July 2024 – Now I've Heard Everything

Marianne Williamson’s Prophetic Insights: A Woman’s Worth

July 31, 2024July 27, 2024Bill Thompson

The entry of Vice President Kamala Harris into the 2024 presidential race has energized and invigorated millions of American women.

Could it be the culmination of a societal shift that some people saw coming thirty or more years ago?

In 1993 author, speaker, and political candidate Marianne Williamson wrote about the changing landscape of American society in a book called A Woman’s Worth, in which she sought to clarify the critical role women could, and should, play in driving the betterment of our world.

Get your copy of Marianne Williamson’s book

It was the first of several conversations I had with her over the coming years. So here now, from 1993, Marianne Williamson.

Newsweek once named Marianne Williamson one of the 50 most influential Baby Boomers.

She turned 72 earlier this month. She lives in Washington DC.

Inside Trump’s Business Empire: Former Insider Jack O’Donnell’s Account

July 29, 2024July 27, 2024Bill Thompson

For three years, back in the late 1980s, Jack O’Donnell worked for Donald Trump.

O’Donnell rose from senior vice president at the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City to, eventually, president of that enterprise.

In that capacity, O’Donnell had a front-row seat into how Donald Trump operates. And what he saw was a shrewd dealmaker, a not so great manager, and someone who is motivated almost entirely by how many piles of money he could accumulate.

About four years after Trump published his book The Art Of The Deal, Jack O’Donnell wrote a book called Trumped! In which he revealed the side of the dealmaker he saw in his day to day work.

So here now, from 1991, Jack O’Donnell .

Olympic Gold Medalist Al Joyner’s Encouragement For Runners

July 26, 2024July 20, 2024Bill Thompson

The 2024 Olympics begin today in Paris. Who will emerge as the heroes whose names we’ll remember for years?

Forty years ago9 in Los Angeles one such hero was track and field star Al Joyner. He won the gold medal in the triple jump, with a leap of an incredible 56 feet 7 and a half inches.

Joyner later became a renowned track and field coach.

And in 1987, he got another gold, a wedding ring when he married track star and fellow Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith, who became known as FloJo.

She wrote a book in 1998. Part of the “Dummies” series of how-to books, call3ed Running For Dummies.Tragically, though FloJo died from an epileptic seizure that fall, and never got to see the finished book.

Just a few months later, al Joyner went on a book tour to promote it. That’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1999, Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner

Al Joyner is now 64.

The Remarkable Journey of Supermodel Alek Wek

July 24, 2024July 20, 2024Bill Thompson

Back in 1995 in London, a teenager was out shopping one day when a stranger tapped her on the shoulder. That stranger was a modeling scout, and before long, that teenager was signed as a professional model.

And it wasn’t long after that that Alek Wek was seen on covers of major international magazines. She was MTV’s Model of the Year in 1997.

But what makes her story even more incredible and extraordinary is that she had only been in London for four years, after her family fled a life of poverty in their homeland, civil war-torn Sudan.

Alek told her story in a 2007 autobiography called simply Alek. I met her on her book tour that year.

So here now, from 2007, Alek Wek.

Alek Wek is 47 now. She lives in New York.

Andrew Breitbart: From High School Humorist to Digital Media Pioneer

July 22, 2024July 20, 2024Bill Thompson

When the history of digital media is written, one name will figure prominently: Los Angeles-born and raised would-be comedian Andrew Breitbart.

He got his start in journalism in the mid 1980s, with a comedic article in his high school newspaper.

A few years later, Breitbart was instrumental in developing the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post, and ultimately Breitbart News.

ttps://amzn.to/46jZfbRGet your copy of Andrew Breitbart’s book

Along the way, he was frequently criticized, even vilified, by mainstream media for his contrarian, often combative,opinions.

In 2011 Breitbart wrote a book called Righteous Indignation – and that’s when I had a few minutes with him.

So here now, from 2011, Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew Breitfbart died in 2012 at age 43 from heart failure.

Chris Kraft: The Father of NASA’s Mission Control

July 19, 2024July 13, 2024Bill Thompson

This weekend marks 55 years since human beings first set foot on the surface of the moon

The Apollo 11 mission put astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon Good 3rd crew member, Michael Collins, remained in the orbiting And module .

