Podcast
Mobituaries with Mo Rocca
Hosted by iHeartPodcasts and CBS News · EN
“CBS News Sunday Morning” correspondent Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries. Each episode of Mobituaries covers his favorite dearly departed people and things. This season profiles legendary athlete Jim Thorpe in "Death of an All-American", iconic singer/songwriter Peggy Lee in "Death of Cool", and even the death of the mid-Atlantic accent, best known from the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Franklin Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy. Mo even has a few new things in store including an episode that looks back at folks who "Died on the Same Day.” Think: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr. – and then there’s Margaret Thatcher and Annette Funicello? Tune in for fresh takes on famous legacies and tributes to people who never got the sendoff they deserved. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter until now!
11episodes
Episodes
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Death of a Name | Reviving a Mobit
Dec 25, 202400:42:05Tap to summarizeWhat do you think will be the top baby names of 2025? Will "Mildred" make a comeback? What’s in a name…that makes it popular to one generation, and downright ugly to the next? From "Bertha" and "Layla" to "Reagan" and "Katrina," history shows us that politics, pop songs and news events all play roles in sending baby names skyrocketing or plunging in the rankings. Mo (short for "Maurice"!) returns to his elementary school to speak with his fifth grade teacher about his own name then talks to Columbia University linguist John McWhorter and actor Todd Bridges about other names that have seen better days.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Marlene Dietrich Goes To War | Reviving a Mobit
Dec 18, 202400:13:07Tap to summarizeWe’re celebrating the birthday month of the iconic Marlene Deitrich by revisiting a special episode from the "Mobituaries" audiobook. Marlene Dietrich cemented her status as a Hollywood legend with a series of iconic performances that flouted traditional women's roles and ignited the screen. But it's her passionate support for the United States, her adopted homeland, and the troops fighting in World War II that led Hitler to label her a traitor to the "Fatherland." When she could have enjoyed the indulgences of fame, she risked everything. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Sammy Davis Jr.: Death of the Entertainer | Reviving a Mobit
Dec 11, 202400:50:15Tap to summarizeThis week, we’re celebrating the birthday of the legendary Sammy Davis Jr. by revisiting a special Mobit. From the age of three Sammy Davis, Jr. did it all better than anyone else - singing, dancing, acting, even gun spinning. Mo talks to friends and family about what drove him to keep performing, even after the car crash that nearly killed him. Featuring Carol Burnett, Chita Rivera, Kim Novak, Dionne Warwick and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Wishbone: Death of a Working Dog | Reviving a Mobit
Dec 4, 202400:37:12Tap to summarizeThis week marks 8 years since the finale of the beloved series "Wishbone". In the 1990s, PBS introduced young audiences to a canine star like none other: a Jack Russell terrier who imagined himself as characters from classic works of literature. The show was called Wishbone. Today there's a whole generation of adults who were first weaned on Mark Twain, the legend of Faust or the Greek epics through this series. Wishbone is also the first TV show Mo wrote for. Mo talks with Wishbone head writer Stephanie Simpson and dog trainer Jackie Kaptan about the show and the life and career of its beloved lead actor, a dog named Soccer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Neanderthals: Death of a Human Species | Reviving a Mobit
Nov 27, 202400:41:23Tap to summarizeDid you know November 9 is National Neanderthal Appreciation Day? Reivist this episode where Mo welcomes his friend Michael Ian Black – comedian, author, podcaster, and, as it turns out, Neanderthal (we’ll explain). Mo talks to Michael and the world’s leading researchers about why our extinct human cousins Neanderthals have gotten such a bad rap for so many many years, and how we’re learning more about how close we really were. Oh, Mo also talks to the guy who played Cha-ka on the 70s kids show Land of the Lost.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Sitcom Deaths and Disappearances | Reviving a Mobit
Nov 21, 202400:40:05Tap to summarizeIn honor of the anniversary of the first-ever sitcom broadcast on a U.S. television network (fun fact: it was "Mary Kay and Johnny" back in November 1947), we're revisiting "Sitcom Deaths and Disappearances." Characters on sitcoms aren't supposed to die. So when they do, it's never less than weird. Mo examines some of the most infamous sitcom deaths and disappearances with Henry Winkler, Sandy Duncan and Alan Sepinwall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Literary Frontierswoman: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Jun 11, 202400:20:35Tap to summarizeThis special episode comes from the audiobook edition of ROCTOGENARIANS, a brand-new collection of stories from Mo Rocca that celebrates the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life. Chances are, you know something about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. If, like sixty million other people, you once enjoyed the Little House books, you’ll know that the series breaks off when Laura, at eighteen, marries Almanzo Wilder and leaves her parents to start her own life and her own family in her own little house. But Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish Little House in the Big Woods until she was sixty-five. So what happened in the intervening years? And how did the heroine of the books become the beloved author who, many years later, told these charming stories? ROCTOGENARIANS is available wherever hardcover, ebooks and audiobooks are sold. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4bOBgn6See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →LaWanda Page: Death of a Comedy Queen
Jan 3, 202400:44:27Tap to summarizeLong before her turn as the sermonizing Aunt Esther on "Sanford and Son," LaWanda Page was dazzling Black nightclub audiences - first as the flame-swallowing “Bronze Goddess of Fire”. Then, following in the footsteps of her childhood friend and eventual costar Redd Foxx, she became a queen of raunchy, tell-it-like-it-is stand up comedy. (Let’s just say Aunt Esther would not have approved of LaWanda’s act.) In this season 4 finale, Mo reflects on Page’s influential career with entertainment icon Whoopi Goldberg and remembers the adults-only "party record' phenomenon with comedian Alonzo Bodden.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Revisiting the Orphan Train: An American Odyssey
Dec 27, 202300:44:43Tap to summarizeBetween 1854 and 1929, 250,000 orphans and abandoned children were placed on East Coast city trains and sent west to live with new families. A desperate solution to a desperate problem, some of the stories turned out well and some far from well. The remarkable stories of these riders live on through their descendants, many of whom continue to search for answers about their ancestry. Mo talks to one of these descendants and tracks down the last surviving Orphan Train rider. This episode originally aired on December 20, 2019.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Death of a Sports Team: Satchel Paige and Los Dragones
Dec 20, 202300:25:13Tap to summarizeThere’s no shortage of sports teams that change cities or names over the course of their franchise history. But what about the teams that just cease to exist? Perhaps no team story packs more drama into one year of existence than that of Los Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo. It’s a story that combines one of the most celebrated names in baseball history with one of the biggest names in twentieth-century dictatorship. This special episode comes from the audiobook edition of Mobituaries. You can learn more here: http://bit.ly/MoAudioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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