If everyone – everyone! – knows that mercury does horrible things to children, why would anyone weaken the regulations that protect them from exposure? Dominique Browning, co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, has an answer, and she expounds it eloquently at the Environmental Defense Fund. Music from Stephanie Jenkins and Ben Cosgrove. Continue reading »
Author Archives: Randy Cohen
Episode 246: Jane Alexander
A much admired actor, she’s lead the National Endowment for the Arts – when the White House still supported the arts. And education. And clean air. And… what was the question? Right: what about her environmental concerns? She is on the board of the Audubon Society and is the author of Wild Things, Wild Places. … Continue reading »
Episode 245: Gary Shteyngart
Admired for fiction (The Russian Debutante’s Handbook) and non-fiction (Little Failure), he began at age five when his grandmother asked him to write a book about Lenin. “She paid me a piece of cheese for every page I wrote, and I wrote 100 pages. I love cheese.” A conversation at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan with music … Continue reading »
Episode 244: Eddie Brigati
If you’re wildly successful at age six, what do you do next? Eddie Brigati had a string of hit records with the Young Rascals – Good Lovin’, Groovin’, Lonely Too Long – all before 1970. OK, he wasn’t six but he wasn’t near retirement age either. So what did he do with the ensuing 50 … Continue reading »
Episode 243: Joe Restuccia
Executive director of the Clinton Housing Development Company, he’s lived in the neighborhood for 50 years and offers this advice about burglary: “When they steal your underwear, it’s time to go.” Tales of Hell’s Kitchen at the Irish Arts Center with music from Jacob Tilove. Continue reading »
Episode 242: Joan La Barbara and Morton Subotnick
She’s a composer and vocalist who’s performed with pretty much every orchestra on earth. He’s a composer best known for his electronic music, especially an early work, Silver Apples of the Moon. “Lawyer and Other Lawyer to Wed,” runs pretty much every NY Times wedding announcement. How did it omit theirs? Continue reading »
Episode 241: Marc Guggenheim
A writer and producer for TV, movies, comic books, and video games, he is best known for creating the series Arrow and co-writing the feature film Green Lantern, but his heart belongs to Billy Joel. “There’s no scientific or rational explanation,” he tells the UAlbany Alumni Association. Doctors are working on a cure. With music … Continue reading »
Episode 240: Peter Gilliver
“It’s the short words that are the hardest,” he tells the English Speaking Union. Love? Death? No. Shorter. Run and go. “I worked on the verb to run and it took me nine months, and one of my colleagues spent over a year on the verb to go.” Life at the Oxford English Dictionary, plus music from … Continue reading »
Episode 239: Joshua Freeman
Until the 1920’s, a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence. The invention of insulin changed that, and – not incidentally – saved his life. It also made him value the social stability needed to produce it. A conversation with this professor of history at Queens College, author of Behemoth: A History of the Factory … Continue reading »
Episode 238: Majora Carter
“I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right,” said Sojourner Truth about her escape from slavery. How does this relate to city planning? Majora Carter, an “urban revitalization strategy consultant,” eloquently explains at the Van Alen Institute, with music from Jole Blonde. … Continue reading »
Episode 237: Blanche Pitt
ICAP at Columbia University sees its international public health work as part of broad commitment to social justice. Nobody personifies those values more than Blanche Pitt, who directs ICAP’s projects in South Africa. With music from Kevin Nathaniel Hylton. Person: Mark Heywood Place:: Joseph Stone Auditorium Thing: South African Constitution Randy’s People: Gilbert & … Continue reading »
Episode 236: Peter Lerangis
He is a New York Times best-selling writer – 170 books, translated into 34 languages, with sales of over 6 million – but if you are a childless adult, you likely don’t know his name. If you are a 12-year-old YA reader, however, you cheer when you hear it. Plus, the sweet fried dough … Continue reading »