Activists – Page 5 – Now I've Heard Everything

Betty Friedan

March 7, 2022March 6, 2022Bill Thompson

The roots of the modern feminist movement can be traced directly back to a single book published nearly 60 years ago.

It was called The Feminine Mystique. Its author was a young would-be journalist named Betty Friedan. It is widely regarded as the spark that lit the fire of the feminist movement.

But that was only the beginning for Betty Friedan. Three years later, she co-founded the National Organization for Women, and was its first president.

She also helped establish the National Womens Political Caucus. And she founded what was then known as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, known today simply as NARAL.

In 2000, Friedan wrote a memoir called Life So Far.

This was actually my second interview with her, but the first in which I got to ask more personal questions.

So here now, from 2000, Betty Friedan.

Betty Friedan died on her 85th birthday in 2006.

Melba Patillo Beals

February 2, 2022January 30, 2022Bill Thompson

Imagine a small group of high school students needing armed United States military just to get into school.

In September 1957 9. African American students, the first to enroll at Central high School in Little Rock, Arkansas, were accompanied by armed national guard members

They became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Among them was 15-year-old Melba Patillo, later Melba Patillo Beals. Somehow, she and the rest of a little rock nine escaped any kind of serious physical harm.

I first met her in 1994, when she wrote a memoir of her experience called warriors. Don’t cry.

So here now, from 1994, Melba Patillo Beals.

Melba Patillo Beals is 80 now. She lives in the San Francisco Bay aea.

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Cindy Sheehan

January 31, 2022January 30, 2022Bill Thompson

After a U.S. Army soldier named Casey Sheehan was killed in action in Iraq in 2004 his mother, Cindy Sheehan became one of the loudest anti-war voices in America .

What made her different from others, though, was that Cindy Sheehan was not content to simply join protest rallies or write letters. She set up a makeshift camp outside President George w. Bush’s, Texas ranch.

Her protest drew international attention, but made her many enemies as well as allies.

In 2006, Cindy Sheehan wrote a memoir called Peace Mom. I met her during one of her visits to Washington DC.

So here now from 2006. Cindy Sheehan.

Cindy Sheehan is 64 now. She

hosts a weekly radio show and has a blog called “Cindy’s Soapbox.”

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bell hooks

January 19, 2022January 16, 2022Bill Thompson

How and where do race, gender, class, art, and capitalism come together?

That question was at the heart of some 30 books written by author bell hooks.

That was actually the pen name that Gloria Jean Watkins adopted for herself.

But being a black female activist and feminist also often made her a target.

In her 1999 book Remembered Rapture hooks recalled some of her challenges as a writer and activist and that’s when I have the chance to meet her for the first of our several conversations.

So here now from 1999 bell hooks.

bell hooks died last month. She was 69.

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Dexter Scott King

January 17, 2022January 16, 2022Bill Thompson

Dexter Scott King was only 7 years old in 1968 when his father Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.

But his memories of his late father remain sharp and crisp.

And those deeply personal recollections sometimes contrast with the public views of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 2003 at the age of 42, Dexter Scott King wrote a book called Growing Up King, and that’s when I had a chance to meet him and talk with him.

So here now from 2003 Dexter Scott King

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Cleveland Amory

December 24, 2021December 12, 2021Bill Thompson

It was on a cold Christmas Eve night many years ago in New York that a stray cat found a new, loving home.

His rescuer was I then crusty 60 year old curmudgeon, an author and TV and radio critic named Cleveland Amory.

Well, Amory named his new furry white companion PPolar Bear. And in 1987, when Amory wrote a book called The Cat Who Came For Christmas, Polar Bear became a celebrity.

This was my first interview with Cleveland Amory, but it was not the last. We talked several times over the next few years.

So here now, from 1987, Cleveland

Cleveland Amory died in 1998. He was 81.

Gloria Steinem

December 13, 2021December 11, 2021Bill Thompson

Ms. Is turning 50

It was in December 1971 that a staff writer for the New Yorker named Gloria Steinem created what would become, the following summer, Ms. Magazine.

The December debut was actually an insert in the New Yorker, and it instantly catapulted stynom to the forefront of the feminist movement.

Fast forward to 1992. Gloria Steinem wrote a book called The Revolution Within, and that’s when she and I sat down for one of our several conversations over the years.

So here now, from 1992, gloria Steinem.

Gloria Steinem will be 88 next March. She remains active as an organizer and lecturer.

William Kunstler

November 29, 2021November 28, 2021Bill Thompson

The New York Times once labeled William Kunstler “America’s most controversial lawyer.”

What earned him that distinction was his defense of the so-called “Chicago Seven,” a group of young radicals who tried to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

But the Chicago Seven were hardly Kunstler’s most controversial clients. He also represented clients ranging from Jack Ruby to U.S. Marine and Russian spy Clayton Lonetree, to the man known as The Blind Sheikh, the man behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

I met William Kunstler in 1994, when he wrote his autobiography, a book titled My Life As a Radical Lawyer.

So here now, from 1994, William Kunstler.

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William kunstler died just a year after our interview, in 1995. He was 76.

Anita Roddick

November 15, 2021November 13, 2021Bill Thompson

In 1976 a British business woman started a small business to sell skin and hair care products.

But she also wanted it to reflect her ethics and values, including human rights, animal rights, and the environment.

Anita Roddick called her business The Body Shop.

Today The Body Shop has over 3,000 stores in 65 countries. But it is still loyal to Anita Roddick’s ethics and values.

In 2001 Roddick wrote a book called Business As Unusual, a look back at the sometimes-turbulent ‘90s for The Body Shop.

So here now from 2001, Anita Roddick.

Anita Roddick died in 2007. She was 64.

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Tony Robbins

October 15, 2021October 10, 2021Bill Thompson

After a childhood he once described as “chaotiz” and “abusive,” and a pituitary tumor that made him grow 10 inches in high school. Tony Robbins moved out on his own at age 17. He didn’t go to college, and it may have looked like he was destined for a life of disappointment and despair.

But an epiphany when he was in his early 20s turned his life around, and Robbins eventually became one of the country’s best-known and most in-demand motivational speakers.

I first met him in 1986, as his career was taking off, and then again five years later when he wrote his book Awaken the Giant Within.

So here now, from 1991, Tony Robbins.

Tony Robbins is 61. He lives in Florida.