Just call him New York’s podcaster-in-chief.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday, via his recently launched email newsletter, that he’s hitting podcast feeds everywhere with a new show he’s dubbed “Get Stuff Done-Cast,” in another gambit to speak directly to his constituents rather than always going through the City Hall press corps.
The podcast will come out twice monthly on Mondays, according to City Hall, and be available across popular podcast platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
On the show, Adams promises to interview New Yorkers from “all walks of life” about potential solutions to the biggest issues the Big Apple is facing.
“We vowed to build an administration that talks directly to — and hears directly from — the people we serve, and that’s exactly what the new ‘Get Stuff Done-Cast’ will help us do,” Adams said in a statement on Tuesday. “Sign up to hear directly from me and from New Yorkers from all walks of life on how we’re actually ‘Getting Stuff Done’ for our city.”
In the newsletter, the mayor also shared the first episode, titled “The State of our City,” which strung together several audio clips of the State of the City speech he delivered last week at the Queens Theater in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The episode opens with energetic intro music playing under Adams introducing listeners to the show.
“New York City, this [is] your mayor, Eric Adams, and I’m excited to welcome you to my new podcast,” he said. “Welcome to the Get Stuff Done-Cast. Let’s get to it.”
The 24-minute podcast then jumps into “highlights” from the mayor’s hour-plus State of the City address, including announcements of a new expanded city apprenticeship program, a push to start treating traffic violence like other crimes and a $22 million investment in tenant protections.
Adams’ office wouldn’t elaborate on who exactly his guests will be when amNewYork Metro reached out for examples. They also said the podcast will come at no additional cost to taxpayers.
The mayor’s announcement of his podcast comes a little less than a week after his “Hear From Eric” newsletter first hit subscribers’ inboxes. City Hall’s stated purpose for launching the email communication, which will reportedly cost city residents $79,000-a-year, was to tell New Yorkers “directly” about the administration’s initiatives, policies and local events.
In a news conference following the newsletter’s launch last Monday, however, Adams tipped his hand about its true purpose: to circumvent a City Hall press corps whose coverage he views as unfair.
“I need direct-to-consumer marketing,” the mayor said at the time. “I need to speak directly to my consumer in my voice.”
Adams said he has to tell New Yorkers directly about all of the things he feels his administration is accomplishing because, in his view, reporters have become indistinguishable from columnists and often “distort” his announcements.
“There was a day when you would have columnists and reporters,” he said. “Columnists would give their opinions, reporters would just report the news. Now, I don’t know who’s the columnist and who’s the reporter.
“And so, by the time that I speak at a press conference and then I read the story I say, ‘Were we at the same press conference?’” he continued. “So, it is imperative that I need to start speaking directly to New Yorkers. You can report a distorted version of what I say, I want to speak directly to the people of this city.”
Adams’ office also didn’t answer whether this podcast was another method to circumvent the media.
Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf pointed out Adams is hardly the first mayor to try and directly communicate with the public.
“All mayors have had direct communication to people within recent memory, whether they’ve sent out emails or other forms of communication,” Sheinkopf said.
The way Sheinkopf sees it, Mayor Adams seems to believe the press isn’t giving him an opportunity to show the public what he’s getting done, so he wants to tell New Yorkers directly.
“He doesn’t feel he’s getting a fair shake,” Sheinkopf said. “He feels that he’s sticking to exactly what he promised, which is to get stuff done. And that the press corps isn’t giving him the opportunity to explain that, and that they’re instead criticizing him. So, the best way to get rid of a critic is to make it impossible for the critic to be heard and that’s what he’s doing.”
