Hemingway's Picasso

Steve Kough lived many lives. He was an NFL journeyman, a male model, and one of the most well-connected smugglers in 1980’s Miami, the “Drug Capital of the World." Kough collected many souvenirs from his adventures, but his most treasured bounty – a beautiful ceramic, crafted by Pablo Picasso and gifted to Ernest Hemingway at the author’s Cuban home, the Finca Vigia... or so the story goes. Lost during the Cuban Revolution, the artwork resurfaced when Kough took it as a payment for drug run financed by the notorious Pablo Escobar. Kough passed away in 2018, passing the piece down to his son, Stevie, a skateboarding hippie growing weed in California. Stevie feels he needs to complete his father’s mission – of selling this piece and telling Steve’s cinematic life story. So, is the Picasso authentic—or a fraud? Was Steve Kough a big talker or a real deal smuggler? Does any of that matter or is this a story of aspiration, legacy, and difficult love?

We speak to Antony Penrose, the son of artists Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He and his parents spent summers in the South of France with Pablo Picasso, one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century. Picasso was warm with Antony and other children, but the famous artist showed a very different side to adults, especially to his lover Françoise Gilot.

Ernest Hemingway was embraced by many Cubans as Papa, the everyday man who lived in the iconic seaside estate, Finca Vigia. He wrote some of his most masterful novels in Havana, Cuba - and lived quite the life there, too. But Cuba is rarely highlighted or even remembered in Hemingway's biography. Fidel Castro saw the importance of Hemingway as a writer and political tool. In this installment, Norberto Fuentes, the legendary Cuban journalist and author in exile, discusses Hemingway’s life and legacy in Cuba.

Carlos Lehder isn’t a celebrity like Escobar, but the truth is that, without Lehder, Escobar would never have become a wildly famous drug kingpin. Lehder, the German-Colombian, drug-trafficking genius was responsible for bringing 85% of the cocaine from Colombia into the United States in the 1970’s and 80’s by way of the Bahamian island Norman’s Cay. Ron Chepesiuk, journalist and author of Crazy Charlie, discusses Lehder’s rise and fall - and all the craziness in between.