Walter Bernstein was born in Brooklyn in 1919. For the next 94 years he wrote and co-wrote terrific movies for big stars: Fail Safe with Henry Fonda, The Train with Burt Lancaster, The Magnificent Seven with everybody—Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson. The Front, with Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, is … Continue reading »
Author Archives: Randy Cohen
Episode 55: Lucy Wainwright Roche
Singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche grew up in Greenwich Village in an illustrious musical family, but she soon joined the wagon trains carrying courageous hipsters over the river to Brooklyn. Oh, Pioneers! Her latest album, There’s A Last Time For Everything, was released in October. To whet your appetite, listen to her sing something from Hair … Continue reading »
Episode 54: Kevin Baker
Kevin Baker is celebrated for his journalism and his historical fiction, a genre that gets a bad rap as a kind of lesser literature. But isn’t all fiction historical fiction, with an obligation to effectively render details of time and place? The place that concerns him is New York City, and he ranges across its … Continue reading »
Episode 53: Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad
Born in New Jersey, Dean is the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Negin’s parents, Iranian immigrants, raised her in Palm Springs, something that would have been impossible in Iran. Or in New Jersey. Recently they assembled a group of comedians, mostly Muslim, and toured what might seem to be inhospitable parts … Continue reading »
Episode 52: Lissie
A singer/song-writer at the start of what promises to be a glorious career, Lissie’s first album went platinum in the UK. She’s opened for Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. She’s given a TED talk. In October, she released her second album. “At her age,” says Randy, “I was just learning how to vacuum my apartment, … Continue reading »
Episode 51: Julianne Moore
Celebrated for her emotional clarity as well as her impressive range—from soap opera to Chekhov to The Kids are All Right—Julianne Moore is also the author of four children’s books, including My Mom is a Foreigner, But Not to Me, her latest. Not all actors or novelists, athletes or surgeons can speak with insight about … Continue reading »
Episode 50: Jack O’Brien
A director who’s received pretty much every award going, Jack O’Brien is celebrated for his productions of big musicals like Hairspray, big brainiacs like Tom Stoppard, and big Shakespeare. His Macbeth with Ethan Hawke is currently at Lincoln Center. Jack Be Nimble, his memoir of working with Ellis Raab, was published last spring. He really … Continue reading »
Episode 48: Anna Holmes
Anna Holmes, perhaps best known as the founder of the women’s website Jezebel, was recently named to an elite cadre of columnists for the NY Times Book Review, which, as we understand it, means she is legally empowered to kill any writer whose prose is deemed “overly flabby.” Her own prose is impeccably lean and … Continue reading »
Episode 47: Daily Show Writers Tim Carvell and Daniel Radosh
It is fascinating to hear skilled practitioners explain just how they practice skillfully. When we recorded this conversation, Tim Carvell and Daniel Radosh wrote for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and they describe how they bring the comedy from the farm to your family’s table. Daniel is now a senior writer for the Trevor Noah version; Tim … Continue reading »
Episode 46: Philip Gourevitch
Philip Gourevitch, a staff writer at the New Yorker, has written about genocide in Rwanda, the National Front in France, arranged marriage in Queens, and James Brown, well, everywhere—each in its way a focus of intense emotion. He reports on harrowing events with lucidity and insight, filling readers with terror but not driving them to … Continue reading »
Episode 45: Janette Sadik-Khan
Janette Sadik-Khan, head of New York City’s Dept. of Transportation, has a combination of gifts rare in a public official: she is conversant in the most sophisticated ideas in her field; and she knows how to get things done. Actually, that pair is rare in just about everybody. Thus equipped, she transformed our streetscape, introducing … Continue reading »
Episode 44: Eugene Drucker
Eugene Drucker is a founding violinist with the Emerson String Quartet, an association that’s endured for more than thirty years. His most recent CD, “Journeys,” features two string sextets: Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht. In addition, he is the author of a novel, The Savior, published in 2007, defying the conventional wisdom … Continue reading »