Month: June 2025

This Is Where ‘Bones’ Was Born: Kathy Reichs, On Her Debut Novel

Bill Thompson
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Were you a fan of the TV series “Bones” ?

The series followed the professional, and sometimes personal, experiences of forensic pathologist Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel.

The character Tempe Brennan was based on her creator, author Kathy Reichs, who, like Tempe, is a prominent forensic anthropologist

Get your copy of Kathy Reichs’s book

I met Kathy when that book was first published and as she was still absorbing the idea of being a best-selling author.

So here now, from 1997, Kathy Reichs.

Tempe Brennan made her debut in Kathy Reichs’s very first book, a 1997 thriller called Deja Dead.

Kathy Reichs Will be 77 in a couple of weeks. She is the author of 24 Tempe Brennan novels. The newest will be out in November.

The Legacy of American Pro-Palestinian Activist Rachel Corrie

Bill Thompson

Rachel Corrie grew up in the ’80s and ’90s in Olympia, Washington.

In the early 2000s she joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, or ISM. That’s how she ended up in March 2003 in Rafah in Gaza. She and other ISM volunteers were there to protest the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes.

On March 16, 2003, Rachel positioned herself as a human shield in front of one home, and was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer that crushed her.

Rachel Corrie became an international symbol, a hero to many, a martyr to some

Get your copy of Rachel Corrie’s book

Back home in Olympia, to her parents Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel was still their little girl.

After Rachel’s death Her Diaries, journals, and other writings were published in a book called Let Me Stand Alone.

Craig and Cindy Corrie went out to promote the book, and that’s when I met them

So here now from 2008 Craig and Cindy Corrie.

Rachel Corrie would have been 46 now.

John Stossel: The Iconoclastic “Give Me a Break” Journalist

Bill Thompson

John Stossel didn’t set out to be a TV news reporter. He kind of stumbled into it after college, When a friend got him an entry-level job at a TV station in Portland, Oregon.

After making his mark there, despite stage fright and a stutter, Stossel was hired away by WCBS-TV in New York where he further built his journalism reputation. Later he joined ABC News, where he co-anchored “20/20,” and
and after that Fox News.

Get your copy of John Stossel’s book

And along the way he won 19 Emmys, not bad for a kid who hadn’t planned to be a journalist.

As an iconic reporter with a libertarian bent, Stossel’s signature phrase was “Give me a break!” You may remember his TV specials by that name.

So that’s what he also called his first book, published in 2004. I talked with them shortly after the book came out.

So here now, from 2004, John Stossel.

John Stossel is 78. He now runs Stossel TV.

A Baseball Career Done In By Drugs: The Steve Howe Story

Bill Thompson

Hard-throwing left-handed relief pitcher. Steve Howe joined the major leagues in 1980 at the age of 22. He was National League Rookie of the Year that year.

In 1981, he helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series.

But by 1982 Steve Howe’s life and baseball career were starting to unravel, done in by alcohol and cocaine abuse. In 1984 Howe was banned from baseball but reinstated on appeal.

By 1987 his baseball career appeared to be over for good. It would be another four years before he was able to re-sign with another team, this time the New York Yankees.

Get your copy of Steve Howe’s book

While he was away from the game, Howe wrote a book, an autobiography that he called Between the Lines. I talked with him in the summer of 1989 about the book

So here now, from 1989, Steve Howe.

Steve Howe retired from baseball in 1997. In 2006 he was killed in a single-vehicle accident – a toxicology report later showed methamphetamine in the system. He was 48.

Yyou May Not Be a Lawyer, But It Can Pay To Tthink Like One: TV’s Lis Iwehl

Bill Thompson
Photo by Tami Heilemann–Interior Staff

Remember what Professor kingsfield said in the movie The Ppaper Chase?

Can thinking like a lawyer help you in everyday life and everyday situations

Well, thinking like a lawyer is precisely what noted trial attorney and cable TV legal analyst Lis Wiehl recommended in her 2004 debut book called Winning Every Time.

Trying to convince your boss to give you a raise? Having a disagreement with your spouse over whether to buy that expensive car? Trying to convince your teenager that it’s wise to stay in school?

All things can be accomplished if you use the skills of a lawyer, Wiehl says.

I had a chance to talk with her when her book came out in the summer of 2004.

So here now, from 2004 Lis Wiehl.

Lis Wiehl will be 64 later this summer. She lectures and regularly appears on TV and radio as a legal analyst.