It was the fulfillment of an ambitious goal set at the beginning of the 1960s by President John F Kennedy .

During the 1960s tens of thousands of talented engineers and experts working at warp speed, if you will, help the U.S. reach that goal

At the heart of it all was a brilliant aerospace engineer named Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. It was largely Chris Kraft created, pioneered, or invented many of the things that we now regard as standard elements of the NASA space program

From Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, Kraft was there, helping shape what the space program became .

In 2001 Chris Kraft wrote a memoir of his life and career, mirroring that of NASA.it was called flight comma and that’s….few minutes with this iconic figure.

So here now, from 2001 Chris Kraft.

Chris Kraft died in 2019, just days after the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing he had helped make possible.

From Murder Scene to Murde3r Scene: Crime Writer Edna Buchanan

July 17, 2024July 13, 2024Bill Thompson

Edna Buchanan joined the Miami Herald in 1973, working the police beat. And she was good at it. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for her reporting.

By the late 1980s, she had turned to fiction writing, The real life stories she had covered became the raw material for her fiction.

And it turned out she was really good at that, too. Many of her books became best sellers, and a couple were turned into movies.

But she also wrote several nonfiction books, including one in 1992 called Never Let Them See You Cry. That’s when she and I had one of our several conversations over the years.

So here now, from 1992, Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan is 85 now, and still lives in Florida.

JFK Jr As Remembered By Magazine Colleague Richard Bradley

July 15, 2024July 13, 2024Bill Thompson

It was 25 years ago tomorrow, July 16, 1999 that a small plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard took the lives of 38-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr.. his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette.

At the time of his death Kennedy was struggling to keep his magazine, George, afloat.

Richard Bradley was one of the original editors at George in 1995, and by 1999 was the magazine’s executive editor.

In 2002, Bradley – writing under his birth name Richard Blow – published a bestselling book about JFK Jr. and George, called American Son. The book was not without its critics and controversy, with some saying Bradley should not have written it at all.

I met Bradley when he was on a book tour to promote it in the spring of 2002. So here now, from 2002, Richard Bradley

Richard Bradley is0 now. George magazine folded in 2001 .

Barry Goldwater: 1964 GOP Nominee’s Optimism

July 12, 2024July 6, 2024Bill Thompson

The 2024 Republican National Convention begins Monday in Milwaukee. Donald Trump will be formally nominated as the GOP standard bearer, and we expect to learn who his running mate will be.

Sixty years ago, convening in San Francisco, Republicans nominated firebrand Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater as their party’s nominee against incumbent Democrat Lyndon Johnson.

But ,many Republicans in 1964 saw Goldwater as too extreme. And Goldwater himself didn’t do much to calm those concerns, with his acceptance speech.

After being trounced by LBJ that fall, Goldwater remained in the Senate for another 22 years, helping shape the conservative policies of the GOP.

After his retirement, he wrote a memoir called simply Goldwater. And when I met him in 1988, the country was in the thick of the George H.W. Bush vs Michael Dukakis race. And as you’re about to hear, Goldwater had some very specific ideas about that contest.

So, here now, from 1988, Barry Goldwater.

Barry Goldwater died in 1998. He was 89.

Breaking Barriers: Arlene Violet, America’s First Female Attorney General

July 10, 2024July 5, 2024Bill Thompson

Up until the mid-1980s, no U.S. state had ever elected a woman to be attorney general

It took a former Roman Catholic nun in America’s smallest state to shatter that glass ceiling.

In 1984, Arlene Violet – running as a Republican in deep blue Rhode Island – was elected attorney general. Her goals were to strengthen victims’ rights, and to try to root out the state’s entrenched public corruption .

She did make progress, but was defeated for reelection in 1986.

Two years later she wrote her memoir, a book called Convictions. I had covered Violet’s career when I was news director of a major radio station in Providence, so I was delighted to have the chance to reconnect when her book tour brought her to my studio.

So here now, from 1988, Arlene Violet.

Arlene Violet is 81 now. And remains politically outspoken.