say things are messy and if you wait for perfect, you'll never go right. So we started off with Chapters and Choices, four weeks. And we decided with the Messy Parts, we probably shot for six months before we released our first episode. So there was like fits and starts. And then we did. We've now recorded 40 episodes, 26 that happened from June till December. And then we started again in February. And it's honestly so fun to do. But part of the reason I do it is because as somebody who sort of was fortunate enough to rise up sort of the ranks in the corporate world, which, you know, I recognize as an immigrant, is not such an easy thing necessarily to do, because I've been in rooms with very successful Iranians who've made way more money than me, but who did it sort of independently. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:06] Speaker B: And they're always like, how did you make it work in corporate America? And I honestly never thought about it. It was kind of like the puzzle in the obstacle course. Right. I just sort of put one in front of the other. But for sure, you were an. You were an other in that environment, and you had to sort of navigate a world that was unknown. [00:42:22] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:22] Speaker B: But anyway, the reason I like doing it is because when it's just us, when you're with somebody else who's been a CEO or a CMO or CFO and things haven't worked out and it's just us, they'll tell you about the real story. But when you look on LinkedIn or Instagram or when somebody's giving a keynote or a TED Talk, it just looks so easy. And the truth is, it is never easy. It's always messy. And it's particularly messy for certain people, more so than other people. But even for the ones who, you know, Mickey Drexler was on the other day. He was an iconic merchant prince. He turned around the Gap, made it into Billion Company. And he still talks about being fired at the Gap by Don Fisher on what was basically a sticky. Right. So it's messy. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:05] Speaker B: And I think the more we normalize that conversation, the more we acknowledge that, you know, Anna got. Anna cast iron, who was on snl, Right. [00:43:13] Speaker A: Her up. I loved doing that podcast with her. [00:43:16] Speaker B: She's like, you know, I do an audition. I don't get it. What am I going to do? Like, roll up like a ball forever? No. I give myself 24 hours, a bottle of wine and a Xanax, and then I got to pull my. [00:43:24] Speaker A: Right, right, right. And I was. I was thinking, gosh, you know, people who, you know, want to, you know, who. Look at these people who, like Anna, who's on SNL and stuff, and then [00:43:34] Speaker B: run from SNL to Wicked. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And then they don't think about their lives as normal like ours, you know, and she was just talking frankly. And I loved her. Her story. [00:43:42] Speaker B: And I think that. Look, honestly, I think everybody has a story, right? It's a question of whether you're willing to listen. And I don't spend a lot of time talking about myself on the podcast. You don't hear me for 20 minutes before I Ask the question, because I really. You're coming on to hear the story of somebody who's amazing. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Completely agree. [00:44:00] Speaker B: You hear a little bit of my story in the sense that I will say, oh, yeah, when you're, you know, somebody. Vanessa Barboni was on, she went from Morgan Stanley to having her own fashion line called Another Tomorrow. And she said, you know, When I was 17 or 16, my mother committed suicide. And so I no longer decided to be an architect. I decided to be an economics major. Yeah. Cause she had to go pay her bills all of a sudden. And I said, my father passed away when I was 17. And. Yeah, me too. I ended up making a different choice. So I share my story in the way to say, you're not alone. [00:44:31] Speaker A: Correct. [00:44:32] Speaker B: But not because I want the podcast to be about me. And I think that'll be an interesting thing. As to whether that's a good strategy or not, I don't know. You know, there's so many people who do face on camera things, and I'm constantly being told to do that, but I don't like hearing myself talk. [00:44:46] Speaker A: That's interesting you say that because that's. I ask my parents that sometimes because they're honest, you know, and Jay's honest too. You know, I don't ever want it to be about me, you know, so that's. That's my concern, too. I'm very aware of, you know, same thing. [00:45:00] Speaker B: But look, you're. You're a. A very big influencer, content creator, but you don't post about yourself. [00:45:07] Speaker A: Well, it's not. It's about New York. [00:45:08] Speaker B: I know, but what I'm saying to you is there's a lot of people, like. [00:45:12] Speaker A: Correct. You know, I could get on my face or I could get on TV [00:45:15] Speaker B: and espouse about Iran. I mean, what. What kind. I mean, my expertise is in the fact that I live there. [00:45:20] Speaker A: Okay. [00:45:20] Speaker B: I studied international affairs in graduate school. But really, I do sort of believe, like, you have to have a baseline of knowledge before you become an expert. