Depression

A Daughter’s Loving Embrace: Rain Pryor’s Book About Richard Pryor

Bill Thompson
Rain Pryor (center_ with Bill and Hillary Thompson

The late Richard Pryor was a hugely talented comedian and brilliant entertainer — but, by his own admission, a failure as a father.

In 2006 his daughter Rain Pryor wrote a memoir, a sympathetic portrait of the man, failings and all. Her book was called Jokes My Father Never Taught Me.

So here now from November 2006, Rain Pryor.

Richard Pryor died in December 2005, at the age of 65.

Rain Pryor is 54 now, and is active as a comedian, actor, and singer.

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Bill Kinison

Judith Belushi

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Susanna Kaysen

Bill Thompson

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Tomorrow, May 19, is Mental Health Action Day.

So today on Now I’ve Heard Everything, a 1994 conversation with a woman whose own mental health crisis became a bestselling book, then a major potion picture.

In 1967, at the age of 18, Susanna Kaysen’s family had her hospitalized for treatment of depression. She was told she would be there for two weeks. She was actually there for 18 months, after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder..

Years later Kaysen drew on her experience to write her memoir Girl, Interrupted. I met her the following year.

So here now, from 1994, Susann Kaysen.

Girl, Interrupted was made into a movie in 1999 starring Winona Ryder as Susanna.

Susanna Kaysen is 73 now.

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Patty Duke
Chris Costner Sizemore

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Charles Osgood

Bill Thompson
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A few days ago on Now I’ve Heard Everything, I featured an interview that I had done many years ago with one of my broadcasting Heroes, the late Larry King.

Today, another one: longtime CBS radio and TV news personality Charles Osgood.

Osgood grew up in Depression-era, World War ii-era Baltimore. And in 2004, he wrote a memoir recalling those years, called Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack.

So here now, from 2004, Charles Osgood:

Charles Osgood celebrating his 88th birthday last month. Today he lives in the New York City area.