>> Meet the first woman ever to lead the wildlife conservation Society as it fights protect wildlife amid the climate crisis.

Then it is that special time of the year when the sun and the city intersect to form an out of this world show.

An astrophysicist, field aggressive Tyson, breaks on the phenomenon he dubbed Manhattanhendge.

"MetroFocus" starts right now.

♪ Announcer: This is "MetroFocus", with Rafael Pi Roman, Jack Ford, and Jenna Flanagan.

"MetroFocus" is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

And by Jody and John Arnhold, Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, the Ambrose Monell Foundation, Estate of Roland Karlen.

Estate of Worthington.

>> The wild conservation Society, which oversees New York City's zoos and aquariums has a new president.

For the first time, the president is a woman.

Monica Medina is bringing her experience to New York where she will be leading the charge to protect our oceans, coastline and air, and ensuring the city's zoos are a valuable educational resource.

Joining us now as part of our peril and promise special reporting is Monica Medina.

Monica served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for oceans and interim national -- and international environment affairs.

Welcome to MetroFocus.

It is a delight to have you here, congratulations for your new position.

Monica: Thank you for talking about all the work we do in New York and around the world.

We are thrilled to tell your audience about it.

I am filled to be in this organization at this moment.

Jack: I want to get into some of the projects you are involved with, but I want your thoughts on being the first woman to run this organization.

Monica: I am grateful for getting the opportunity to be the first woman.

We have had a woman chair of our bold -- of our board.

Women are stepping up into rules they had not taken before, or and more.

-- more and more.

Women and children are often the ones who are most affected by environmental problems, climate change, biodiversity loss.

Women spend billions of hours every year hauling water because they cannot -- they do not have it nearby.

They lose the opportunity to be educated or to have time to take care of their families just because of the environmental issues.

It is great for me to be here helping to lead an organization that is trying to solve those problems.

Jack: You mentioned some of the problems.

Give us a list of what you are seeing as of major conservation issues the world is confronting.

Monica: Everyone has heard about climate change.

In New York we experienced it firsthand with the smoke from fires thousands of Myers away.

Impacting our health and sending us indoors.

On top of that.

We are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate.

We as a world came together to set an ambitious target on that, to conserve or protect 30% of the planet.

That is a lot.

By 2030.

If we do that, we will protect our health, make our lives more wonderful from being in the environment, we will also benefit our economies.

They are built in large part on a healthy clean environment.

That is a huge one that the world has taken on.

We have also taken on the plastic pollution challenge.

Our lives are dominated by plastic items that we don't always need for single uses.

There is a huge amount of plastic pollution in the environment, it is in us, it has gotten into our bloodstream's because of its impact on the natural world.

It has become a part of the food chain.

The world has come together and decided to negotiate a global agreement on ending plastic pollution by 2040.

Those are two enormous challenges we are taking on.

Jack: Let's talk about the organization and what it is doing.

I mentioned in the introduction, locally involved in New York, though zoos and the aquarium.

But also around the world, give us a sense of some of the geographic areas where the organization is working.

Monica: Of course here in New York we love -- one of the things I love the most about starting this job was the sound of schoolchildren enjoying our parks in New York.

I went to the aquarium, I have been all over the rocks zoo, the Central Park zoo, they are wonderful.

They are fantastic places to spark the love of the natural world.

You don't have to be a biologist or become a marine ecologist, you don't have to become -- you don't have to do this for a living in order to love the environment and take actions in your daily life.

If we teach young people about the important things they can do to conserve the environment, that is a huge mission.

Here we are in this enormous power center where we can garner the best of what we have to offer in the U.S., to help countries all over the world conserve their environments.

As we know from the pandemic, we are very closely related to each other on this planet.

It is a smaller world when a pandemic can start somewhere halfway around the world and impact everyone on the planet.

That is because we are not respecting the boundaries we need and protecting enough nature so wild animals can stay where they are, and won't impact us with their viruses.

We have seen it more and more, bird flu, Ebola, the Covid pandemic, we know that the work we do on health could not be more important.

It dovetails well with the work we are doing for I/O diversity and climate.

If we conserve the right places around the world, we can prevent the pandemics that have been harmful to us.

We can conserve biodiversity to give ourselves a clean planet for generations and solve the climate crisis.

Jack: You mentioned before that the smoke situation we had, a very graphic and dramatic illustration of the fact we are indeed interconnected.

That is important.

Let's talk about local projects.

Give us a sense of what you are doing, the Hudson Canyon project?

What is it about and what are you doing to protect it?

