Month: November 2023

From Poverty To Political Legend: Arkansas’s Dale Bumpers

Bill Thompson

Born and raised in a tiny rural Arkansas town, Dale Bumpers was drawn at a very early age into public service, by his encouraging father.

Service in the Marine Corps during World War II was followed by law school, and any illustrious legal career. He was, as he called his 2003 memoir, The Best Lawyer in a One-Lawyer Town.

His political career began in 1970, when he ran successfully for governor of Arkansas. He then flirted with the idea of running for president,but ran for Senate, and served there for the next 24 years.

A fiscally conservative Democrat, Bumpers earned a reputation as a powerful and influential Senator.

In one of his most memorable Senate moments, Bumpers delivered a closing argument in the Bill Clinton impeachment trial.

In 2003, four years after leaving public office, Bumpers published his memoir, and that’s when I met him. So here now, from 2003, Senator Dale Bumpers.

Dale Bumpers died on New Year’s Day 2016. He was 90.

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Gerry Spence

Pat Schroeder

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Life as Osama bin Laden’s Sister-in-Law Revealed

Bill Thompson

Married to the mob is one thing. Imagine what it would feel like if you married into a family whose name was linked to terrorism?

Swiss-born Carmen bin Ladin was once Osama bin Laden’s sister-in-law. Her marriage to Osama’s half brother Yeslam broke up several years ago and she had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks.

Her 2004 book Inside the Kingdom isn’t even about her notorious ex-brother-in-law. It reveals what goes on inside the strict Saudi culture that she and her daughters were part of.

Nevertheless, when I spoke with her she was candid about the family, the culture, and Osama.

So here now, from 2004, Carmen bin Ladin.

Carmen bin Ladin is now 69. Her divorce from Yeslam was finalized in 2006.

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Betty Mahmoody

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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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From Pilgrims to Escorts: The Rise and Fall of the Mayflower Madam

Bill Thompson

As public scandals go, this one might seem pretty benign, by today’s low bar. But in 1984, it was a big story when it was revealed that the authoirities had broken up a high-priced Manhattan escort service that was being run by a woman named Sydney Biddle Barrows.

Now, when a New York Post reporter uncovered the fact that the 32-year-old Barrows is from the Biddle family of Philadelphia, and is a direct descendant of some of the original Mayflower settlers, he dubbed her the “Mayflower Madam” — and the name stuck.

Within two years of her company being put out of business, Barrows wrote a bestselling autobiography, called, of course, “The Mayflower Madam.”

That’s when I first met her.

So here now, from 1986, Mayflower Madam Sydney Biddle Barrows:

Sydney Biddle Barrows is 73 now. She’s a management consultant and writer.

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Georgia Durante

Larry Flynt

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The Book That Proved Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone

Bill Thompson
Photo by Posnerwiki

It has now been 60 years since the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas.

And yet his death remains the subject of widespread conspiracy theories.

But 30 years ago, there was a definitive book written that reached the same conclusion that the Warren Commission did in the 1960s. That conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president, and acted alone.

The author of that book, called Case Closed, was investigative journalist Gerald Posner. Using technology completely unheard of in the 1960s, Posner reached the same conclusion.

So here now from 1993 Gerald Posner.

Gerald Posner is 69. HHs most recent book was a 2020 volume about big pharma.

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Clint Hill

Vincent Bugliosi

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How Deborah Layton Escaped the 1978 Jonestown Massacre

Bill Thompson

II was news that stunned the entire world, this week in 1978.

Inspired by a charismatic leader named Jim Jones, more than 900 people, including over 300 children, had committed suicide at he People’s Temple compound in Jonestown Guyana.

Many had died after drinking a soft drink laced with cyanide.
It popularized the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” to mean blindly following a dangerous leader or way of thinking.

One lucky young woman, Deborah Layton, was able to escape Jonestown, although her brother Larry was not so lucky.

It took her 20 years, but finally Layton wrote a book describing the Jonestown horror and her escape from it. That’s when i met her

So here now, from 1998, Deborah Layton.

Larry Layton was paroled in 2002 after serving more than 20 years in prison.

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Polly Nelson

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Will Steger’s Pioneering Journey to the North Pole

Bill Thompson
Photo by Andy Witchger

In today’s shrinking world, there are very few things left that no one has ever done before. But in 1986, explorer Will Steger did something no one had done before – he led the first ever dog sled journey to the north pole without resupply

It was an amazing, and in some ways death-defying expedition

As he described in his 1987 book N to the pole, it’s difficult when your face is frozen, you’re only allowed two pounds of food a day, and you have just a short window of opportunity to reach your goal.

We sat down in my well heated studio one day in December 1987 to talk. So here now, from 1987, Will Steger.

Will Steger Is 79 now. He is a popular public speaker and advocate for preservation of the Arctic

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Robert Ballard

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Suzanne Somers: From Laughter to Healing

Bill Thompson

WARNING: You’re about to listen to true stories of abuse, some of it sexual in nature. Some of the descriptions are graphic, and may be disturbing.

For many years actress Suzanne Somers kept us laughing. A talented comedic actress, she also knew how to leverage her blonde good looks for a laugh.

But until she wrote a memoir in the late 1980s, few people knew the truth about the abusive childhood she had endured. An alcoholic father made her life miserable, and she said in that memoir that laughter is what got her through.

A few years later, she followed up with another book, helping others confront and deal with their own painful childhood memories. That book was called Wednesdays Children.

I had interviewed Suzanne once before, but only by telephone. This was our first face to face meeting. So here now, from 1993, Suzanne Somers.

Suzanne Somers was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, but recovered. However the cancer returned earlier this year and Suzanne died last month one day before her 77th birthday.

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Christina Crawford
Louie Anderson

La Toya Jackson

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How a Navy Cross Hero Fought PTSD After Fallujah

Bill Thompson

Veteran’s Day reminds us that combat is not an isolated event in a service member’s life. It is often a psychological wound that is slow to heal.

Serving in Iraq in 2004, Marine Sgt. Jeremiah Workman earned the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire, after a ferocious firefight in Fallujah in which he killed 20 enemy combatants.

But Workmen returned home with post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Protecting his mental health proved to be as big a challenge as protecting his men in Fallujah was

In 2009, the year he was medically discharged from the Marines, Workman wrote a memoir called Shadow Of The Sword. That’s when I met him.

So here now, from 2009, Jeremiah Workman.

Jeremiah Workman announced last spring that he will run for Governor of his native Ohio in 2026.

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Denise Donnelly

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The Secret Daughter of Elvis Presley

Bill Thompson

In the early 1980s a young woman named Desiree sat her mother down and asked her to finally tell her about her real father.

The story that Lucy de Barbin told her daughter was the story of how she met Elvis Presley, fell in love with him, and had an affair. Elvis, she explained, was Desiree’s father.

Then, somehow, a journalist caught wind of the story, and persuaded Lucy and Desiree to tell their story in a book. Which they did, in 1987, a book called Are You Lonesome Tonight?

I met them when they were on a national publicity tour for their book.

Now, whether you believe them or not – and there are plenty of people who don’t – theirs is a fascinating story.

So here now from 1987 Lucy de Barbin and Desiree Presley.

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Ann-Margret

Egil Krogh

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