Singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins joins Margaret Hoover to talk about his new memoir “Still Alright,” his five decades in the music industry, and what’s next for his legendary career. Loggins details a songwriting process that has produced iconic songs since he was a teenager, including “Danny’s Song” and “House at Pooh Corner.” He also opens up about his creative and personal struggles, as well as his battle with addiction to anti-anxiety drugs. The musician discusses his work on soundtracks for ...
Sep 03, 2022•43 min
Sen. Mike Lee joins Margaret Hoover to discuss his new book, “Saving Nine: The Fight Against the Left's Audacious Plan to Pack the Supreme Court and Destroy American Liberty,” as well as his role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election. The Utah Republican, who ultimately voted to certify the election results, defends his text message exchanges with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the weeks before January 6th and expresses his disappointment in T...
Jul 30, 2022•33 min
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant joins Margaret Hoover to talk about the importance of reconsidering one’s established views, and why he believes doing so could be the key to healing America’s divisions. The Wharton professor’s most recent bestseller, “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know,” explores the science of thinking and rethinking, as well as the most effective strategies for changing someone’s mind. Grant discusses how his research applies to political debates, the...
Jul 23, 2022•52 min
Sen. Chris Murphy joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the passage of the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation since 1994 and his mission to end America’s epidemic of gun violence. The Connecticut Democrat explains how the new bill might have prevented recent mass shootings like the July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois and discusses the fallacy of “good guys with guns” at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. He says the legislation will save thousands of lives, while acknowledging...
Jul 16, 2022•34 min
Author James Kirchick joins Margaret Hoover to talk about his new bestseller, “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington,” and the facts and fiction about gay men and women in politics and government from the FDR administration to the end of the 20th century. Gays within the federal government persistently faced suspicion, harassment, and ostracization, even as they filled vital jobs in the State Department, the intelligence services, and the White House. Kirchick recounts the moral pani...
Jul 09, 2022•50 min
Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the ramifications of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old decision that had granted a constitutional right to an abortion. “Women will die,” the pro-choice Republican warns as GOP-led states race to restrict abortion access. She also expresses concerns that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is pursuing a political agenda rather than a legal one, and that the rollback of rights ...
Jul 02, 2022•37 min
Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg joins Margaret Hoover to discuss speaking out against his party over former President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims and his recent testimony before the House January 6th Committee. Ginsberg, who represented GOP candidates for nearly 40 years, details the fallout from Trump’s election lies and the reforms to the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act that he believes could help avert chaos in 2024 and beyond. The attorney also assesses the work of th...
Jun 25, 2022•50 min
Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, joins Margaret Hoover to talk about the future of American democracy, his high-stakes reelection battle with football legend Herschel Walker, and his new book, “A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story.” As the findings of the January 6th Committee unfold, Warnock discusses the contrast between the America on display during the Capitol riot and the one that elected him to the Senate in Georgia the previous day. The senato...
Jun 18, 2022•40 min
Margaret Atwood, the renowned writer of dystopian fiction including “The Handmaid's Tale,” joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the prospect of a post-Roe v. Wade America as the country is facing this very likelihood. This updated and refreshed episode features an interview conducted just weeks before the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would reverse the landmark 1973 decision that established a federal right to abortion in America. Atwood has long predicted that Roe would eventually be o...
May 28, 2022•26 min
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt joins Margaret Hoover to discuss advances in artificial intelligence, the impact that the technology could have on humanity, and how to prepare for the future it will bring. Schmidt, who co-authored “The Age of A.I.” with Henry Kissinger and MIT computer scientist Daniel Huttenlocher, details how artificial intelligence could spur dramatic changes in medicine, warfare, and parenting. He also explains why he is more optimistic than some experts about the outlook for...
May 21, 2022•1 hr
Legal experts Mary Ziegler and Ed Whelan join Margaret Hoover to debate the constitutional issues raised by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion that would overturn the court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Whelan, a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, outlines the conservative argument against the notion of a constitutional right to abortion and calls Roe v. Wade an example of judicial activism. Ziegler, a legal historian and professor of constitutional law, says...
