Person Place Thing
Fridays, 10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Hosted by former New York Times Ethicist Columnist Randy Cohen, PPT features guests who talk about a person, a place and a thing they find meaningful. Randy pulls out the most interesting details from columnists to musicians, architects and ballerinas including Rosanne Cash, E. Jean Carroll and Gene Kohn. The results: surprising stories from great talkers.
To learn more about this program, visit presonplacething.org.
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When Europeans take one of his tours, preservationist Michael Henry Adams goes to work to reconcile the past, the present and the Harlem of their imaginations.
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Len Elmore was on the Knicks during the playoffs: “We’re playing the Celtics, and I get this letter, and I was accepted.” To Harvard Law. Elmore also talks about College Park, Md. and more basketball.
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The gender balance in Rachel Wax’s profession is disheartening, she says: “It has one of the smallest percentages of women. I mean the ratio is astounding.” U.S. Senator? Catholic priest? Not quite that bad. She is a magician. And things are improving.
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Robin Steinberg and David Feige have spent much of their professional lives as public defenders in the Bronx, working in an unjust system, and its persistent flaws.
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Poet, theologian, and host of the On Being Studios podcast “Poetry Unbound” Pádraig Ó Tuama, enjoys a particular pencil but is not a fanatic: “I use anything to get the idea down. I have written with pens and pencils; I have written on the back of sick bags on airplanes.” Computers. Cellphones. No crayon, but he’s not above it.
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President of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Adrian Benepe is proud that it is a treasure for the entire city and even prouder of its ties to its local community: “The neighborhood is deep into us, and we’re deep into the neighborhood.” Benepe tells us about Gordon Davis, a cove along the Hudson and a child’s rake.
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Conductor Ian Niederhoffer says “Music has the unique power to transport its audiences to a time that no longer exists.”
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Writer David Leonhardt of “The Morning” newsletter for “The New York Times” and author of “Ours Was the Shining Future” admires A. Philip Randolph, who personified this idea: “Collective action around labor and workers is the most powerful vehicle for changing this country.”
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Journalist Joan Kron has covered plastic surgery for decades: “I believe everybody is free to do what they want with their body.” Incidentally, she’s just turned 96 and looks fabulous.
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Former Manhattan borough historian Michael Miscione admires the enormously accomplished, nearly forgotten, 19th century New Yorker, Andrew H. Green: “He is often compared to Robert Moses. In a favorable way.” Miscione also talks to us about his high school and an alligator.