1980s – Now I've Heard Everything

Being an LGBTQ MVP in MLB: Billy Bean and His Groundbreaking Career

May 14, 2025Bill Thompson

Billy Bean was an outfielder. Between 1987 and 1995 being played for the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres.

Billy was a good player but an average player – not a superstar. He bounced back and forth between the majors and minors.

But it was after his retirement from baseball that Billy Bean may have made his greatest contribution to the game, and to society. Almost 4 years after leaving the game, Bean came out as gay, only the second former major Leaguer to do so.

He quickly became an icon in the LGBTQ community, and by 2014 was named MLB’s first Ambassador for Inclusion. Within 2 years he was MLB senior vice president for diversity equity and inclusion.

I met Billy Bean in 2003 when he wrote a memoir called Going the Other Way. It was a very candid exploration of how a gay man fits into major professional sports.

So here now from 2003 Billy Bean.

Billy Bean died in 2024 from leukemia. He was 60.

Ben, Jerry & Chico: The Friendship Behind the Ice Cream

May 14, 2025Bill Thompson

A few years ago two guys started a small business in an abandoned gas station in Burlington, Vermont. And they built it into one of the world’s best-known and most successful businesses.

Their names were Ben and Jerry. They made ice cream. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?

One of their customers when it was still just a little business in Burlington was A guy who owned a bar in town. His name was Fred Lager, but everybody calls him Chico.

Fred, Ben, and Jerry became good friends, and in 1982 Fred Lager joined the young company as its general manager and CFO. It was in that role that he helped build Ben & Jerry’s, the brand.

In 1988 he became president and CEO.

And in 1994, Chico Lager wrote a book about the Ben & Jerry’s experience. He called it Ben & Jerry’s: The Inside Scoop. It was part memoir, part business how-to, and a lot of social responsibility.

So here now, from 1994, Fred “Chico” Lager.

A Split Second to Act: Secret Service Agent Dennis McCarthy

March 30, 2025Bill Thompson

Until the attempt on Donald Trump’s life last summer, the most serious assassination attempt in recent American history came on March 30, 1981.

President Ronald Reagan had just emerged from a speech at a downtown Washington hotel. From behind a nearby rope line emerged a young man with a gun. John Hinckley Jr fired six shots, hitting Reagan and three other people before he was subdued.

And the Secret Service agent who subdued him was 46-year-old veteran Agent Dennis McCarthy.

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McCarthy spent the next several hours guarding Hinckley, who was, of course, later found not guilty by reason of insanity. You’ll hear Dennis McCarthy’s take on that in the interview just ahead.

I met agent McCarthy in 1985 when he wrote a book called Protecting The President. And he had a startling Revelation in that book, which you’ll hear about.

So here now, from 1985, Dennis McCarthy.

Dennis McCarthy died in 1993. He was 58.

An Admiring Look at Ronald Reagan by His Top Speechwriter Peggy Noonan

December 9, 2024December 7, 2024Bill Thompson

Broadly speaking there are two schools of thought about the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

On the one hand some see Reagan as the personification of all that was wrong with the 1980s, an era characterized by that line from a movie: “Greed is good.”

But then there are those who revere our 40th president as not just a great president but as a rare and exceptional leader of great principle and virtue.

https://amzn.to/41iG3LfGet your copy of Peggy Noonan’s book

Into that latter category falls Peggy Noonan, Reagan’s top speechwriter, who crafted some of Ronald Reagan[‘s most memorable orations.

In 2001, a dozen years after he left office, Reagan was the subject of an admiring book by Peggy Noonan called When Character Was King. That’s when she and I had one of our many conversations.

So here now, from 2001, Peggy Noonan.

Peggy Noonan Is 74 now. She writes a column for the Wall Street Journal.

Former NFL Team Doctor Robert Huizenga — Bruises, Concussions, and Steroids

December 4, 2024November 30, 2024Bill Thompson

The National Football League is no place for guys who don’t want to get hurt No NFL veteran comes away unscathed

And that means there is always plenty of work for team physicians. From 1983 to 1990, Dr. Robert Huizenga was team internist for the Los Angeles Raiders.

Huizenga saw everything from bruises and pulled muscle to dislocated fingers, concussions and compound fractures.

And a lot of steroid abuse.

