A man who’s been inviting complete strangers off of the streets to chat on the podcast he hosts in his East Village studio apartment is—wait for it—coming to Bushwick.
Uluç Ülgen will be airing his podcast “Mürmur” at Radio Free Brooklyn next week, and he’s looking for complete strangers like you to be on his show.
“It’s to allow those with social shortcomings to improve their communication skills through the medium of podcasting,” Ülgen told Bushwick Daily. “Or a shoulder to cry on for those who need a friend, or just need to talk.”
The 27-year-old podcaster, who’s originally from Turkey but grew up in Minnesota, hosted the show for three years from his studio in the East Village, where he would invite strangers to talk about their lives and things that bothered them.
But Ülgen got shut down after his landlord found out about the show and threatened eviction. After “the outpouring support of the community,” he got set up in a new location in the Village and also got a spot on Radio Free Brooklyn, a freeform internet community radio station headquartered in the Bushwick that hosts 66 original radio programs.
The podcaster says the eviction was actually a good thing; it allowed him to bring the project home to Bushwick, where the origins of the show are rooted.
“I used to live right around the corner from where the studio is,” Ülgen said. “I’ve gotten kind of tired of talking to Manhattanites!”
Ülgen’s co-host is Yumosh, a stuffed teddy bear from childhood who silently co-hosts the show. The show, like Yumosh, is about finding those warm and fuzzy feelings in life—things that Ülgen didn’t always have.
“I remember when I used to go to Molasses Books everyday, how lonely and desperate I felt to hang out and talk to one of the baristas,” Ülgen recalled. “No one should be this isolated in this city!”
That’s why he started “Mürmur,” which starts airing next week, every Wednesday at 2 p.m. on Radio Free Brooklyn.
Cover image courtesy of Mürmur