Award-winning Tribune columnist Rick Kogan claims “pure joy” has kept him inspired to host Cable 25’s monthly “Conversations with Extraordinary People,” starting his fifth year.
His hour-long chat with Chicagoans of literary, musical or other cultural notoriety is taped at a glamorous setting before a live audience of 50-75 and aired to some 450,000 city households.
“Rick is like what Mike Royko was to Chicago?the consummate Chicagoan,” says Cable 25’s senior producer Lorraine Render.
He is one of only three Chicago print reporters on TV (along with Sun-Times columnists Richard Roeper and Bill Zwecker).
Kogan has hosted some 50 shows, with guests that have included violinist Rachel Barton-Pines, columnist Richard Roeper, song stylists Audrey Morris and Spider Sayloff, authors Brad Thor, Karen Abbott and Studs Terkel, an old family friend.
“I feel like if I want to know something, others will, too,” Kogan says. “Like I don’t care precisely what this person’s birthday is. I start with simpler questions and trust my instincts from there.”
