We were warned of 'underground prejudice'

(Updating this 2016 post of a 1997 interview that seems as timely as ever.)

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 Nov. 2, 1997, interview with Shipler.

Sadly, it doesn’t sound dated.



Related listening: A panel discussion I led in July 2016 on the future of integration. And this interview with Steve James about his acclaimed documentary series America to Me.

And check out even more of my other interviews with thought-leaders through the years on this website, in iTunes, on Spotify, via your favorite podcast player, and at Chicago Public Square.

(Originally posted to this blog Nov. 2, 2016.)

Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee: 'Nerdism is the highest state of mankind'

(Updated on the occasion of Stan Lee's death, Nov. 12, 2018.

Here’s Stan Lee, the man who created or co-created the core Marvel Comics universe, sitting down during C2E2 at age 94 for what his staff said was his last Chicago comics convention appearance. As you’ll hear, he had energy and enthusiasm to betray his age.

His interviewers: Adrian F.E. and Paola Alejandra. Recorded at C2E2 Chicago, April 21, 2017. (Photo from that day: @Malcchiato on Twitter.)



More: My interview with Stan Lee in 1998 and my first interview with him in 1975.

And check out other my other interviews with thought-leaders through the years on this website, in iTunes, on Spotify, via your favorite podcast player, and at Chicago Public Square.

Leon Lederman, science education hacker, in 1997

The death of Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman took me back to 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.

(1988 photo: Energy.gov.)

Newspaper editorial boards: Cracking the code

How do you get the attention of newspaper editorial boards? How do you get them to see things your way? Are editorials as valuable as they used to be?

Every once in a while, the Publicity Club of Chicago takes me up on my motto, “Will Moderate for Food,” and invites me to lead a panel discussion to address important questions like those.

And so it was Sept. 12, 2018, as I joined three of the Chicago area’s most influential journalists—Chicago Tribune editorial board member Michael Lev, Sun-Times editorial page editor Tom McNamee and Daily Herald editor John Lampinen—for a session media critic Robert Feder called “thoughtful and enlightening.”

Hear the panel’s answers to those questions above—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. (L-r: Meyerson, Lev, Lampinen, McNamee. Photo: Matt Smith.)