Introducing Ted Turner
Our Conversation at CNN Radio in 2013 (Podcast included)
I spent 20 years of my journalism career at CNN. I had one opportunity to speak with Ted Turner.
We sat down for about thirty minutes in a CNN Radio studio to record an episode of CNN Profiles — a program that I hosted from 2012 to 2013.
The launching point for our conversation was a new book that had just been released called Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet,” by veteran journalist and Ted’s fellow Montanan Todd Wilkinson.
Among other things, Turner and I talked about the inspiration he derived from his relationship with Jacques Cousteau, and why he chose to focus on protecting buffalo and prairie dogs on the vast swaths of land he bought out west.
We also discussed his love of the classics; his legendary frugality in CNN’s early days; why he paid me so little; and so much more. It’s a small window on a man who had a global impact.
COMING UP: Wednesday, May 13th
On Wavemaker Conversations next Wednesday, my guest is Laura Galante, one of America’s leaders in cybersecurity.
Galante served as the Director of the U.S. government’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Network from 2022 to 2025, which put her in the White House Situation Room dozens of times. I called her to learn more about the potential risks and rewards of one of the biggest evolving developments in AI — Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos Preview cyber bot.
Galante also agreed to discuss a storyline from one of my favorite shows — The Pitt — in which a cyber threat forces the Emergency Room to shut down its entire computer network and go analog. How real was that? Laura Galante knows.
In Case You Missed It: Random Encounters
One of my favorite things in life is to strike up a conversation with a stranger and learn something from that stranger that leaves me feeling uplifted, or moved, or simply more connected to my fellow human beings.
Here’s an example.
Betty Long is a nurse practitioner and addiction specialist who delivers health care in a van on the streets of New York. Here’s a seven-minute excerpt of our exchange: