The Anthony Cumia Show - May 22, 2026


NYC Library Investment Sparks Discussion About Technology and Public Spending ｜ 05-17-26


Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

125.45

Word count

885

Sentence count

46

Harmful content

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to fund New York City's public library system, but I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, what's wrong with a library? It's not like free buses that would be a catastrophe.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 On the biggest stage in the world, FanDuel is changing the game
00:00:04.120 because sometimes your player gets subbed off and your bet goes with them.
00:00:07.520 Not anymore.
00:00:08.480 With FanDuel's Super Sub, if your player's subbed out, your bet stays in.
00:00:12.820 That's right.
00:00:13.380 If your player leaves the match, your bet continues on with the substitute,
00:00:17.560 so you're still in it until the final whistle.
00:00:19.820 Visit FanDuel.com.
00:00:21.200 Get started now.
00:00:22.240 Let there be goals this summer on FanDuel.
00:00:25.300 21-plus select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino.
00:00:29.040 18 plus dckywy gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER 1-800-MY-RESET 888-789-7777 visit ccpg.org
00:00:38.260 slash chat connecticut visit md gambling help.org maryland visit gambling help line ma.org call
00:00:44.660 800-327-5050 massachusetts call 877-8-HOPE-NY text hope ny in new york call 877-770-7867
00:00:53.840 Louisiana. Visit FanDuel.com.
00:00:55.960 Get started now. Let there be goals
00:00:58.040 this summer on FanDuel.
00:01:00.140 Listen, all you New Yorkers.
00:01:02.460 You mean taxi?
00:01:04.080 Okay, then we'll look around.
00:01:05.380 This is the 77
00:01:07.220 WABC Minicast.
00:01:10.520 Talking about
00:01:11.680 Memdani
00:01:13.080 wanting to fund the public
00:01:15.660 libraries. This is
00:01:17.680 something everyone could get behind.
00:01:19.480 What's wrong with a library?
00:01:21.440 For God's sake.
00:01:22.540 it's not like free buses that would be a catastrophe it's not like these social programs
00:01:32.320 and alternatives to the police department letting criminals out these are controversial things
00:01:39.960 you want to fund a library that sounds nice everyone likes it everyone could get behind it
00:01:45.640 My take, though, is are we are we past needing libraries?
00:01:53.180 I don't know. Let's listen to Memdani here.
00:01:56.160 AC4. It is time we stop asking our libraries to justify their existence.
00:02:02.580 It is time for us to expand what New Yorkers can expect from core government services.
00:02:08.080 Earlier this week, we released our executive budget.
00:02:10.680 In doing so, we spoke of how a budget is a reflection of the vision we have for the city.
00:02:15.640 of what we choose to materially support, what we choose to let wither.
00:02:19.920 And our executive budget reflects a clear set of choices.
00:02:23.060 City Hall believes in our public library system.
00:02:26.280 We are funding our public library system.
00:02:29.120 And instead of fighting to maintain the same floor year after year,
00:02:33.200 we will see how high we can raise that ceiling.
00:02:36.180 Our executive budget baselines $31.7 million in new permanent funding
00:02:41.640 across all three of New York City's public library systems.
00:02:45.640 yay 30 almost 32 million dollars for three libraries uh all right that's about 10 million each
00:03:02.120 uh for what just ah more books uh revamp of the card catalog
00:03:15.640 learning, teaching the kids the Dewey Decimal System.
00:03:22.320 Is that even still a thing?
00:03:24.280 I cannot tell you the last time I was in a library,
00:03:28.440 as the not-too-sharp kids in school used to call it.
00:03:32.360 I'll see you at the library.
00:03:33.920 All right.
00:03:36.900 My point is, are they needed?
00:03:40.640 Do we need buildings with books in them
00:03:44.020 so you can go there and go through, you know,
00:03:48.560 maybe the card catalog, the Dewey Decimal System,
00:03:51.360 get your book and sit down in the library and read.
00:03:57.920 Is that needed?
00:04:00.360 I can understand some people needing it,
00:04:02.560 maybe some people that don't have a good home life.
00:04:04.380 A student in school has maybe rambunctious parents
00:04:09.000 and they can't get their studies done.
00:04:12.980 but i mean what percentage is that and and is an entire uh library needed for for that uh and and
00:04:23.180 look the the the phone for how for how big a problem the cell phone has been the iphone the
00:04:31.540 smartphone that has been over the course of the years the problem it's turned into uh there are
00:04:39.420 some good things and that is that any any bit of information you could possibly need want or imagine
00:04:49.320 is right there right there i've uh taken to um looking up uh things in the the category of
00:05:03.580 physics uh i watched oppenheimer and was just fascinated with the atom atomic energy for
00:05:12.900 military and civilian use how does it work you just go like how the hell did someone figure that
00:05:20.400 out who was the first one to split an atom how did they know uh that a chain reaction was possible
00:05:28.480 all these things and and with a swipe of my finger and and typing in some words the answer
00:05:36.820 was given to me and then i could look at videos and and see uh videos about these subjects
00:05:47.440 and and i learned a lot i learned more than i could ever learn in school
00:05:55.660 about that physics and atomic energy and elements both natural and man-made and it was fascinating
00:06:07.280 to me if i had to go to the damn library i just never would have done it i would just be like
00:06:15.320 oh how does that work i don't know i don't know i wonder and i never would go imagine what a pain 0.99
00:06:23.400 in the ass it is to have a question and then have to figure out how to answer it in a building with 0.62
00:06:31.880 billions of pages of information in it i could just ask grok or any other ai the question 0.97
00:06:41.620 then i get the answer and i now have the answer so i have the ability to go deeper
00:06:46.900 into the topic and learn actually learn things so my question is uh what the hell good
00:07:00.020 are libraries in 2026