Every other week this fall, we will be airing some of Alec’s favorite episodes from our archives. This week, we feature two supernovas of the musical world: acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming and the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman. Opera singer Renée Fleming, whose voice has been described as "double cream," remembers her beginnings in music, overcoming stage fright and her professional debut in this 2012 conversation. Fleming talks about the rigors of preparation for performing an...
Oct 18, 2022•54 min
Aasif Mandvi is a British-American actor, comedian, playwright and author, whose diverse career traverses Broadway, Merchant-Ivory, Marvel, television and comedy. His theater work includes Oklahoma! on Broadway, the Pulitzer-Prize winning play Disgraced and Mandvi’s off-Broadway, one man show, Sakina’s Restaurant , which explored the South Asian immigrant experience and won an Obie. He also created the Islamaphobia-tackling digital series Halal in the Family, which earned a Peabody. The former T...
Oct 11, 2022•49 min
Every other week this fall, we will be airing some of Alec’s favorite episodes from our archives. This week features two incredible authors: chronicler of Hollywood legends, Sam Wasson, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning The New Yorker writer, Lawrence Wright. Sam Wasson tackles distinctive creators and seminal moments in Hollywood history, from Blake Edwards and Paul Mazursky, to Audrey Hepburn and the history of improv. Alec loved Sam Wasson’s book, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of...
Oct 04, 2022•59 min
Alec Baldwin speaks with two individuals using media to inspire, inform – and transform – civic engagement in America. Civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger is the founder and executive director of Zealous, an organization harnessing the power of storytelling for social justice. Hechinger believes that inaccurate narratives on crime and policing help shape perception and policy - and he’s seeking to change that. With Zealous, Hechinger works with public defenders and advocates on campaigns that ...
Sep 27, 2022•56 min
Guest Host Talia Schlanger speaks to the co-creator and subjects of Netflix’s Emmy-winning series, “Love on the Spectrum.” The show, which premiered in the U.S. after two Australian seasons, follows individuals on the autism spectrum through struggles and successes in their search for love. Director and producer Cian O’Clery is joined by participant Kaelynn Partlow, who is also an autism therapist and advocate. O’Clery and Partlow share their experiences making the series and their take on tradi...
Sep 20, 2022•52 min
Author Ken Auletta has been the chief political correspondent for the New York Post , a weekly columnist for the Village Voice , contributing editor at New York magazine and contributor to The New Yorker since 1977. He is the author of twelve books, including five national bestsellers — Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way ; Greed and Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman ; The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Superhighway ; World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its...
Sep 13, 2022•46 min
It’s Alec’s turn to pick one of his most beloved episodes in the summer archive series. This week, we feature one of his favorite musicians, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, from their 2013 conversation. Over the course of a career that has lasted more than half a century, Lightfoot has achieved global stardom and exceptional influence. Bob Dylan’s a fan—he's said, “I can’t think of any [Lightfoot songs] I don’t like.” These songs—“Beautiful,” “Sundown,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” ...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min
Dr. David Starkey is one of Britain’s leading historians, with a focus on the monarchy’s history and contemporary role. His work includes numerous books and television series covering the English monarchy, particularly the wives of Henry VIII and the reign of Elizabeth I. He’s known for his regular appearances on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze , BBC 1's Question Time and This Week and most recently, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee for GBNews. Starkey was appointed Commander of the Order of the Britis...
Aug 30, 2022•38 min
Our staff picks continue at Here’s The Thing, where every other week throughout the summer, members of our team select their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s 2013 interview with acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Columbus. As a director, Columbus has brought to life some of the biggest American family films in history: Adventures in Babysitting, Home Alone , and Mrs. Doubtfire . He also wrote the screenplays of Gremlins and The Goonies , and produced and directed ...
Aug 23, 2022•53 min
Richard Stanley is a South African filmmaker, known for his boundary-pushing work in the horror and science fiction genres. Stanley grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, studying anthropology and filming tribal dance and initiation rituals. In the 90s, he directed the horror features Hardware and Dust Devil . He was then famously fired from an adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer after only three days on set, an event which later became the subject of the...
