For my Substack debut, I’m posting the podcast of one of my favorite appearances on the late Barry Farber’s radio program. Barry Farber’s radio show was part of my growing up in NYC; I count him, Jean Shepherd and Long John Nebel as my triumvirate of radio heroes and role models, but Barry was the one whom I got to meet, years later, and I was privileged to be his personal editor for more than a decade and on numerous occasions be his guest on his internet radio program.
One thing I hope comes through in this podcast is the tremendous friendship and warmth between us. The show starts out, in honor of Valentine’s Day, telling the story of Barry and Sara’s courtship and marriage, some 40 years after their first, less-than-auspicious meeting; Barry describes that first meeting with a classic Farberism: “We got along like a slow waiter and a poor tipper.”
But from there we go on to discuss my writing for American Thinker (at that time I had written a mere 50 or so pieces) and political topics from Barack Obama to the Bill of Rights (and the Second Amendment in particular) to the phenomenon of American Christians tending to be more ardent supporters of Israel than most American Jews.
I hope this podcast will give readers a sense of my voice, in both the auditory and literary sense, that will enhance their experience of my subsequent posts here on Substack.
The Day After Valentine's Day, 2013