Charles Binder was born and raised...and maybe a little crazed... in the Big Apple. His friends know him as a man who has the ability to apply his interesting sense of humor to almost any situation.
"I subscribe to the theory that a wry sense of humor is the best way to cut the mustard"...he says (tongue in cheek).
A child of black and white television, his boyhood heroes included The Lone Ranger, Mickey Mantle and Sherlock Holmes. Upon entering the age of the plasma TV, he’s added his friend Stephen Sondheim, and almost every firefighter he’s ever met. "They always know what to do", he says.
Charles is passionate about books, wine, Broadway, travel, hiking, history, mysteries, politics, physics, Damon Runyon, The New York Yankees, and The New York Rangers. (He claims the Czech hockey players have the prettiest girlfriends.)
Charles will often run up the eleven flights of stairs, at his West Side Manhattan condo building, to his apartment. This is both for the exercise it affords and to express of a certain lack of patience with the apathetic elevator in service there.
He’s one of the nation’s most famous lawyers, but Charles says, "Most lawyers are jerks. Trial lawyers are fun. But most of the others are as exciting as broccoli. You know when a guy went to law school because he interrupts you before you even finish saying hello."
Charles has met many of the people he admires. In one episode of his podcast, he talks about meeting former president Bill Clinton. Waiting for Bill, being locked up in the “secure zone”, hoping your brother will behave and having your drink taken away for the pictures, it’s all part of the experience.
Just as meeting the former president was a memorable experience, so was being invited by Stephen Sondheim
to the premiere American screening of the film Sweeney Todd, which Charles talks about in the same episode.
Listen to what he has to say and write on a wildly eclectic range of topics and then contact Charles. Always taking a chance that he might return the favor.