Can you believe it’s March already? Last week I thought the planets had fallen out of alignment, and now I’m wondering if time is stuck in “fast forward” mode. It seems like yesterday I moved into my house and adopted Annie from the animal shelter, but last month she had her eighth birthday. That’s crazy!
Getting ready for my book launch consumes 90 percent of my time. As my agent reminded me yesterday, “The work begins when you sign that contract,” and she’s right. Other than my all-consuming pre-launch to-do list, I haven’t had time to do much other than catch a few things on television, listen to some podcasts on the treadmill, and order a few things to wear on my book tour in late May and early June. When I have firm dates and places, I’ll let you know, because I’d love to see you at one of them.
Here are some favorite things I should have shared before now.
BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD DOCUMENTARY
It’s only been in the last 10 years I’ve come to appreciate the magnitude of how Brian Wilson, songwriter and leader of the Beach Boys, changed the face of pop music. I remember when I was in my 20s, one of the first things my first husband did after he bought a fast new car was to buy an 8-track tape of the Beach Boys. Philip was 13 years older than I was, and at the time, I thought it was a nostalgia thing that took him back to “Little Deuce Coup” and his teenage years, but I’ve come to see the Beach Boys, particularly Brian Wilson, in a new light.
Brian’s songs were distinguished by their complexity and sophistication of the chord progression and melodic structure, especially “God Only Knows,” which is often praised as one of the greatest songs of all time and one of the most difficult to sing. It always makes me think of my late husband because good or bad, God only knows where I’d be without Philip.
Brian Wilson, photo from BrianWilson.com
You might have seen the 2021 documentary, Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, but if you haven’t, the film offers insights into Brian’s well-documented anxiety and mental health issues. Unfortunately, one of the takeaways of the film is that every hour of every day is a struggle for Brian Wilson to remain standing. If you’re a music fan, like I am, you’ll enjoy the interviews with other musicians like Springsteen, Elton John and Jakob Dylan, among others, as they talk about their admiration for Brian’s music.
MOTHER COUNTRY RADICALS PODCAST
Last summer I spent 10 days in Greece at a writers’ retreat conducted by bestselling author, Cheryl Strayed, her husband, award-winning “documentary of the year” filmmaker Brian Lindstrom, and their good friends, award-winning author and creative writing professor at the University of Chicago, Rachel DeWoskin, and her husband, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, an award-winning playwright and director of the MFA in Screenwriting at Northwestern. Each one of these people are powerhouses in their own right, but the combination of all four was dazzling. Although Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s name sounded somewhat familiar, it was several days before I realized…
Zayd’s parents were the infamous leaders of the radical Weather Underground, who, together with members of the Black Panthers, were on the run for 11 years, hiding from the FBI.
It was the early 70s and Zayd’s mother, Bernardine Dohrn, and his father, Bill Ayers—do these names ring a bell—and the Weather Underground robbed banks to finance their counterculture revolution against racism, the war in Vietnam and a revolutionary party to overthrow the United States government. While Bernardine wound up on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Zayd was born “underground” at the same time his parents were literally on the run with assumed names and sleeping on the floors of friends’ houses and apartments.
Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the creator, host, writer, and executive producer of “Mother Country Radicals,” a fascinating award-winning 10-episode podcast—plus a bonus episode—that had me on the edge of my treadmill.
Last summer, when I began listening, I didn’t want it to end. Still mourning that it’s over, I’ve been listening to it again. This well-crafted podcast tells the story of how in essence, Zayd’s young mother, Bernardine Dohrn, declared war on the United States. Both of his parents, Bernardine and Bill Ayers—who are still living and together as a couple—along with some of their revolutionary friends are part of the “Mother Country Radicals” podcast. They talk openly about those days, how Bernardine was radicalized, their brawls with riot cops in Chicago, the bombing of the Pentagon, how they broke their comrades out of prison, and their “bomb factory” that exploded in a Greenwich Village townhouse.
Zayd’s narration ties it all together, and he’s nothing short of brilliant. His voice has a sense of urgency that compels you to listen. Mother Country Radicals was named one of the best podcasts of 2022 by prestigious media outlets all over the world, but it’s timeless.
Together with his parents, and some of the remaining members of the Underground, they discuss what it was like for he and his siblings—as well as the son of another radical friend Bill Ayers raised—to grow up on the run with the most wanted woman in America who eventually went to prison.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a liberal, a conservative, or somewhere in the middle, you will be glued to “Mother Country Radicals.” If I were to rate this podcast on a scale of one to 10, I would give it a 142.
