Now I've Heard Everything – Page 3 – Vintage Interviews With Notable People

The Fond Recollections of Hollywood Legend Garry Marshall

July 11, 2025Bill Thompson

If you’ve ever watched ”Happy Days,” ”Laverne & Shirley,” ”Mork & Mindy,” or any of a dozen other TV shows, you’ve seen the work of Garry Marshall.

If you’ve ever seen ”Pretty Woman”, ”Overboard,” ”The Princess Diaries,” or any of over a dozen other movies, you’ve seen the work of Garry Marshall.

For years one of Hollywood’s most successful, and most popular, producer-directors, you may also know Garry Marshall as an actor, on TVs ”Murphy Brown” and in his sister Penny Marshall’s movie “A League of Their Own.”

In 1995, not long after he turned 60, Garry Marshall wrote a book that was autobiographical-ish called Wake Me When It’s Funny. I got the chance to speak with him when he was on a book tour.

Here now, from 1995, Garry Marshall.

Garry Marshall died in 2016. He was 81.

What the Book of Revelation Reveals — Or Not

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

There are 66 books in the Bible, but none is more controversial, more studied, and more debated than the final book, the book of Revelation.

Its author is commonly believed to be John, the Apostle of Jesus, but even this fact has been debated. And disputed by some.

Revelation is a book of powerful apocalyptic imagery and language that many see as metaphor, but which others take literally, especially in the context of current geopolitical events.

It was her own fascination with the book of Revelation that led noted Princeton University religion professor Elaine Pagels to take on the task of trying to put Revelation into historical, political, and spiritual context.

The result was her 2012 book called Revelations. She and I met one day early that spring to talk about it.

So here now, from 2012, Elaine Pagels.

Author Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to An Incredible Literary Series

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

As a writer and a radio and TV personality in the 1970s, Douglas Adams wasn’t having a great deal of success.

That is, until 1978 when he co-created a radio series called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

And when that series became a book, , well, as they say, the rest is history. Millions of people around the world now have a copy of that book and its sequels, which have made Douglas Adams one of the most popular authors of the second half of the 20th century.

I first met him in 1987, when we talked about his book Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Another time we talked about his nonfiction book Last Chance to See, and then in 1992 we met once again to talk about Mostly Harmless, which was, at the time, the latest in the Hitchhiker’s series.

So here now, from 1992, Douglas Adams.

Douglas Adams died in 2001 from a heart attack. He was 49.

Decoding the Life of Alexander Hamilton: Biographer Richard Brookhiser

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

The smash Broadway play “Hamilton” brought a resurgence of interest in the founding father who helped shape the direction of the young nation.

Fifteen years before the play a book by noted biographer Richard Brookhiser brought Alexander Hamilton to life.

Brookhiser’s 1999 book Alexander Hamilton: American provided fresh perspective and insight to the life of the man who was barely out of his teens on this day in 1776.

Get your copy of Richard Brookhiser’s book

In his 30s Hamilton became America’s first Treasury Secretary. And in his 40s, he was famously shot dead in a duel with Aaron Burr.

But did you know he was also at the center of America’s first major political sex scandal?

So here now, from 1999 Richard Brookhiser.

Balancing Faith And Career: Actress Lisa Whelchel

July 3, 2025Bill Thompson

Her story reads something like a Hollywood fairy tale.

Talent scouts found Lisa Whelchel in her small town in Texas in 1976, casting for “The New Mickey Mouse Clu” on Disney.

Lisa moved to Hollywood and appeared on the show for two years. Then, her big break: the role of Blair Warner on a new show called “The Facts of Life.” Whelchel played Blair for nine seasons.

What many people didn’t know at the time was that underpinning her show business career was a strong faith in God. Lisa had been a devout Christian since age 10.

And, as you’ll hear in this interview, that faith helped shape the way she portrayed characters on TV and in film.

In 2001 Lisa Whelchel wrote an autobiography called The Facts of Life, subtitled And Other Lessons My Father Taught Me. I met her that fall when she was on a book tour.

Here now, from 2001, Lisa Whelchel.

Lisa Whelchel is 62 now. She and her husband divorced in 2012.

Looking at The Battle of Gettysburg Through a Modern Lens, With Radios Mark Levin

July 3, 2025Bill Thompson

The first day of July 1863 was a warm, mostly cloudy summer day in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most pivotal moments in the American Civil War.

