Podcasts by Heres The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin takes listeners into the lives of artists, policy makers and performers. Alec sidesteps the predictable by going inside the dressing rooms, apartments, and offices of people we want to understand better: Ira Glass, Lena Dunham, David Letterman, Barbara Streisand, Tom Yorke, Chris Rock and others. Hear what happens when an inveterate guest becomes a host.

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
from 2021-09-21T23:52:48.246506

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
from 2021-09-21T23:52:48.245876

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things, Part 1 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Today, Alec announces that Here’s The Thing is moving from WNYC to iHeartRadio. For nearly a decade, Alec has spoken with some of the greatest artists, musicians, actors, writers, thinkers, public ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Jordan Klepper Has Gone from Comedy to Farce from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Jordan Klepper is a very funny person, and Comedy Central took notice, making him one of their go-to stars: he's hosted his own late-night talk show and two excellent documentary series for the net...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Marc Kudisch Plays Questionable Men from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Marc Kudisch is a Broadway staple. With three Tony nominations, he has played such roles as The Proprietor in Assassins, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and the sexist blowhard boss in Dolly Parton...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Legacies of Vietnam from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Today, Alec speaks with two colleagues he’s known for a long time, Brian Delate and Dick Hughes -- both actors whose lives were touched by the Vietnam War. Delate, Alec’s first guest, served in Vie...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Alec Dives into "The Dating Market" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Writers Kaitlyn Tiffany and Ashley Fetters may be the country’s most astute observers of modern romance.  Fetters even wrote the definitive history of Tinder.  Alec discovered their jointly written...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Ramona Diaz Decodes the Motherland from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz says each of her films is a “yearning for the motherland.”  She’s in a unique position, as she says, able to “decode” the Philippines for the rest of the wor...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Take a Listen to "Tribeca Talks" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Tribeca Film Festival has launched a new podcast, Tribeca Talks, and we want you to know about it.  Here's a conversation Alec had with director Guillermo Del Toro at last year's Tribeca Film F...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Everybody Loves Stanley Tucci from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec and Stanley Tucci have only been on set together a couple of times, but they established a rapport deep enough to carry over into a Zoom interview more than a decade later.  The two share stor...

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Ingrid Newkirk Was a Deputy Sheriff Before She Founded PETA from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Ingrid Newkirk is the co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. It may be America’s best-known animal rights organization thanks to legal sophistication, scientific seriou...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Micky Dolenz on How The Monkees Went from TV Band to Real-Life Band from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Micky Dolenz was a successful child-actor, but he became a full-fledged star at 20 in 1966 as the exuberant singer and drummer of The Monkees -- or rather, as the actor playing that character.  At ...

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On a Zoom Call with Woody Allen from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Woody Allen's new book, Apropos of Nothing, starts with a portrait of his father, a tough-guy World War One Navy veteran and onetime gunman in a firing squad.  It's the first of a series of surpris...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
New York City's Post-COVID Future from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In the midst of a crisis it can be healthy to think of what comes after.  In this episode of Here's the Thing, two of the most influential New Yorkers when it comes to long-term economic planning j...

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In Memoriam: Wynn Handman from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Over a 70-year career, Wynn Handman added sharpness and craft to the natural talents of actors including Christopher Walken, Allison Janney, Raul Julia, Richard Gere, James Caan, Anna Deveare Smith...

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Brian De Palma on Scarface, Mission: Impossible, and the Movie He Made in College from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Brian De Palma's astonishingly diverse hits as a director include Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Raising Cain, Carlito’s Way, and Mission: Impossible.  He wrote ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Daryl Hall Invites Alec In from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Hall & Oates is the biggest-selling vocal duo in history.  "Maneater," "Rich Girl," "You Make My Dreams Come True," and countless other hits will be beloved for generations.  So Daryl Hall has long...

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In Memoriam: Patricia Bosworth from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec and Patti Bosworth became friends serving together on the board of the Actors Studio.  When Bosworth died of complications from COVID-19, it wasn't just a loss to the literary and theatrical w...

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Anjelica Huston on Modeling, Movie-Making, and a Life in the Spotlight from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Anjelica Huston has lived many lives, all with grace and charisma.  As the daughter of John Huston (director of The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, and more) she was movie royalty from birth.  B...

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Butch Walker's Awesomely Diverse Rock Résumé from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Butch Walker is one of rock and roll's biggest talents, and on May 8th, he'll be releasing his new album -- a rock opera called American Love Story.  You can preview one of the songs on today's epi...

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Eliza Shapiro on School Closures, the Big Picture -- and Probably Getting Coronavirus from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

New York Times reporter Eliza Shapiro ranks high on the list of the most powerful people in education because "no one on the education beat is a sharper – or more effective – thorn in the side of c...

