Noshing With Marilyn S. Greenwald – September 17, 2026
Author, Jane Fonda: There’s a Great Deal to Say
What happens when an acclaimed actress becomes one of America’s most controversial activists?
This week on “Ira’s Everything Bagel,” I talk with Marilyn S. Greenwald, author of Jane Fonda: There’s a Great Deal to Say (published by Rutgers University Press) about the complicated, fascinating and often misunderstood life of Jane Fonda.
Marilyn takes us behind the scenes of her research, including her journey to Fonda’s personal papers at Smith College, where a significant portion of the archive includes her FBI file. Interestingly, Marilyn initially had no intention of writing another Jane Fonda biography.
We talk about the origins of the “Hanoi Jane” label, Fonda’s activism and why that controversy has remained part of her public identity for decades. Marilyn explains how activism became such a central part of Fonda’s life—what she describes as roughly 95% of her life—and how Fonda’s experiences in France, the cultural “new wave,” her marriage to Roger Vadim, and her return to the United States helped shape her activism.
We also explore Fonda’s marriage to activist Tom Hayden and what she learned from him about being strategic; celebrity activists; the balancing act between Hollywood and political activism; and Fonda’s trip to North Vietnam. Marilyn discusses Fonda’s continuing regret about posing with an anti-aircraft gun, while noting that Fonda has said she does not regret going to North Vietnam.
And there are some surprises. Marilyn shares what she discovered about Fonda’s relationship with veterans and the letters she received, along with an important detail about Fonda’s memoir: she really did write it herself, without a ghostwriter, and personally fact-checked it.
It’s a conversation about celebrity, activism, Vietnam, controversy, personal history and the woman behind one of the most recognizable names in American culture.
ABOUT MARILYN:
Marilyn Greenwald is a professor emerita of journalism at Ohio University and the author of five biographies, including those of Leslie McFarlane, the first author of the Hardy Boys series of books; of social justice activist Eunice Hunton Carter; and of New York Times columnist Charlotte Curtis, “A Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism and the Career of Charlotte Curtis,” which was named a Notable Book of the New York Times.