Now I've Heard Everything

Recently the 20-year war in Afghanistan came to an end. Have his given all of us time to reflect on those two decades. We also remember the 23 hundred or so US servicemen and women who died in Afghanistan. One of them, in particular, drew public attention. Then-27 year-old Army Ranger, and former NFL star, Pat Tillman was killed in 2004. But that tragedy was compounded when the Pentagon apparently...

Fifty years ago this week, NBC TV introduced America to four young men who would change the way music and television interact. Looking to capitalize on the humongous an ongoing success of th Beatles and so many other groups,NBC assembled a team of four actors who also happened to have musical talent: Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and, of course, Micky Dolenz who, years before, actually sta...

On that terrible day 20 years ago, September 11th, 2001, countless Heroes emerged. Some wore police, fire, or military uniforms. Some will be forever anonymous. But many were just ordinary Americans. Like Todd Beamer, a passenger aboard United Airlines flight 93. Their plane was already in the air that morning when the other planes went into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And as the pass...

The NFL regular season kicks off tomorrow night, September 9th, at the Dallas Cowboys take on the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now, for 29 Seasons, those cowboys were coached by one of the most successful coaches in NFL history: Tom Landry. He was, in fact, the first head coach of the expansion Dallas franchise, in 1960. He racked up 20 consecutive winning seasons with the Cowboys. Un...

Hope you had a happy Labor Day Weekend 2021.  Labor Day, of course, is the day set aside to honor the contributions of America's labor force. Most presidential administrations understand the need for a an advocate for at Workforce in the federal government. The position of labor secretary is therefore critical. At one of the most influential secretaries of Labor in recent memory is Robert Rei...

Got plans for Labor Day weekend? There's a good chance you will be taking part in a cookout, to end the summer. In fact, you may be the one in charge of grilling. So how do you know if you're doing it right? Back in 2009, acclaimed TV chef Emeril Lagasse Rock his talents to grilling, with a book called Emeril at The Grill.

There's a pretty fair chance that even if you only own a few books, one of them is probably a James Patterson novel. He's written 28 books in the popular series featuring detective Alex Coss. And that's just one of the series of books has James Patterson writes. He writes series novels. He writes stand-alone mystery thrillers. He rites books for young readers. He writes children's books. And he's...

Jennifer Granholm was elected Michigan's first female governor in 2002, and re-elected, to a second term, four years later. Her work to re-establish Michigan's recession damaged, Rust Belt economy caught the attention of leaders of the democratic party on the national level. Last December, then president-elect Joe Biden named her his energy secretary. In 2011, a few months after leaving the govern...

When he was still in his teens in the 1960s, Roy Firestone got an up-close look at Major League Baseball, as a spring training bat boy for the Baltimore Orioles in Florida. But instead of following that career path and becoming a bat boy the rest of his life, Roy Firestone cut into television. Starting in Miami, then moving to Los Angeles, Firestone established himself as a skilled Sports commenta...

Nien Cheng was born into a well-to-do Chinese family in 1915.  Her family was able to give her a college education, including post-graduate work at the London School of economics.  That's where she met her future husband. But the time she spent in Great Britain may have been a time bomb of sorts. In 1966, at the age of 51, Nien Cheng, by then a widow, was arrested and accused by the Chin...

One of the most bankable female movie stars of the last 50 years is also one of the most influential figures in Hollywood. And she got her big break when she was barely old enough o have a legal drink, 1 quickly becoming one of the most popular stars of the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In show. It seems like everything she has touched has turned to Gold – or, should we say, Goldie. By age 25 she alr...

Today, August 20th, is National radio day. Every year on this day, we recognize the contribution that this hundred-year-old medium has provided four generations. For four decades, one of the most popular radio personalities in America was Garrison Keillor, Creator and host of public radio's Prairie Home Companion.  That live musical variety show was a Saturday evening fixture in millions of h...