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Revealing Barry Sonnenfeld from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Barry Sonnenfeld was among Hollywood's most in-demand cinematographers (Big, When Harry Met Sally, Misery) when he decided to make the switch to directing in 1991.  The producers were nervous, but ...

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The Luminous Kelli O'Hara from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For more than a decade, Kelli O'Hara has been at the very top of the Broadway heap.  She gets called "luminous" so often that it must get really very, very tiring.  It's been a remarkable journey f...

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Russ Tamblyn, from DeMille to David Lynch from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Russ Tamblyn was born in Los Angeles in the middle of the Depression to a chorus girl and a Broadway "song and dance man."  His father had moved his growing family west to press his luck in the tal...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Oscars Series, Day 5: For Sama, This Year's Most Powerful Documentary from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week, in honor of the upcoming Academy Awards, Here's the Thing brings you a collection of conversations with Oscar-winners -- and, today, with a pair of 2020 nominees.  They are Waad Al-Katea...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Oscars Series, Day 4: Spike Lee from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week, in honor of the upcoming Academy Awards, Here's the Thing brings you a collection of conversations with Oscar-winners -- including one new interview, coming tomorrow, with the creative t...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Oscars Series Day 3: Julianne Moore from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week, in honor of the upcoming Academy awards, Here's the Thing brings you a collection of conversations with Oscar-winners -- including one new interview with the creative team of 2020 Best D...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Oscars Series, Day 2: Cameron Crowe from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week, in honor of the upcoming Academy awards, Here's the Thing brings you a collection of conversations with Oscar-winners -- including one new interview with the creative team of 2020 Best D...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Oscars Series, Day 1: Barbra Streisand from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week, in honor of the upcoming Academy awards, Here's the Thing brings you a collection of conversations with Oscar-winners -- including one new interview coming Friday with the creative team ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Kantor and Twohey: The Reporters Who Broke the Harvey Weinstein Story from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story.  For five months -- perpetually in danger of losing the scoop -- they cultivated and cajoled sour...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Wynton Marsalis, Keeper of the Jazz Flame from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Wynton Marsalis was on the cover of Time as the avatar of the "New Jazz Age."  His central role in reviving the genre is thanks partly to his gorgeous, virtuosic trumpet-playing, and partly to his ...

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Julie Andrews, Revisited from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We often think of Julie Andrews as the prim nanny from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, but her personal path may have the greatest resemblance to one of her Broadway roles: Eliza Doolittle in ...

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Noah Baumbach Gets Personal in Marriage Story from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Director Noah Baumbach is known for messy and realistic family dramas. The Squid and The Whale chronicles divorce within a family; Margot at the Wedding explores the relationship between two sister...

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Is Cristina Tzintzun Texas Democrats' Best Bet for the Senate? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The last Democrat elected to the Senate seat Cristina Tzintzun has her sights on was Lyndon Johnson.  Republican takeovers are just a fact of life in the South.  And yet in some places, there's lig...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
And Another Thing, with Errol Morris from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec wanted to know a few more things about Errol Morris's work -- so he set up a call!

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Errol Morris on Steve Bannon, Self-Loathing, and Life as a Private Eye from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Errol Morris’s documentaries are visually unmistakable, whether they’re about pet cemeteries or the morally bankrupt "great men" of American history.  Thanks to his optical invention, the "Interrot...

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Edward Norton on Directing – and His Directors from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Edward Norton gets into every aspect of filmmaking, even when he comes to the set as an actor.  He's helped rewrite scripts, and sometimes gets intimately involved in editing, as was the case with ...

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Judith Light Once Told Her Agent, "No Soaps, No Sitcoms" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Judith Light has an unequaled emotional and tonal range as an actor.  She also has a shape-shifting physicality that made her entirely convincing both as the shuffling yenta Shelly Pfefferman in Tr...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Peter Bergman, King of the Soaps from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Peter Bergman is the dean of soap opera actors.  His portrayal of Dr. Cliff Warner on All My Children from 1979 to 1989 overlapped precisely with the era when soap operas were America's great guilt...

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Lang Lang Plays from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Dubbed “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” by The New York Times, pianist Lang Lang has reached a level of stardom rare for classical musicians.  But his prominence is hard-won.  Ale...

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James Caan: Last of the Tough-Guy Movie Stars from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

At the end of the 1950s, James Caan, son of a German-Jewish butcher, had been kicked out of ROTC and was too poor to finish college on his own. He started a job for his godfather unpacking meat alo...

