Right, so a slip of the keys changed my title. It should be ‘Who shall I attempt to interview next’. Could someone report this?
OK, Dopers, here’s one for all of you.
As some of you may know I own a small newspaper in rural Ohio. It’s a small town but I don’t treat it that way. In the past I’ve managed to apply my DC background to get interviews with some major players. I came within an eyelash of landing an interview with the Dalai Lama a while back and, dang it, the Pope’s people never returned my calls!
Yesterday I sent a request for interview off to T. Boone Picken’s media rep about his ‘Picken’s Plan’.
I like to think that trying to expand this town outside of itself is a valuable public service and serves to differentiate my publication from others in the area. I know the Managing Editor of my main competition freaked out when I got essays from both McCain and Obama prior to the election. It’s fun.
But who should be next? I need people in the public eye, that most will be aware of, that have significant interest and such. I dislike entertainers and sports figures but like movers and shakers. I’m already trying to get Mahmoud Ahmedinejad so leave that one out.
Also, I just acquired a magazine for women so let’s toss me some ladies of influence and power, too.
Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is the coolest astrophysicist ever. He gives great interviews, is entertaining and has a subject matter that appeals to kids and adults.
I’d suggest interviewing each sitting female US senator, and female former US senators. Hillary Clinton would be a great start! Other female cabinet members could be cool, IMO.
One woman your readers might not have heard of is Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars and didn’t win the Nobel Prize. But her adviser did :smack: She is not at all bitter about it. I’d be nothing but bitter.
Why not go whole hog and go for a former doper? Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, current head of the JREF?
Burt Rutan. Buzz Aldrin, who is trying to get us back to space the right way. (Seriously interesting stuff. He’s opposing NASA.)
… hm. Why not all the surviving first set of astronauts, as a series? But Buzz, without question.
How about some authors? Literary figures. Sampiro, any suggestions there? Most of my first choices are a bit dead.
Joanne Siegel’s still alive. Jerry’s wife, and the model for Lois Lane.
And Stan Lee’s still kicking it. Asking him about the mob and comics might be fascinating. Or terrifying. Of course, anything he says will only be true in the way Obi-Wan speaks: from a certain point of view.
Most of the second group of astronauts (the ‘New Nine’ – the ‘Next Nine’ were the third group) are still around. A good one from there would be John Young. He flew two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions, and two Shuttle missions.
He was the Pilot on the first mission to change orbit plane, the Commander on the first mission to dock with two different craft in Earth orbit, the first person to orbit the Moon solo, walked on the Moon, and was the Commander of the first Space Shuttle mission. According to Wiki, he still attends meetings at Johnson Space Center; so you might reach him there.
I’m a fan of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia - the woman’s personal and political history is astounding. Plus she’s got a new(-ish) book to plug (This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President), so it’s good timing for a women’s magazine interview.