Monica: It is an incredible place 100 miles off our coast line.

It is directly tied to the New York City area.

Before the ice melted, the Hudson River went all the way out 100 miles to the shelf break where the water drops off.

That is one of the most rich areas in the ocean because that is where the nutrients build up.

It is seven Empire State buildings deep and seven miles wide.

It is a full of incredible biodiversity, Sharks and Wales, amazing coral, it is one of the richest areas.

We have not protected nearly enough of our Atlantic Seascape.

It is wonderful in the New York area to be promoting and hopefully the federal government will provide protection for this area off the New York seascape.

Jack: I grew up on the ocean, I worked as a lifeguard, I lived near the ocean, we have always been concerned about the quality of the ocean.

But I suspect someone might be watching, and thinking that is 100 miles off the coast, it impact does that have on me?

Why should I be worried about it?

Monica: Like we care about having the Grand Canyon preserved and protected for future generations as a legacy and an important way that we can conserve our environment.

We need healthy oceans.

The ocean provides every other breath we take as human beings.

And a ton of food for people all up and down this coastline.

If we conserve these areas, especially as the ocean gets warmer, the Atlantic Ocean right now it's warmer than it has been in recent memory, since scientists have been taking measurements.

It is a really important thing for us to conserve places so that as they are stressed, there are places that can rebound.

The fish spill out, when you have a place like that that is so fertile, the fish spill out and it helps to conserve important parts of our tourism economy and fisheries and coastal economies.

Jack: For us to recognize that, we are all interconnected, all of this is important.

There is so much we could talk about, let me come back to something you mentioned before.

That is what can we do as individuals?

We have the organizations, the federal government, but what can each of us do to help in terms of preserving and protecting our environment for the rest of our lives and the lives of those who come behind us?

Monica: The broad answer is think for future generations, think about your actions and how they will impact your children and grandchildren.

Being able to look for sustainably produced products, whether it is fish that come from the ocean, or looking to cut down the amount of plastic in your life, going to the store and buying detergent in a paper carton and recycle it.

We all need to demand a more responsive recycling and circular economy.

Particularly as we build this new economy around renewable energy, we need to be as consumers asking for companies to take those back from our cell phones, and use them again so we don't have to constantly go back and dig up the minerals it takes.

Think about how when we purchase things at the grocery store, we look for local products, they have not been shipped as far.

We look for sustainable farmers who are using fewer pesticides and fewer chemicals to stimulate the growth.

There is lots of things we can do from buying cage free eggs two things in paper cartons, to using plastic carry bags to use over again.

Jack: You can, small efforts can make a big difference.

The Y live conservation Society does wonderful work, we are fortunate to have them and they are fortunate to have you.

Monica Medina as their new president.

Thank you so much for spending time with us, we will talk with you down the road as you continue this quest.

Good luck and you be well.

Monica: Thank you so much for having me today.

♪ Raphael: Twice each summer a special is created in our city, dubbed Hatton hinge, -- Manhattanhenge, what is the science behind this phenomenon and what is the best way to see it?

Joining me now is astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Let me talk to you about -- Neil: You can call me more often, I work just down the street.

[LAUGHTER] Jenna: Let me talk to you -- Raphael: Talk to be about Manhattanhendge.

Neil: I did not in fact -- I did not invent the fact that the sun does this.

But I called attention to it.

As we all know, Manhattan is laid out on a grade.

-- on a grid.

All blocks are these rectangles.

The east-west streets, most of which cut completely through the island, except for Central Park.

The other occasional blockages, but there are famous cross streets that go River to River.

That would include 34th Street, 42nd three, but not 59th Street.

You can ask the question, is there a day of the year where the sun sets precisely on the grid?

And when that happens, both sides of the street are illuminated by sunlight.

You have this highly anticipated, timed moment, where the sun comes in at an angle.

It appears from behind the buildings on the left, and then it shows up between, in this canyon that defines of the look and feel of the city.

And the sunsets right there.

I calculated what days those would be, I published them in 1996, but no one paid attention.

I said, let me settle this one.

I took the first photo of this, it is Manhattanhenge, and I called it that because when I was a kid I went to Stonehenge.

The sun sets over the stone that is lined up with these other monuments.

The ancient people, this mattered, it was the first day of summer.

So you can line things up with the sky so you have culture interposed with the universe.

Let me bring that to New York.

There were two days, one day it tends to happen around Memorial day.

The other one happens near baseballs All-Star rate.

[LAUGHTER] Onto those two times, the sun sets exactly on the Manhattan grid.

I took the photo and put it -- and published it 2002.

