'The Sweet Side of Sourdough', Giving Tuesday and NYC Small Businesses, 'Termination Shock', 'Full Bio', 90 Years of Abbey Road Studios

Now that the holidays are upon us, Caroline Schiff, the pastry chef at Brooklyn's Gage & Tollner and woman behind the Instagram account, Pastry Schiff, joins us to discuss her new cookbook, The Sweet Side of Sourdough.

We’ve been hearing for years about the impact of e-commerce and of big-box stores on homegrown local businesses. Factor in the pandemic economy, and the supply chain issues we’ve discussed on the show adds up to a rough time to run a small, local business. Joining us to help take calls from mom-and-pop business owners is Nicholas Heller, better known as New York Nico. Last year, Nico amassed a thread of Instagram stories highlighting over 60 local businesses that needed the support. He’s doing it again this year, and now, we’re gonna do a version of that on the air.

*If you own a small business, visit wnyc.org/shoplistenersignup or text "shop2021" to 70101, fill out some information and we’ll put you into our 2021 Shop Listener Gift Guide. And if you want to keep your holiday dollars in the WNYC community, start your gift search at wnyc.org/shoplistener2021.*

Before Facebook decided to rebrand the company as Metaverse, that term was coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash. Stephenson joins us to discuss the co-opting of his invented term and his latest novel, Termination Shock, which tells the story of one billionaire’s attempts to solve climate change.

We air the first part of our latest installment of Full Bio. Music biographer Bob Spitz joins us to discuss his latest work, a deep dive into one of the most influential bands in rock history: Led Zeppelin. The book is titled, Led Zeppelin: The Biography.

On November 12th, Abbey Road Studios in London officially turned 90 years old. The studio was made famous by The Beatles 1969 album, Abbey Road, named after the studio, but also for other projects, from major motion picture film scores, to orchestral recordings, to projects ranging from Kanye West, Elton John, and Frank Ocean. To learn more about this sacred recording space, Britain-based music journalist Alistair Lawrence, author of the 2014 book, Abbey Road: The Best Studio in the World, gives us a history lesson.