Floyd Memorial Library launches podcast, with Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi as first guest

Christopher Bianchi is breathing new life into Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport’s local history room.

Mr. Bianchi, the library’s references and adult services librarian, is using the room, which he said hasn’t been used in about three years, to record the library’s brand-new podcast, aptly named the “Floyd Memorial Library Podcast.” 

He said the podcast is meant to be another way to document Greenport Village’s history.

“I’ve been volunteering at the Stirling Historical Society, talking with folks there, and hearing a lot of the stories and the history and I was like we really need to be documenting and recording all these stories,” Mr. Bianchi said. “Otherwise, they’re going to be gone for future residents and people to hear.”

The podcast can be found on YouTube by searching for “Floyd Memorial Library Podcast.” The first episode, released on Dec. 15, features Village Mayor Kevin Stuessi as a guest.

Each episode, which Mr. Bianchi aims to release every week or every other week, will be about an hour long. He expects the episodes that go over an hour to be split into two parts due to their length. 

He has conducted 10 interviews so far and recorded about 15 episodes in total, giving him enough content to put out new episodes through February.

The personalities Mr. Bianchi is choosing to interview are varied. He has interviewed Southold Town historian Amy Folk as well as members of other local organizations such as the North Fork Audubon Society, the Railroad Museum of Long Island and other community members with interesting stories.

Mr. Bianchi said he hopes the podcast will help with the library’s community outreach efforts and offer a wide variety of stories.

“We want to get people who either just moved to the North Fork, or they’ve been here forever,” he said. “It’s really open to anyone, and to give them a voice to tell their story. It’s not like we’re just working on asking people who might be historians in the area — we want people who just went to school here and they all have their own stories about the area.”

The idea for the podcast came to him after a conversation with Ian Fleury, the library’s technology specialist, in the spring. By October, he had all the equipment needed to get started and began interviews in November.

Mr. Bianchi grew up in New Orleans. Before coming to Greenport, he interned, then worked at the University of Southern Maine, in Portland, before being hired at Floyd Memorial Library.

He hopes to eventually get the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, but currently has no timeline for when that will be done. Prior to this project, he had never done a podcast before and said he’s grateful for the support he’s received.

“I just think that it’s very important to preserve history and the stories of people here, now, and creating almost like a time capsule right now for people living here,” he said.

His favorite part of working on the podcast is getting to know community members better.

“It’s really a joy to get to talk with people in the area that otherwise might not have come into the library, or I might not have met,” Mr. Bianchi said. “So that’s really what I enjoy the most … meeting new people and bringing them on to the podcast and making sure their story is heard and preserved in the future.”