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Rating
4.9from
This podcast has
47 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Columbia Journalism SchoolExplicit
No
Date created
2020/04/23
Latest episode
2026/05/14
Average duration
29 min.
Release period
53 days
Description
Shoe Leather is an investigative podcast that goes behind the scenes of forgotten stories that shaped New York City. Go along with the team as they knock on doors and track down the people who were at the center of the news. This season, we’re taking a deep dive into the life and career of Rudy Giuliani, one of the most influential politicians in New York City’s recent history. Before he was disbarred and bankrupt, before all the trouble, Giuliani rose to prominence as a prosecutor and a politician. As America’s mayor, he had one of the highest approval ratings of all time among New Yorkers. He was even knighted by the Queen of England. So, how does that person end up bankrupt and ridiculed? How did America’s Mayor end up betraying the very values he built his career on?
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Check latest episodes from Shoe Leather podcast
Episode 6: The Survivor
2026/05/14
It’s been 56 years since the Greenwich Village townhouse exploded. Three people died. The rest vanished. The only one left alive to tell the story is Cathy Wilkerson, now 81—still wrestling with what she did, what she believes, and what, if anything, she truly regrets. Episode 6: The Survivor was reported, written, and produced by Chloe Stein and Eleanor Barzun.
Episode 5: The Prisoner
2026/05/14
Kathy Boudin is the fourth member of the Weatherman. After running from the flames of the townhouse, she goes into hiding for over a decade. That’s until one day, when she resurfaces in a way that will define the course of her life. Kathy’s revolutionary ideals eventually land her in prison. Was she a hopeless idealist? Or a radical revolutionary? Is her redemption driven by conviction, or by guilt? … In the end, does everyone deserve a second chance?
Listen to Episode 5: The Prisoner. This episode was reported, written, and produced by Justine Streichenberger and Aleah Gatto.
Episode 4: The Explosion
2026/05/14
It’s March 6, 1970. A townhouse suddenly explodes in New York City’s Greenwich Village, killing three of the five people inside. Two escape. Police think it’s a gas explosion at first…until they find explosives in the rubble. Who was in the townhouse that day? What happened to the survivors? And what exactly were they planning?
Episode 3: The Comrade
2026/05/14
Ted Gold is one of the five people in the townhouse when the bomb explodes. He's a student at Columbia University. And a fierce opponent of the Vietnam War. But before all that, he's just a witty, New York City kid, who loves the Yankees, Bob Dylan, and Karl Marx. His friends say he is reliable, fearless and a ladies man. But how does a non violent kid like that end up in that townhouse in Greenwich village? What leads a 22 year old to be fearless of dying? And what does it mean, when your best-friend becomes radicalized?
This podcast was reported, written and produced by Genny Gottdiener and Gustave Muckensturm.
Episode 2: The Teacher
2026/05/14
Diana Oughton was a straight-A student from a wealthy Republican family, a teacher who seemed destined for a conventional life. But over a decade marked by war, campus activism, and radical politics, she drifts into the orbit of the Weather Underground. What turns belief into action, and how does someone like Diana end up willing to bring the war home?
Episode 1: The Bombmaker
2026/05/14
Terry Robbins is a charismatic, intelligent young man who becomes a leader of the student movement to protest the Vietnam War. But when peaceful protest is not making the progress he hoped for, he's ready to take more radical measures.
Terry wants to start a revolution.
Rudy Gone Wild
2025/05/18
Newly crowned as America's Mayor, Giuliani looks set to cash in on his newfound popularity. He shoots for the White House and misses. After disappearing from the spotlight, he decides to make a comeback working for someone who could very well be his last legal client: President Donald Trump. This episode was reported, written, and produced by Deep Vakil and Hope Talbot.
King Rudolph
2025/05/15
Rudy Giuliani begins his second term as New York City’s mayor riding high — a crime-fighting icon fresh off a re-election win. But as the years unfold, controversies mount, political ambitions clash with personal scandals, and his successes begin to fade. His rise quickly turns into an unraveling — until a national tragedy shifts Giuliani’s fate. Episode 5: King Rudolph, reported and produced by Alice Finno and Peter Shea.
