Educators

Nikki Giovanni’s Different Perspective On American Icon Rosa Parks

Bill Thompson
Photo by Brett Weinstein

The powerful story of Rosa Parks and her act of civil disobedience is so often reduced to just a headline,It’s often easy to forget the three-dimensional person she was.

It was with that in mind that the poet Nikki Giovanni set out to write a different kind of Rosa Parks book. Her 2005 book Rosa is nominally a children’s book, but one that readers of any age will find Illuminating.

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I spoke with Nikki Giovanni about her book just a few weeks after Rosa Parks passed away at age 92.

So here now from 2005 Nikki Giovanni.

Nikki Giovanni died this past December, at age 81.

Inside the Fed: A Personal Journey with Laurence Meyer

Bill Thompson

If you have a mortgage, or a car loan, or credit card, you probably pay attention to interest rates. And these days that means you probably keep a pretty close eye on the Federal Reserve.

Several times a year the Fed’s Board of Governors meets to set short term rates, and as a result, long-term rates – such as mortgages – and bond rates and equity markets take their cue from that.

For five and a half years, from 1996 to 2002, economist Laurence Meyer was a Fed Governor. He was among those experts who met a few times a year to keep the economy on track.

Get your copy of Laurence Meyer’s book

He described that experience in his 2004 book A Term At The Fed.

Now if you’re like me and never got past Econ 101 in school, there’s nothing in this interview that you need to be an economist to understand. Rather, it’s a personal exploration of how one man navigated the gulf between theory and practice. And often laughed at himself.

So here now, from 2004, Laurence Meyer.

Laurence Meyer is 80 now. He has been involved in various roles since his Fed term ended.

Suze Orman

Bill Thompson

We all know about the laws of nature or the laws of physics but are there laws that govern what happens to money?

So here now from 2003. Suze Orman

There most certainly are says longtime personal finance expert Suze Orman, and if you are ignorant of those laws, you are bound to break them and suffer the consequences she says.

I had the chance to interview her several times over period of years as she rose to national prominence, including this conversationa bout her book The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life.

Suze Orman is now 72 and currently hosts the “Suze Orman Women & Money” podcast.

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Barbara Corcoran
Tony Robbins

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Mignon Fogarty

Bill Thompson
Photo: Kyle David Jones

Do you know how hard it is to interview someone who you know will be assessing every sentence that comes out of your mouth?

I hadn’t been so self-conscious since I interviewed William F. Buckley, but it turns out, Mignon Fogarty was much nicer than what I’d feared. When I talked with her in 2009 about her books and podcast, she was nothing but cordial. And forgiving.

Since 2006 Mignon Fogarty has produced and hosted the “Grammar Girl” podcast. Who would’ve guessed that the nation was full of people so enchanted by .. grammar.

Indeed, proper language usage means a lot to many people. If you doubt me, just make a usage mistake on social media and watch how many of your “friends” will correct you.

So here now, from 2009, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty.

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Neil de Greasse Tyson
Peggy Noonan

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Danica McKellar

Bill Thompson

If you know Danica McKellar only as Winnie Cooper on TV’s The Wonder Years, from the 1980s, what she has done since the show ended may surprise you.

After The Wonder Years ended in the early 90s, Danica McKellar went to UCLA and got a degree in math.

She now writes books about mathematics, and advocates for education.

In 2007 she wrote a book for Middle school-age girls, called Math Doesn’t Suck.

I had a few minutes with her after an event at a bookstore outside Washington DC.

So here now, from 2007, Danica McKellar.

Danica McKellar will be 47 in January. In addition to her work in math, she still does some acting, and as a producer, as well.

Marva Collins

Bill Thompson
Photo: Eric Watkins

America’s schools are in crisis right now.

After COVID took its toll, and forced remote learning on millions of kids, school boards all over the country are now dealing with loud, sometimes ferocious, debates over everything from mask mandates to gender pronouns to critical race theory.

But debate over education is nothing new.

A generation ago, a Chicago educator with unusual methods was both widely praised and roundly criticized.

Yet it was hard to argue with the success that Marva Collins had with the students who attended her private inner city elementary school.

I met her some 31 years ago as we have a conversation about the state of education, and her unusual methods.

So here now, from 1990, Marva Collins.

Marva Collins died in 2015. She was 78.