Charlie Meyerson interviews

1975: I was just beginning my radio career at college station WPGU-FM, hosting an investigative mini-documentary radio series, Probe. What would be more natural to “investigate” than my passion for comic books—with what became the first of several interviews over my career with Marvel Comics impresario Stan Lee? Presented here far more for the value of Lee’s remarks—including his disappointment in the then-new Fantastic Four radio series and his enthusiasm forHoward the Duck—than for my own

Radio production, comedy and advertising visionary Dick Orkin’s death Sunday sent me back into the archives—waaaay back in the archives—to my days learning radio at my college station, WPGU.(Image: 2016Radio Inkcover.) Aired Feb. 2, 1976, here’s my journalist-in-training report from the time I interviewed Dick Orkin, a man whose creation of the hilarious serial Chickenmanled me to love—and seek a career in—radio.

Twenty years ago, journalistDavid Simon, author of the book that inspired the TV show Homicide—and later the creator of HBO’s acclaimedThe Wire, among many others—joined me for a discussion of the then-new book he’d co-authored, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. Simon’s time spent on an urban corner in Baltimore had persuaded him then that the war on drugs was a failure—that the concept of “lockin’ ’em up” was a losing battle that served only to further isolate

[Headline revised July 15, 2020, to include “or you’re laid off.” Because, well, you know.] If you were asked to lecture 600 high school journalists and their teachers on the state of journalism, what would you tell them? Whenthe Northern Illinois Scholastic Press Association (NISPA) invited me to deliver the keynote address at its annual conference, we agreed to title the talk “Journalism on a (Really Cheap) Shoestring.” But the underlying message was more subversive:If your school kills your

(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

As digital lawlessness holds center stage in the national political drama, doesn’t this seem like a good time to revisit the first generation of internet outlaws? So let’s set the WABAC machine for Feb. 5, 1995, original airdate for my interview with Michelle Slatalla and Joshua Quittner — authors of the seminal hacking story Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace. (Quittner, by the way, also holds the historic distinction of being the person who first bought the domain

It’s a tradition on the birthday of Marvel Comics’ fearless leader, Stan Lee, for me to revisit one of my favorite encounters with him: A July 18, 1998 sitdown at the Wizard World pop-culture convention in Rosemont, Ill.This time, though, something different: Raw, unedited (stereo; he’s in the right channel, I’m in the left) audio of the session we recorded—followed by the sound of one of my Merry Marvel Marching Society membership perks, a record featuring Stan and many of the old Marvel Bullpen