What It Takes®

These two brave reporters risked their lives and their reputations during the war in Vietnam, to reveal the truth to the American people about what was happening there. Both describe here - how and when they realized the United States government was lying about the causes and the scope of the war.  And both eloquently explain their views on the role of the journalist as a witness and an adversary...

Most Americans simply could not believe their eyes this week, when a violent mob staged an insurrection in the US Capitol. It was the kind of thing that happens in other countries - where the transfer of power isn't peaceful, and where democracy does not hold. Well that reminded us of one of our first episodes, featuring Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.  Bhutto descended from a political dynasty. Her f...

He's one of the greatest all-time directors of Shakespeare, and has directed every one of the Bard's plays. But he's also directed 34  shows on Broadway, including "Cats" and "Les Miserables", and more yet on London's West End.  Trevor Nunn has been the Artistic Director of both the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the National Theatre. And at 80, this British cultural icon of the theater is still go...

There's no mistaking Judy Collins' voice. She sang us through the 1960's and '70's, and hasn't stopped since. Today at 81, her voice is still strong and gorgeous. It reveals no signs of the struggles she has survived: depression, alcoholism, polio, tuberculosis, threatening injuries to her vocal chords and hands, and the suicide of her son. In this interview she talks frankly about how she carried...

Three remarkable novelists, from very different backgrounds, peel back the curtain on how they write, why they write, and what they write.  Arthur Golden is the author of Memoirs of a Geisha , the only book he's written, and a longtime bestseller. He describes why he rewrote the book three times before he got it right, and explains how he successfully gave voice to a character so unlike himself.  ...

In celebration of painter Wayne Thiebaud's 100th birthday, we feature a conversation with the artist and with one of his most renowned students, Fritz Scholder. Thiebaud's paintings of pies, cupcakes, donuts, pinball machines and bowties - are some of the most vivid and well-known in American art.  His San Francisco cityscapes are also rich in color and enchanting.  Scholder is best known for his...

No one could work a room like Willie Brown. He was the consummate politician and public servant, and a true American original. He started life in a small, segregated Texas town, worked as a shoeshine boy and a janitor, but went on to dominate California politics for more than 40 years -- as Speaker of the State Assembly and as two-term mayor of San Francisco (the city's first black mayor). He was...

The best-known biographies of Presidents Lincoln, Adams, Eisenhower, Truman, Nixon were written by the three great historians featured here. They talk about their subjects as if they had gone back in time and arrived back, breathless, with stories to share about the people they met.  Each one explains the how he discovered that history would be his life's work. For David Herbert Donald and Stephen...

Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature, uses simple, unsentimental language in her poems to evoke overwhelming emotions. That rare combination is what has distinguished her as one of America's greatest living poets for over half a century. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she has also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and is former Poet Laureate of the United States. In this epi...

What do the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, a comedic newspaper columnist and an Academy Award-winning actress have in common? On the face of it, not much. But these three trailblazing women, all from humble backgrounds, reflect here on the grit and determination that led them to create their own destinies, defying any rational probability of success. And each one talks about how her person...

In tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has died at the age of 87, we are re-posting this episode. It originally aired in September of 2016. Justice Ginsburg tells the very personal story here of her lifelong pursuit of justice and equality for women. Her tale includes trips to the library with her mother, a sixty year romance with Marty Ginsburg, her struggles to become a lawyer in a field...

Show up. Be there for your team. Play your best. These are the values that Cal Ripken Jr. embodied - every single day of his career.  His commitment to baseball was beyond compare. Ripken holds the record for the most consecutive games played in professional baseball: 2,632. He famously surpassed Lou Gehrig's long-standing record of  2130 games, 25 years ago this month, and then he just kept on go...

This is a story about two of the greatest and most prolific writers in post-WWII America, who grew up in dramatically different circumstances.  Joyce Carol Oates was a hardworking farm girl from a small rural town. Gore Vidal was born into an elite political family. She is earnest, introspective & soft-spoken. He was supremely confident, sharp-tongued & provocative. Her novels (including Them, We...

