LEMON DROP | Montel Williams on New Book, Racism in the U.S. & the 2024 Election
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Who is Montel Williams and why is he on the Don Lemon Show?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to a very special edition of the Don Lemon Show. Today, I'm glad to be chatting with the one and only and actually is a mentor. I've watched him and go, you know, I want to be like that guy. And that is Montel Williams. You may know him from his Emmy nominated daytime talk show. You may know him as the host of Military Makeover on Lifetime. What you may not know is that he served as a Marine and as a highly decorated naval officer for nearly 22 years. I knew that. Maybe you guys don't know that. What's more, he has a new book out. It's called The Sailing of the Intrepid. It's a narrative history of the harrowing wartime voyage of this iconic USS Intrepid. Welcome. Good to see you, Montel.
How are you doing?
Thanks so much for having me, Don. I really appreciate it, my friend. Good to see you again on the screen. Yes, you as well. You have many accomplishments. Go on. I was going to say, one of these days, you and I ought to think about teaming up. DM Don and Montel. Come on now. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do a couple episodes with you, my friend.
We go way back, Montel. I just want to tell you that this is a fantastic book. I think it's a great, great, great undertaking. And it is really doing well. I'm getting reports on your book. It's going well.
It is. You know, we were blessed when we launched about a month ago. We ended up getting three number one positions with Amazon. We were number one for World War II history. We were number one for Vietnam history, believe it or not. We were number one for naval history. So I was really happy about that. I know you're going to kick me up on the New York Times, but I'm excited.
Look, I've interviewed you before, and I believe it's about your book, but I didn't realize you've done six interviews. This is my ninth book, believe it or not. Ninth? Oh, my God. Is that crazy? I didn't know that you were a writer.
I'm sitting down right now. I and David Fisher, who collaborated with me on this book, were thinking about going back to our publisher and talking about a 10th book. So I'm really looking forward to that and excited.
Why is this book doing so well? What separates what sets the sailing of the intrepid apart and what's different about the writing process this time around? Because this one was really special to you.
I think one of the things that's most special about this book is the fact that it reads when you read it. People have told me this over and over and over again. It reads like a cinematic novel rather than a history book. Though we've done a considerable amount of work in history in this book. So if you're a history enthusiast and you're a naval history enthusiast or a war enthusiast, This would be the book for you because we not only take you through what happened, but we kind of also then demonstrate why things happened and try to figure out the solutions to what they had to come up with. You know, the Intrepid, a lot of people only know it because it's that ship that sits along the West Side Highway.
People ride by it. They know it's the airspace and the Naval Museum or Naval Museum. But the Intrepid is probably one of our most iconic historical vessels that still survived.
Right.
And it really harkens back to a time where it was only a short period of time, I believe, in America where America really, truly tried to live up to its legacy and expectations and its history in a time when you got this almost three football field long thing that had well over 3,000 people on it. was one of the largest most advanced ships of the time it had a crew that was made up of people from all over america all over the country guys who had desperate attitudes had different opinions about things from north south east west but they all came together to achieve a goal and that was to make this ship last through the war It helped the ship be part of our victory.
Well, it did last. As you said, it's on the West Side Highway in New York City, and most people, when they go, I'm going to the Intrepid, there's an event on the Intrepid, but I don't believe enough people take it in.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Who is Montel Williams and why is he on the Don Lemon Show?
0:13–8:48
2
What inspired Montel to write The Sailing of the Intrepid and how did it come together?
8:48–19:09
3
What dramatic events did the USS Intrepid endure during World War II?
19:09–31:01
4
How did research and storytelling make the Intrepid book read like a cinematic novel?
31:01–31:25
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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