Life 2.0

The son of a Greek immigrant grocer, Kass was born on Chicago's South Side and grew up there and in Oak Lawn. He held a number of jobs — merchant marine sailor, ditch digger, waiter — before becoming a film student at Columbia College in Chicago. There, he worked at the student newspaper and caught the attention of Daryle Feldmeir, chairman of the journalism department and former editor of the Chicago Daily News. Feldmeir and journalism professor Les Brownlee helped him obtain an internship at the Daily Calumet in 1980, where Kass worked as a reporter until he left for the Tribune.

In 1992, Kass won the Chicago Tribune's Beck Award for writing. 

For nearly three decades, John Kass was in the thick of it when it came to politics-and life-taking over the print page of the late, great Mike Royko. In 2016 he joined me on my CBS podcast "Life Matters" and it was another outing in audio excellence. 

Martha Stewart dressed up like a homeless person for Halloween and wonders why there's blowback, which gives John a chance to share his time on the Martha Stewart Channel on XM Radio back in the day, but Garry tops that experience with his memory of asking Martha out for a date after watching her work over a turkey. Of course, there's John's "Nude Pilgrim Party" experience and getting locked up posing as the Incredible Hulk. Then it's another foray into the MeTV lineup that is the best option to escape the erosion of life and a deep discussion on the fine line between tramps, hobos and other careers from yesteryear.  Another episode of "Earth Matters with Bill Kurtis" rounds out this ongoing experiment in audio excellence.

The billboard for this podcast features "Mr. Bones," who is the oldest remaining artifact from the "Haunted Castle" from back in 1966. For two decades, Mr. Bones greeted hundreds of men, women, and children to have the crap scared out of them in our basement during October. My dad, a mild-mannered banker by day, became "The Count) at night (of course) and was supported by mad scientists, Frankenstein's monster, The Mummy, a caveman, and The Wolf Man, as well as assorted ghouls, goblins, and others (played by cousins, neighbors, and friends), creating Halloween memories that linger to this day.

As John continues his journey from the clutches of the Grim Reaper just 10 days ago, the first item on the audio agenda is the battle between Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, which leads Garry to the conclusion that $7 latte mocha choco whatever will never go away. With the political season in full swing, it's time for a "Garry Meier Minute-Ish" offering around the phenomenon of attack ads and how the only people that really win are the media companies that charge top coin for the opportunity for politicians to tell you how their opponents are the worst human who ever lived. Then, in celebration of Teddy Roosevelt's 168th birthday, it's "History Matters with Bill Kurtis" and how "The Honeymooner's" has John in tears.

It's been just about a week since I had a "life-threatening event" (the official term nowadays for a heart attack), and as you can imagine, this has been a serious time of reflection on what is and what isn't important in my life. If you have ever been in this position, I'm sure you understand the feeling of a "2nd chance" at sticking around for a while longer, and the fact that 51,000 humans die every day from some heart-related malady. Add to that an incredible outpouring of love and support, and once again-I've won the lottery of life. Special shout-out to Scott Miller, my longtime radio brother and mainstay at WJBC Radio in Bloomington, for his original composition "Hey, John!" that made me both laugh and cry in the span of just a 4 minute song.

Just 48 hours after he suffered a "life-threatening event," John is back on track and chatting with Garry about the ins and outs of the "heart attack experience." But it's not all about his ticker, as the guys find their way into "Shark Tank" infested waters, the unfortunate priest who was felled by a giant crucifix at the altar, and walk down Oprah memory lane as it pertains to why television and radio people are not the same creatures.

This episode of Saints & Sinners is brought to you by the great med pros that transported John in record time to the ER at Hines VA and the Cath-Lab at Loyola.

Digging into the vast Aurora Media Productions audio archives, the magic arrow led me to my conversation with the late, great Christopher Reeve for the Saturday Morning Rewind episode. This was a live show from back in 2002, the day before he and his now-late wife, Dana, were opening a national paralysis center that was created as a result of his equestrian incident in 1995, rendering him paralyzed from the neck down. The night before our conversation, I watched Chris on "Larry King Live" and wanted to make sure that he was a comfortable on my radio show with thousands of listeners as he was in front the camera to a nationwide audience of millions. Great wisdom from "Superman" all these years later. 

So, what happens when the police find a body on the railroad tracks? A million extra people flood the Chicago area expressways heading downtown (John is one of them), and then there's the unfortunate person who got launched from a rollercoaster, and the less-than-intelligent guy who became lunch for a tiger. How about the growing interest in having raccoons as pets? Did you know that a rat's favorite meal is dog droppings? It's another outing in semi-audio excellence, as Garry and John debate all that and much more.

29 years ago today, John Denver lost his life in a plane crash in Monterey Bay, California. He was just 53 years old. In the nearly three decades since his death, I have been able to put together a "connect-the-dots" map showing how crossing paths with John in the early 90s set me on a trajectory that continues today. This remembrance for John includes some of the many conversations about the man, his work, and his music over the years, with John's brother Ron Deutschendorf, Inge Kaminski, Dr. Cheryl Charles, Bill Kurtis, Richard Kaufman, Annie Denver, John Berry, as well as a few words from John himself, about the state of the human family. 

The average cost for a family of 4 to attend Da Bears game is over $2K (tickets/parking/food/beers), which is well over the NFL average of $1400 bucks per gridiron match. Too much? Not enough? Is there an end in sight to the bloated games that humans will pay for as entertainment? And hey, didya hear that Da Pope came out with a statement that fouling the Earth as us humans do is a sin? Garry and John dissect all of that and more, with the ever-popular "quote of the pod" coming this week from Da Duke, pilgrim!