Jim O'Grady

Reporter, WNYC News

Jim O’Grady is a reporter, host, and editor at New York Public Radio and a contributor to Gothamist.

His work for broadcast has won two Edward R. Murrow Awards and multiple prizes from the Associated Press, New York Press Club, The Deadline Club, and the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI) Contest.

His piece on the mechanics of gentrification in New York City for the podcast There Goes the Neighborhood won the 2017 PRNDI Award for Best Podcast Episode. And his episode on masculinity and Trump voters for The United States of Anxiety won the New York Press Club Award for Best Reporting About the U.S. Presidential Race.

His radio stories have also aired on National Public Radio, On the Media, The TakeawayLatino USAOnly A GameStudio 360, and MetroFocus.

O’Grady was a reporter for The New York Times for six years, before and after 9/11. He covered local and national news and was a contributor to the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning special section, “A Nation Challenged.”

He is also an accomplished live storyteller. O’Grady has won 14 Moth StorySLAMS and is a Moth GrandSLAM champion. His story about fake mobsters in Staten Island was featured on This American Life. His New York Times essay about telling effective stories to a live audience is taught in college classes.

He co-authored the biography, Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Lives and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan. The New York Times praised the book as “an ambitious joint biography with wonderful material about the Berrigans’ father and the brothers’ rebellion against society and the church.” He reflected on Phil Berrigan’s legacy in this New York Times op-ed. His reflections on Daniel Berrigan after his death in 2016 appeared in Politico, America, and The Nation. O’Grady is also the author of the biography, Dorothy Day: With Love for the Poor.

Shows:

Jim O'Grady appears in the following:

'Straight Line Crazy' explores power broker Robert Moses' legacy

Thursday, December 01, 2022

Power broker Robert Moses is seen as a villain now, but he transformed the urban landscape, sometimes for good. The play "Straight Line Crazy" starring Ralph Fiennes explores his legacy.

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Woman Who's Worked As Security Guard in Shelters Has Seen Homelessness From Both Sides

Thursday, November 04, 2021

Shawana Balkcon once served as an authority figure at a Bronx intake center for those in need of emergency long-term housing. In September, she returned, this time as a homeless person.

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20 Years Later: Post-9/11 Policing

Tuesday, September 07, 2021

How policing changed after the 9/11 terror attacks

9/11 and the Rise of the NYPD | PART ONE The Launch of the City's Police Department

Sunday, September 05, 2021

Gothamist
In the first installment of our series “9/11 and the Rise of the 21st Century NYPD,” WNYC's Jim O'Grady finds the department has come a long way since its 17th-century origins.

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Advocates Decry Governor Cuomo for Barely Using Clemency, a Tool to Redress The Wrongs of Mass Incarceration

Monday, August 23, 2021

The governors of California, Illinois, and even red-state Kentucky used it more. 

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The Extras Of "In The Heights" On What The Film Means To The Community

Friday, June 11, 2021

Two years ago, the producers announced that filming would not only take place in the neighborhood, but the production wanted locals to be background actors.

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Court Rules City Can Move Homeless Men From Upper West Side Hotel

Thursday, June 03, 2021

After a months-long battle, a court has ruled that the city can move homeless men out of a hotel on the Upper West Side.

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Brooklyn Comic Says Nets Are Borough's New Dodgers

Wednesday, June 02, 2021

As the star-studded hoops team continues its march through the NBA playoffs, they're redeeming the borough's image as a home of high-level sports.

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Like Revivified Cicadas, Knicks End Playoff Dormancy

Thursday, May 20, 2021

The odds are long but the Knicks could face the powerhouse Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals.

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Gracie Mansion Is A Free House - Why Don't Mayors Want To Live There?

Wednesday, May 05, 2021

More than a dozen candidates are vying to be New York's next mayor. The winner will be offered a major perk: the chance to live at historic Gracie Mansion. 

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New York City Libraries To Begin "Phase Two" Reopening May 10th

Thursday, April 29, 2021

WNYC
The Queens Library will allow patrons to use computers and browse through books.

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Public Libraries Eye Next Phase Of Reopening … But Not Until May

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Patrons are wondering why they can drink at bars but not browse for books. 

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On Cusp Of New Baseball Season, Reflections On Joy And Torment Of Mets Fandom

Thursday, April 01, 2021

Loving the Mets is worth it, the author of a new book says, but just barely. It's not that they always lose — occasionally, they're quite good — it's how they do it when they do. 

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As Covid Ravaged New York, Street Artists Fought Back

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

It's been a year since coronavirus hit the city and we've been responding to it ever since — including street artists, who've been bringing news about the pandemic ... and ourselves.

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On Saint Patrick's Day, Irish Bars That Remain Still Struggle To Survive

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

The number of Irish bars that have closed because of Covid is unclear. But people who know put it in the dozens.

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Twenty-Eight Years Later, Lessons From The First World Trade Center Bombing

Friday, February 26, 2021

The 1993 bombing has been overshadowed by 9/11. But it raised red flags with relevance to current terror threats, the worst of which are domestic. 

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Unemployed Musicians Rally Outside Governor Cuomo's Office To Call For More Aid

Friday, February 26, 2021

AP
APM
APM Reports
APR
They say city and state plans to revive the performing arts by as early as the summer are not enough.

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Immigrant Artists And Their Output Had Been Booming In New York ... Until The Pandemic

Friday, February 12, 2021

An expert says immigrant arts groups tend to be smaller and less established than legacy organizations. "They also have smaller endowments and lower revenue from trustees.”

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New York To Kickstart Performing Arts' Return With 300 Events In 100 Days

Monday, February 08, 2021

The pilot program is called NY PopsUp, and starts Feb. 20.

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The Jazzier Penn Station, In Newark, Gets A Makeover

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

The station is in the early stages of a $190 million renovation of everything from its HVAC system and bathrooms to its Indiana limestone and sublime Art Deco metalwork.

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