Aug 16, 2022•51 min
Every other week throughout the summer, members of the Here’s The Thing staff are selecting their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversations with two of the funniest comedians in the business – and coincidentally, two of the most popular episodes from our archives. Chris Rock is known for his work on SNL, his stand up specials, the sitcom Everybody Loves Chris and films like Madagascar and Grownups . In recent years, the comedian dove deeper into acting, in...
Aug 09, 2022•55 min
Cheryl Hines has been displaying her comedic chops for 11 seasons of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm, earning her critical acclaim and two Emmy nominations. She’s also known for her work in the feature film “Waitress,” the sitcom “Suburgatory” and most recently, the second season of “The Flight Attendant.” Hines utilized her talents behind the scenes, producing the television series “Campus Ladies” and directing the film “Serious Moonlight,” starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton. She’s also a member ...
Aug 02, 2022•38 min
Our Here’s the Thing Summer Staff Picks series continues, featuring our favorite episodes from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s interviews with two great American storytellers, Ira Glass and Alex Gibney. Ira Glass has been the host and creative force of WBEZ’s This American Life since 1995. The public radio personality revolutionized nonfiction storytelling by using a voice that's personable, modest, and emotionally engaged. Alec sat down with Ira Glass in 2014 to compare notes on inte...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Few artists have the unique voice and talent of David Sedaris, master of satire and social critique – and one of America’s preeminent humor writers. He is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Calypso, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever , having sold 12 million copies of his books, translated into 25 languages. He’s also a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4. David Se...
Jul 19, 2022•36 min
It’s summer, and every other week, members of the Here’s The Thing staff are selecting their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s interviews with two extraordinary women in media, Sheila Nevins and Tina Brown, recorded in 2017. Sheila Nevins was the head of HBO Documentary Films from 1979 until 2018 and now leads MTV Documentary Films. She has overseen the production of literally hundreds of documentaries, which have won dozens of Oscars, exerting more influence on...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Television director James Burrows has been working since the 1970s on beloved series like Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, and Will & Grace . He has directed over 1,000 hours of television, co-created the long-running, critically-acclaimed series Cheers and is the recipient of 11 Emmy Awards and a DGA Lifetime Achievement Award. His golden touch becomes apparent when you consider that a staggering 75 of the series pilots he directed, including The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men , adva...
Jul 05, 2022•39 min
Alex Ross has been a music critic at The New Yorker since 1996. His beat is classical music, but his work spans literature, history, the visual arts, film, and ecology. The MacArthur Genius Grant recipient was cited by the foundation for his ability to offer “new ways of thinking about the music of the past and its place in our future.” He is also the author of three books, “Listen to This,” “The Rest is Noise” and his most recent, “Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music,” which dive...
Jun 28, 2022•39 min
Sarah Polley is a storyteller – and a remarkable one. Whether as a precocious child actor in Road to Avonlea and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, as a documentarian unpacking her family history in Stories We Tell or as screenwriter and director of the Academy Award-nominated Away From Her, Polley is adept at portraying complex and honest depictions of humanity. And now, she is the author of a revealing and insightful collection of essays, Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of ...
Jun 21, 2022•47 min
Abe Laboriel Jr. is the drummer on speed dial for some of the biggest names in the music business, including Eric Clapton, k.d. lang, Eddie Vedder, Melissa Etheridge…and Paul McCartney, as member of McCartney’s band for the past two decades. Son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel and nephew of Mexican rocker Johnny Laboriel, the Berklee-College-of Music-trained drummer has music in his blood. He’s also had the pleasure of playing some of the biggest stages in the...
Jun 14, 2022•44 min
Writer and essayist Adam Gopnik has been called “one of the greatest thinkers and wordsmiths of our age.” He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker , to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism since 1986. The international best-selling author has penned ten titles spanning memoir, essays and children’s literature and is the recipient of three National Magazine Awards and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. Gopnik is also a talen...
