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"Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism" (Encore Presentation)

Aired on Friday, August 19th.

(Note: This interview originally aired back in December.) We speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Ron Suskind, whose bestselling nonfiction books include "Confidence Men" and "The One Percent Doctrine," among others. Suskind joins us to discuss his latest book, a memoir called "Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism." This work, first published in 2014, chronicles Suskind's family’s two-decade struggle with his son Owen's autism. As was noted of the book by the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "Reading Suskind's factual yet moving account of the devotion, love, and energy put into helping Owen will leave readers wondering if they could do the same. This is a wonderful book, whether or not you know a person with autism." Suskind's book is also the basis for a newly released documentary film, which is now playing at the Circle Cinema here in Tulsa. Also on today's show, our commentator Barry Friedman remembers Khalid Jabara, a 37-year-old Tulsan who was recently killed -- by his next-door neighbor -- in what might well have been a hate crime.

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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