May 14, 2022•49 min
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield joins Margaret Hoover to talk about the global response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the conflict’s escalating consequences, and what the conflict has revealed about the need for reform at the U.N. Thomas-Greenfield has spent decades in the Foreign Service, working for both Republican and Democratic administrations. In addition to other roles around the world, she served as ambassador to Liberia and assistant secretary of stat...
May 07, 2022•29 min
Author Tina Brown joins Margaret Hoover to discuss her new book, “The Palace Papers,” and the “perilous” state of the British monarchy in the twilight of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Brown, who interviewed more than 100 sources with knowledge of the Royal Family, explains what the 96-year-old matriarch means to the British people, how the crown might modernize under her son Charles and grandson William, and why so many Americans remain fascinated by a monarchy their country fought a war to escape. B...
Apr 30, 2022•49 min
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the next phase of Russia’s invasion, the successes and failures of the Biden administration’s response, and the potential global ramifications of the conflict. Yovanovitch, author of the new book “Lessons from the Edge,” offers insight from her decades in the foreign service, including several years stationed in Kyiv. She explains why she believes the U.S. must help Ukraine prevail over Vladimir Putin’s forces t...
Apr 23, 2022•1 hr
Actor Matt Damon and engineer Gary White join Margaret Hoover to talk about the work of the organization they co-founded to confront the global water crisis, Water.org, and their new book, “The Worth of Water: Our Story of Chasing Solutions to the World's Greatest Challenge.” With 771 million people around the world living without safe water and sanitation, Water.org facilitates small loans for families in developing countries to fund their own access to water. Damon and White explain why they a...
Apr 16, 2022•47 min
As the Senate votes to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, joins Margaret Hoover in Washington to discuss the increasingly politicized confirmation process, the outside groups pressuring lawmakers to oppose qualified nominees, and the decline of public trust in the nation’s highest court. Coons acknowledges his own votes against former President Trump’s Supreme Court nominees have been “part of the problem,” but he defends ...
Apr 09, 2022•49 min
Grammy Award-winning banjo player Rhiannon Giddens joins Margaret Hoover to discuss her pursuit of the true history of her instrument and why she has set out to change perceptions of the banjo as an icon of white mountain culture. Giddens traces her path from a childhood in a mixed-race family in North Carolina to studying opera at Oberlin to learning the Black string band tradition at the feet of one of its last great practitioners. She has gone on to an acclaimed career, first as a member of t...
Apr 02, 2022•52 min
Photojournalist Lynsey Addario joins Margaret Hoover from Kyiv to discuss her coverage of the war in Ukraine, including a photo of victims of Russian artillery fire featured on the front page of The New York Times that has become a defining image of the conflict. Addario, who has been documenting combat and crisis zones around the world for over 20 years, recounts the moments of horror and humanity she has witnessed since Vladimir Putin’s invasion began last month, as well as her observations of...
Mar 26, 2022•42 min
Acclaimed author Margaret Atwood joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the legacy of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the success of Hulu’s adaptation of the 1985 novel, and the “Burning Questions” about democracy, climate change, and human rights at the heart of her new non-fiction collection. As Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine rages on, Atwood suggests the horror of the conflict may change attitudes toward defending democracy in the United States after the nation took “a bit of a breather” from standing...
Mar 19, 2022•44 min
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the fierce Ukrainian resistance, Vladimir Putin’s endgame, and the potential global fallout from the conflict. Taylor – who served as ambassador from 2006 to 2009 and returned to Kyiv as acting ambassador in 2019 before becoming a key witness in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment – assesses the Biden administration’s response to Putin’s aggressio...