New York governor, or more precisely, soon-to-be ex governor, Andrew Cuomo has certainly had a rough few weeks. In the face of a scathing report accusing him of sexual misconduct, Cuomo last week announced his resignation. It was a breathtaking fall from his Emmy award-winning performance during the pandemic in 2020. And now the political future looks very murky for a man once considered the futur...

Perhaps no one has ever had a bigger impact on an entire generation of children than Dr. Benjamin Spock. His book Baby and Child Care was published in 1946, just as the first baby boomers were being born. And his calm, reassuring tone quickly found an audience among new parents. Dr. Spock became the go-to guy for advice on child rearing. Then, in the late 1960s, Dr. Spock became known for somethin...

This weekend marks the 76th anniversary V-J Day, the day that the Japanese surrendered to the United States to end World War II. And the interview you're about to hear includes one of the most moving and poignant stories associated with that day. More on that in a minute... For the entire duration of the war, America's entertainers provided an invaluable service to their country, by putting on lit...

It's a rare privilege for an author to see, in their lifetime, the broad and deep social and cultural impact the one of their books has.  One of those who were so privileged was author Alex Haley. His meticulously researched 1976 book Roots, which traced his own family's ancestry from Africa, became not just a best seller, but a cultural milepost.  It awakened a new pride of family have...

A lot of people say that is the voice of an It's actually the voice of young Welsh soprano Charlotte Church. And when I say young, I mean Young. Charlotte got a record contract when she was just 11. By age 13 she was, literally, world-famous. I met her when she was a grizzled old veteran of 15, in 2001.  She had writen a book called voice of an angel, with the subtitle, my life so far. 

Name a famous serial killer.  There's a good chance that one of the first names that came to your mind was Ted Bundy. Over a period of years, mostly in the 1970's, Ted Bundy killed at least 30 people that we know of, but probably more. Finally, in 1979, the charismatic 33-year-old was caught, tried, and convicted in Florida. He spent the next eight years in prison, as appeal after appeal went...

In 1969, shortly after he graduated from college, Thomas Boswell joined the staff of the Washington Post. Over the next 15 years he honed his craft as a sportswriter, eventually earning his own column in the post in 1984. What Boswell brought to his columns was more than just an account of balls and Strikes, touchdowns and field goals, holes-in-one or hat-tricks. He brought a literary sensibility,...

As a Young Man, Robert Evans wasn't even in Show Business. Then one day, just like something out of a storybook, actress Norma Sherer spot of him and thought he would be great to be in a movie. The rest, as they say, well,... From an acting career, Evans became a movie producer. And in the60s and 70s some of his movies are now Classics. Movies like Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, and C...

When you think of the best of Motown in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, one of the names that has to be near the top of the list it Martha and the Behind lead singer Martha Reeves, they racked up a series of hit singles. Finally, 30 years after their heyday, Martha Reeves wrote a memoir. And that's when I met her.

A dog may be man's best friend, but many of us unconsciously do things that can undermine that relationship, says Cesar Millan, otherwise known as The Dog Whisperer. When I met him a 2006, his show was just nicely taking off, he had a large following, and was so very eager to talk about the dogs he had known. 

Doing a 13-year career at PepsiCo, including six years as its president, John Scully prove to be something of a marketing genius. If you’ve ever seen The Pepsi Challenge, well .. that was John Sculley’s idea. Then he made the switch from selling flavored sugar carbonated water to selling personal computers. In 1983 Scully became CEO of Apple.  And soon, behind his marketig skills, Apple had r...

The covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics get underway today. We'll seen enougbh know who the next athletic heroes will be. Throughout the 1980s and into the ‘90s, one of the world's dominant sprinters and long jumpers with Carl Lewis. In addition to several world championships, Lewis won gold Olympic gold medals in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996. Sports Illustrated once named him “Olympian Of Tje Century.”  ...

In November 1980, after serving just one term as President, Jimmy Carter was voted out of office.  The following January he and First Lady Rosalynn Carter moved back to their hometown of Plains, Georgia. But they didn't simply settle into a quiet life of retirement and leisure. Quite the opposite. Just a few years later, in 1987, the two of them wrote a book called Everything to Gain. Their a...