Michael Brooks died three years ago today. He was one of the most energetic human beings I’ve ever known and his sudden loss was a deep shock to everyone who knew him — and the far larger number of people who listened to his shows.

There’s no doubt in my mind that he was the greatest broadcast talent produced by our generation of the Left. I’ve written before about my personal and professional relationship with Michael and about his politics. Something I’ve never had much opportunity to talk about, though, was his deep love for HBO’s The Sopranos.

The show was probably the single most frequent nonideological topic of our conversations. In late June 2020, I was texting with him about the idea of doing monthly Sopranos recap conversations on The Michael Brooks Show with our friend Wosny “Big Wos” Lambre. He died before that could happen.