August 11, 2026

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: House Oversight Committee

Prank calls are a Gen-X thing. Look at Bart Simpson. But on TikTok, a young comedian who goes by Randy Gluck has revived the art form. I’m not sure if it’s for good. But it’s definitely not for evil.

Here’s the playbook: “Gluck” has a cheap suit and a huge tie and sprays silver dye in his hair and then gets sweaty — an approximation of the Rudy Giuliani Four Seasons Total Landscaping look. On a flip phone, he then calls powerful people in Jeffrey Epstein’s “little black book” who, for some reason, have never changed their phone numbers. Gluck says he is calling from Flock Safety, a real surveillance company that the ACLU has had some serious issues with. The sound of him saying “Gluck from Flock” does not get old. 

Already he has bugged publicist Peggy Siegal, Yale computer scientist David Gelernter, real-estate mogul Anthony Barrett, former Trump Org. executive Nicholas Ribis — all individuals found in Epstein’s address book or in the DoJ docs with ties to the convicted sex criminal. Are the people picking up who Gluck says they are? (One editor I spoke to who has met Siegal said the voice in the video was unmistakably hers.) Either way, Gluck is fearless about bugging rich people with lawyers. Watch this stuff while you can.

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

It’s common knowledge by now that, between the Knicks and the World Cup, New York is having an incredible summer. Down in Washington, D.C., not so much. Between the Reflecting Pool thing, the destruction of the White House lawn, and the demolition of the East Wing, President Trump hasn’t exactly made it easy for locals or tourists. Now he’s even messing up the air — taking off randomly on Marine One and creating havoc in the airspace above the capital. His coup de grâce might be the IndyCar race around the mall on August 23, which is expected to cause widespread gridlock. 

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that Trump’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix would shut down air traffic at Reagan Washington National Airport for three hours on the day of the race. That’s in addition to the dozens of roads closed for the event. I spoke to retired air-traffic controller Harvey Scolnick, who told me that the airlines should have enough time to reroute everything to avoid a three-hour disaster at D.C.’s lesser airport. But if weather causes a delay to the race, things could get messy. “When an airport closes, it closes. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out,” he says.

Washington’s summer of doom reminds of the theory going around on Twitter of America A and America B. You probably know A: It’s New York City; it’s Maine; it’s Puerto Rico. It’s a place with undeniable character, not a PulteGroup development town drawing down on a shattered aquifer. Then there’s B, a place with subpar pool management and too much stuff going on in the front lawn. At least Trump doesn’t own the Old Post Office anymore. 

Photo: Dolly Faibyshev for New York Magazine

What do Travis Barker and Howie Rose have in common? They’re both on the radio, for starters. And, well, pop-punk and Mets fandom are both about yearning.

In our latest issue, the drummer and the sports broadcaster look back on their long, topsy-turvy careers. To promote his new documentary, Louder Than Fear, Barker, 50, talks to Devon Ivie about playing with Blink-182, Alkaline Trio, and Aquabats as well as his insane life story, which involves surviving a plane crash and being married to Kourtney Kardashian. Rose, 72, tells Chris Smith about taking over the radio broadcast in 1987, the year after the Mets last won the World Series. But he’s got other stuff going for him. The Mets players, even the young guys, call him “sir.” And the team named a golden retriever after him. Now that’s a legacy.

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Photo: Michelle Groskopf for New York Magazine

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