TV Guide called her “the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV.”  Actor Susan Lucci inhabited the role of bad girl Erica Kane on ABC’s “All My Children” for four decades, from the show’s inception in 1970 until 2011. She earned the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for the role in 1999 after nineteen nominations – and in December 2023, received the Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. Lucci’s body of work also includes numerous television series, films and the Broadway stage. She is the author of All my Life: A Memoir and is a National Spokesperson for the American Heart Association. Susan Lucci talks with host Alec Baldwin about how she played a role that evolved over decades, how she realized a lifelong dream of performing on Broadway, and her thoughts on the rumors of a potential reboot of the beloved soap.  

Originally aired January 23rd, 2024.

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Allia Mohamed is the co-founder and CEO of Openigloo, a platform that connects renters with highly-rated landlords and enables renters to review and research their landlords. With OpenIgloo, Allia’s mission is to bring transparency to rental markets and support tenants throughout their housing journey. Motivated by her own frustrating experiences navigating opaque landlord practices and unpredictable living conditions, she launched OpenIgloo to give renters a voice and access to trustworthy, crowdsourced information about buildings and property owners. Since its launch, OpenIgloo has grown into a trusted resource for renters seeking honest reviews and insights before signing a lease. Allia Mohamed brings a decade of experience from working in finance, venture capital, and consulting. Prior to founding Openigloo, Mohamed served as a VC investor where she managed a startup portfolio as an advisor and board member. She holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University

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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 unsettling portrayal of, as Gyllenhaal tells Alec, the "f***ing dire" consequences of "starving a vibrant woman's mind." In the film, Lisa's mind-starvation manifests in an unhealthy, exploitative relationship with a kindergartner. It's not an easy thing to watch, and Gyllenhaal tells Alec, "I almost didn't do the movie because I thought, 'no movie is worth disturbing a child, even for a few minutes.'" But her concerns were addressed, she said yes, and the result is a performance Gyllenhaal feels really good about. In fact, she says she feels better and better about each role she takes on these days. It's from this career high that she and Alec talk about The Deuce, her college years, her alternate career in skating, and the happy joining of lives, careers, and vowels in her marriage to Peter Sarsgaard.

Originally aired October 9, 2018.

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Hrishikesh Hirway is an acclaimed musician, composer, podcast creator, producer, and television host. Hirway is best known as the creator and host of “Song Exploder”, a podcast where musicians break down their songs and tell the story of how they were made. Hirway is also the creator and co-host of podcasts “The West Wing Weekly” (with co-host Joshua Malina), “Home Cooking” (with co-host Samin Nosrat), and “Partners”. In addition to the podcast, Hirway is the executive producer and host of the Netflix television adaptation of “Song Exploder”. As a composer, Hirway scored the Netflix television show “Everything Sucks!” and the films “Our Nixon”, “Save the Date”, and “Companion”. As a musician, Hirway has made multiple albums under the name The One AM Radio and his music has appeared on TV shows such as “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill”. Based in Los Angeles, Hirway and host Alec Baldwin sat down for a live conversation recorded at On-Air Fest in Brooklyn.

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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 first, the band was a creation of NBC and only existed on the show The Monkees. For the first season, much of the backing music was played by a studio band. Eventually, that changed, and The Monkees' transition from a TV band to a real band is a fascinating story of hard work, perseverance, and marketing genius. Dolenz brings all the energy and humor he showed on The Monkees to this episode of Here's the Thing, telling Alec about the dynamics among the bandmates, his years as a successful TV producer in the UK, and what it's like touring -- and recording -- as a member of The Monkees 50 years after the end of the show.

Originally aired June 16th, 2020.

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Karina Canellakis is an American conductor and former violinist internationally acclaimed for her expressive symphonic and operatic leadership. She is currently Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Notably, Canellakis was the first woman to be appointed Principal Guest Conductor for the London Philharmonic and the first woman to be Chief Conductor of any Dutch orchestra. She also made history as the first woman to conduct the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm and to serve as Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. As both a violinist and conductor, Canellakis has worked with leading orchestras across Europe and North America, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, and Munich Philharmonic. Canellakis is also an accomplished opera conductor and has led Der Rosenkavalier at Santa Fe Opera and Dialogues des Carmélites in Paris. Originally trained as a violinist, she turned to conducting and built a groundbreaking career stemming from her musical upbringing in New York City.

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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. But she grew up in rural Ireland and went to high school in Swinging-Sixties London. That meant she developed a set of values far removed from Hollywood high society. Her first career was as a high-end fashion model, a favorite subject of Richard Avedon and later a muse of Halston. But she had always wanted to be a movie actress, and she spent time in the trenches, working on her craft in classes and smaller roles before her Oscar-winning turn in Prizzi's Honor. Right as she was leaving the photo studio for the movie studio, she met Jack Nicholson: "he made me laugh," she tells Alec. The couple defined Hollywood cool for almost two decades. Huston tells Alec the story of all of her transitions -- romantic, professional, and geographic. Her two wonderful memoirs are A Story Lately Told and Watch Me.

Originally aired April 7th, 2020.

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Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan is a renowned civil litigator and trial lawyer with decades of experience in commercial, higher education, government regulation, civil rights, and employment litigation…but is perhaps best known for her recent triumph defending her client E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump. In both 2023 and 2024, Kaplan took on Trump in court and won both cases, securing two unanimous jury verdicts against him. Kaplan has been described as the kind of “lawyer that you don’t want to see opposing you” and has been consistently ranked as one of the top litigators in the country. Kaplan also famously argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of LGBT rights activist Edith Windsor in United States v. Windsor - which resulted in a landmark decision that invalidated a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. Kaplan was formerly a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison before starting her own firm in 2017. In 2018, she co-founded the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund. Kaplan recently started a new firm in 2024 and is currently a partner at her firm Kaplan Martin LLP.

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One need not look very far to see that the television landscape has rapidly changed in the last few years, with an influx of new streaming platforms and shifting audience viewing patterns. Another notable upheaval: In 2023, Don Lemon, the Edward R. Murrow and Emmy Award-winning journalist and longtime host of “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” was let go from CNN after seventeen years with the network. Following his exit, Lemon took time for introspection, resulting in his new book, “I Once Was Lost: My Search for God in America.” The work is a deeply personal exploration of his spiritual journey and the role of religion in the country. It is Lemon’s third book, following “Transparent” and the #1 New York Times bestseller “This Is The Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism.” Earlier this year, the anchor launched his new endeavor, “The Don Lemon Show,” on YouTube and podcast platforms. Host Alec Baldwin speaks with Don Lemon about the shakeup at CNN, the role of his faith in trying times, and the importance of the press and the First Amendment in a free society.

Originally aired October 21st, 2024.

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Chris Whipple is an Emmy award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, author, and political analyst. A former CBS 60 Minutes producer, Whipple is also the EP and writer of the Discovery Channel documentary series “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers” and the Showtime Network documentary series “The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs”. Whipple continued his research on these topics in two of his books and is the author of four New York Times best-sellers including: Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, and The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House. Whipple has also written for Vanity Fair, Politico, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. Notably, Whipple wrote the two-part 2025 Vanity Fair profile on the second Trump presidency and White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.

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