David M. Alpern, a reporter and senior editor at Newsweek magazine for 40 years, conducted more than 5,000 interviews for a radio show he created, "Newsweek on Air," which was broadcast from 1982 to 2010, and then for the independent, nonprofit-funded "For Your Ears Only" for four years after that — from novelists (John le Carre, E.L. Doctorow) to the giants of tech (Bill Gates) to government leaders (Robert McNamara) to top journalists (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) to movie stars (Katharine Hepburn). He interviewed powerful women of Washington, among them Nancy Reagan, Katharine Graham, and Hillary Clinton, and the ultimate chronicler of political power, Robert A. Caro.
Mr. Alpern will play excerpts from those interviews on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton, venturing into commentary on today's media landscape and inviting audience participation. Registration is at myrml.org or by calling 631-283-0774, extension 523. Sixteen spaces remained as of Tuesday morning.
His career in journalism started in newspapers, at The Daily Journal in Elizabeth, N.J., for the United Press International newswire service, and at The New York Post in the years before the Rupert Murdoch purchase. At Newsweek, he worked on the international and national affairs sections and excerpted books that were in the news.
"Newsweek on Air" was heard across the country and overseas on the Armed Forces Radio network.
Mr. Alpern now lives in Sag Harbor year round. He contributes book reviews to The Star and can be seen leading the monthly Great Decisions discussions of world affairs at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. The next one is on Aug. 8.