Month: August 2023

Paul Robeson Jr

Bill Thompson

Paul Robeson Jr was the grandson of a slave, and son of a prominent and controversial African American actor, singer, and activist.

Formally trained as an electrical engineer, Robeson soon followed in the footsteps of his famous father, becoming an activist in his own right.

He also spent time organizing and archiving his father’s papers, films, and music memorabilia.

I first met and interviewed Paul Robeson Jr. In 1993. We met again in 2007, when he wrote a book called A Black Way of Seeing.

And keep your mind open as you hear this interview, Robeson will challenge you to think differently about everything, regardless of your background.

So here now, from 2007, Paul Robeson Jr.

Paul Robeson Jr. died in 2014. He was 86.

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Barack Obama
Andrew Young
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Betsy Borns

Bill Thompson

Stand-up comedy has become such a staple of American entertainment that we may forget that it was not that long ago that it was a more rarefied profession.

And we may also forget just how hard that profession is.

In the late 1980s, just a few years into the start of the stand up explosion, a young writer producer named Betsy Borns put together a book about stand up comedians and how they work.

Borns called her book Comic Lives.

So here now, from 1987, Betsy Borns.

After Comic Lives Betsy Borns went on to work in TV on Roseanne, Friends, and All of Us, among many other projects.

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Gilbert Gottfried

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John Danforth

Bill Thompson
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.65032

The US supreme Court has been under intense scrutiny the last couple of years, and perhaps no member has been in a harsher spotlight than Clarence Thomas.

But Thomas is no stranger to controversy and criticism.

The political opposition began virtually as soon as he was nominated to the high court by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, to succeed the retiring Thurgood Marshall.

About this time, Thomas coined the phrase “high-tech lynching” to describe his experience.

Helping shepherd the Thomas nomination through the US Senate was Missouri Republican John Danforth. He was a long time friend, colleague, and even mentor to Thomas, and was eager to see him win confirmation.

That opposition reached a crescendo when a former co-worker of Thomas’s, a woman named Anita Hill, came forth to testify about alleged sexual harassment by Thomas.

Thomas did, of course, ultimately when confirmation. And in 1994 Danforth wrote a book describing the Clarence Thomas episode.

And that’s when I met the Senator. So here now, from 1994, Senator John Danforth.

John Danforth will be 87 next month.

Clarence Thomas is the oldest member of the current Supreme Court, and is its longest-serving current associate justice.

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Robert Bork
Sarah Weddington

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