CBH Talk | The Gods of New York: Jonathan Mahler in Conversation with Bob Herbert

Jonathan Mahler’s new book, The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986–1990, is a sweeping chronicle of four tumultuous years that transformed New York—and foreshadowed the divisions that would soon define the nation.

In those years, the city was convulsed by crisis and controversy: Howard Beach, Tawana Brawley, the crack epidemic, HIV/AIDS, the Central Park jogger case. At the center of it all was an unforgettable cast—Ed Koch, Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Larry Kramer—each fighting to shape the city’s future while crafting their own legend.

Join Mahler in conversation with veteran journalist Bob Herbert, who reported on New York before, during, and after those pivotal years. Together they’ll revisit this defining moment in the city’s history and explore its enduring echoes today.

Participants

Jonathan Mahler is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of the bestselling Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, which was adapted as an ESPN miniseries, and The Challenge, a New York Times Notable Book. His journalism has received numerous awards and been featured in The Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Brooklyn.

Bob Herbert’s five decade career in journalism spans his years as an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, a national correspondent for NBC News, a panelist of WCBS-TV’s Sunday Edition, a columnist and member of the Editorial Board at The Daily News, and many additional roles. Herbert produced and directed the PBS documentary film, AGAINST ALL ODDS: The Fight for a Black Middle Class. He is moderator of Bob Herbert’s OP-ED.TV, a weekly interview program on CUNY-TV, the City University cable channel in New York. Among his numerous awards are the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City, the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing, the David Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University for excellence in political reporting.