Charlie Meyerson interviews

In his 1997 book A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America, Pulitzer Prize winner David K. Shipler documented a major split among Americans: “The divide between those who see racism and those who do not.”

And he sounded an alarm about what many then might not have perceived: “How much prejudice has gone underground since the civil rights movement.”

Here’s my 1997 interview with Shipler, aired 19 years ago today.

Sadly, it doesn’t sound dated.

Related listening: A panel discussion I led in July on the future of integration.

Netflix’s comedic biography of National Lampoon co-founder Douglas Kenney, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, sent me back to my conversation decades ago with one of the story’s key figures, who shared his recollection of developments that made their way into the movie. If you enjoyed A Futile and Stupid Gesture, you’ll get a kick out of this unedited April 30, 1987, interview with the Lampoon’s founding publisher, Matty Simmons. Enjoy this? Get more on iTunes or via RSS feed.

The death of Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman took me back to March 19, 1997, when I interviewed the professor about his then- (and still-) revolutionary ideas on how to overhaul science education. Hear him talk about that—and much more—here …

… or on iTunes or via your favorite podcast player.

And while you’re at it, check out my other interviews with thought-leaders through the years here and here.

Sept. 11, 2001, by wallyg (Flickr)When the World Trade Center towers fell in New York Sept. 11, 2001, award-winning TV, newspaper and internet reporter Carol Marin was there. When I was tapped for the first time to host a WGN-AM 720 show in 2009, Carol was my first choice for a guest, and she graciously agreed to join me. In this archival audio, you’ll hear her explain her 2006 vow to “quit talking about” 9/11, which she said was necessary to help her stop “trying to reconstruct the moment that you didn’t die.” You’ll also hear her concerns regarding the state of journalism. (“I’m blogging, I’m tweeting, I’m Facebooking — I mean, good grief!”) Here’s my Sept. 10, 2009, interview with Carol Marin, witness to one of the saddest days in American history. Footnotes: When the towers fell Sept. 11, 2001, I was inside Tribune Tower, working with a team of dedicated reporters to get the story out by email despite the Chicago Tribune’s website failure (due to a flood of traffic).Carol’s 2006 essay in the Chicago Sun-Times seems not to have survived on the web. I wish it had.Two-and-a-half years after our WGN talk, Carol interviewed me on WTTW-Ch. 11.

Approaching Mother’s Day 1993, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen—who shaped a generation’s approach to parenthood—stopped by the WNUA-FM studios in Chicago to promote her then-new book, Thinking Out Loud.

Check out this audio—recorded May 5, 1993—to learn why she objected to the name of a Chicago Tribune newspaper section.

Listen to my interview with Anna Quindlen—on the web, iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

In many ways, two-time presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan—former adviser to three Republican presidents (Nixon, Ford and Reagan)—set the stage for Donald Trump’s ascendance.

When Buchanan made 2016’s “Politico 50,” the magazine pronounced Trump “Pat Buchanan with better timing.”

How similar are they? Here’s the unheard-since-broadcast audio of my interview with Buchanan, aired on this date in 1998. What similarities—and differences—do you hear?

Listen on the web, iTunes or your favorite podcast player.

In 1998, Apple’s now-widely-forgotten CEO, Gil Amelio, sat down with me to discuss his relatively brief time atop what was then a struggling company—the subject of his book On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple.

As you’ll hear—and as Engadget noted in 2014—Amelio proved remarkably “accurate … regarding how Apple could get its groove back.”

In at least one way—his decision to bring Apple founder Steve Jobs back to the company—Amelio may truly be the man who saved Apple.

Twenty years to the week after this interview aired—April 26, 1998—you be the judge.