Andres Veiel is an award-winning German filmmaker, writer, and director renowned for his incisive examinations of history, politics, memory, and moral responsibility. Trained in psychology before turning to filmmaking, Veiel’s acclaimed works include Black Box BRD, Beuys, If Not Us, Who?, and Riefenstahl. Sandra Maischberger is one of Germany’s most prominent journalists, broadcasters, and documentary producers. Best known as the longtime host of the political talk show Maischberger, she has spent more than three decades interviewing world leaders, artists, and influential public figures. Together, Maischberger and Veiel made the 2024 documentary Riefenstahl, which reexamines the life and legacy of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, director of Triumph of the Will. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material, the film investigates Riefenstahl’s relationship to the Nazi regime, the enduring power of propaganda, and asks the difficult questions surrounding her artistic achievement, complicity, and legacy.

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Jon Robin Baitz is a playwright who admits that writing plays is tricky. He’s a snob for Broadway, where the cachet and laughs are bigger. But deep down, this award-winning playwright considers it a privilege to be working in American theater at all. Alec speaks to Baitz about his Broadway debut play, Other Desert Cities, that came from a place of despair and loss—and his own personal experience writing for television in Hollywood.

Originally aired June 4th, 2012.

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Jason Fisher is an award-winning producer, former studio executive, and founder of StageRunner. As former Head of Production at Disney+, Paramount, AMC Networks, and First Look Media, Fisher oversaw production on prestige series such as Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Mandalorian, and The Walking Dead and helped shape some of the most influential film and television projects of the past two decades. Originally from Connecticut, Jason graduated from Tulane University with degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts before driving cross-country to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a production designer. This ultimately led him on an unexpected path from production assistant to freelance producer to one of Hollywood’s top production executives. Currently, Jason is the CEO and Founder of StageRunner, a rapidly growing global soundstage marketplace and media platform connecting more than 850 studios across six continents. StageRunner is also a growing media company providing daily coverage of the latest production news, virtual production infrastructure, and the AI technologies reshaping how content gets made. In this conversation, Jason reflects on his unlikely career path, the evolution of prestige television, and the forces reshaping the entertainment industry today.

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He’s worked as the personal chef for French President Charles de Gaulle, co-hosted a television series with Julia Child and has authored over 30 cookbooks. There’s simply no one in the world like French chef – and culinary icon – Jacques Pépin.  The Emmy- and James Beard Foundation Award winner worked in more than 100 restaurants before becoming the Director of Research and Development for Howard Johnson’s. He then transitioned to educating the public in proper French cooking methods through his groundbreaking cookbooks like “La Technique” and his latest, “Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking;” as well as through his numerous television series like “Today’s Gourmet” and “Every Day Cooking.” He is also the co-founder of the culinary certificate program at Boston University and founder of The Jacques Pépin Foundation, which teaches underserved populations a path to employment through cooking. Alec speaks with Chef Pépin about how his family’s work in restaurants influenced his path, why he’s made the pivots he has throughout his career, and what a revered chef likes to eat in his downtime. 

Originally aired February 6th, 2024.

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Melissa Errico is a Tony-nominated actress, singer, recording artist, and writer. She is known for her iconic Broadway musical roles such as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and the title role in One Touch of Venus. She is also recognized from her roles on TV series such as Billions, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Law & Order, A Gifted Man, Ed, and Miss Match opposite Alicia Silverstone. In addition to her work on stage and screen, Errico is highly regarded for her recordings of musical theater classics, including albums of songs by Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand. Her 2018 album “Sondheim Sublime” was described by the Wall Street Journal as “the best all-Sondheim album ever recorded”. In a review for her 2024 album “Sondheim in the City”, the New York Times described Errio as “one of Sondheim's deepest-hearted yet lightest-touch interpreters.” Errico’s interpretation of Legrand’s music is equally highly praised, so much so that she was asked to write his eulogy for the Times and was the only American singer invited to perform at Legrand’s memorial at Le Grand Rex in Paris. In recent years, Errico has become a contributing writer to The New York Times and served on the National Endowment for the Arts.

