He’s a (now former) member of The Washington Post’s editorial board, a commentator on the PBS NewsHour, anchor of The Weekend on MSNBC, author of Yet Here I Am. He is liberal in his politics, conservative in his dress. “Absolutely. I love a good, wild outfit, on someone else.”
When this drummer was a kid, his father introduced him to an array of music, from Tito Puente to Dobie Gray. “He bought himself a La-Z-Boy chair. He would sit there after dinner, smoke a cigarette, and zone out listening to music.” Bad for the lungs, great for the soul. The making of a musician. …
Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible was the first of his four consecutive New York Times best sellers. He has been the subject of a Jay Leno joke and a Jeopardy! Question—our nation’s highest honors— and his face appears on a postage stamp in the Grenadines, if there actually is such a place. We spoke in … Continue reading »
It is silly to ask a novelist what her books are about, but Meg Wolitzer once wrote, “Sometimes they’re about marriage. Families. Sex. Desire. Parents and children.” That pretty much covers what it is to be human. Omitting only handguns. We admire her deftness with language, in her fiction and also: she devises crossword puzzles. If … Continue reading »
Judy Collins began her 50-year career at age 13, performing a Mozart piano concerto. She recorded her first album, Maid Of Constant Sorrow, in 1961. She provided Bill and Hillary Clinton with a name for their daughter, but that is not a routine part of her act. Her new CD/DVD project was recorded live at … Continue reading »
Born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Kansas City, where Orthodox Jews were thin on the ground, Ed Asner is an Army veteran, athlete, political progressive and much admired actor. Best known to people Randy’s age as Lou Grant, a new generation discovered him as the voice of Carl Frederickson in the animated feature Up. … Continue reading »
One of America’s most beloved illustrators, Maira Kalman has drawn for children, with Max Stravinsky, the poet-dog; for adults, in the New Yorker; and for dancers, who share qualities of both, in creating sets for Mark Morris. She’s illustrated the new edition of The Elements of Style, been a “visual columnist” for the New York … Continue reading »
James Shapiro is a Shakespeare scholar at Columbia University. His newest book is Contested Will. PERSON: Ulysses S. Grant PLACE: A book warehouse on Long Island THING: A stone wall in Vermont Continue reading »
Known for his work as the bumbling PC in Apple Computer commercials and as the “resident expert” on The Daily Show with John Stewart, John Hodgman is also the author of That Is All. He joins Randy Cohen for a conversation about one person, one place, and one thing that have significance to him. This … Continue reading »
Throughout John Hockenberry’s career as a journalist, he has shown a disconcerting willingness to put himself in danger, covering wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Kosovo and Afghanistan and, perhaps most dangerous of all, writing a scathing review of a Clint Eastwood movie. That piece, circulated as Million Dollar Bigot, raised significant issues to the … Continue reading »
When Ed Koch was mayor of New York, from 1978 to 1989, I’d often see him around town – in a Chinese restaurant, at the movies – where he was happy (or at least willing) to talk to us ordinary New Yorkers. The city was his home, not someplace he passed through in an … Continue reading »
Is it OK for a teenager to prefer John Lennon’s tepid version of Money to Barret Strong’s hard-rocking original? Rickie Lee Jones says it is, making an elegant argument that we need different music at different phases of life. She should know: her 1979 debut album included the enormously popular Chuck E’s in Love; it … Continue reading »
A neurologist, he kept a phrenology head in his office as a reminder of human folly. “The human mind is filled with instances of ridiculous ideas which have taken hold.” And by the way, in the spring of 1954, he became the first man to run a four-minute mile. A conversation from our vault, refurbished … Continue reading »
Dave Cowens was born in Newport, Kentucky, and played college basketball at Florida State. Many people believed him to be too small, at 6’9″, to play center in the pros, but in 1970 he was drafted by the Boston Celtics on the recommendation of the great Bill Russell, the start of a long and glorious … Continue reading »