These two remarkable men, from opposite sides of the 30-year "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, bravely reached across the divide and waged peace. They were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.  John Hume, who died in August, 2020, was a Catholic civil rights and political leader. In a poll several years ago, he was voted the greatest person in Irish history.  David Trimble was the leader of  the P...

Olivia de Havilland, who just passed away at the age of 104, was the last of the Hollywood's leading ladies from the Golden Age.  She is best known for portraying Melanie Hamilton in "Gone With The Wind" (and admit it: you liked Melanie better than Scarlett, right?), but she had starring roles in dozens of films during the 1930's, 40's and 50's. This "best of" episode, which originally posted in J...

He grew up on the tough streets of Miami in the 1980s, dealing drugs and learning how to survive.  But this first generation Cuban-American took the stage name Pitbull, and became a wildly successful rapper and music producer, who has put out dance, pop & latin hits for the past twenty years. He calls himself a hustler, and talks here about how hard work and determination have been more important...

In honor of Congressman John Lewis, who died of pancreatic cancer on July 17th, we are re-posting this episode. It was originally published in January, 2020.  Lewis spent his whole life trying to get our nation to live up to its own ideals. He maintained faith and optimism about the future, and was inspired by the new generation of activists for racial justice. He was the son of a sharecropper, an...

He has had one of the longest, most celebrated and careers in Hollywood history, and it's still on overdrive. As a director, Ron Howard has worked in almost every genre. His films include Solo: A Star Wars Story, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Far and Away, Splash, and Cocoon. As an actor, he made his screen debut before the age of two, and then skyrocketed to fame at five, playing Opie on the Andy...

Maya Angelou took the harshest experiences in her life and turned them into words of triumph, justice and hope. Her memoirs and her poems told of her survival, and uplifted people around the world. Her first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," is a classic of American literature. Angelou's voice and the rhythm of her speech were absolutely unique. In this episode, which originally ran in Dece...

Two world-renowned novelists, from different corners of the globe, talk about why they write. Orhan Pamuk, from Turkey, is the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Carlos Fuentes, who died in 2009, was one of the most celebrated Mexican authors of all time. When Pamuk was facing a prison sentence for expressing his views, Fuentes gathered a group of international literary heavyweights to...

Both of these men grew up under segregation, 50 years apart, and each became an important force for truth and for justice.  John Hope Franklin was a pre-eminent historian, whose scholarship focused on the central role of African-Americans in our national story.  He was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Bryan Stevenson is a human rights lawyer wh...

The United States seemed poised for a new day in 1963, when the March on Washington drew a quarter million people. And yet, throughout the intervening fifty-seven years, Martin Luther King Jr’s dream has remained elusive. George Floyd’s killing by police, two weeks ago, and the protests that have erupted in its wake, could not make that any clearer.  Over the next several weeks, we will feature so...

He knew from the age of five that he was going to become a paleontologist, but he also became one of the most important evolutionary theorists since Darwin. As a Harvard professor, he inspired generations of students. And as a writer, he made science understandable and exciting to the general public. Stephen Jay Gould died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 60, but during his lifetime, The Library of...

In 1972, a Navy Seal named Thomas Norris carried out one of the most dangerous and daring rescue missions of the war in Vietnam. Six months later, he would be rescued himself, in an equally dramatic manner, after being shot through the head.  His rescuer was fellow Seal, Michael Thornton, who had shrapnel wounds, but swam for three hours while carrying Norris, and a South Vietnamese commando.  Bot...

She is best known for creating "The Lion King" on Broadway, but Julie Taymor has spent her whole career pushing the bounds of creativity - in theater, in opera and in film.  She talks here about her transformation as an artist while studying puppetry in Indonesia, about her most recent movie, "The Glorias" (a biopic about feminist icon Gloria Steinem), and about the vast differences between direct...