“You Can’t Please All-Memoirs 1980-2024” with Tariq Ali

Coming From Left Field podcast published January 7, 2025

Jan 08, 2025

Warm Greetings All,

Greg and I interviewed Tariq Ali two years ago regarding his Winston Churchill book, and he is considered one of our favorite guests. Tariq is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is well-known for his anti-imperialist stance and has been involved in various political movements since his youth. Tariq has written or co-authored over 100 fiction and nonfiction books, covering a wide range of topics, including geopolitics and the history of post-colonialism.

In this podcast, we discuss the second volume in his memoir series, “You Can’t Please All-Memoirs 1980-2024.” As I indicated in the interview, this is a “big” book (813 pages), but I was disappointed when it ended. Tariq is kind, entertaining, provocative, funny, a remarkable person, and towering intellectual.

Unfortunately, Greg was unable to participate in this podcast. His 91-year-old sister had a medical emergency which required him to brave the blizzard and drive from Pittsburg to central Illinois and help with her care. Without Greg, I felt like Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney on SNL. I thought I had him patched in for an “audio only” Zoom meeting, but I could not make it work. We talked for some time prior to the interview and having Greg’s input would have enhanced the conversation…. Sometimes “You Can’t Please All.”

Peace,

Pat

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