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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 sources ranging from the Weinsteins’ accountant to Ashley Judd. The article that emerged on October 5th, 2017, was a level-headed and impeccably sourced exposé, whose effects continue to be felt around the world. Their conversation with Alec covers their reporting process, and moves on to a joint wrestling with Alec’s own early knowledge of one of the Weinstein allegations, and his ongoing friendship with accused harasser James Toback. The guests ask Alec questions about the movie industry’s ethics about sex and “the casting couch.” Over a respectful and surprising half-hour, host and guests together talk through the many dilemmas posed by the #MeToo movement that Kantor and Twohey did so much to unleash.

Originally aired January 21st, 2020.

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Amanda Litman is an author, digital strategist, and the co-founder and president of “Run For Something” - an organization which recruits and supports young, diverse progressive candidates. Since launching in 2017, Run For Something has helped to elect more than 1,500 leaders across 49 states- primarily women and people of color. Outspoken against “bad boomer leadership” and a “boomer mentality” in politics, Litman is also president of RFS Civics -  a 501c3 that works to end the gerontocracy. Shortly after launching Run for Something, Amanda wrote the book Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself and has recently published her latest book, When We’re in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership in May 2025. Litman cites Barack Obama as her inspiration to work in politics and started her career as an email writer for his 2012 re-election campaign. From there, Litman worked as a digital strategist for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Charlie Crist's 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign, and served as the deputy email director for Organizing for Action. Litman is a strong advocate for a new style of “next gen” leadership and setting a new standard for this upcoming generation of leaders.

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Morgan Neville is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker whose work has captured some of the most iconic figures in American music, film, and television. Neville’s 2013 film “20 Feet from Stardom” won the Oscar for best documentary feature. A few years later, his 2018 film about Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” became the highest-grossing biographical documentary of all time. Neville has directed films about subjects ranging from Keith Richards to Anthony Bourdain, from Orson Welles to Steve Martin, and Paul McCartney.
In addition to his Academy Award, Neville has earned a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Peabody award for his work. A native of Southern California, Neville studied colonial American history at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career as a journalist and later founded his film company, Tremolo Productions, in 1999. Neville's most recent film “Lorne” profiles the creator of Saturday Night Live.

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Eric Roberts is a prolific actor whom you may recognize from one of his 800 plus film and TV credits. Roberts reflects on his storied career in his recent memoir titled Runaway Train: Or, the Story of My Life So Far, published in 2024. His career began with a leading role in the 1978 film “King of the Gypsies” for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also received a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Paul Snider in Bob Fosse's “Star 80” and his performance in “Runaway Train” earned him a third Golden Globe nod and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other notable films of Roberts’ include “The Pope of Greenwich Village” (1984), “The Coca-Cola Kid” (1985), “The Cable Guy” (1996), “Cecil B. Demented” (2000), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “The Expendables” (2010), “Lovelace” (2013), “Inherent Vice” (2014), and “Babylon” (2022). Eric Roberts has also appeared in notable television series such as the drama miniseries “In Cold Blood”, the sitcom “Less than Perfect”, NBC drama “Heroes”, CBS soap opera “The Young and the Restless”, the legal drama “Suits” (2014–2019), and the recent HBO series “The Righteous Gemstones”. When it comes to choosing work, Eric Roberts has a mantra: “just say yes”.

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Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is one of the most in-demand maestros in the world, and one of Alec’s favorite conductors. Järvi is currently the chief conductor of the NHK symphony orchestra in Tokyo and the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich. Over his career, he’s led orchestras in Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Malmö, and, for the decade between 2001 and 2011, here in the United States, as the musical director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He and his musical family are pillars of the thriving classical music scene in his home country of Estonia. Paavo Järvi talks to Alec about how slowing down in the pandemic offered Paavo time to think, his early love of music, what it was like to come to the United States from Soviet-era Estonia as a 17-year-old, and what he took away from a decade of conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. 

Originally aired November 29th, 2021. Recorded June 2021.

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