The Palladium Nightclub became a fixture of New York City’s nightlife scene after it was established in 1985. For years, the Palladium served both as a space for creative expression and a destination where people could dance their cares away. It was also one of the protagonists of the East Village--a familiar face to the everyday residents in the neighborhood. But this chapter of the story came to an end in 1998, when the nightclub was demolished by NYU to make way for a new dormitory. In this episode, producer Martina Merlo chases the ghost of the Palladium—to recover a collective memory that is fading in a rapidly-changing urban environment, and to offer a cautionary tale about the importance of preserving more unconventional monuments. In the case of the Palladium, we visit a lost monument to an experimental music scene and culture that is inextricably entangled with its home in the East Village.

When a new art installation called the Portal was unveiled at Philadelphia’s City Hall in October 2024, people didn’t really know at first what to make of it. In this episode, Producer Dilcia Martinez explains how the Portal works in real time to connect people from different parts of the world, from Dublin to Manila. She asks the question—what even is the Portal? Is it a work of art? A monument?