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How to Run a Small-Town Paper When Your Town Is East Hampton from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Since 2004, 1300 towns across America have lost local newspaper coverage.  2004 was also the first full year David Rattray, the third generation of his family to own the East Hampton Star, served a...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Donna Schaper, Radical Reverend from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Reverend Donna Schaper of New York's Judson Memorial Church leads her flock of 300 through life's sacraments like any pastor.  But she has a national profile, too, appearing in print and on tel...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Matthew Landfield's Wildly Deep History of His Childhood Home from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec Baldwin and Matthew Landfield crossed paths one time before their Here's the Thing interview.  In early 2001, Alec was shooting a movie in front of 31 Desbrosses Street in New York's Tribeca n...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
A Major Conservatory President Who Knows the Life of a Working Musician from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Six years ago the Board of the Manhattan School of Music faced a daunting decision: who would guide the school into its second century?  They turned to someone with a long history with the school, ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Brian Lehrer Comes to Here's the Thing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Brian Lehrer is a unique figure in the public life of New York City.  Beyond hosting the city's defining daily talk show, he's our conscience and our conciliator.  When New Yorkers want a fair mayo...

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Julie Brown UPDATED: Acosta's Epstein Explanations Are "Ridiculous," "Disingenuous" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alexander Acosta has resigned from his position as Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration.  That's because of the sweetheart deal he cut politically connected financier Jeffrey Epstein back...

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Kristen Bell Chooses Her Lane from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Actor Kristen Bell (The Good Place, Frozen, Veronica Mars) has a happy marriage that requires a lot of work, and she’s good with that. She considered a life in the theater as a student at NYU, even...

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These Three People Say They Can Fix the Subway from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Corey Johnson wants to be the next mayor of New York, and the press seems to think he will be.  His plan to fix transit is the centerpiece of his platform.  Tom Wright is the CEO of the powerful Re...

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The Art of the Art Deal from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec looks at the art world from two angles -- from someone in it, and from someone who has observed the world from a distance. First, writer Michael Shnayerson -- his latest book, Boom, gives an e...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Here’s The Thing Trailer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Join award-winning actor Alec Baldwin in conversation with some of the most dynamic artists, policymakers, and performers working today. This season, Alec will talk with Kristen Bell about marriage...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Adam Schiff Tells All: Could Have Gone to Med School, Mom Livid from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

California Congressman Adam Schiff weighs both sides of the impeachment debate and speaks out forcefully on Iran.  Plus why his childhood in Massachusetts had an influence on his future career, why...

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How Julie Brown Broke Open the Jeffrey Epstein Story from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald conceived, reported, and wrote one of the most explosive criminal justice stories in recent memory. She revealed the shutting down of an FBI investigation that may h...

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Moby on Living Large and Falling Hard from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Moby had already put out four studio albums when Play was released in 1999. He was solidly into his 30s, playing gigs in record stores and thinking about a career-change. But Play, against all expe...

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Jeff Daniels Was Supposed to Take Over the Family Lumber Business from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

By 1976, college student Jeff Daniels was pretty sure he didn't want to follow his father into the Michigan lumber trade.  But he wasn't sure he could make it as a working actor -- until one of the...

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Jane Mayer on Thomas, Trump, and Twitter from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The New Yorker’s marquee investigative journalist, Jane Mayer has been a thorn in the side of three presidents, two Supreme Court justices, and, most recently, Fox News.  She tells Alec stories fro...

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Perta: Life Just Before Rock Stardom from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The band Perta has landed a glossy magazine profile and is represented by star-making talent agents WME. They've got big labels knocking at the door, attracted by a stunningly talented frontman and...

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Geoffrey Horne and the Mysterious Disappearance of a Dreamboat from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Barely out of college in the mid-1950s, Geoffrey Horne was a heartthrob TV star with acting chops to rival the greatest talents of his day. In '57 David Lean gave him a breakout role in his masterp...

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Sarah Kliff and the Insane Saga of American Emergency Room Bills from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

America’s most famous healthcare expert was actually born in Canada! The Vox reporter and all-around policy guru explains how, in a country with entrenched interests similar to ours, progressives m...

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Itzhak Perlman Cracks Wise from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The legendary violinist talks about his difficult childhood, stricken by polio in the war-torn early days of Israeli statehood -- and laughs about his early success, whisked away to the United Stat...

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Steven Lee Myers' Putin Primer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Russia has glittering towers and a jet-set elite, but grinding rural poverty.  It has one of the world’s great literary traditions, but throws dissenters in jail for a blog post. Who is Vladimir Pu...

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Climate Science, Explained from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

How can Earth Scientists and programmers really make predictions about the climate?  What are the ethics of having kids in a warming world? How to combat the disastrous politicization of the issue?...

