Playlist: Conversations with Allan Wolper's Portfolio
"I'd suggest hanging around Wolper's premises." - James Reiss
Conversations with Allan Wolper is an in-depth, face-to-face, 30-minute interview series with people whose ideas and lives are on the cutting edge of American Society.
You will hear tales of Iraqi intrigue and urban conflict. Heart rendering stories of parents with special needs children. Intense discussions of race and religion. Investigative insights of historical significance. Cultural accounts of life on Broadway, Hollywood, and the media.
Featured
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos to scholars: stay away from stolen antiquities
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 30:30
The marine reserve colonel is angry that scholars are
involved in authenticating stolen Iraqi antiquities that terrorists use to buy weapons that are used against American troops.
Marine Reserve Colonel Matthew Bogdanos has a message for
scholars: don't help collectors who buy the antiquities stolen from the Iraq National Museum. The thieves who sell those priceless
treasures, Bogdanos says, buy weapons that kill American troops in Iraq. The academics are so anxious to handle and authenticate the antiquities that they turn a blind eye to where they came from.
Layla Fanucci Sings and Paints Her Way to Fame and Fortune
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 32:40
Hear Layala describe how she went from teaching music at
St. Helena Catholic to selling paintings for up to $20,000 at a prominent New York City art gallery.
For 25 years, Layla Fanucci, played guitar, sang and taught music at the St. Helena Catholic School in California. But her life changed after she bought some paint at a Ben Franklin art supply store. Now she gets up to $20,000 for her cityscapes of Paris and New York City.
She also combines her art with her husband's winery by featuring his zinfandels at her art shows and by printing bottle labels with her paintings on them.
New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 35:11
Rosenthal discloses how he handled a diplomatic flap with Barbra Streisand, what he thinks of media critics (not much)and takes on Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mike Bloomberg, Wolf Blitzer, and CNN.
Rosenthal said his father's tombstone reads, "keep your paper straight," and it is something that he
strives to do despite the fact that his office is often a cauldron of opinion. He talks of his riffs with readers and
reporters who don't quite understand the role of the editorial and oped pages of the newspaper.
Janis Karpinski, former Army General in charge of notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 34:03
Janis Karpinski is campaigning to clear her name.
Karpinski, a Colonel in the Army reserves, is considered by many to be a scapegoat in the torture scandal that implicated a number of American soldiers. Her emotional story includes a footnote to the scandal: her determination to find out why the Pentagon exhumed her husband's body at Arlington National Cemetary without informing her.
Marcellus Bishop Allen, a former leader of the Bloods
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 35:21
Allen, who played a major role in arranging a truce between The Bloods and The Crips
in Newark, New Jersey, insists the media reporting on gang life is totally misinformed and offers examples from his own life experience as proof.
Lauren Thierry Watkins
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 31:39
Lauren Thierry Watkins, a former television anchor at CNN finance, has produced a documentary on the lives of autistic children and their parents.
- Playing
- Lauren Thierry Watkins
- From
- Conversations with Allan Wolper
Lauren Thierry Watkins documentary, "Autism Every Day," is a poignant tale of the families
with children with autism that caused a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival. She approached her story with a special knowledge: here son, Liam is autistic.
Hal Friedman, a New York advertising executive co-authors book with James Patterson
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 33:31
Friedman goes inside his son's head to write first person examination of Tourette's Syndrome
Friedman and Patterson's painful, yet, uplifting book, called "Against Medical Advice," details the trials and tribulations of Cory Friedman's fight to overcome Tourette Syndrome, a disorder that continues to mystify much of the American medical profession.
Harlem Real Estate Agent Willie Kathryn Suggs -- Queen of Harlem Real Estate
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 31:47
Suggs provides a historical perspective of Harlem that is distinctly different from the guidebooks.
Willie Kathryn Suggs has an insider's view of of Harlem's booming housing boom that has roiled neighborhoods even as it has gentrified so many others. Listen to Suggs explain how African Americans and Jews were forbidden by covenant to buy any homes or apartments there.
Richie Roberts: The Detective Who Brought Down The American Gangster
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 34:47
Roberts, played by Russell Crowe in the movie, is now a defense attorney, tells how drug dealers used publicity from the movie to sell their products.
Richie Roberts, the former prosecutor whose life is portrayed in the movie, is now the godfather of Frank Lucas' child. Lucas is the notorious heroin dealer who Roberts brought down and on whose life the film is based. Roberts says that dealers today labeled their drugs "Blue Magic" to take advantage of the public relations campaign used to promote the film.
New York City mayoral candidate Bill Thompson
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 30:33
New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson is a contender in the race for New York mayor.
Thompson, who is only 11 points behind Bloomberg in the polls, is suprising polsters and pundits with his stealthlike campaign that seems to be gaining traction under the mainstream media radar.