A few years after leaving the Raiders, Huizenga wrote about his experience in the NFL in a book he called You’re Okay, It’s Only a Bruise. I talked with him when he was on a book tour.

So here now, from 1994, Dr. Robert Huizenga.

Today Dr. Robert Huizenga continues to be active in professional sports, and is often seen on television.

Get your copy of Robert Huizenga’s book

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.

Rebuilding The Navy: Former Sec. John Lehman

October 11, 2024October 6, 2024Bill Thompson

John F. Lehman Jr., Secretary of the Navy

After Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president in 1981, one of his eary appointments was to name a new Secretary of the Navy, who was tasked with rebuilding a demoralized and under-equipped Navy.

He chose a 38-year-old Naval Reserve aviator named John Lehman. No stranger to Washington, Lehman had served on the National Security Council staff under Henry Kissinger during the Nixon administration.

Lehman served as Secretary until his resignation in spring 1987. And the following year he wrote a book called Command of the Seas.

And on top of all of his public service , Lehman is also a first cousin once removed of Princess Grace of Monaco.

I spoke with him when his book was published in the early weeks of 1989.

So here now, from 1989, John Lehman.

John Lehman is 82 now. He’s chairman of the Princess Grace Foundation USA. He lives in Pennsylvania and New York.

MADD Fpunder Candy Lightner On Death and Grieving/

August 12, 2024August 10, 2024Bill Thompson

Until 1980, drunk drivers in the U.S. frequently got little more than a slap on the wrist.

On May 3,1980 a 13-year-old girl named Cari Lightner was walking to a church carnival when a drunk driver hit and killed her.

Cari’s mother, a 34-year-old woman named Candy Lightner, was appalled to learn that the repeat offender who was behind the wheel probably would face little consequence for the death he caused.

In her anger and grief, Candy Lightner formed a group which she dubbed Mothers Against Drunk Driving, often referred to simply as MADD. And it quickly grew into a powerful grassroots campaign to force states to stiffen the penalties for drunk or impaired driving.

MADD is perhaps the single biggest reason why you now need to be at least 21 to drink legally in every state. MADD claims it has cut drunk driving in half since its founding.

But there was trouble inside MADD. In 1985, Lightner was forced out, after tangling with the organization over what she saw as its increasing focus on bureaucracy.

But candy maintained her work as a victims advocate, and in 1990 she wrote a book about grief and death, called Giving Sorrow Words

So here now, from 1990, Candy Lightner.

Candy Lightner is now 78. She owns her own company, and serves as president of the non-profit We SAve Lives.

John McEnroe: ‘You Cannot Be Serious!’

July 1, 2024June 28, 2024Bill Thompson

As this year’s Wimbledon Championships get underway let’s recall one of the greatest professional tennis players of our time.

John McEnroe won 77 career singles titles, including three at Wimbledon. He also won 77 doubles titles, including five at Wimbledon. He is in fact the only male player to win more than 70 singles and 70 doubles championships.

It was at Wimbledon in 1981 that McEnroe came up with what has become his signature phrase – “You cannot be serious!”

As the years went on, he embraced and adopted the phrase, even calling his 2002 memoir You Cannot Be Serious.

He wrote candidly about his childhood, his career, and his 8-year marriage to actress Tatum O’Neal, which ended in a bitter 1994 divorce.

And we talked about all of those things when I interviewed him about his book. So here now, from 2002, John McEnroe.

John McEnroe is 65 now. He;s a TV commentator, and still plays in – and wins – senior tournaments.

Vanna White’s Enduring Legacy on ‘Wheel of Fortune’

June 12, 2024June 8, 2024Bill Thompson

After 41 year0s as host of TV’s “Wheel of Fortune,” Pat Sajak has retired.

But co-star Vanna White hasn’t. She’s been turning the letters since 1982. It wasn’t long after joining the show that Vanna was as well-known as Pat.

I met her in 1987 when she wrote a memoir called Vanna Speaks, a reference to the fact that, in those years, she never said anything on the show.

I spoke with her at the noisy convention of the American Booksellers Association – an event that, it turns out, Vanna had a history with, as you’ll hear shortly.

So, here now, from 1987, Vanna White.

Vanna White is 67 now. She is signed to remain on the show through 2026.