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The Delightful Deviant Behind "The Human Centipede" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This episode talks about a movie whose premise might be disturbing to some. The Human Centipede wasn't in every multiplex when it came out in 2010, but the film is now firmly a part of American cu...

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She Helped Create "Chaos at the Airports" after Trump's Muslim Ban from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

On January 27th, 2017, Donald Trump issued the travel ban barring visitors and migrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Becca Heller, founder of the International Refugee Assistance Proj...

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Carly Simon Was Afraid of the Spotlight, and Still Is -- Revisited from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

It’s hard, if not impossible, to imagine the 1970s without Carly Simon. After opening for Cat Stevens at LA's Troubadour in 1971, she gained near instant fame, winning a Grammy for Best New Artist ...

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The Eternal Phantom: Davis Gaines from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Few actors are as deeply associated with a character as Davis Gaines is with the Phantom of the Opera. When the Kennedy Center honored Hal Prince, Phantom’s original director, they turned to Gaines...

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Billy Joel, Revisited from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Billy Joel has sold more records than The Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna—though the “rock star thing” is something he can “take off.” Joel started playing piano when he was about four or fi...

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Questlove Can't Take a Compliment, Revisited from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Few musicians can compete with the encyclopedic musical knowledge that Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson possesses—which is great news if you got to be a student of his at NYU. When not teaching music his...

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Emilio Estevez Is Making Great Films, Doesn't Do Breakfast Club Reunions from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

By the time Emilio Estevez was 23, he'd starred in The Outsiders, Repo Man, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo’s Fire.  As the son of Martin Sheen, he was Hollywood royalty, and as a member of the "b...

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The Restaurant Whisperer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Debra Kletter's job is to be food-guru to some of the world's most discerning palates.  Once one of New York theater's most respected lighting designers, Kletter found herself in the early 1990s di...

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Roger Daltrey, Founder and Lead Singer of The Who from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Roger Daltrey put The Who together while working in a sheet-metal factory.  The band took many forms before settling into the guitar-smashing, mic-swinging amalgam of testosterone and sensitivity t...

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Ben and Jerry Warm Up from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In the late 70s, Ben Cohen was a rootless pottery teacher, laid off when his school closed down.  Jerry Greenfield was a diligent pre-med, realizing he was never going to get into med school.  They...

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American Alexandria: Susan Orlean on the Great LA Library Fire from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As a staff-writer at the New Yorker, Susan Orlean has embedded with fertility shamans in Bhutan and profiled a dog (a boxer named Biff).  Her book The Orchid Thief inspired one of the most successf...

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Maggie Gyllenhaal Knows What She Wants from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Maggie Gyllenhaal's in a good place right now, at least as far as work and family go.  Her latest starring role is as a troubled teacher named Lisa Spinelli in The Kindergarten Teacher.  It's an un...

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The Dual Life of SNL's Steve Higgins from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Steve Higgins has two jobs. At 4:30 every day, 4 days a week, Steve announces The Tonight Show, sticks around to play Jimmy Fallon’s straight man, and then runs back upstairs at 30 Rock to keep wor...

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The Passion of Flynn McGarry from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

After his parents divorced, 10-year-old Flynn McGarry wanted to feel useful, and maybe to reassert some control over his environment, too.  So he started cooking for his mom, Meg.  A passion was bo...

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The Money Man Behind America's Biggest Concerts from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Ron Delsener is a working-class kid from Queens who rode his charm and his hustle all the way to the top of the music industry. He basically created the genre of the massive outdoor concert with hi...

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The Hidden Trove of Musicals by Broadway's Greatest Talents from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

After watching an early copy of the forthcoming documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, Alec became fascinated by the film's quietly hilarious hero, Steve Young.  As part of his job as a writer for the...

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Spike Lee Live at Tribeca from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This affectionate, funny conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the Tribeca Film Festival, and garnered articles in the Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, BET, and beyond.  The head...

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Pete Souza, Photographer to Reagan and Obama, Would Turn Down Trump from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Having followed a steep path from his working-class immigrant family in Massachusetts to the pinnacle of American photography, Pete Souza ended up working for both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama --...

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Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Rethinking Vietnam from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The vast ambition of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PBS documentary The Vietnam War has precedents, but most of them are other Burns and Novick documentaries.  The two directors' collaborations -- inc...

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Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf on Lady Bird and Lady Barr from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Note: this interview was recorded before Roseanne's tweet and the subsequent cancellation of the show. Alec says he has never enjoyed being on-stage with a fellow actor more than when he performed...

