Now I've Heard Everything – Page 14 – Vintage Interviews With Notable People

Honoring Vietnam War Heroes: Col. David Hackworth’s Most Important Book

November 11, 2024November 10, 2024Bill Thompson

Veteran’s Day was originally known as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on November 11th.

So perhaps it was fitting that a baby born on Armistice Day in 1930 would be destined for an illustrious military career,

David Hackworth joined the Army shortly after World War II, and was decorated for his service in the Korean War.

By the late 1960s Hackworth had become the youngest Army colonel in Vietnam.

He helped form what became known as Tiger Force.

After the war Hackworth became a journalist and author, and in 2002 wrote a book about the ragtag battalion he was sent to lead in 1969. He called the book Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts. He and I talked about the book that spring, including his wife’s essential role in writing it.

So here now, from 2002, Col. David Hackworth.

David Hackworth died in 2005 at age 74. He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Alan Dershowitz Reveals Startling Facts About Some Of Our Most Famous Trials

November 8, 2024November 3, 2024Bill Thompson

“Trials affect American history, and American history affects the trials.”

So says one of America’s best known litigators, famed attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Over a decades-long legal career Dershowitz has represented clients ranging from Mike Tyson and Leona Helmsley to O.J. Simpson, Donald Trump, and Jeffrey Epstein.

Along the way Dershowitz picked up a unique avocation: reading transcripts. And not just from the cases he was working on.

Dershowitz began reading transcripts of some of America’s most famous – or infamous – trials, from the Salem witch trials and Lizzie Borden to the Scopes monkey trial, and the Rosenbergs.

In 2004 Dershowitz wrote a book about many of those trials, based on nuggets of previously-overlooked material he found deep in those transcripts. He called his book America on Trial, and that spring he and I talked about it when he went on a book tour.

So here now, from 2004, Alan Dershowitz.

Alan Dershowitz is 86. He lives in New York and Florida.

Bruce Laingen’s Recollections of 444 Days in Captivity in Iran

November 6, 2024November 3, 2024Bill Thompson

On November 4, 1979, a group of students and militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking everyone inside hostage, including the chargé d’affaires, a career diplomat named Bruce Laingen.

The militants were demanding the return of the exiled Shah of Iran, who was undergoing medical treatment in the U.S.

But diplomatic and even military efforts to free the hostages failed, and they ended up being held in Iran for 444 days. It was only on Inauguration Day 1981 that the hostages were ultimately freed.

Years later, Bruce Laingen wrote a book, based on a journal he’d kept while in captivity. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1992, Bruce Langan.

Bruce Laingen died in 2019, at age 96.

Calling BS on Politicians: Columnist Molly Ivins

November 4, 2024November 3, 2024Bill Thompson

This year’s long and divisive battle for the presidency is just about over.Tomorrow is Election Day And not a moment too soon.

And while certain elements of this campaign have been unique, even unprecedented, much of it has in fact been, for lack of a better term, business as usual.

Longtime Texas-based political columnist Molly Ivins made her living critiquing that business. And Molly was never reticent about pointing out the emperor’s lack of new clothes

She and I had several conversations over several years, including the one you’re about to hear, from 2004.

Ivins had just published a collection of some of her columns, and the book came out in the midst of the 2004 presidential campaign.

When we spoke that summer, John Kerry had already secured the democratic presidential nomination to run against incumbent Republican George W Bush, but the Democratic convention was still about two weeks away.

But see if you don’t agree that so much of what she was talking about 20 years ago doesn’t sound just like she could have said it last week.

So here now, from 2004, Molly Ivins.

Molly Ivins died in 2007 at age 62.

Actress Gloria Loring’s Fight Against Diabetes

November 1, 2024October 31, 2024Bill Thompson

Gloria Loring started singing professionally in 1960. After years of modest success in that endeavor, in 1980 she joined the cast of NBC’s “Days Of Our Lives,” playing Liz Chandler, a character she played for the next six years.

But if you don’t remember her for that, perhaps you know this song” Loring and husband Alan Thicke wrote that song, and she sang it.

About that same time, though, Loring was stunned to learn that her four-year-old son Brennan was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,

Loring then devoted her time to learning all she could about how to treat, and hopefully prevent, diabetes,.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Today we’re revisiting my 2006 interview with her, when she wrote her book Living With Type 2 Diabetes, a guide for those with the disease and those close to them.