Mar 12, 2022•59 min
As the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul joins Margaret Hoover to discuss Vladimir Putin’s latest provocations, the Biden administration’s response, and the possibility that the world is on the brink of “the biggest conventional war in Europe since 1939.” McFaul, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Moscow from 2012 to the eve of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, recounts his experiences negotiating with Putin and ...
Feb 19, 2022•43 min•Ep. 34
Just 24 hours before being traded from the Boston Celtics to the Houston Rockets and released from the roster, NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom tells Margaret Hoover he suspects the league is trying to silence him for speaking out against human rights abuses in China. A newly naturalized American citizen, Kanter Freedom has been increasingly vocal about the oppression of his fellow Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China and the failure of the NBA and its corporate sponsors to use their influenc...
Feb 12, 2022•27 min•Ep. 33
Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch joins Margaret Hoover at the start of Black History Month for a discussion on the importance of studying a complete history and his continued work to preserve the American story for the next generation. Bunch is the Smithsonian’s 14th secretary and is the first Black leader and the first historian to oversee the world’s largest museum, education and research institution. As founding director, he was the driving force behind the creation of the Smithsonia...
Feb 05, 2022•37 min•Ep. 32
Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the problems with education in America and her ideas to fix it. Moskowitz, who served as a Democrat in the New York City Council, founded a network of charter schools that has grown to include 20,000 students at 47 schools. She has taken on the teachers unions, a position that puts her at odds with her own party line. She is also an advocate for school choice — which more often is a Republican priority. Moskowitz responds to some...
Jan 29, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 32
Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi joins Margaret Hoover to discuss the future of the workplace, the care economy and the role companies should play in addressing problems in society. Nooyi, who has written a new memoir My Life in Full: Work, Family, and our Future , talks about her childhood in India, her decision to come to the United States and her rise up the corporate ladder. She describes her personal struggle to juggle work and family and her professional struggle to push the soda-and-snack g...
Jan 22, 2022•52 min•Ep. 30
CNN anchor, Washington Post columnist and author Fareed Zakaria discusses his latest book, Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World , assessing where the U.S. response has fallen short under both the Trump and Biden administrations and defining what he views as the long-term consequences. Zakaria also analyzes current threats to democracy at home and abroad, including the build-up of Russian troops along the border of Ukraine and what he says would be a “red line” for military intervention. As a yo...
Jan 15, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 29
Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger—an Air Force veteran and one of just two GOP lawmakers on the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack—reflects on the threats to democracy he witnessed that day and the questions the committee is attempting to answer. Kinzinger hid in his office for six hours during the siege with his gun on his desk, fearing that he may be targeted as one of the only Republicans who congratulated President-elect Biden and rejected the false claims of ele...
Jan 08, 2022•32 min•Ep. 28
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Simon & Schuster publisher Dana Canedy shares a personal story of love, loss and resilience that inspired her best-selling book and now the Denzel Washington-directed film “A Journal for Jordan.” Canedy gave her fiancé, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a journal to write to their unborn son before his deployment to Iraq. King was able to meet their son but was killed by an IED when Jordan was just six months old. King wrote hundreds of pages in the jo...
Dec 18, 2021•41 min•Ep. 25
Republican Chris Christie discusses his new book about why the GOP needs to renounce conspiracy theories — including Trump's election fraud lies — in order to win again. The former New Jersey Governor, who spent a week in intensive care fighting COVID-19, responds to new reporting that President Trump tested positive the day Christie started prepping him for the presidential debate — and neither Trump nor Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told him. When asked if he now believes Trump infected him, Chr...
Dec 11, 2021•37 min•Ep. 24
Progressive socialist Dr. Cornel West and conservative Christian thinker Dr. Robert George, the “ideological odd couple,” discuss how their disagreements over policy — and their ability to talk about them openly and respectfully — have led to an enduring friendship. Their conversation with Margaret Hoover was originally broadcast on Firing Line in February 2020 and is now available as a podcast in honor of the conversations that happen at the Thanksgiving dinner table. “When you love somebody, y...
Nov 27, 2021•26 min•Ep. 23