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A Fresh Look at the Death and Life of RFK from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

June 5th is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.  It was one of the formative events in Alec's childhood, and in the life of his father.  The release of Dawn Porter's bri...

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Kubrick's Right-Hand Leading Man from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Tony Zierra’s documentary Filmworker, opening May 11, highlights the best of movie-making.  It sings an unsung hero, and through him, all the unsung heroes of Hollywood. Actor Leon Vitali got his ...

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Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Schneiderman sat down with Alec last Thursday, just before news broke in the New Yorker that four women have accused him of, in the magazine's words, "non-consensual physical violence."  In the con...

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David Crosby: Don't Call It a Comeback from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Some combination of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young played together for 50 years until 2016. The group survived even Crosby's near-total dissolution under the influence of cocaine and heroin. That ...

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CNN's Jeffrey Toobin Is Not Just a Talking Head from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Jeffrey Toobin is such a TV institution as a legal commentator that it can be hard to imagine him in casual clothes, outside a news studio.  But it was the real, flesh-and-blood Jeff that showed up...

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Did the Moody Blues Save Alec Baldwin from a Life of Crime? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Alec is a BIG fan of Justin Hayward -- vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for The Moody Blues, pioneers of complex orchestral arrangements in rock.  As he tells it, their songs were the only thing...

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The Turnaround Artist: Janice Min on Magazines and #Metoo from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Daughter of a science professor and an IRS agent, a double-graduate of Columbia herself, Janice Min turned her talents in the early 2000s to the glossy magazine Us Weekly. Celebrity journalism has ...

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The Fast Times and Long Career of Cameron Crowe from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Cameron Crowe's teenage years are familiar to anyone who's seen his autobiographical Almost Famous: 16-year-old writing prodigy convinces Jan Wenner and Rolling Stone to let him tour with and profi...

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Michael Wolff, Chronicler of Chaos in Trumpland from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Michael Wolff’s Trumpland tell-all, Fire and Fury, has set Washington ablaze with its terrifying (and controversial) depiction of a White House in chaos.  But all the focus has been on the White Ho...

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Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone: a Legacy Built on Solid Rock from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

There was no such thing as serious rock journalism when Jann Wenner borrowed money to ink the first issue of Rolling Stone onto cheap newsprint in 1967.  His creation changed the landscape of both ...

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Kyle MacLachlan on 28 Years of Twin Peaks' *Blowing Your Mind* from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

"The feeling of power" that comes from playing a dark, diabolical role?  Kyle MacLachlan tells Alec, "I get it." "It’s not something you want to abuse, or let exist other than when that camera is ...

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Brilliant Minds of Trash and Sewage from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

New York City generates 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater every day. 16 million pounds of trash. Eight million pounds of recyclables. Think of the awesome engineering and effort behind making all o...

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Farmer Hoggett in the Slammer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

From the humane wisdom of Farmer Hoggett in Babe to the simmering evil of Captain Dudley Smith in L.A. Confidential, James Cromwell realizes his roles with unmatched emotional honesty. He brings th...

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John Dean: Watergate's Legacy in the Age of Trump from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

When John Dean found his conscience, America found its backbone and impeached a president. The Nixon Administration tried to undermine American democracy during the election of 1972 through now-leg...

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Alan Gilbert Is Leaving the NY Phil Even Better than He Found It from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

When two people who really love something talk about what they love, the exuberance is contagious.  Alec Baldwin, a New York Philharmonic board-member since 2011, and Alan Gilbert, the outgoing Mus...

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Tina Brown Was in the Room Where It Happened from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Nobody chronicled the go-go 80s like Tina Brown. Her creation, Vanity Fair, wrote that decade’s cultural history as it happened.  It was also part of the story: its fashion-spreads, celebrity gossi...

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Steve Erickson Saw Trumpism Coming from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

American Weimar, novelist Steve Erickson’s 1995 essay on threats to American democracy, has always been among Alec Baldwin’s favorite pieces of writing.  But last year, when all of the chickens Eri...

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A Visit to Barbra's Place from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Barbra Streisand has had multiplatinum albums every decade going back to the 60s.  She’s got Emmys, Oscars, Grammys, and a Tony.  She’s as big as a star gets, and she’s gotten there not despite but...

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Bernie Sanders Thinks Democrats Are Still Way Off-Course from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

It was just 15 months ago that Bernie Sanders ended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, but by his own telling, he’s already converted that political insurgency into a movement...

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Burton Cummings: the Canadian Man behind "American Woman" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For a while The Guess Who and frontman Burton Cummings were as big as it gets.  And if you’re Canadian, they’re even bigger -- the first huge Canadian rock ’n roll act, paving the way for border-cr...

