Author: Bill Thompson

Peter Yarrow

Bill Thompson

Perhaps no one personified the folk music trend of the 1960s like Peter, Paul and Mary.

With a repertoire that included not only their own songs but covers of songs by Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary became superstars.

One of their most enduring hits was the wildly popular, to this day, Puff the Magic Dragon.

But it wasn’t until 2007 that the story of Puff the Magic Dragon was turned into an illustrated children’s book. That was the effort of Peter Yarrow, the co-writer of the song. And the book turned into a huge, huge commercial success.

That year is when I first met Peter yarrow, and we talked about his book about puff. A couple of years later we had another interview when he came out with another similar book based on their song. Day is Done.

And that interview, the one you’re about to hear, happened just a few weeks after the untimely deaf of Mary Travers.

So here now, from 2009, Peter Yarrow.

Peter Yarrow turned 84 in M ay. He lives in New York.

Mary Travers died in september 2009 at age 72

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Capitol Steps

Bill Thompson

Once upon a Time three staffers for a United States Senator decided to put on a little Christmas show, just a little thing with song parodies and skits, just for entertainment.

They’re little show was a hit and they ended up putting on that show for a few other small private groups.

Before long, a few other Hill staffers join them and they’re little events. Became bigger events more organized events with bigger audiences

The year was 1981 and that’s how the capital steps was formed. And over the next four decades. The capital steps became the nation’s premier political satire group.

Two of those founding members, Bill Strauss and Elaina Newport wrote a book in 1992 called fools on the Hill and that’s when I had a chance to meet them.

So here now from 1992 Bill Strauss and Elaina Newport

The Capitol Steps disbanded in 2021, done in by the lack of bookings because of COVID.

Bill Strauss died in 2007 at age 60.

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Michael York

Bill Thompson
Photo: Allan warren

For over five decades actor Michael York has been a fixture in Britain and in the US, in film and on television.

Beginning in the late 1960s, York starred in a number of huge hit movies, including Romeo and Juliet, Cabaret, and Logan’s Run. Younger fans may even remember him best from his role in the Austin Powers series.

In 1992. Michael York published an autobiography, and that’s when I had the chance to talk with him.

So here now, from 1992, Michael York.

Michael York is 80 now. He and Pat live in Minnesota.

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Bob Dorian

Bill Thompson

Ever since there have been movies in America — that’s over a hundred years now — people have been putting together their lists of their favorite movies. Their favorite classic movies.

Some 30 years ago Bob Dorian, the longtime host on American Movie Classics (now known simply as AMC) assembled a list of the greatest “classic” movies.

Now these weren necessarily ‘t classic” in the sense that we typically think of classic movies, but they were movies that were timeless and important in their own way.

I had a chance to talk with Bob Dorian in 1990 when that book came out. So here now from 1990. Let’s talk some old movies with Bob Dorian

Bob Dorian died in 2019. He was 85.

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Ginger Rogers
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Sarah Weddington

Bill Thompson
Portrait

Last week the United States Supreme Court overturned the nearly 50-year-old Roe vs Wade decision, which afforded women the constitutional right to an abortion.

That was a court battle fought, and one, by a young Texas attorney. In fact, Sarah Weddington was only 27 when she argued the case before the high Court on behalf of her client, the pseudonymous Jane Roe..

When 20 years later, Sarah Weddington was still gravely concerned about the future of the ruling that she won.

And now, we see that her concerns were well founded.

And Sarah Weddington, as it turns out, had a personal interest in the outcome of Roe vs. Wade.

So here now, from 19932, Sarah Weddington.

Sarah Weddington died last Decembmer. She was 76.

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Eric Burdon

Bill Thompson

Who knew that a little boy born to a lower middle-class family in England, who grew up with asthma and put up with teasing from his classmates, and like to smoke by the time he was aged 10, would grow up to become one of the world’s greatest rock singers?

That’s kind of the short version of the life of Eric Burdon, who in 1962 joined a quartet that soon became known as the animals. Burdon was their lead singer.

As a leading member of the British invasion, the animals produced a number of hits.

