Anderson Cooper in conversation with Lisa Ling at Live Talks Los Angeles
147,309
Published 2021-11-07
discussing his book, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
Anderson Cooper is an anchor at CNN and a correspondent for CBS’ 60 Minutes. Cooper has won 18 Emmys and numerous other major journalism awards. He has written two books which topped the New York Timesbestsellers list. Dispatches From The Edge – A Memoir of Wars, Disasters, and Survivaland The Rainbow Comes and Goes, which he co-wrote with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Cooper lives in New York with his son, Wyatt. The book is co-authored with Katherine Howe.
Lisa Ling is the Executive Producer and host of This is Life on CNN, now in its eighth season. For five seasons prior, She was Executive Producer and hosted Our America on OWN. She was also a field correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show and contributor to ABC News’ Nightline. Lisa was the first female host of National Geographic’s flagship show Explorer. She got her start in journalism as a correspondent for Channel One News where she covered the civil war in Afghanistan at 21 years of age. She later went to become a co-host of ABC Daytime’s show The View, which won its first daytime Emmy during her time at the show. She is the co-author of Mother, Sister, Daughter, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood, and Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and The Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home that she penned with sister Laura.
“A dramatic tale expertly told of rapacious ambition, decadent excess, and covert and overt tyranny and trauma. . . . With resplendent detail, the authors capture the gasp-eliciting extravagance of the Vanderbilt Gilded Age mansions. . . . With its intrinsic empathy and in-depth profiles of women, this is a distinctly intimate, insightful, and engrossing chronicle of an archetypal, self-consuming American dynasty. . . . Irresistible.” — Booklist (starred review)
When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.
Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.
Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.
All Comments (21)
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Purchase a copy of the book with a signed book plate here: livetalksla.square.site/product/andersoncooper/451
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I love and respect Lisa Ling and Anderson Cooper! This was so very interesting and inspiring. What an extraordinary history of a family!
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Have so much respect for both Anderson and Lisa. Both so smart and decent. So many wonderful life experiences that they share with us. Love you both. ❤️❤️🇨🇦🇨🇦
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I could sit in a room listening to Lisa and Cooper all day. Excellently story telling. I 💘 my CNN!
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Anderson is such a good story teller.
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The best story tellers Anderson Cooper and Anthony Bourdain
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Yay, Lisa Ling and Anderson Cooper are my favorites! Thanks for hosting and posting it on Youtube!
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It was long, Anderson, but not a moment of it boring, and I love how comfortable and animated you are in this ...
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I loved listening to his storytelling.
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The history of the Vanderbilt family is quite interesting. To hear Anderson talks about it brings it to life. I’m so happy he talks about it. A great storyteller
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I have thoroughly enjoyed Anderson Cooper!!
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Oh my, it is Channel One all over again! :-) Will never forget watching it in middle school! Have been a follower of Lisa Ling since!
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WOW!!! I'm genuinely surprised at how impressed I am by Lisa Ling here. I can't say enough about how she took on this interview in a way that not only just shines a spotlight on Anderson Cooper and his remarkable family but actually takes the viewer by the hand to see exactly what she's seeing. Ironically given Lisa's professional background, I have to say I think she outperformed anything Barbara Walters ever did on terms of interviewing a well-known personality. I'm really serious about this and I just wish there was a way I could get this message to her about how she's outperformed her former boss!
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Love - love - love both of them ……. Big time!
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I could listen to this man all day. His stories are amazing...and him being so humble is amazing.
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I love Anderson, he’s such an incredible man! His boys are so lucky to call him Daddy! They will have a wonderful life. ❤️❤️❤️ I have your book in audio I love listening to your voice Anderson! It is just incredible to hear you speaking!
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I absolutely have always thought the world of Anderson Cooper n each time I learn more about him I have even more respect for this GENUINE man!
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What a wonderful interview, like a familial chat, between Ms. Ling and Anderson Cooper. I will certainly buy the book, which is, after all, the point of this entertaining discussion.
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YES! his family history is mind blowing!!!! I could have listened all day!
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Loved watching these two on channel 1 in highschool!