Now thousands of people flood the streets for this.

We put out a press release.

In the middle of the street.

I heard someone say, why are you blocking traffic for this?

I said excuse me, your traffic gets blocked for Trump, four con Ed, for police activity.

At least allow two days a year where it is blocked for the universe itself.

The reason why it works is we have a clean horizon to New Jersey.

The roads don't curve, it crosses the Hudson, we have a clean sunset line.

If you are going to do this, leave your zoom lens at home, it is not about the zoom.

You want to go as far east as possible so you can look completely across the width of Manhattan.

We have calculated it is an exact lineup.

A burst of the sun at the end of the vanishing point framed by the steel.

Are there multiple streets where they can that gash get that kind?

Neil: The best places are 34th Street and 42nd, you get the Chrysler building and it is not lit up yet.

It is to -- it is still beautiful in the shop.

57th Street, the buildings are not as interesting,.

It also works on 14th Street.

Last I checked, unless something got built, you never know.

Raphael: I don't know anybody who is excited about what they do like you.

Neil: It is a privilege and honor to be a director of that facility.

At the very least.

It is an honor to have you here with us.

♪ The maker Manfred Kirsch timer has been documenting New York City for over half a century.

The former film presented -- Professor has lived New York ever since his family came here to escape Nazi Germany.

For his newest film, free time, which had its world premiere at the New York film Festival, the acclaimed filmmaker turned to a trove of 16mm footage he and a colleague shot 60 years ago.

Like many of his previous films, it is a meditation on city life set to the sounds of Daz music, capturing the metropolis during a gentler time gone by.

Here is a preview.

♪ >> Joining us now to talk about his film and life and career is film maker Manfred Kirsch timer.

As I said, you shot this film 60 years ago.

Why did you shoot this film, what was your initial intention with it Manfrend: Walter Hess and I were shooting a large scripted film called dream the city.

Its main theme had to do with the way the glass boxes were taking over the city.

The downtown, midtown part of it.

>> The glass skyscrapers?

Manfrend: I called them boxes.

We deplored it.

Scenes of the wrecking of the older buildings in favor of the newer ones.

What we didn't get to edit that film, but we shot a great deal of material.

We shot over 30 hours worth of material, with black and white, 100 foot roles.

Since we were not able to edit it together, I asked permission from him to make my own films out of the material and he could make his own films.

So that soon after I made a half hour film called Claw.

Jack: Now you revive it and make a whole film out of that footage, why now?

Manfrend: Why now?

I made a film last year, which I actually called Draeam of the City.

I don't like to make the same kind of film twice in a row.

So in between, I made talking heads film.

An interview film, called Middle Class Money Honey.

And I thought I would go back to material and see what is left.

That became Free Time.

Jack: You have been shooting this city for decades.

Probably nobody knows better how much it has changed.

How do you think it has change for better and for worse?

Manfrend: For the better, the air quality is better.

There are trees everywhere.

There is not free in this film.

-- a tree in this film.

Now I live on Broadway, the mall is filled, it is slush.

You really know it is summertime .

Those two things have improved.

What has gotten worse as the traffic.

Oh my God.

On any day in the middle of the day, things are blocked.

And the fact, which the film demonstrates, that kids don't play on the street anymore.

And I tribute that to the cell phone.

I think the kids go up to their houses after school and don't go down to play.

The way we used to do.

Jack: What ignited this love affair between you and this city?

Why did you decide to make this the premier subject of your films?

Manfrend: Well, it is a love-hate affair.

Our protest against those glass boxes was a bad part of the city.

And it is happening now in Brooklyn, and on 57th Street in Manhattan, these very tall structures.

And casting shadows on the park.

That is the hate part of New York.

I really deplore it is -- it as I go down the avenue.

Jack: You are still going out in the streets and shooting?

Manfrend: No, my last film was Canners where I interviewed people who collected cans and bottles.

Jack: As I told you before, when I came to New York City, I almost got USA professor, now I wish I did.

Thank you for joining us today.

♪ Jack: Thanks for tuning in to "MetroFocus".

You can take our award winning program with you on the go with "MetroFocus" the podcast.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.

Or simply ask your smart speaker to play "MetroFocus" the podcast.

Also available at metrofocus.org, wliw.org/radio, and the NPROne app.

Announcer: "MetroFocus" is made possible by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

And by Jody and John Arnhold, Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, the Ambrose Monell Foundation, Estate of Roland Karlen.

Dr. Roy Vajolos and Joanna Veagelos.

Estate of Worthington Mayo-S Mith.

♪