Krist Novoselic: The Rock Star / Political Activist On How to Fix Our Democracy

Bill Thompson

It’s been almost 40 years since bass guitarist Krist Novoselic and his buddy Kurt Cobain formed a band they called Nirvana Novoselic wound up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a result.

He continued his music for over 20 years after the end of Nirvana.

But he also had a deep and abiding interest in politics and democracy. And that’s how he came to write a book in 2004, that he called Of Grunge and Government.

His publisher offered me a few minutes with him in the fall of 2004, and, being the father of teenage daughters who loved Nirvana, I couldn’t say no.

So here now, from 2004, Krist Novoselic.

Krist Novoselic turned 60 last month. Last year he founded the Cascade Party of Washington.

Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Son On Fame, Family, and the Price of Success

Bill Thompson

In the mid-1950s a former country music disc jockey from Pasadena seemed to be everywhere.

Tennessee Ernie, he called himself on the radio. Ernie Ford not only had a hit record but guest appearances on “I Love Lucy” propelled him into a TV show of his own.

An album of Christian hymns put Tennessee Ernie Ford on Billboard’s chart for over five years.

At home, watching all of this unfold, was Ford’s son, Jeffrey Buckner Ford, often known simply as Buck.

Buck and his little brother saw the good times, and the rough times, as the double-edged sword of success impacted the family.

Both Ernie and wife Betty grappled with substance abuse, and Betty Ford took her own life in 1989. Ernie Ford died 2 years later.

In 2008 Jeffrey Buckner Ford wrote a critically acclaimed book about his parents, called River of No Return. He and I met 1 day that spring at our local Borders bookstore to talk about it.

So here now, from 2008, Jeffrey Buckner Ford.

Tennessee Ernie Ford died in 1991 at age 72. His son Buck Ford is now 75.

The Story Behind the Voice: Radio’s Diane Rehm

Bill Thompson

One day in 1973 a 37-year-old former State Department secretary with no radio experience walked into a public radio station in Washington DC to be a volunteer.

Within six years she was on the air, and soon after that Diane Rehm was given her own talk show. And for the next 32 years Rehm was a popular fixture on radio not just in the nation’s capital, but across the country, syndicated by public radio.

Get your copy of Diane Rehm’s book

But in her early 60s Rehm faced a serious health challenge, a vocal cord disorder that threatened to silence her familiar voice. Ultimately she found the treatment that allowed her to continue her career.

In 1999 Diane Rehm wrote a long-awaited autobiography called Finding My Voice, and the woman who had spent years interviewing the famous and the powerful now became the interviewee herself .

She and I talked about her book one day in the fall of 1999.

So here now, from 1999 Diane Rehm

Diane Rehm is 88 now. She still hosts a weekly podcast.

Actor John o’Hurley’s Ode to Fatherhood, As Told by His Dog

Bill Thompson
Photo by Gage Skidmore

30 years ago actor John O’Hurley took on a role that would help define him for the rest of his career.

O’Hurley’s portrayal of the idiosyncratic entrepreneur J. Peterman became one of the most memorable characters on TVs “Seinfeld.”

After the series ended, he took on a new role, game show host. He even competed on “Dancing With The Stars.”

And John O’Hurley writes books, including a 2007 volume called Before Your Dog Can Eat Your Homework First You Have To Do It

Despite a title that may make you think the book was just a gag, it’s actually a thoughtful, even poignant book inspired by the birth of his son, his first child. And it’s a book that may Inspire other fathers.

So here now, from 2007, John O’Hurley.

John O’Hurley is 70 now. He sits on the board of directors of the real J. Peterman Company.

Beyond “Dead Man Walking”: Helen Prejean’s Fight for Justice

Bill Thompson

For more than 30 years 1 of the most vocal and effective campaigners against capital punishment in the U.S. has been a Roman Catholic nun from New Orleans.

But until 1993 few people in the general public had ever heard of Sister Helen Prejean. That changed when she wrote a book called Dead Man Walking, which was later made into a highly acclaimed movie.

Leveraging her newfound influence, Prejean pushed forward with her campaign against the death penalty. She helped establish the Moratorium Campaign, and she started a group to counsel families of murder victims.

One major part of her effort has been to prevent executions of innocent defendants, who frequently are swept up in a dizzying array of legal technicalities that overlook their humanity.

In 2004 Prejean wrote a second book, called The Death of Innocents, drawing on the stories of two men she counseled who were executed despite what she believed was their innocence.

She and I talked about that book in 2005, the first time we had met since 1993.

So here now, from 2005, sister Helen Prejean.

Sister Helen Prejean Is 86 now. Based in New Orleans she continues to travel the country campaigning against the death penalty.