Author of 1959:The Year Everything Changed, Fred Kaplan
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 33:56
Fred Kaplan has spent a large part of his creative life in 1959...
Alicia C. Shepard from National Public Radio
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 34:00
Alicia C. Shepard, the Ombudsman for National Public Radio, has an impossible job.
Joanna Wolper, author of "The Man Who Could Be Santa"
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 32:54
Joanna Wolper, an Emmy Award winning writer and documentary filmmaker, has uncovered the true identity of Santa Claus.
She writes about her discovery in a children's book called "The Man Who Could Be Santa," based on a true family adventure. Her book has a web site, at www.TheManWhoCouldBeSanta.com featuring the real children in the story.
Dr. David Livingston
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 31:03
Dr. David Livingston has operated on the most horrific trauma cases
- Playing
- Dr. David Livingston
- From
- Conversations with Allan Wolper
including victims of gun shot wounds, car crashes and people under falling cranes in Louisville, New York City and Newark. He is the director of the New Jersey Trauma Center at the University Hospital at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark.
Joseph Klempner Teller, author of Bronx Justice
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 30:32
Joseph Klempner Teller is a mystery writer who learned about the seedy side of life as a former undercover agent for the the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Agency) and later as a defense attorney fighting injustice in New York City criminal courtrooms.
Edward I. Koch: The former New York City mayor reflects on his legacy
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 32:30
Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch talks about how historians will judge him, why he has steadfastly refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation, recounts his political battles with former Governor Mario Cuomo and his son, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and critiques the men who succeeded him in City Hall.
David Dinkins: New York City's First African American Mayor
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 33:52
David Dinkins made political history in 1990 when he was sworn in as the first African American mayor in New York City. Dinkins, now a Columbia University professor, reflects on his historic journey and analyzes the mayors who preceded and followed him into office.
David Dinkins made political history in 1990 when he was sworn in as the first African American mayor in New York City. Dinkins, now a Columbia University professor, reflects on his historic journey and analyzes the mayors who preceded and followed him into office.
Bruce McCall: Poking his Paint Brush At Phony Folks
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 34:53
Bruce McCall once drew a cover for New Yorker magazine in which a group of gorillas stood around the Empire State Building waiting to audition for King Kong. McCall, an artist and satirist, shares his zany vision of American culture.
Roland Betts on Conversations with Allan Wolper
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 31:57
Roland W. Betts, founder and Chairman of Chelsea Piers, tells how he rebuilt New York's premier sports and entertainment complex after it was leveled by super storm Sandy. Betts, a Liberal Democrat who voted for President Obama in the last election, is a close friend of former President George W. Bush. Betts was the former lead owner of The Texas Rangers baseball team. He also was a producer and financier for several movie classics including Gandhi, The Killing Fields, and Pretty Woman. He began his professional life as a teacher and assistant principal in Central Harlem.
Roland W. Betts, founder and Chairman of Chelsea Piers, tells how he rebuilt New York's premier sports and entertainment complex after it was leveled by super storm Sandy. Betts, a Liberal Democrat who voted for President Obama in the last election, is a close friend of former President George W. Bush. Betts was the former lead owner of The Texas Rangers baseball team. He also was a producer and financier for several movie classics including Gandhi, The Killing Fields, and Pretty Woman. He began his professional life as a teacher and assistant principal in Central Harlem.
Linda Stasi on Conversations With Allan Wolper
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 30:06
Linda Stasi is a Sunday New York Daily News columnist who specializes in skewering celebrities and politicians. Stasi has won a prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar nomination for her first novel, The Sixth Station. She is co host of What A Week, with Mark Simone, on Time Warner's New York 1 cable television station, and is the author of five non fiction books.
Linda Stasi is a Sunday New York Daily News columnist who specializes in skewering celebrities and politicians. Stasi has won a prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar nomination for her first novel, The Sixth Station. She is co host of What A Week, with Mark Simone, on Time Warner's New York 1 cable television station, and is the author of five non fiction books.
Walter Mosley on Conversations With Allan Wolper
From Conversations with Allan Wolper | Part of the Conversations with Allan Wolper, WBGO.ORG series | 29:53
Walter Mosley is former President Bill Clinton's favorite mystery writer and one of the country's most prolific novelists. Mosley discusses Lift, a play he wrote about two people trapped in a building elevator hit by a terrorist missile, and his new book, Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore, the story of a porn queen. Mosley's 1995 detective novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, was produced as a movie starring Denzel Washington.
Walter Mosley is former President Bill Clinton's favorite mystery writer and one of the country's most prolific novelists. Mosley discusses Lift, a play he wrote about two people trapped in a building elevator hit by a terrorist missile, and his new book, Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore, the story of a porn queen. Mosley's 1995 detective novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, was produced as a movie starring Denzel Washington.