This Harlem fashion icon owns more than 600 hats. “There were times I would leave my house, get down the hill, and recognize it’s the wrong hat.” She’d turn around and march back up that hill, with the dedication of a true artist. Harlem, history, and hats. Produced with the Maysles Documentary Center.
His research on the neuroscience of aesthetics suggests that people crave the human touch. “If they think something is made by a person, they like it more; if they think it’s made by a machine they don’t like it.” He does not mention Twinkies. Or the late Joan Rivers. Presented with the Viñoly Foundation.
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 »
He is celebrated for his writing about the American diet, crystalized into his mantra: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” I assumed he’d revere Thoreau, but he declared, “Much of my work and my life has been an argument with Thoreau.” You think you know a guy (who you’ve never met). A re-edited version … Continue reading »
I first encountered her work in 1988, when my then-wife was captivated by The Greenlanders. We’d both just read Roland Huntford’s Scott and Amundson and were susceptible to things polar. My favorite remains A Thousand Acres, but I’m proud to live in a country where I needn’t choose between them. Person: Marguerite of Navarre … Continue reading »
His sex-advice column, Savage Love, debuted in 1991. In 2010, he and his husband, Terry Miller, launched the It Gets Better Project to assist LGBT kids. Worthy endeavors, but he’d really rather talk about the Tudors, and he does in this re-edited version of our very first episode. Person: Caroline Mathilde Place: a house in … Continue reading »