Now I've Heard Everything

Next week is our presidential election, so I thought it appropriate today to hear from one of our former presidents.

I first met Jimmy Carter in 1987, and interviewed him several times over the years, including this conversation, from 1993.

Mr. Carter had just written a book for young people, about peace, and war. I brought both of my daughters, ages 11 and 13, with me that day to meet our 39th president.

As the U.S. Senate moved closer to confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, we're reminded that not all nominees have such an easy ride.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated appeals court judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. But after a contentious hearing, the Senate rejected Bork's nomination. And now, in fact, his name has become virtually synonymous with ignominious defeat, as in "he got borked."

One of the several times I interviewed him was in 1991, not long after David Souter was confirmed to a seat on the high court. As you'll hear in this interview.

I first saw Rita Rudner perform her comedy on an HBO special in the mid-1980s. And I immediately fell in love with her, and her comedy.

Her routine is so low-key, so dignified, yet so hilarious.  So I was delighted to have the chance to interview her, in 1992, when she had written a book of essays called "Naked Beneath My Clothes."

What comes to mind when I say the name Marvin Hamlisch?

You may think of The Sting. Or Tthe Way We Were. Or A Chorus Line. Certainly Hamlisch is known for all of that, but much more.

I met him some 28 years ago, when he wrote A memoir of his decades in show business, starting with his early years at Juilliard.

For a few days in mid-October 1962, the world teetered on tghe brink of all-out nuclear war between the United States, led by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, and the Soviet Union, commanded by Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

It began when U.S. spy planes detected Soviet missiles being shipped to, and installed in, Cuba.

President Kennedy weas determined not to allow what was seen as an act of Soviet aggression in our hemisphere, whil Khrushchev was acting in what he believed was defensed of Cuba against possihble U.S. aggression.

The situation quickly escalated into a showdown that brought us to the edge, but ultimately, cooler heads prevailed.

Every day millions of American TV viewers tune in to the syndicated Wendy WIlliams Show. 

She's been a fixture on daytime TV since 2008.  But her media career began long before that. 

Some have even called her a "shock jockette". 

When I met her in 2003, Williams was a major radio personality but had not yet broken out onto the national stage in a major way.  She had just written her first book, Wendy's Got The Heat.

Tomorrow, October 13th. is the anniversary of one of history's most famous plane crashes.

It was on October 13th, 1972 that a Uruguayan Air Force flight, chartered by a rugby team, crashed high up in the Andes mountains.  Authorities tried for days to find the wreckage, but ultimately they gave up, unaware that there were survivors.

For 72 days, they did what they had to do to survive -- including, unthinkably, feeding themselves by eating companions who had died in the crash.

In the end, only sixteen people came down from the mountain, including 22-year-old rugby player Nando Parrado.

At a time when her high school classmates were studying for exams or preparing book reports, Janis Ian was giving concerts, and appearing on television, and getting awards for her music.

From an early age, Janis Ian made a name for herself as a singer-songwriter. Among her biggest hits, Society's Child, and At 17.

And in 1975 -- 45 years ago this week, in fact, -- Janis Ian was one of the two musical guests on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Tonight, October 7th, Senator Kamala Harris will meet Vice President Mike Pence in their one and only debate of the 2020 election campaign.

Harris is the first woman of color on a major party presidential ticket, and she is only the third woman ever nominated by a major party for vice president.

The first, in 1984, was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who was chosen by Democrat Walter Mondale to be his running mate.

You may know defense attorney Johnnie Cochran best for his participation in OJ Simpson's dream team in his 1990s trial.

But Johnny Cochran had a long legal career, and the Simpson case was just one of hundreds that he participated in.

I met him in 2002, when he wrote A Memoir, of his long, storied legal career.