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HBO's Sheila Nevins Makes Docs Hot from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As head of HBO Documentary Films since 1979, Sheila Nevins has exerted more influence on the medium than perhaps anyone in its history. She has overseen the production of literally hundreds of docu...

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Brando, Robert Frost and the Other Men in Patricia Bosworth's Life from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Mark Twain once likened biographies to “the clothes and buttons of the man” saying “the biography of the man himself, cannot be written.” The quote is a favorite of Patricia Bosworth, a 1950s model...

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How Charles Munn is Saving the Amazon from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Charles Munn's quest to save the Amazon revolves around one theory: if people see the beauty in nature, they’ll fight to protect it. So far, he’s right. Over four decades, the American conservation...

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Audra McDonald is the "Luckiest Survivor in the World" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Much like the staggering beauty of her voice, Audra McDonald is impossible to ignore. The only artist to sweep all four acting categories at the Tony’s, she’s the most decorated Broadway star of al...

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Yes, Jon Anderson's Musical Adventure Isn't Over from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Many words can be used to describe singer-songwriter Jon Anderson; cautious is not one of them. Born in England in 1944, he began singing on his brother’s daily route as a milkman before falling he...

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'The Godfather’ Made Sofia Coppola Protective of Actors from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Before Sofia Coppola could talk, she was in movies, famously playing an infant in her father Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece The Godfather. She’d appear in the next one too, as an immigrant girl...

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Philip Galanes Lies Like a Rug from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Philip Galanes is a man of many words—which comes as no surprise to his family, who grew up listening to him read Dear Abby columns aloud. An avid reader and passionate wordsmith, he returned to hi...

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Joe Jackson Suffers No Fools from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Combining three musical genres in your debut album may be risky, but Joe Jackson never cared about playing it safe. In 1979, his first LP Look Sharp! did just that—weaving pop, ska, and punk togeth...

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Carly Simon Was Afraid of the Spotlight - and Still Is from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

It’s hard, if not impossible, to imagine the 1970s without Carly Simon. After opening for Cat Stevens at LA's Troubadour in 1971, she gained near instant fame, winning a Grammy for Best New Artist ...

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Brian Reed Thought "S-Town" Could Only Ever Be a Cult Show from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Good stories teach us about humankind, great ones change the way we see it. For many, S-Town -- a seven episode series about an eccentric Alabama horologist named John B. McLemore -- has done just ...

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Tony Hendra on the Essentiality of Satire from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

British-born comedian, actor, and writer Tony Hendra knows a thing or two about mocking politicians. As one of the first editors of the American humor magazine the National Lampoon, he helped perfe...

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Alec Baldwin in the Hot Seat from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Here’s The Thing listeners are used to hearing Alec ask the questions, but for this bonus episode, he’s the guest! To mark the publication of his new memoir, Nevertheless, Alec talk about money, dr...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Mark Farner: The Cussing Christian of Rock and Roll from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Grand Funk Railroad's lead vocalist talks to Alec Baldwin about his Christian faith and writing one of his greatest hits in the middle of a fight with his first wife.

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Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman Take it Slow in Work and in Love from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman are famous for creating iconic TV characters on two beloved sitcoms, "Will & Grace" and "Parks and Recreation." But they also have a life together off screen. They'...

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Vogue's Grace Coddington Doesn't Want To Think Much About What She Wears from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

These days, legendary fashion editor Grace Coddington tends to wear black—her way of remaining a “blank slate” at the fashion shoots she runs. But it wasn’t long ago that she herself was the vessel...

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Scott Chaskey is America's Favorite Farmer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Farmer, poet, and pioneer of the community farming movement, Scott Chaskey is the kind of progressive thinker that doesn't come around often. Weaving together his passion for farming and prose, the...

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Thelma Schoonmaker: Martin Scorsese's Secret Weapon from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Thelma Schoonmaker—with a face and demeanor like your favorite grade school teacher—may be the last person you’d imagine to helm the epic violence of Martin Scorsese’s films. Yet this earnest, soft...

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John Turturro’s Mind at Work from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

It’s hard to imagine John Turturro—an award-winning actor, director, and writer—feeling inadequate. But even today, the big-hearted 59-year-old says he’s “still learning” his craft. Raised by Itali...

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The Wonderful Life of Debbie Reynolds from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Last month, as our listeners know, Debbie Reynolds died on December 28th – one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher, died, on December 27th. Alec talked to Debbie Reynolds over three years ago for...

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Questlove Can't Take a Compliment from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Few musicians can compete with the encyclopedic musical knowledge that Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson possesses—which is great news if you got to be a student of his at NYU. When not teaching music his...