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Well, that's a good point. People often do say, you need to show your face more. I'm like this. It isn't about me. I don't want it to be about me. It's about all of our shared love for New York City. And then my. The New York City cop umbrella now is, you know, the podcast, talking to my awesome guests such as yourself, you know, to learn about you and New York City through you as well, and your experiences in New York City and you and everything. So I don't know, it's just. I just never want it to be about me either. It's interesting we have that commonality. Yeah. [00:45:53] Speaker B: I wonder if that is that because we were sort of, you know, in some ways we're both misfits. Right. Like, I know your story. You know my story. [00:46:00] Speaker A: And I think that, like, it's interesting, [00:46:02] Speaker B: you know, like, I was always making sure there was room at the table. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Me too. [00:46:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:06] Speaker A: Well, you definitely do. Yeah. [00:46:07] Speaker B: So I think that it must come from that. Right. [00:46:10] Speaker A: Because thousands of room at the people at the table for you. Yeah. [00:46:12] Speaker B: I say, like, pull up a chair. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:14] Speaker B: So I think that again, I don't know, it's one of these things. Right. And so sometimes, of course, I mean, you know, I was a professional marketer and a professional C suite executive, so sometimes, of course, I do the talks or whatever. But honestly, I want you to hear all these incredible stories of which there's so many. [00:46:31] Speaker A: I completely agree. I think you and I are, you know, exactly on the same. Exactly on the same page with this because I just want people to learn about other people. I want to learn more about people. You know, I've never. I think innately too, I've never been judgmental of anybody because I want to get to know you, but also I'm important for. To get to know people. Curious. That's all what it's about, you know, Like, I never. I just want to know if you can make me laugh. That's all I care about. [00:46:56] Speaker B: The other night we went to a restaurant and in our neighborhood, shop. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:02] Speaker B: We went to cook shop. We usually sit at the bar or sort of at the high tops at the front because it's. I like to see the action. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:08] Speaker B: And also it's a little quieter. Anyway, I said to the. I said to Randall, who's one of the managers, I was like, you know, I've noticed that there's a lot of regulars who come. I'm like, totally obsessed with cheers and friends. [00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:19] Speaker B: So I said, you know, they come and they sit at the bar and eat alone and they're on their phones, but I think there's an opportunity to connect them. And maybe they don't want to talk because they have work to do or they want to be left alone, but maybe they do, but they don't feel comfortable. [00:47:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:33] Speaker B: What are they going to do? Turn to the person to the right and the left. And my husband's like, yeah, because you do. [00:47:38] Speaker A: And he's right, because I think the [00:47:40] Speaker B: person next to me, like, would you like, my fries. I'm not going to finish it. And my dad was like, oh, my God, mom, don't do that. [00:47:45] Speaker A: That's so funny, Miriam. [00:47:47] Speaker B: So, yeah, I went. I said to Randall, he said, oh, that seems awkward. What am I going to say to the person who I think is a regular? And so he went to go get something from the back, and when he came back, I was talking to one of the regulars. I just. I said, I'm going to show you. [00:47:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:58] Speaker B: And I said, are you a regular? You know, I'm Miriam. I'm also a regular. I do the longest table. Like, I just thought it'd be fun. [00:48:04] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:48:04] Speaker B: So those of us who eat here at the bar, like, if we came in, we knew somebody kind of like Norm. And Cheers. [00:48:10] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:10] Speaker B: All comes back to that for me, [00:48:11] Speaker A: I think, you know, one of the most important things for me is just to be inclusive of everyone. And I think that's what you are. That's how you are, too. You know, it's important. [00:48:19] Speaker B: What would it cost you? [00:48:20] Speaker A: Nothing. Yeah, completely. