Frank Buckley Interviews

Leslie Lehr is the author of the book “A Boob’s life: How America’s Obsession Shaped Me—and You." Lehr is also a breast cancer survivor. In this conversation, Leslie shares the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman’s body. She blends her personal memoir with national history, and the current feminist dialogue and what it means to be a woman. Lehr explains how America’s obsession with the...

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in the World Series! In this episode of the podcast, we revisit a conversation with former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti. He was in “The Big Chair,” as he titled his book about the experience of being the GM, from 2006 to 2014. He was one of the executives responsible for building the Dodgers team that played in the 2017 World Series when the conversation took place. Many of...

The Los Angeles Lakers are the 2020 NBA champions! To celebrate their victory over the Miami Heat, we're looking back at conversations with some Lakers legends. First, the late great Kobe Bryant talks about his work ethic, the Mamba Mentality, and more. Byron Scott, who one 3 championships with the Lakers during the "Showtime" era, opens up about his rocky start with the team, and how he forged ah...

Walton Goggins is an Emmy-nominated, Critics Choice Award-winning actor known for his roles in  Justified ,  Vice Principals ,  The Righteous Gemstones ,  Deep State ,  Six ,  Sons of Anarchy,  and  The Shield . His movie work includes roles in Steven Spielberg’s  Lincoln  and Quentin Tarantino’s  Django Unchained  and  The Hateful E...

Dan Price is founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit card processing and technology. In 2015, Price announced that employees would begin receiving a $70,000 minimum annual salary and that he would take a massive cut to his million dollar salary to make that happen. During this podcast, Price reveals why he did it, how it worked out, and how he believes other companies can do more to provide...

Billy Ray is the writer and director of Showtime's "The Comey Rule." The two-part series, based on former FBI Director James Comey's memoir, examines the relationship between Comey and President Trump during the first months of the Trump presidency. Jeff Daniels portrays Director Comey in the series. Brendan Gleesen plays Donald Trump. Billy Ray is drawn to real-life stories. He was nominated for...

Akbar Gbajabiamila is a host of NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” which premiered its 12th season this week. Akbar is also the author of a new book “Everyone Can Be A Ninja: Find Your Inner Warrior and Achieve Your Dreams.” He is a former NFL player and sports broadcaster. In this conversation from April last year, Akbar discusses growing up as one of seven children of Nigerian immigrants in the...

Jon Meacham is a presidential historian, former editor of Newsweek, and the Putlizer Prize winning author of the new book "His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope." He is the author of several books including 2018's "The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels." Meacham was recently a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention. This audio podcast was o...

Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest and the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, a world famous gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in Los Angeles. The program provides training and employment to former gang members along with services like tattoo removal, substance abuse support, and mental health therapy. Homebody Industries was recently awa...

Jeffrey Toobin is CNN's chief legal analyst, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and the author of a new book "True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump." His previous books include the New York Times Bestsellers "The Run of his Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson," and "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court." During this podcast, Jeffrey takes us inside the Robe...

Kevin Kwan is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, the international best-selling novel that became a ground-breaking and box office-shattering movie of the same title directed by Jon M. Chu. The movie grossed more than $238 million and became Hollywood's highest grossing romantic comedy in 10 years. It was also the first major studio movie to feature a majority Asian cast in 25 years. Kevin Kwan...

The school year is getting underway with distance learning once again. How can students, parents, and educators make the best of what’s clearly not the ideal way for learning to happen? When will it be safe to return to the classroom? On this episode of Frank Buckley Interviews, the experts weigh in to answer these questions and more. Our guests are Stanford University's Dr. Yvonne Maldonado,...

Ambassador Susan Rice served as national security adviser and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama Administration. She is also on the shortlist to be Joe Biden's vice-presidential running mate. We revisit a conversation with Ambassador Rice from November 2019, during which she discussed the possibility that she might seek elected office. She also ackno...

Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias is one of the world’s most successful comedians. He has performed sold-out stadium shows around the world and now stars in his own Netflix series "Mr. Iglesias," which is currently in its second season. In this episode of Frank Buckley Interviews, Gabriel opens up about his career in comedy, including some of the health & emotional issues that led him to abruptly end...

51 years ago on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. He was the first of only 12 human beings to ever step on the surface of the moon. Among those 12 men is Charles Duke. Duke was an astronaut on Apollo 16, and the youngest person to ever walk on the lunar surface at the age of 36. During the first mission to the moon, Apollo 11, Charlie Duke was the voice of Houston's...

July is a month designated as National Culinary Arts Month. It's a month set aside to recognize the creativity and hard work of cooks and chefs. There is perhaps no one who appreciated them more than the late Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic who helped put L.A. on the culinary map. Gold died in July of 2018. This week on the podcast, we remember...

Alan Zweibel is one of the original writers of Saturday Night Live, the co-creator and producer of It's Garry Shandling's Show, and a consulting producer on Curb Your Enthusiasm among many other credits. Alan is also a playwright whose theatrical works include his collaboration with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning 700 Sundays and Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story. He is the...

This week, we revisit a conversation with the Bernie Taupin. Taupin is Elton John's longtime songwriting partner and wrote the lyrics to most of the songs you've heard Elton John sing. The friendship and professional relationship between Bernie taipan and Elton John is chronicled in the film "Rocketman." Last summer, Bernie was in town to open an art exhibition in Beverly Hills at Gallery Michael....

On this episode of the podcast, we revisit a 2017 conversation with Jorge Reyes Salinas, who at the time was a Cal State Northridge grad student serving on the California State University Board of Trustees. Jorge is also an immigrant from Peru who was brought to the U.S. as a child by his parents who never returned home when their tourist visas expired. Jorge and his parents became undocumented im...

This week, we're revisiting a conversation with a man, whose work we featured on the podcast a year ago and is still just as relevant today. Justin Brooks is the director of the California Innocence Project (CIP) based at the California Western School of Law in San Diego. Justin and his team of pro bono lawyers and law students work to free prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted. T...

George Floyd's death at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has propelled people onto the streets of the U.S. and the world to protest against police brutality, racial injustice, and systemic discrimination. Black Americans have said for decades that they are treated differently than White people and others by police officers and deputies, and that when they are the victims of violence at the...

40 years ago this week, CNN, the first all news television channel, launched, and it's still going strong today. The story of how CNN started is chronicled in Lisa Napoli's new book, U p All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24 Hour News . Frank recently interviewed Lisa for a virtual Live Talks LA event, where they discussed the life of CNN founder Ted Turner, how the network came to be, a...

May is military appreciation month. Off the heels of Memorial Day, we are honoring our men and women in uniform and their families, and remembering our war dead by replaying a 2018 conversation with retired Marine Corps Major Scott Huesing. Scott had multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He authored the book Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand story of Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City . I...

This week, we're looking back at conversations with music icons from the 1980s. First, Curt Smith from the band Tears for Fears gets candid about his tumultuous relationship with longtime friend and bandmate Roland Orzabal. He shared details on their falling out, the break up of the band, and how a reunion a decade later eventually led them to making music together again. Mark Mothersbaugh is...

President Trump has been saying that former President Barack Obama should be investigated, suggesting that Obama acted illegally when FBI agents began investigating President Trump's first National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016. Flynn would eventually resign and admit to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. What exactly was the FBI's thinking...