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Patti Smith Never Wanted to Be Famous from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Patti Smith defined punk rock in 1978 with her hit song Because the Night, but the New Jersey native was never looking for fame. A lover of poetry, art, and creative expression, it was the desire t...

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Robbie Robertson Learned Music on an Indian Reservation from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

At age 15, Robbie Robertson packed up his guitar and took a train from Canada to the Mississippi Delta—or as he calls it, the “holy land of rock n’ roll.” Inspired by his Mohawk relatives' musical ...

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Eric Fanning Says Combat a Last Resort from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Eric Fanning didn’t think there was a place for him in a "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" military, but today he’s Secretary of the US Army. He is the first openly gay leader of the armed forces. Fanning wa...

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Sandra Bernhard: Post-Modern Entertainer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Born in Flint, Michigan, Sandra Bernhard was raised in a conservative Jewish family. She spent 8 months on a kibbutz out of high school, then moved to LA in 1974 at age 19 and enrolled in beauty sc...

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Michael Stipe on R.E.M. and Fear of Collage from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In the 1980s, Athens, Georgia, rock band R.E.M. was the epitome of the artful "alternative" band— producing a string of beautiful, if occasionally inscrutable albums, and slowly evolving over time....

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Gordon Lightfoot on Dylan, Neil Young, and Stompin' Tom Connors from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Over the course of a career that has lasted more than half a century, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has achieved global stardom and exceptional influence. Bob Dylan’s a fan—he's said,...

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Radio Host Bob Garfield on Trump and Telemarketing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Each week, more than 400 radio stations across the country air "On The Media," a program that takes a hard look at the boldfaced names in the headlines—and the smaller names in the bylines. The pro...

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Starbucks' Howard Schultz Doesn't Sleep—But Don't Blame the Coffee from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Howard Schultz wasn't born into business. A Brooklyn boy whose father worked menial jobs to support the family, Schultz thought his way out would be through sport. That is, however, until he broke ...

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Elliott Gould: Mash Notes on a Long Career from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Elliott Gould has lived a life in show business. He was just 12 when he started singing and dancing in a vaudeville routine in 1951. Dancing has been a fixture: Gould says he tangoed with his mothe...

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Iris Smyles Is Trying to Be a Human Again from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In Iris Smyles' new book "Dating Tips for the Unemployed," the main character 'Iris Smyles' embarks on a personal journey (modeled on Homer's "Odyssey") that involves plenty of emotional shipwrecks...

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Kevin Kline Takes a Bow, Several Times from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Kevin Kline is one of the most acclaimed entertainers working today. So how did the kid from St. Louis end up with an Oscar, two Tony awards, and a career that has intersected with those of Meryl S...

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Nuclear Safety Isn't Just About Who Has the Codes from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Gregory Jaczko didn't grow up aspiring to work on the country's central nuclear energy oversight body, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He had a freshly-minted Ph.D. in physics when he recei...

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Viggo Mortensen, From Warrior King to Captain Fantastic from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Viggo Mortensen became a global star as a valiant crusading king in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But then he deftly complicated this virtuous image with a series of dark, dense ...

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Michael Eisner Wants a Good Movie to End Quickly from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Michael Eisner started out in show business the same way everybody else does: by taking tickets at the studio door. But most ticket takers don't end up as epochal media magnates. Eisner rose to pro...

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Joe Dallesandro Thought Warhol Made Soup from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Joe Dallesandro became famous as a shaggy-haired blond Adonis in the iconoclastic and transgressive Andy Warhol-produced films Flesh, Trash, and Heat, in which he helped to rewrite the rules for on...

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Netflix's 'Making a Murderer' Makes a Star from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The massively popular Netflix series Making a Murderer explores the circumstances surrounding a homicide in small-town Wisconsin, and highlights the ways the criminal justice system failed defendan...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Michael Pollan Tried to Blow Up a Woodchuck from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Michael Pollan says that every writer has a "final question," an irreducible topic to which all their work tends. For Pollan, that topic has always been nature — specifically, the ways in which the...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Anthony Weiner on Term Limits and Text Messages from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This interview was conducted in April 2016, prior to new reports that Anthony Weiner continued to be involved in explicit text and digital message exchanges. Anthony Weiner is charismatic, full of...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Ellie Kemper Gets Brain Freeze with Alec Baldwin from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Ellie Kemper leapt into pop culture consciousness in 2009 when she joined the cast of "The Office" during the show's fifth season. Her portrayal of earnest, perky receptionist Erin Hannon introduce...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Mary Brosnahan on Homelessness in New York from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Mary Brosnahan recalls a trip she took to Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the height of The Troubles: she was 16, raised in a Detroit suburb, but here she saw soldiers deployed with rifles right ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Cary Fukunaga Wanted to Be a Snowboarder from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Director Cary Fukunaga was born half-Japanese, half-Swedish. His works travel wide cultural distances, as well. He's told an immigrant story (Sin Nombre), created authentic British period drama (Ja...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Steven Donziger: Oil and Its Aftermath from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In 1993, tens of thousands of native Ecuadorians filed a civil suit against oil giant Texaco, alleging that the corporation's activity in the country's north-east Lago Agrio oil fields resulted in ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
MSF's Joanne Liu Still Believes War Has Rules from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Joanne Liu is the the International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), a non-governmental organization that administers humanitarian medical aid and assistance to war-...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Molly Ringwald: 'These Films No Longer Belong to Me' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