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Right. And so I think, like, life is not a zero sum game. And if you make room, it actually makes it better not. And by the way, it's. Selfishly. It makes it better for me. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yeah. It makes me a better person. Exactly. Better is the key word. [00:48:34] Speaker B: You know, it gives me more joy. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Right, exactly. [00:48:37] Speaker B: So I'm like. Let's say. I'm not saying. This is like, I'm an altruist. I'm like, it actually makes me feel better. So maybe it's selfish. [00:48:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Or maybe it's both. You can hold two competing ideas at once. [00:48:45] Speaker A: You know, I guess. I guess that's a good way to be selfish. If you're going to be selfish, be kind to people. I mean, you know, that's how. [00:48:51] Speaker B: That's how I'm a believer in Mr. Rogers, you know? [00:48:54] Speaker A: Yeah, me, too. [00:48:56] Speaker B: But let's. Let's, you know, that's my religion. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I love it. I love it. I share the same philosophy. We have the same religion. [00:49:03] Speaker B: I'm gonna close it out by telling you that Today's my anniversary. 29 years. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Wow. [00:49:08] Speaker B: I met my husband at 116th street and Broadway on the subway. How about that for a New York story? [00:49:14] Speaker A: What? [00:49:14] Speaker B: Yes. Huh? We met on the subway, and we got married in Tribeca, at Montrachet, at a restaurant. And there's all these pictures that Terry Gruber, who I met and became friends with, took of us on the street with our guests. [00:49:26] Speaker A: That had to be. [00:49:26] Speaker B: I mean, it was A small wedding. It was, like, 96 people, but, you know, we're having this. Okay. You know, it's not like an Indian wedding. I mean, not that I'm Indian, but I could have, like, hundreds of people at my wedding. But it's such a classic New York story, because today I was posting my wedding pictures on Instagram because I'm learning to be a content creator, not quite like you. And I was looking at all these pictures of us when Montrachet was still in Tribeca, like, down on Walker street, and all these New Yorkers, like, on the street together. And, you know, there's not a day where I don't fall in love with the city all over again. [00:49:59] Speaker A: That's a great. That's a great New York story right there. Can you tell us how you met, though? I know you're on the subway, but what happened? [00:50:05] Speaker B: We both. I was with a girlfriend, Gaty. We got on the subway. We were coming from Columbia, and we recognized him from our economics class. It sounds much less interesting, but we recognized him, and we didn't know what the homework was, so we asked him if he knew what it was, and that's how we met. [00:50:23] Speaker A: Yeah. You're like, what's your homework? And they told you. You're like, yeah, I'm into it. Yeah. [00:50:29] Speaker B: I can't remember if he. You know, I don't remember that part of the story, but I remember we got on the subway. He lived on 86th Street. And so we were. [00:50:35] Speaker A: What train? [00:50:37] Speaker B: The 1 and the 9. [00:50:38] Speaker A: Yep. [00:50:38] Speaker B: Is the 9 still around? We now just call it the 1. Yeah, I still have subway tokens. So anyway, so we got on, and he said, where are you going? And Iranians tend to be very hospitable. They don't really mean it, but they're hospitable. It's like, cultural. We call it tarof. It's like, please stay. Or like, you say, I like your necklace. You're like, take it. I mean, they don't actually mean it, but, you know, it's like a cultural thing. And so he said, where are you going? I said, we're going to the movies. And of course, being, you know, like, how I was raised, I was like, oh, well, you're welcome to come. And he said, no, I have plans. Anyway, he got off the subway. We kept going. And my girlfriend Gaty said, oh, you do know that he thinks you asked him out. And I was like, what? Oh, my God. So the next day, I get into class in the economics