Your neighborhood has secrets, and most of them never reach citywide news. We sit down with Julia Moak, the owner and publisher of Greenpointers.com, to talk about what hyperlocal journalism looks like when it is done by people who actually live the story. Julia shares how she grew up in Queens, studied in Manhattan, moved through Williamsburg, and ultimately put down roots in Greenpoint, then made a wild career pivot by quitting a high-pressure tech job and buying a neighborhood news site with zero journalism background.

We get honest about what it takes to keep community news alive in New York City: tiny teams, limited ad revenue, and constant pressure to cover everything while protecting the work from spam, web scraping, and the new wave of AI content scraping. Julia explains why Greenpointers uses a registration wall instead of a paywall, and how reader revenue models can help local reporting stay independent and sustainable. We also dig into Greenpointers Seasonal Markets and why the real goal is getting people offline and into the same room again.

Then we zoom out to the local business reality across Greenpoint and North Brooklyn: restaurant closures, rent math, wages, insurance costs, and confusing city rule changes that lead to surprise fines. Julia’s work with the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce shows how small businesses organize, advocate, and try to stay open without burning out. If you care about the future of community journalism anywhere, this conversation is your reminder that local news is infrastructure. Subscribe, share this with a neighbor, and leave a review with one local issue you want covered next.

Mentions & Links:

Greenpointers.com

Greenpoint Open Studios

North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

Little Armenia Café

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Something weird happened during our Reiki sessions: our dogs got involved. Not “cute background nap” involved, but focused, locked-in, making-eye-contact, breaking-character involved and it made us ask better questions about what Reiki is and why it can feel so real even when you can’t “prove” it with your eyes.

We’re joined by Lauren Schell, a respected New York City bartender who now practices Reiki for both humans and animals. We talk about what pulled her toward energy healing after years in hospitality, how bartending can turn into nervous system overload, and why Reiki feels different from the everyday energy exchange of service work. Lauren breaks down Reiki in plain English, including chair sessions, hands-on vs hands-above approaches, and why she describes herself as a conduit for universal energy rather than someone giving away her own.

We also get into distance Reiki and Lauren’s best explanation for it: love. You don’t need to be in the same room to feel it, and sometimes you feel it even when someone is far away or no longer here. From there, we share what we noticed in our bodies after Reiki, why results can range from deep sleep to sudden motivation, and how animal Reiki centers consent, choice, and the bond between pets and their people. We close with rapid-fire questions about perfectionism, being “good enough,” and choosing a happy home life over a shiny career.

If you’re curious about Reiki healing, animal Reiki, stress reduction, relaxation, and midlife career pivots, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What part are you most skeptical about, and what part do you secretly hope is true?

Lauren Schell Big Sigh Reiki Instagram

Article: Impact of Distant Reiki on Owner Assessment of Health and Wellbeing of Adult Dogs: A Blinded, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Trial
by Claudia Ruga Barbieri, DVM, MS, MBA

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The night can bend a life. Tré Miller Rodriguez walks us through the moment everything changed—waking to find her husband gone—and the choice to pick up a pen before the pieces even settled. What starts as an obituary and a eulogy turns into a grief memoir that refuses to look away, from the strange etiquette of wedding rings after widowhood to the first shaky attempts at desire and dating. Along the way, Tré names “grief brain,” the fog that shields you while it steals your year, and shows how writing, friends who take clear direction, and unlikely moments of comedy make the unlivable livable.

The story widens with a reunion that feels cinematic: the daughter Tré placed for adoption finds her on Facebook at eighteen. Four years later, during a 21st-birthday bar crawl, Tré meets Jorge in a hidden speakeasy and the next chapter begins. We talk about what it takes to protect a true story when Hollywood tries to sand it down—why a network-friendly version can lose the texture that makes real lives matter—and how to say no until the right partner shows up. Tré also opens a window into ghostwriting and modern media: building thought leadership, drawing boundaries around your byline, and using AI as a tool without giving up your voice.

We end where joy sneaks back in: travel hacks from Tokyo to Seoul, asking bartenders for the real map, negotiating onsens with tattoos, and letting trips serve as relationship stress tests that make love sturdier. It’s a conversation about craft, honesty, and the courage to hold your own narrative—through loss, reunion, and the odd belly laugh that arrives right on time. If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Listen to Tré read from her memoir Nov. 18th from 7-9pm as part of the Palace Reading Series (206 Nassau Ave., Brooklyn NY 11222)

Tré Miller Rodriguez:

Splitting the Difference: A Heart-Shaped Memoir

"When Other's Day Became Mother's Day" - Huffpost

"A Husband Lost, A Daughter Found" NYT

ModernLoss.com

Mentions:

Dying For Sex - tv show

Dead Like Me - tv show

Rick and Morty - tv show

Follow us on Instagram! People at the Core Podcast
Email us! peopleatthecorepodcast@gmail.com