Now What? With Carole Zimmer

Maira Kalman is one of those multi-talented people. She writes children's stories and books for adults. She's also a contributor to the New York Times, creates covers for the New Yorker and sets for operas. Her latest book,  Still Life with Remorse, includes family stories, paintings and vignettes about historical figures like Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. She also likes to dress up like like those...

James Carville's nickname is The Ragin' Cajun. He became famous when Bill Clinton hired him as his lead political strategist in 1992 and Carville helped the guy from Hope beat George H.W. Bush to become the 42 nd  U.S. president. Carville's aggressive tactics are highlighted in the documentary " The War Room ." He's also famous for being part of a couple who are on opposite sides of the political...

Larry Charles is a true character. He liked to wear his pajamas to work. He was one of the original writers of  Seinfeld.  He also wrote and directed  Curb Your Enthusiasm  episodes. In between, Charles made a movie with Bob Dylan called  Masked and Anonymous that was never released. He also directed Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat  and  Bruno  where Cohen ran down the street in an orthodox Jerusalem n...

Paul Hawken has racked up several notable accomplishments in his life. As a teenager, in the mid-60s, Hawken headed south to join the civil rights movement. He's always had a strong sense of social justice and he started several companies that emphasized operating in a socially responsible way including The Erewhon Trading Company, a natural foods wholesaler, and the garden supply company Smith an...

Penn Jillette and his partner Teller have created one of the most successful and lucrative careers in show business by using mind bending effects and revealing the secrets behind their magic tricks. Teller is the short one with sleight of hand who doesn't speak. Penn is 6 feet 6 inches tall. He's the juggler who talks and plays the double bass. They're the longest-running headliners in the history...

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist and graphic novelist. She first started getting attention for her comic strip  Dykes to Watch Out For  and later wrote a graphic memoir called  Fun Home  which is about her father's troubled life and her own experience of coming out as a lesbian. In 2015,  Fun Home  was produced as a Broadway musical and won 5 Tony Awards. Her new graphic novel  Spent  is about an ar...

Writer Sophie Gilbert has a theory about the early 2000s. In her new book  Girl on Girl,  she's written about some disturbing trends in popular culture focusing on the way that girls were portrayed in magazines and TV shows. Britney Spears, the "Princess of Pop," appeared on 8 Rolling Stone covers dressed in scanty outfits and striking provocative poses. Lindsay Lohan became a pop idol at the age...

Amy Irving's film career soared in the 1980s. She was featured in the film  Yentl,  a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination. In the movie  Crossing Delancey , Irving plays a single woman who falls in love with a pickle merchant. In real life, Irving married Steven Spielberg, a relationship that ended in divorce. She co-starred with Willie Nelson in the film  Honeysuckle Rose  and that w...

Elizabeth Anne Hanks is a writer. She's also the daughter of Tom Hanks. Her mother Susan was married to Tom Hanks before he became a movie star. Elizabeth grew up with her mother and older brother in Sacramento while her dad's career in Hollywood took off with lead roles in movies like Big  and  Forrest Gump.  Elizabeth could relate to something the character of Forrest said in the film. "Life is...

Pico Iyer is a travel writer and a novelist who has spent time in far flung places like Ethiopia, Tibet, North Korea, Bhutan and Nepal exploring the history, culture and food of diverse cultures. In contrast to his life on the road in places, Iyer is now spending more time exploring his inner life. That's what his latest book   called  Aflame  Is all about. Several times a year, Iyer visits a Bene...

Pardons are about presidential power. Many presidents wait until the end of their term to issue them. Not Donald Trump. He has pardoned more than 1500 people who took part in the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. President Trump has also issued more than 70 executive orders, another instrument of presidential power. They focus on shrinking the government, imposing tariffs on Mexico,...

Picture this. It was my first job in radio. I decided to do a series about women and comedy. The idea coincided with the birth of Saturday Night Live. The first interview: Gilda Radner. We sat on the floor, right across from Studio 8H where the show is still performed. Gilda told me all about what life is like when you become an overnight star. Then I talked to Jane Curtin about people asking her...

