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Nora Ephron On Aging

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“I’ll have what she’s having.” We’ll listen back to our final conversation with screenwriter Nora Ephron.

This Nov. 3, 2010 file photo shows author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron at her home in New York. (AP)
This Nov. 3, 2010 file photo shows author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron at her home in New York. (AP)

Screenwriter, director, humorist Nora Ephron could tell a hard truth and melt your heart at the same time.  Stare at the bitter bits of life and the beauty, and side with the beauty.  She did it again and again.  In Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Julie and Julia.

In films that made you laugh and cry, but mainly laugh.  In essays that cut to the quick, and then held your hand.  Nora Ephron died this week of leukemia at 71.  I spoke with her in 2006 about life, aging, loss – and what we try not to lose.

This hour, On Point:  my last conversation with the tough romantic wit, Nora Ephron.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Nora Ephron, director, screenwriter, and author of "I Feel Bad About My Neck."

From Tom's Reading List

New York Times "In a commencement address she delivered in 1996 at Wellesley College, her alma mater, Ms. Ephron recalled that women of her generation weren’t expected to do much of anything. But she wound up having several careers, all of them successfully and many of them simultaneously."

Huffington Post "I am not here to tell you what you already know about Nora Ephron. I'm sure we all agree that she changed the canvas of movie making with her superlative ability to string together words that rolled off the actors' tongues and left us laughing until we cried or simply left us crying. "

Playlist

“Ball and Chain”  Big Mama Thornton

“Non, je ne regrette rien”  Edith Piaf

“It Had to Be You”  Frank Sinatra

This program aired on August 14, 2006.

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