For movie fans who came of age in the 1980s, Molly Ringwald is the definitive "it" girl. As the creative inspiration for director John Hughes, Ringwald was the de facto center of generationally-sig...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Still Plenty of Fight in Mickey Rourke from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Mickey Rourke started boxing as a young man as a way to cope with a rough home and a rough neighborhood. He was undefeated as an amateur in the ring, before coming to New York to study at The Actor...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
The Making of 'Making a Murderer' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In 1985, Steven Avery was convicted and imprisoned for sexual assault in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. He served nearly two decades of his sentence before being exonerated on the basis of new forens...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Dustin Hoffman and Edie Falco from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In anticipation of a new season of Here's The Thing, we're looking back at some of our favorite interviews from 2015.  The Graduate. Midnight Cowboy. Lenny. That's just the beginning of Dustin Hof...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Sarah Jessica Parker and Ian Schrager from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

It's a new year — and soon, a new season of Here's The Thing. So today we're looking back at two of our favorite interviews from 2015. After shooting the pilot for Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
A Classical Icon Who Has a Lot to Say for L.A. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The London Philharmonia is one of the world's great performing ensembles; over its seventy year history, it has engaged conductors as distinguished as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, Richard...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Peter Asher's Long and Winding Road from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As a singer, guitarist, producer, and manager, Peter Asher has been at the center of some of the most important music - and moments - of the rock era. In 1964, he was just 19 when his London-based ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Jimmy Fallon Will Never Make Fun of You from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

When Jimmy Fallon landed a spot on Saturday Night Live in 1998, he told executive producer and comedy kingmaker Lorne Michaels, "I'm going to make you proud." Six years later, Fallon departed as...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Andrew Berman and Rob Snyder on Preserving What Matters from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Growth comes with costs. On this episode of Here's The Thing, Alec Baldwin talks to two individuals who are protecting places that are most vulnerable to development and destruction. 

And...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Amy Schumer Grew Up in a Nude House from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Amy Schumer says she's been called the "girl next door, fastest-rising comic" for ten years. But it's more true than it's ever been, given three high profile successes in 2015: her increasingly ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Dan Rather Tells Alec Baldwin the 'Truth' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Dan Rather was the host and anchor of CBS Evening News for more than twenty years. He resigned the post in the wake of an investigation into then-President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era military ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Carol Burnett from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Carol Burnett's stage and screen career is one of the great showbiz success stories. From her early days on Broadway, to the 11-season run of The Carol Burnett Show, to her luminous big...

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William Friedkin Paid Off the MTA to Make 'The French Connection' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

William Friedkin is the director of more than twenty films, among them "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection." For the latter, Friedkin won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Director, based on...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Andy Warhol Really Did Like Campbell's Soup from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Andy Warhol gained fame and notoriety as the godfather of Pop Art. His electric-colored screen prints of Coca Colas, Marilyn Monroes, and electric chairs are iconic pieces, despite their iconocl...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
A Piece of New York: Real Estate in NYC from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Today, Alec plunges into the politics of real estate with two guests. The first is David Schleicher of Yale Law School, whose expertise is Land Use. He gets to the heart of gentrification and conti...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Julie Taymor, Before and After 'Lion King' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

"The Lion King" is now the highest-grossing Broadway production of all time. Julie Taymor hadn't seen the Disney film when she was approached to direct the project, but she had spent years study...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things, Part 2 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Here’s The Thing is moving from WNYC to iHeartRadio. Over the past several years, Alec has talked with some of the greatest artists, musicians, actors, writers, thinkers, public policy makers, and ...

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Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
Starbucks' Howard Schultz Doesn't Sleep—But Don't Blame the Coffee from 2016-09-27T04:00

Howard Schultz wasn't born into business. A Brooklyn boy whose father worked menial jobs to support the family, Schultz thought his way out would be through sport. That is, however, until he broke ...

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