For three days thousands of soldiers fought heroically, many suffering gruesome injuries and death.

A few months later, President Abraham Lincoln visited Gettysburg and delivered what has become one of the most familiar and revered speeches in American history.

One hundred years later, a Philadelphia man named Jack Levin, the son of immigrants, published a book about Lincoln, his famous speech, and the battle that inspired it.

And 45 years after that, the book was republished, with a new preface written by Jack Levin’s son – nationally-syndicated talk show host Mark Levin.

The book, called Abraham Lincoln\’s Gettysburg Address Illustrated, came out in 2010. And that’s when I had the chance to talk with Mark Levin about it. So here now, from 2010, Mark Levin.

Jack Levin died in 2018. Mark Levin can be heard on his national radio show, and seen on Fox News.

This Is Where ‘Bones’ Was Born: Kathy Reichs, On Her Debut Novel

June 27, 2025Bill Thompson

Were you a fan of the TV series “Bones” ?

The series followed the professional, and sometimes personal, experiences of forensic pathologist Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel.

The character Tempe Brennan was based on her creator, author Kathy Reichs, who, like Tempe, is a prominent forensic anthropologist

I met Kathy when that book was first published and as she was still absorbing the idea of being a best-selling author.

So here now, from 1997, Kathy Reichs.

Tempe Brennan made her debut in Kathy Reichs’s very first book, a 1997 thriller called Deja Dead.

Kathy Reichs Will be 77 in a couple of weeks. She is the author of 24 Tempe Brennan novels. The newest will be out in November.

The Legacy of American Pro-Palestinian Activist Rachel Corrie

June 27, 2025Bill Thompson

Rachel Corrie grew up in the ’80s and ’90s in Olympia, Washington.

In the early 2000s she joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, or ISM. That’s how she ended up in March 2003 in Rafah in Gaza. She and other ISM volunteers were there to protest the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes.

On March 16, 2003, Rachel positioned herself as a human shield in front of one home, and was killed by an Israeli armored bulldozer that crushed her.

Rachel Corrie became an international symbol, a hero to many, a martyr to some

Back home in Olympia, to her parents Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel was still their little girl.

After Rachel’s death Her Diaries, journals, and other writings were published in a book called Let Me Stand Alone.

Craig and Cindy Corrie went out to promote the book, and that’s when I met them

So here now from 2008 Craig and Cindy Corrie.

Rachel Corrie would have been 46 now.

John Stossel: The Iconoclastic “Give Me a Break” Journalist

June 23, 2025Bill Thompson

John Stossel didn’t set out to be a TV news reporter. He kind of stumbled into it after college, When a friend got him an entry-level job at a TV station in Portland, Oregon.

After making his mark there, despite stage fright and a stutter, Stossel was hired away by WCBS-TV in New York where he further built his journalism reputation. Later he joined ABC News, where he co-anchored “20/20,” and
and after that Fox News.

And along the way he won 19 Emmys, not bad for a kid who hadn’t planned to be a journalist.

As an iconic reporter with a libertarian bent, Stossel’s signature phrase was “Give me a break!” You may remember his TV specials by that name.

So that’s what he also called his first book, published in 2004. I talked with them shortly after the book came out.

So here now, from 2004, John Stossel.

John Stossel is 78. He now runs Stossel TV.

A Baseball Career Done In By Drugs: The Steve Howe Story

June 20, 2025Bill Thompson

Hard-throwing left-handed relief pitcher. Steve Howe joined the major leagues in 1980 at the age of 22. He was National League Rookie of the Year that year.

In 1981, he helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series.

But by 1982 Steve Howe’s life and baseball career were starting to unravel, done in by alcohol and cocaine abuse. In 1984 Howe was banned from baseball but reinstated on appeal.

By 1987 his baseball career appeared to be over for good. It would be another four years before he was able to re-sign with another team, this time the New York Yankees.

While he was away from the game, Howe wrote a book, an autobiography that he called Between the Lines. I talked with him in the summer of 1989 about the book

So here now, from 1989, Steve Howe.

Steve Howe retired from baseball in 1997. In 2006 he was killed in a single-vehicle accident – a toxicology report later showed methamphetamine in the system. He was 48.