Month: June 2022

Edgar Prado

Bill Thompson

It was an electrifying finish to the 2006, Kentucky Derby, as the undefeated 3-year-old Barbaro won the race by the largest margin of victory in over six decades.

The jockey who guided Barbaro to victory that day was one of the world’s best, the 38-year-old veteran Edgar Prado.

But two weeks later tragedy struck. In the opening seconds of the Preakness, Barbaro went down with a catastrophic leg injury.

Barbaro struggled for months, before finally having to be put down.

Two years later, Prado wrote a love story, a book called My Guy Barbaro. That’s when I met him and his co-author, sports writer John Eisenberg.

So here now, from 2008, Edgar Prado and John Eisenberg

Edgar Prado will be 55 next Sunday. He lives in Hollywood, Florida.

J. Craig Venter

Bill Thompson

Can the guy who just barely graduated from high school become one of the world’s 100 most influential people?

Well, it doesn’t very often, to be sure. But that is the short version of the story of Dr. J. Craig Venter, who led the first draft sequence of the human genome some 20 years ago,

Venter founded the company Celera Genomics, which found itself in a very publicized race with the international Human Genome Project to produce that map.

And by summer 2000, Venter was a VIP guest at a White House announcement featuring President Clinton, British prime minister Tony Blair, and a host of other high-level dignitaries.

Venter was widely hailed around the world as a leading figure in the scientific community .

In 2007, Venter wrote his autobiography, a book called A Life Decoded. And that’s what I met him.

So here now, from 2007, Dr. J. Craig venter.

J. Craig Venter is 75 now. He lives in California.

Oh, and if he was curious as to why he was always such a poor student, Venter later discovered that he had a genetic marker for ADHD.

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Armistead Maupin

Bill Thompson
Photo: Alan Light

We’re kicking off the start of LGBTQ Pride Month with a conversation with one of the leading literary figures in the gay rights movement of the late 20th century.

Armistead Maupin started writing stories in 1974 that were published in a small newspaper in the San Francisco area. Those serialized stories were known as tales of the City.

Finally, in 1978, Maupin published the first Tales of The City book, the 1st of several in the series.

Drawing on his own experience as a gay man, Maupin’s books feature a broad community of diverse characters and backgrounds.

Importantly, Armistead Maupin was one of the first writers to directly address the AIDS crisis.

I first met him in 1987, but the conversation you’re about to hear is from 13 years later, when we talked about his novel The Night Listener.

So here now, from 2000, Armistead Maupin.

Armistead Maupin celebrated his 78th birthday last month. He lives in New Mexico.

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