In 2002, Eric Burdon wrote an autobiography, a book called. Please Don’t let me be misunderstood. And that’s when I have a chance to talk with him by phone. So here now, from 2002, Eric burdon.

Eric Burdon is 81 mpw/ Amd still making muisc.

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Naomi Wolf

Bill Thompson

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but in modern western society the beholders are usually men and the men make the rules of that social construct that we call beauty.

That’s the essence. Kind of boil down into my own words of Naomi Wolf’s blockbuster breakthrough 1991 book The Beauty Myth.

The Beauty Myth created some big waves when it was published. In fact, later the New York times even said it was one of the 70 most influential books of the entire century.

But it has also generated a lot of controversy for Naomi Wolf.

I first met her when her first book was published — and I hate to admit it now, but so of my questions now seem a bit naive.

So here now from 1991. Naomi Wolf

Naomi Wolf is 59. She lives in Washington, DC.

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Harry Hay

Bill Thompson

In the last 20 years the LGBTQ movement has made enormous social and political strides, but what we sometimes forget is that enormous strides begin with baby steps.

More than seven decades ago, a man who took many of those first baby steps and established the modern gay rights movement was a man named Harry Hay.

Hay knew something about organizing unpopular political movements because as early as the 1930s Hay was a communist — and this was at a time when the Communist party was very homophobic. Hay married a woman and was married for several years before finally acknowledging that he was gay.

By 1950 Harry Hay recognized that the gay and lesbian community — which didn’t even really have a name yet — had rights and needed those rights protected.

Calling up on some of the same skills he used as a communist organizer. Harry Hay started the Mattachine Society. And that, many historians agree, gave rise to the modern gay rights movement.

I met Harry Hay in late 1990. He was the subject of a biography by writer Stuart Timmons called The Trouble With Harry Hay.

So here now from 1990 Stuart Timmons and Harry Hay

Harry Hay died in 2002. He was 90.

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G. Gordon Liddy

Bill Thompson

A third-rate burglary” at Washington’s Watergate hotel and office complex in the summer of 1972 launched a scandal that ultimately brought down the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

At the very center of that burglary, and ensuing Scandal, was G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent who headed the the infamous White House “Plumbers” unit.

After serving prison time for his role in Watergate, Liddy wrote a book called “Will,” which became a bestseller for years to come.

In 1991 Liddy updated his book, adding new information that had been revealed in a book by two journalists,Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, called “Silent Coup.”

As you are about to hear, Libby discovered that the Scandal that he was at the center of was not what he thought it was.

So here now, from 1991, G. Gordon Liddy.

G. Gordon Liddy died last year at age 90.

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John Dean

Bill Thompson

Fifty years ago this week, a botched burglary at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC touched off a criminal conspiracy that eventually brought down the president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon.

It’s the scandal that to this day is simply known by the name of the office complex where the burglary occurred: Watergate.

All this week on Now I’ve Heard Everything we’re featuring interviews I’ve done with figures connected to Watergate. Our last episode featured former Washington Post editor Ben Bradley. On Friday, my conversation with the mastermind of the burglary, G. Gordon Liddy.

One of Nixon’s loyalists at the center of everything was his White House counsel, a young lawyer named John Dean.

As the investigation into the cover-up began to widen, Dean quietly began cooperating with prosecutors.

Later, famously, Dean was heard on a White House tape telling the president:

Dean recounted that episode in his congressional testimony:

After serving a brief prison sentence for his role in Watergate, Dean wrote several best-selling books, and his political views changed, as well.

And in the last 20 years, Dean has become a strong voice against what he sees as the authoritarian nature of the modern conservative movement – Republicans, in particular

In 2005, Dean wrote a book called Worse Than Watergate, which was followed in 2006 by one called Conservatives Without Conscience. And that’s when I met him.

And then we talked again a year later, when he wrote what was the third book in his trilogy.

So what you’ll hear now is first an excerpt from my 2006 interview, then after a short break, my 2007 conversation with John Dean:

John Dean is 83 now. His last book, Authoritarian Nightmare, was published in 2020.

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