David Dinkins is the son of a barber and a domestic. After leaving the Marine Corps, he attended Howard University on the GI Bill, graduated cum laude, then earned a law degree while working nights. In 1989 he was elected the 106th mayor of the city of New York. Among his many accomplishments, it was … Continue reading »
Category Archives: Politics and Policy
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 37: Dr. Thomas Frieden
Dr. Thomas Frieden is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A specialist in infectious diseases, he has also served as health commissioner of New York City. PERSON: Karel Styblo, the “father of modern TB epidemiology” PLACE: Conference room at the CDC THING: Little paper dipstick, used in a quick, accurate, inexpensive … Continue reading »
Episode 33: Sister Simone Campbell
The executive director of the advocacy group NETWORK, Sister Simone Campbell is a passionate advocate for social justice whose work is an expression of her religious faith. It is good for one’s development as a person to be reminded that people can arrive at a similar place by very different routes. Randy first heard of … Continue reading »
Episode 31: Melissa Harris-Perry
A columnist for The Nation and a professor of political science at Tulane University, Melissa Harris-Perry is particularly astute about gender, race and politics, which she explores in her recent book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. In addition to writing, teaching, and raising her daughter, in her copious free time she … Continue reading »
Episode 22: Jody Williams
Jody Williams calls herself an average woman, but the Nobel Committee saw it differently when they awarded her the 1997 Peace Prize for her work toward the clearing and banning of land mines. This extraordinary ordinary woman more convincingly asserts that change is achieved by grassroots activism, from the ground up not from the top … Continue reading »
Episode 8: Ed Koch recut
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 »