So here now, from 2006, Gloria Loring.

Gloria Loring will be 78 next month. She is a spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Journalist Steven Roberts On The Contributions of Immigrants

October 30, 2024October 27, 2024Bill Thompson

The United States has always, it seems, felt deeply divided about immigrants.

We consider ourselves a melting pot, a refuge that welcomes the tired, the poor, the huddled masses.

But at the same time we are often suspicious of immigrants, hostile to the newcomers from foreign lands

In this election year, in particular, anti-immigrant sentiment has divided us.

Fifteen years ago, the journalist and commentator Steven Roberts took inspiration from Barack Obama’s first inaugural address when deciding on a title for his book. Roberts called it From Every End of This Earth.

So here now, from 2009, Steven Roberts.

Steven Roberts.is 81, and appears regularly in several major media outlets.

The Movie Hero’s Toughest Fight: How Kirk Douglas Beat a Near-Fatal Stroke

October 28, 2024October 26, 2024Bill Thompson

October 29 is World Stroke Day, to help us all recognize the causes and effects of stroke.

In 1996 a severe stroke nearly killed one of America’s greatest actors, the then-79-year-old Kirk Douglas.

Overnight this dynamic, seemingly ageless, icon of film was plunged into a terrifying new reality that he later admitted had him considering suicide.

But it turned out that Douglas, in real life, was every bit as tough and relentless as the heroic characters he played on screen.

And then Douglas did something even more heroic – he not only went public with his fight to regain health, he wrote a book about it. In typically defiant Kirk Douglas fashion, he called it My Stroke of Luck. It was published in 2002, six years after his life-changing episode.

It may be hard to listen to this interview, but you will draw incredible inspiration from it.

So here now, from 2002, Kirk Douglas.

Kirk Douglas died in 2019. He was 103.

Yankee Legend Mickey Mantle And His Favorite Summer

October 25, 2024October 24, 2024Bill Thompson

It’s the Yankees and Dodgers in the World Series, for the 12th time in their history. The last time was in 1981.

The 1950s, however, were all Yankees-Dodgers. They met in seven World Series in the ‘50s

The 1956 Series was particularly notable – in Game 5 that year, the Yankees’ Don Larsen pitched a perfect game.

There was a spectacular 8th inning catch that preserved Larsen’s gem – that defensive miracle was turned in by center fielder Mickey Mantle.

That was a great year for Mantle. He won the Triple Crown, leading the American League in homers, RBI, and batting average.

It was such a great time that Mantle titled his 1991 memoir My Favorite Summer. I met this Hall of Fame legend that spring to talk about it.

So here now, from 1991, Mickey Mantle.

Mickey Mantle was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1974. He died in 1995 at age 63.

Iconic Big Game Hunter Peter Capstick and His Love of Africa

October 23, 2024October 19, 2024Bill Thompson

Peter Capstick had a promising future on Wall Street in the 1960s But business wasn’t his passion. Africa was, and more specifically, hunting in Africa.

Capstick became a professional hunter, leading safaris and writing books and articles about hunting.

Often drawing comparisons to Ernest Hemingway, Cap[stick built a reputation as a hunter and guide.

And hunters today will recognize his name from the .470 Capstick rifle cartridge.

I met him in 1987 while he was on tour for his book Peter Capstick’s Africa.

So here now, from 1987, Peter Capstick.

Peter Capstick died in South Africa in1996. He was 56.

Elizabeth Gilbert and How She Learned To Eat, Pray, Love

October 21, 2024October 19, 2024Bill Thompson

A 2006 book about a young woman’s journey of self-discovery landed on the New York Times bestseller list – where it stayed for nearly two years.

The author of that book, Eat, Pray, Love was the then-37-year-old Elizabeth Gilbert, an accomplished writer and storyteller.

It was a profound sense of not knowing who she was that led Gilbert to radically change the direction of her life. First with divorce, then with a year-long “hero;s journey” to Italy, India, and Indonesia.

Get your copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book

When the book was made into a movie in 2010, Julia Roberts was cast as Elizabeth Gilbert:.

I met the author when the book was republished in paperback in 2007.

So here now, from 2007, Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth Gilbert is 55 now. Time magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Eat, Pray, Love has sold over 12 million copies.