Credit
2025/05/15
In 1993, Giuliani wins the mayoral election in NYC. He runs on the promise to curb one of the biggest issues for New Yorkers: crime. And, when he wins, he hires a police commissioner who flies too close to the sun. And changes the NYPD forever.
The GODFather
2025/05/14
In June 1983, Rudy Giuliani moves back to New York City. He takes a job as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and sets his sights on going after organized crime.
He’ll use his time as prosecutor to go after the mob, which earns him a lot of media attention.
In May 1989, Giuliani has a new goal-to become the next mayor of New York City.
Join us as we try to find out why Giuliani was so obsessed with the mob - and how he used it to run for the city’s top job. By Lauren Gould and Liza Golovtsova.
Ambition is a Beast
2025/05/13
Why did a young Rudy Giuliani have tea with Haiti's dictator in 1982?
To answer that question, we’ll have to go back to 1968 when a 24 year-old Giuliani was just graduating from law school. He was a young, driven lawyer whose sight was set on a political career with the Democratic Party.
But in just 7 years, Giuliani would change cities, change jobs, change political parties and establish what we now call: immigration detention centers.
You're listening to Episode 2: "Ambition is a Beast."
By: Leonardo Bevilacqua and Dante Dallago
The Fight
2025/05/13
Every New Yorker knows Rudy Giuliani. He was America's mayor, one of the heroes of 9/11. He was President Donald Trump's lawyer. He denied the 2020 election. Giuliani has been a big name in New York City politics since the 1980s. But it didn't start that way. The story of Rudolph William Louis Giuliani starts long before then. On May 28th, 1944. In East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
This episode was reported, written, and produced by Eleanor Hildebrandt and Emily Sawaked.
Giuliani: The Unraveling – trailer
2025/05/12
This season on Shoe Leather, a look into the life and career of Rudy Giuliani – one of the most influential politicians in New York City’s recent history.
Boli
2024/05/28
Amadou Diallo’s name became synonymous with “41 shots”.
He was killed in 1999 by four NYPD officers, who fired at him 41 times inside the doorway of his Bronx apartment building. The incident etched his name into public memory through explosive news coverage.
But beyond the headlines, who was Amadou Diallo?
In “Boli”, we dive into Amadou’s life – from his dreams to his time in New York. We hear from neighbors and friends who go down memory lane to tell us his side of the story.
Join us as we go beyond “41 shots” to learn more about Amadou Diallo.
By Serena Balani and Neha Sati
The Fall Guy
2024/05/10
Police said they approached Amadou Diallo because they suspected he was a serial rapist who had been terrorizing the Bronx and Harlem for six years. A judge later blamed the real rapist, Isaac Jones, for Diallo's death. Was Jones really responsible?
Podcast reviews
Read Shoe Leather podcast reviews
beeftastik 2024/05/08
Been waiting!
Summer nears, pod drops - joy
someone entirely 2022/05/13
The Party episode
A great episode with an interesting cast of characters. The narration and insightful interviews provide a vivid context for a story that unexpectedly ...
joy aye 2021/07/16
Guy Fisher Episode
The story tellers—Alexandra and Monica— of the Guy Fisher Episode were incredible. What a fascinating story!
Rdhibsho 2021/05/31
Fascinating untold story about the Bronx
Thanks for telling it and telling it so well !
d90ah 2021/05/31
Great reporting on the Bronx is burning!
Nicely done will be subscribing and look forward to further episodes
Paowow 2021/05/31
Journalism at it’s finest
I love historical non-fiction. This story explains the rising from the ashes of the Bronx that we know and love. Added bonus, the authors voice is s...
slate1172 2021/05/25
Interesting
Interesting mini history lesson on 1970s New York. Very well done.
caligula24 2021/05/19
Awesome!
Really well produced and the topics are fascinating.
paul l-b 2021/05/18
The City in the 70’s matters today
Great stories. Great reporting. Great insights into the City in the 70’s that are instructive to coming back from covid in the 2020s.
careyspence 2021/05/18
Amazing!
Amazing storytelling from the Columbia journalism students!
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