What people get wrong about Robin Williams’ life — and his death

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2018

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his new book, "Robin: The Definitive Biography of Robin Williams." Itzkoff traces the history of the manic comedian and actor, whose stardom spanned more than four decades in roles in TV shows, such as "Mork and Mindy," and movies, like "Good Will Hunting." After Williams' death by suicide in 2014, Itzkoff says fans and the media were led astray by incorrect or incomplete explanations for what happened, and that Williams' reasons for taking his own life were more complicated than many assumed. Itzkoff also talks about whether another movie star like Williams could emerge in today's Hollywood, his interactions with the comedian as a journalist and how much time he spends crafting jokes for his popular Twitter account @ditzkoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's show was brought to you by IBM.
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0:12.0	Let's put Smart to work.
0:14.0	Learn more at IBM.com slash smart.
0:20.0	This is Recode Media with Peter Kafka.
0:22.2	That's me.
0:22.8	I am part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:25.0	I'm here at Vox Media headquarters in New York City.
0:27.5	If you like this show, because you're listening to the show, please tell someone about
0:30.5	this show.
0:31.2	Thanks in advance.
0:32.3	That's my full intro.
0:33.8	I am here with Dave Itzkoff, world's best Twitter, New York Times Culture Reporter, and author of a book called Robin. It's the life story of Robin Williams. It's an excellent book. Go buy it. Hi, Dave. Thanks. Thank you for that wonderful introduction, which I will in no way live up to. No, no, no. I said to my wife, I'm doing this and this and this.
0:54.2	I'm interviewing Dave Itzkoff.
1:11.0	Oh, I really like his Twitter. So we're going to spend most of the time talking about Twitter. Great. And then we can also... Let's flip it around. Let's talk about the book first. There's a book. It's great. It's a comprehensive biography of Robin Williams. It is out. today, I think, is why this podcast is out.
1:12.7	May 15th. Is today May 15, is why this podcast is out.
1:11.6	May 15th. Is today May 15th? Yeah, probably. Yeah.
1:14.6	How long does this take to create?
1:16.6	It was about three and a half years. I spent probably a year to a year and a half just reporting.
1:24.6	Robin Williams died. August of 2014.
1:28.3	So the real reporting did not start until maybe November of that year.
	...

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