class, and he comes in And I'm just looking down like, no, don't think I was asking you out. And then he came over and asked if I would study with him. And then he said, what are you doing Saturday night? And I was actually going to Rita Nerona's birthday party, as one does in New York, somewhere in the. Not tunnel, but some nightclub that had a Cadillac on the roof. And he said, oh, I'll come. And I remember saying, who is this guy who's just inviting himself along? And so our first date was at a nightclub with Rita, who was at the time a New York City Ballet dancer. And he came out to a nightclub and we danced. And let me tell you something, he likes to be in bed by 9 o'. Clock. So that was a total fake out. And that is also a New York story. [00:51:58] Speaker A: Oh, that's nice. And the rest is history. [00:52:01] Speaker B: And the rest is history. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Oh, I love it. Well, I just want to say thank you for being on the show. [00:52:07] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:52:08] Speaker A: This was so amazing. Your. Your energy is so infectious and you're just an amazing person. Okay, rapid fire questions. Maryam, you ready? [00:52:17] Speaker B: Yep. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Subway or Uber? [00:52:19] Speaker B: No, Subway. [00:52:21] Speaker A: Well, that's where you met your husband. It's your anniversary. It has to be the subway because [00:52:25] Speaker B: of how much I love the subway. [00:52:26] Speaker A: I do too, though. I do love the subway too. [00:52:28] Speaker B: I don't want to be stuck in traffic. I want to be with other people. I think the best street fashion is on the subway. Endless possibilities. [00:52:35] Speaker A: I agree. One NYC view that never gets old. [00:52:41] Speaker B: Every single one. There's not one that I don't love. [00:52:46] Speaker A: Coffee meeting in Midtown or walk and talk in Central Park. [00:52:50] Speaker B: Oh, walk and talk in Central Park. [00:52:52] Speaker A: Do you have a favorite spot in Central park or. I just love the whole thing. [00:52:54] Speaker B: I just love the whole thing. [00:52:55] Speaker A: I do, too. Early morning city person or late night NYC energy? [00:53:01] Speaker B: I'm gonna take both. [00:53:03] Speaker A: I agree. One word that captures NYC for you. [00:53:08] Speaker B: Energy. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Wow. You're good. You're really good. If NYC had a soundtrack, what song is playing? [00:53:17] Speaker B: New York State of Mind. [00:53:18] Speaker A: You know what? I knew you were gonna say that. I definitely knew that. Best season in New York City. [00:53:22] Speaker B: Fall and spring. I mean, honestly, they're all good in different ways. [00:53:26] Speaker A: Yep. We have a lot of the same mindset here. When people ask me questions like this, I basically answered the same way. I love it. And so what keeps you inspired about New York City after all these years? [00:53:40] Speaker B: I think that anybody. You can be a New Yorker who was born here and you can be a New Yorker who moves here. I Think the fact that you can come here and make it your own, and it's the ultimate melting pot. Right. It's like the ultimate place where you can create your destiny. And so what I love is that we're a city of misfits. We all sort of come together and find our own way. And that's. To me, that tapestry is beautiful. [00:54:06] Speaker A: So you lived in New York City how long now? [00:54:08] Speaker B: I moved here in 1985. [00:54:10] Speaker A: Wow. [00:54:12] Speaker B: When Madonna went to the Palladium. [00:54:13] Speaker A: Did you see her at the Palladium? Have you been to the Palladium? [00:54:16] Speaker B: Oh, my God, yes. My first internship in New York was Style with Elsa Klench. [00:54:20] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:54:21] Speaker B: Yeah. That really dates me. Yeah. And so I learned early to be a fast talker. And so I would call different nightclubs and get us on the guest list. I'm calling from Style with Elsa Clench. And then I would get there, they'd be like, where's Elsa? And I'd like, have some quick thing to say, oh, she'll be right here. And then the four of us would come in, as one does. You know, there were so many things that you could. To this day, I'm always amazed by the many different ways you can live your life. In New York City, I spend most of my time downtown. Two days ago, I went to have coffee with a friend on the Upper east side in the land of private clubs, Maximes. I was like, there's so many different worlds in New York that you can come in and out of. [00:55:02] Speaker A: I agree. [00:55:02] Speaker B: And I like looking in. And I also love