Jun 07, 2022•42 min
Singer, songwriter, and composer Rufus Wainwright continues to surprise and delight with a new tour and album, Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios, paying homage to one of his heroes, Judy Garland, and her historic recording . Wainwright was practically born into songwriting as son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and touring with his family by the age of thirteen. The Juno-Award winning and Grammy-nominated artist has since defied expectations, playing with genre, from sta...
May 31, 2022•40 min
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Todd Rundgren is in a class all his own. Whether scoring Top 40 hits, playing all of the instruments on his albums or wildly experimenting with musical genres, Rundgren is continuously pushing the boundaries of creativity. That ethos and ingenuity can be found in his numerous solo albums from the 70s to present day, with his band Utopia and as a record producer for musicians like Patti Smith, The P...
May 24, 2022•41 min
If the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion is to be believed, we are on the cusp of Roe v. Wade being overturned this summer – a decision which will have wide-ranging implications for all Americans. Alec spoke with two people at the forefront of this issue: Mary Ziegler is a Professor at Florida State University College of Law, the author of four books on abortion law and politics, and one of the world’s leading authorities on the legal history of the American abortion debate. A...
May 17, 2022•50 min
Eric Ripert is chef and part-owner of one of New York’s flagship fine-dining establishments, Le Bernardin. For three decades with Ripert at the helm, Le Bernardin has ranked at the top of the world's best restaurant lists and holds three Michelin stars, the maximum available. Ripert is also the author of several cookbooks and a best-selling memoir – and was host of the Emmy-winning tv show “AVEC ERIC.” Ripert shares with Alec stories from his culinary training, how ...
May 10, 2022•41 min
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine stretching into its third month, the Ukrainian people continue to valiantly fight for their right to sovereignty and democracy. Our guests today join Alec to discuss the situation on the ground in Ukraine and how they are working to ensure the stories of the Ukrainian people reach the world. Bryce Wilson is an Australian freelance photojournalist whose work has focused on the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine’s east since 2015. He shares his experi...
May 03, 2022•50 min
Called one of the “Top 10 Comedians You Need to Know” by Rolling Stone , Tim Dillon is a whirlwind of hot takes and sharp observations about pop culture and society. His darkly funny brand of humor can be found touring around the world and on “The Tim Dillon Show,” his weekly podcast. Dillon has been featured on Netflix and Comedy Central specials and graced the stages of the Glasgow Comedy Festival and South by Southwest. Tim and Alec speak of the importance of comedy th...
Apr 26, 2022•39 min
Canadian documentary film director Daniel Roher is known for his 2019 film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, which features the elite of rock and roll, including Springsteen and Clapton. Bulgarian investigative journalist Christov Grozev is the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, an open-source journalism group. The two collaborated on the documentary “Navalny,” which was directed by Roher and has received widespread acclaim from critics and moviegoers. The gri...
Apr 19, 2022•43 min
Vicky Ward is a New York Times bestselling author, investigative reporter, and magazine columnist. Her work has been featured in The Independent, HuffPost and Vanity Fair, and focuses on the intersection of money, power and corruption. She has reported on Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell for two decades, an undertaking that culminated in dispatches from the Ghislaine Maxwell trial through her Substack newsletter “Vicky Ward Investigates,” and the Chasing Ghis...
Apr 12, 2022•45 min
Norwegian pianist and conductor Leif Ove Andsnes has been called “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation” by The Wall Street Journal . He has won worldwide acclaim, eleven Grammys nominations, and six Gramophone Awards. In 2012, Andnses partnered with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for an ambitious multi-year project titled “The Beethoven Journey,” performing all five piano concertos in 15 countries across three continents. Recently, Andsnes and the Mahler Chamb...
Apr 05, 2022•42 min
Rory Kennedy is a documentary filmmaker and the youngest child of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy. She is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy Award-winning director and producer who has made more than 40 acclaimed documentaries. Her work confronts complicated subjects like poverty, corruption, domestic abuse, addiction and human rights, as well as surfing legends, NASA and the extraordinary life of her mother. Her latest film, “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,” on the two tragic Boe...
Mar 29, 2022•38 min
