Author: Bill Thompson

Louise Meriwether

Bill Thompson

American history is a trove of compelling yet largely forgotten stories of courage and ingenuity and principle. Among them is the story of one African American slave who, during the Civil War, showed his true courage.

And in 1994, historian and writer Louise Meriwether used that story as the basis for a novel called Fragments of the Ark , a work of fiction meant to add flesh and blood the the dry bones of history.

With the political tied turning the way it is now in many places in America, it’s more important than ever. That stories like this be preserved.

So here now, from 1994, Louise Meriwether.

You may also like these episodes:

James Cameron
Doris Kearns Goodwin

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Tim Russert

Bill Thompson

Father’s Day is this Sunday, and I wanted to bring you a familiar old voice to help us remember our dads.

Tim Russert suffered a fatal heart attack in June 2008 at age 58.

In 2004, the longtime host and moderator of NBC’s Meet The Press, Tim Russert, wrote a book called Big Russ And Me.

It was a son’s tribute to his dad, a World War II veteran who worked two jobs to support the family, never complaining, and always commenting “What a country!”

So here now, from 2004, Tim Russert.

Big Russ died the following year at age 85

\

You may also like these episodes:

Chris & Bob Elliott
Chris Lemmon

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Omarosa

Bill Thompson
Photo by Gage Skidmore

Well, as everybody knows, Donald Trump has been indicted on federal charges.

So I thought it would be an opportune time to revisit an interview originally posted in Season 2 of this podcast, an interview I did in 2008 with one of the original “Apprentice” contestants.

If you watched the show, you no doubt remember Omarosa.

She was a fiery and combative contestant, so it’s no surprise that her book that she published in 2008 was a how-to on for women to be a bit, well. “witchy” in order to get ahead.

So here now, from 2008, Omarosa.

Several years after our interview, Donald Trump was elected president, and Omarosa — who is 49 now — went to work for him in the White House. She left in January 2018. It’s not clear whether she was fired, or resigned.

\

You may also like these episodes:

Ivana Trump
Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Myrlie Evers Williams

Bill Thompson
Photo by John Mathew Smith

Today, June 12, is a somber anniversary. It was 60 years ago tonight that a white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan leader gun down a civil rights leader named Medgar Evers as he arrived home.

His killer remained at large for years to come. And Evers’s death was just the first of three high profile assassinations that decade, including Malcolm x and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

His widow was Myrlie Evers. Years later she remarried and has been known since as Myrlie Evers Williams.

But she was always a strong woman.

I met her in 1999 when she wrote a book about her lifetime of triumph over tragedy, a book called Watch Me Fly.

So here now, from 1999, Myrlie Evers Williams.

Myrlie Evers Williams is 90 now, and still an active civil rights activist andleader.

\

You may also like these episodes:

Coretta Scott King
Andrew Young

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Frank Buttino

Bill Thompson

Even years after the death of iconic FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the agency continued to discriminate against gay agents.

It wasn’t all that very long ago that the FBI was almost exclusively the domain of straight white men.

That is, until an agent named Frank Buttino came along. The FBI fired him after discovering his sexual orientation, but Buttino filed a discrimination lawsuit.

And as a result, the FBI’s homophobic hiring discrimination ended.

I met him in the summer of 1993, while his lawsuit was still pending. He had written his autobiography, a book called A Special Agent .

So here now, from 1993, Frank Buttino.

Frank Buttino died in 2018. He was 73.

You may also like these episodes:

Candace Gingrich
Tab Hunter

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Candace Bushnell

Bill Thompson

25 years ago this week a new series premiered on HBO. It was based on the cloumns written by a journalist named Candace Bushnell. She called it Sex And The City.

Bushnell had a lifelong ambition to be a successful novelist. So when I met her, in 2003, she had actually just written her first novel. The heroine of the book Trading Up was a young woman, not unlike the characters we met in Sex And The City.

And much like Sex And The City, the characters in Trading Up must ask difficult questions.

So here now, from 2003, Candace Bushnell.

Candace Bushnell is now 64, and lives in New York.

You may also like these episodes:

Colleen McCullough
Karen Salmansohn

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Rafer Johnson

Bill Thompson
AA343184 cucina 310 481 300 3661 5683 RGB

Let’s go back to 1960, and the Olympic games. That was the year a 26-year-old named Rafer Johnson took the gold medal in the decathlon. Four years earlier, Johnson had won the silver.

But his achievements did not end when his athletic career was over. Johnson became a successful actor in the 1960s and ”70s.

Johnson also became politically active in the 1960s, and that’s how he found himself in the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the night. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, 55 years ago this week.

I met him in 1998, when he wrote his autobiography, called The Best that I Can Be:

So here now, from 1998, Rafer Johnson.z

Rafer Johnson died in 2020. He was 86

You may also like these episodes:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Carl Lewis

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Pat Schroeder

Bill Thompson

In 1972, Colorado was a very conservative state that today we would call a “red” state. But in ’72, voters elected their first ever female member of Congress, the young Democrat Pat Schroeder.

She won re-election in each of the next 11 elections, eventually serving 24 years in the US House of Representatives, becoming one of its most influential members.

She even considered joining the 1988 race for president, but ultimately decided against it. And the way she exited the race became a point of controversy in and of itself.

I met her in 1998 when she wrote a memoir which she called 24 Years of Housework and the Place is Still a Mess.

So here now, from 1998, Pat Schroeder.

Pat Schroeder died this past March, she was 82.

You may also like these episodes:

Geraldine Ferraro
Jane Byrne

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Ron McLarty

Bill Thompson

A funny thing happened on the way to Ron McLarty’s career as a famous novelist.

He became a very successful actor first .

If you’re a fan of TV series such as Law & Order, The Practice, Judging Amy, or Spenser for Hire, you’ll recognize Ron McLarty.9. Often cast as a police detective or a judge, McLarty has had a long and successful career as a character actor.

But when I met him in 2005, it was on the occasion of his first published novel, The Memory of Running. And it turns out that’s what he wanted to do all along.

So here now, from 2005, Ron McLarty

Ron McLarty died in 2022 at the age of 74.

You may also like these episodes:

Fannie Flagg
Stephen Collins

Buy Books / Media from Amazon

Laura Palmer

Bill Thompson

Memorial Day is the one day each year set aside to remember and commemorate and celebrate the sacrifices of thousands of men and women who have died in war over the years.

But of course, their deaths carry a long and wide ripple effect that can affect family members for years and generations to come.

Since opening more than 40 years ago, the Vietnam Veterans memorial in Washington DC has become an informal but significant collection point for memorabilia. Families of the fallen in Vietnam come to the wall to leave behind everything from letters and poems to medals and teddy bears.

In 1988, former Vietnam war correspondent Laura Palmer wrote a book about those items of memorabilia. She tracked down many of the families and interviewed them to get a broader sense of their loss. She ccalled her book Shrapnel in The Heart.

So here now, from 1988, my interview with Laura Palmer.