taking the subway to Astoria and getting a good meal there and seeing the incredible diversity in the grocery stores. Like, I just think there's so many things. What's not to like? [00:55:15] Speaker A: I love walking through Astoria. [00:55:16] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I love Bay Ridge. [00:55:18] Speaker A: Yep. [00:55:19] Speaker B: You know, one of my one and only viral social clip was the day we were doing the longest table, and they had forgotten to pick up the garbage. So we were just desperate for the garbage sanitation to show up. And, you know, honestly, I'm grateful for sanitation because I'm like, you know, that is a job that's hard. So anyway, disrespect for. They showed up and we started clapping. Me and Jim, who helps with the longest table, we were clapping for them. We were so excited that they were there. And then I don't even know. I must have been on the We Love in New York City campaign. I whipped out my camera and asked them if I could ask them a couple questions. And they were both named Joe and one of them was from Staten Island. And then I asked them pizza or bagel. And then their favorite restaurant. Their favorite restaurant was in Staten Island. That clip went viral. I mean, it just blew up. [00:56:02] Speaker A: I love it. [00:56:03] Speaker B: And then I took the team who worked on We Love New York City to Staten island to the restaurant that was one of Joe's favorite restaurants. And it was so amazing. [00:56:10] Speaker A: That is pretty. [00:56:11] Speaker B: And that is what I love about New York. Max. Max. Eska. It was just incredible. [00:56:15] Speaker A: That's amazing. Well, that's a great story to end this con the conversation with the podcast. Miriam, you're awesome. Thank you. Thank you for having me do this again. We really do. [00:56:24] Speaker B: Anytime. [00:56:25] Speaker A: So, Miriam, we hear the New Yorkers before we let you go. Want to know what it means to you, Miriam Banakaram, to be a New Yorker? [00:56:35] Speaker B: I mean, to me, this is a story of endless possibility and energy and diversity. There's nothing like it. And so I have to say, I used to make lists of things I was passionate about, and New York was always on the top three. There's something magical about this city. It never goes to sleep. When there was a blizzard, I was so excited to go to the diner because it's always open. You never feel lonely. You can be by yourself and with other people, and there's just endless adventures. I can be a tourist in my own city. I can go to Bed Stuy. I can go to Bushwick. I can go to Astoria. I can go to Staten Island. There's just so many things to do. So, you know, I came here for college. I was a kid in a candy shop then, and I remain a kid in a candy shop. And so that's what I love about the city. [00:57:25] Speaker A: I love it. That's. That's really nice. That's beautiful. Thank you. [00:57:29] Speaker B: It's the truth. Yeah, we all love it. [00:57:31] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us today for this week's episode of the New Yorkers Podcast. Miriam, why don't you let everyone know where they can find you on social media? [00:57:38] Speaker B: You can find me on Instagram @mbanaKaram. I'm also on TikTok, LinkedIn, and you can find the longest table on its website or the messy parts. We're all over all social media. [00:57:49] Speaker A: Nice. Once again, I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, also known as New York City Cop, all across my social media. [00:57:55] Speaker B: Please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers Podcast and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media at the New Yorkers Podcast. [00:58:01] Speaker A: You can leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you are enjoying the show my friends. We read through all your comments and DMs so please we would love to hear from you. Thank you Queen 57 NYC for free who is Rebecca who was a guest on the show as well and Jen from the city who I've known for years. A dear friend for your kind words on the last episode. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Pop on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify. [00:58:29] Speaker B: And thank you Maria Cecilia Boulay. Did I say that name? [00:58:32] Speaker A: You sure did. [00:58:33] Speaker B: And thank you Maria Cecilia Boulet Pick youk Flavors Aprons and Brittany Eliza photo for your comments on Facebook. [00:58:41] Speaker A: Have a lovely day and we'll see you next time. [00:58:43] Speaker B: Goodbye. This is the last stop on this train. [00:58:49] Speaker A: Everyone please leave the train. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Thank you for riding with MTA New York City Transit.