Rick Steves is a travel writer who's on a mission. His name appears on guidebooks to nearly every country on the continent including Croatia and Slovenia as well as France and Italy. His television series  Rick Steves Europe  debuted on PBS 25 years ago. Steves advises travelers to get off the beaten trail and head for villages where they can see the way local people really live. He's also a passi...

Alan Lightman likes to look at things very closely. Lightman is a physicist at MIT who has written 7 novels including the best-selling  Einstein's Dreams . Lightman, who writes poetry in his spare time, calls himself a spiritual materialist. That's a belief that you can find the spiritual within the realm of science. Lightman was also the host of the PBS television series  Searching: Our Quest for...

Maira Kalman is one of those multi-talented people. She writes children's books and books for adults. She's also a contributor to the New York Times. She creates covers for the New Yorker and sets for operas Her latest work is a book of essays called  Still Life with Remorse that includes family stories and paintings she's done. It also includes vignettes about historical figures like Leo Tolstoy...

We're speeding towards the end of the year, a time for remembering and reflecting. When I think of "Now What?" I think of the extraordinary people I was privileged to speak with this year and that's why this episode is a Best Of. Jane Fonda, who just celebrated her 87 th birthday, shared a lifetime of experiences including information about her sex life. And when you talk about inspiring, there's...

I first met Andy Bachman when he was a rabbinical student and he tutored my son Jon for his bar mitzvah. Bachman later served as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim, the reform synagogue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In August, Bachman was supposed to participate in a discussion at the Powerhouse Arena bookstore. When he arrived, he found a sign in the window that said the event had been cancelled...

She used to make her living standing in Harvard Square as a statue known as the Eight Foot Bride. Then Amanda Palmer founded the punk cabaret band  The Dresden Dolls . And she's not afraid to tell you what's on her mind. Palmer shares her feelings online and when she performs on stage. Her fans are passionate about the musician and the person. Palmer has more than 24,000 supporters on Patreon. She...

Gracie and Rachel met in high school and they've been playing music together ever since. You can hear the connection they feel with one another in their lush harmonies, haunting melodies and lyrics that express vulnerability and emotional depth. Gracie and Rachel tour extensively and record on Grammy-winning singer Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records. I spoke to them in the Brooklyn loft where t...

Garrison Keillor spent 42 years as the host of "A Prairie Home Companion, a folksy show that was performed live on Saturday nights and broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations. Keillor, who likes to wear red sneakers, brought his audience news from Lake Wobegon, a fictional town in the state of Minnesota where he grew up. He also performed in skits where he played Guy Noir, Private Eye. Keil...

He worked for CNN for 17 years. One day last year Don Lemon woke up to find out he he'd been fired. He'd won Emmys for his reporting and also hosted  Don Lemon Tonight  where he talked about controversial topics with politicians and newsmakers. It was after Lemon began co-hosting a morning show that he ran into trouble. He made a comment about a former Republican Presidential candidate in a discus...

Stan Milford is a Navajo Ranger who spent more than a decade investigating paranormal activities. Milford says he examined hauntings, witchcraft and skinwalkers. He also looked into reports involving dozens of witnesses who claim to have seen a creature known as Bigfoot on the Navajo reservation, an area of 27,000 miles that runs through 4 states. Milford says he took the reports of all these inci...

David Rohde is a National Security reporter for NBC News and a longtime foreign correspondent. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war in Bosnia. When Rohde was a reporter for the New York Times, he was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for 7 months before he managed to escape. Rohde's latest book is called  Where Tyranny Begins . He looks at all the ways in which former President Don...

Griffin Dunne grew up in Beverly Hills in a family of storytellers. His father Dominick was a celebrity journalist. His uncle, the screenwriter John Gregory Dunne was married to the Pulitzer prize-winning writer Joan Didion. Griffin starred in Martin Scorsese's 1985 black comedy " After Hours" and he made a movie with Madonna called " Who's That Girl?" He also played Uncle Nicky in the streaming s...

Charles Busch made a name for himself as a playwright and a leading lady in drag with productions like the off-Broadway cult classic  Vampire Lesbians of Sodom .    Busch was recently inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame for his Tony-award winning play  The Allergist's Wife.   He appeared in the TV show  Oz  where he plays a cross-dressing homosexual. When it comes to playing male roles, Busch s...