Fool Audio: 15 Years of Fool Radio

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The Motley Fool is celebrating 15 Years of Foolishness. Grab your party hats and relive a decade and a half of education, amusement, and enrichment.

As the longtime producer of The Motley Fool Radio Show, I had planned on sharing some memorable Fool Radio moments in honor of The Motley Fool's 15-year anniversary. But then the financial crisis became, well, quite the crisis. Investors looked for reassurance. And the thought of highlighting Fool Radio interviews with luminaries such as Vicki Lawrence, Buddy Ebsen, and Soupy Sales seemed oddly inappropriate. And besides, some of those interviews (I'm talking to you, Stefanie Powers) were memorable in the same way that getting a tetanus shot is memorable. Painful? Yes. Painfully funny? Not always.

But my second thoughts turned to third thoughts. After all, where there was Fool Radio pain, there was also Fool Radio gain -- the gain that came from talking to business leaders such as Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, and Costco CEO Jim Sinegal; the gain that came from talking with cultural icons such as Loretta Lynn, Mr. Rogers, Yogi Berra, Dr. Ruth, and Don Ho; and the gain that came from realizing that everyone has a story about money, and some advice along with it. A wise man named Max Baer Jr. (a.k.a. "Jethro" from The Beverly Hillbillies) once offered up this timeless truth to our Fool Radio audience:

"I've been a has-been, a used-to-be, and a once-was. But Jethro is an is."

Here's hoping that Fool Radio is an is. And if that makes no sense whatsoever, don't worry about it. Just think back to some of your favorite Jethro moments and enjoy some of my favorite moments from The Motley Fool Radio Show!