Well, there has been another coronation in London. It was only 70 years ago — next month — that we had the previous one. I begin today’s Impromptus with the coronation, and with Great Britain itself — the greatness of Britain. I also discuss Disney vs. DeSantis; sports; music; language — the usual. Give it a whirl, here.
My latest Q&A podcast is with Cathy Young — here. “Cathy Young” is an all-American name, and she is an all-American woman. But she started out “Yekaterina Jung.” She was born in Moscow, in 1963. At 17, she came with her family to America. A writer from the start, she published Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood. I remember distinctly when that book came out. It was in 1989, such an important year for the world. An immensely gratifying one.
For all these years, Cathy Young has been a conservative with a libertarian bent — that, traditionally, is the way it has worked in America. She wrote for almost every newspaper and magazine you can think of — including National Review. For about seven years, she was a columnist for the Detroit News (one of my hometown newspapers, I like to think). For another seven years or so, she was a columnist for the Boston Globe. Today, she writes for the Bulwark, and also contributes to Newsday, Reason, etc.
Cathy has never had a specialty, really — she is a generalist. But she was probably best known for her writing about feminism, and relations between the sexes. Since last year, however, she has written a great deal about Russia’s war on Ukraine, as many of us have: This war is of great importance to all. (First and foremost, to Ukrainians.)
As I say at the end of our podcast, Cathy regularly delves into difficult, nasty issues — issues that many of us would rather leave to others. I regard Cathy Young as a journalistic MVP of this period.
And she is, for sure, her own woman — an independent mind, an independent pen. Get to know her a little bit in this Q&A. Again, here.