Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin

Send us Fan Mail We are taking a week off from the interviews this week and gearing up for the new year and a lot of wonderful episodes.  So this week....my own "Before The Cheering Started" story.  Broadcast journalists don't usually get cheers, nor should they.  We tell stories.  We are not the story.  But before I reached some level of professional fulfillment and success, I had...

Send us Fan Mail I first met Marta Kauffman and David Crane in the late 1970's through a mutual friend.  It was immediately apparent that they were really smart and really clever.  Beyond funny.  Clever.  And it was pretty clear that they were going to be successful.  Eventually, they became incredibly successful, creating Friends, a TV show seen around the world.  But on the path to Friends,...

Send us Fan Mail John Pizzarelli is a remarkable performer, combining guitar virtuosity, musical knowledge and a clever sense of humor to create a memorable night of music.  I've known John for a long time, watching him grow from playing clubs in New Jersey and New York to venues all around the world.  His love affair with music started early, listening and watching his father Bucky Pizzarell...

Send us Fan Mail I've interviewed Steven Van Zandt several times and I always hear a story that I've never heard before. In part 2 of our conversation, he discusses leaving the E Street Band in the 1980's to pursue his music and politics, including the anti apartheid anthem Sun City. We also discuss the notion of "Before The Cheering Resumed," the years in between the firs...

Send us Fan Mail Steven Van Zandt is an interviewer's dream. He's thoughtful, reflective and funny. Very funny. I've had the pleasure of interviewing Steven several times. This interview is from 2021, as Steven was putting the finishing touches on his compelling memoir "Unrequited Infatuations." So it was a perfect time to talk to him about the early years: growing up as a...

Send us Fan Mail Scott Turow's love of writing started early, growing up reading newspapers in Chicago.  Initially, there were years of unpublished novels and unrealized dreams.  But there was also a love of the law.  On the commuter train into his law job, those two loves came together.  He wrote while others dozed or read the paper.  The result was Presumed Innocent.  Scott Turow was on his...

Send us Fan Mail Aasif Mandvi was 40 when he got the call that changed the arc of his career, a call to audition for The Daily Show.  He had what he called "little wins" to propel his career prior to that, including an acclaimed off Broadway show called "Sakina's Restaurant" in which he created and performed numerous characters.  But far too frequently, he was offered role...

Send us Fan Mail Colum McCann grew up in Ireland, a land that has produced more than a few notable writers.  And yet it was an early love of the American Beat writers that partly drew him to writing.  As a young man, he fell in love with America as he toured the country....by bike.  His unique style of writing is beloved by readers all over the world, for books like Transatlantic, Apeirogon and a...

Send us Fan Mail Louis Cato is feeling the full effects of the spotlight these days, as the new bandleader for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."  He's been a member of the band since the start of the show in 2015, an opportunity that actually came about thanks in part to a dental appointment.  He's been playing instruments for as long as he can remember.  His talent has tak...

Send us Fan Mail Bill Bradley has spent much of his life in the public eye: as one of the best college basketball players in the country at Princeton, as a professional player and influential part of a team that won two NBA titles and as a US Senator from New Jersey.  He heard plenty of cheers as a member of the New York Knicks of the late 60’s and early 70’s, one of the most beloved teams in the...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Radden Keefe is a gifted writer, on subjects ranging from the Troubles in Northern Ireland ("Say Nothing"), one family's role in the opioid crisis ("Empire of Pain") to his latest book "Rogues," a collection of his pieces in The New Yorker.  And there is an utterly compelling podcast called "Wind of Change," all about the rumor...

Send us Fan Mail Tony Gilroy has known the top of the entertainment industry, as the screenwriter for the Bourne movies, the writer and director of the Oscar nominated film "Michael Clayton" and now the creator of the Disney + Star War series "Andor." He grew up learning about the life of a writer by watching his father, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter Frank...

Send us Fan Mail Jacqueline Woodson always loved to read and write.  But growing up in Brooklyn, she didn't see herself represented in her beloved books.  She has helped to change that, serving as a beacon for young, aspiring black and brown writers and more.  Books such as Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn have earned her numerous awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship in 2020.  H...

Send us Fan Mail Ford Foundation President Darren Walker says he knows what it's like to live life on the margins.  He grew up poor economically but rich in love and hope, riding what he calls the "mobility escalator" to the University of Texas, then law school, Wall Street, a non profit in Harlem and now heading an institution that gives an estimated half a billion dollars in grant...

Send us Fan Mail Norma Kamali has been at the forefront of the fashion world for more than five decades.  "Before The Cheering Started," she combined an early love of painting and design with an intrigue for the mod fashions of London in the 60's and a "why not me" attitude.  The result? A brand that started in a small store in New York and is now known around the world. ...

Send us Fan Mail Hugh Evans is the creator force behind the annual Global Citizen Festival in New York, celebrating its tenth year on September 24th.  He's the co-Founder and CEO of Global Citizen, an international non profit that has raised millions and inspired millions in the effort to end extreme poverty.  From his childhood in Australia, Evans was eager to learn about the world's po...

Send us Fan Mail Bob Costas has been a fixture in our homes on television for four decades, announcing and hosting thousands of sporting events, including the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA playoffs and the Olympics. His talent spread beyond the world of sports as the host of NBC's "Later with Bob Costas." And it led him on the unlikely journey from idolizing his childhood sp...

Send us Fan Mail Bob Costas had a meteoric rise in broadcasting, from Syracuse University to KMOX Radio in St. Louis to the networks. But before Costas was a fixture on our televisions, he announced minor league hockey, ABA basketball and even was a substitute host on "Bowling for Dollars" in Syracuse. In part one of our conversation with Bob Costas, growing up on Long Island as a sports...

Send us Fan Mail "Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin," a new podcast all about the journey to success: the doubt, terrible first jobs, plan B's and the passion to push forward and realize a dream.  Compelling conversations with musician/actor/activist Steven Van Zandt, the co creators of Friends, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, broadcaster Bob Costas and musician John Piz...