Jul 22, 2026 · 47 min · 12 segments
Today, we're joined by historian Bench Ansfield to talk about their breathtaking book, Born in Flames. It's about the arson wave of the 1970s, during which hundreds--yes, hundreds--of landlords in the…
Bench AnsfieldGuest
Gavin WhiteheadHost
Blazes were breaking out all across the borough on a regular basis, with as many as 30 apartment buildings going up in flames in a single night.
In fact, they were part of an arson wave that consumed not just the Bronx, but other urban centers in the United States as well.
My guest, Bench Ansfield, wanted to understand what caused the arson wave of the 1970s, especially in the Bronx, and what this staggering number of mostly unpunished crimes can teach us about the world we live in today.
After a decade of investigation, Ansfield has given us Born in Flames, a jaw-dropping account of how and why this all happened, and of how Hollywood and Paul Newman got involved.
You open your book with an anecdote about a middle school art project in the Bronx.
Could you tell us that story and explain why you wanted to lead with it when you were writing Born in Flames?
Yeah, so the book opens in this abandoned, rubble-strewn lot in the Bronx where this sixth grader named Roberto Ramirez is kind of scouring the lot for a school assignment, actually.
And the teacher had asked the students in the class to go out in search of found objects.
And, you know, just like anything that would spark their interest, basically.
And the assignment was to envision the object as something else, right? To imagine it as something else.
Blazes were breaking out all across the borough on a regular basis, with as many as 30 apartment buildings going up in flames in a single night.
In fact, they were part of an arson wave that consumed not just the Bronx, but other urban centers in the United States as well.
My guest, Bench Ansfield, wanted to understand what caused the arson wave of the 1970s, especially in the Bronx, and what this staggering number of mostly unpunished crimes can teach us about the world we live in today.
After a decade of investigation, Ansfield has given us Born in Flames, a jaw-dropping account of how and why this all happened, and of how Hollywood and Paul Newman got involved.
You open your book with an anecdote about a middle school art project in the Bronx.
Could you tell us that story and explain why you wanted to lead with it when you were writing Born in Flames?
Yeah, so the book opens in this abandoned, rubble-strewn lot in the Bronx where this sixth grader named Roberto Ramirez is kind of scouring the lot for a school assignment, actually.
And the teacher had asked the students in the class to go out in search of found objects.
And, you know, just like anything that would spark their interest, basically.
And the assignment was to envision the object as something else, right? To imagine it as something else.
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