Overheard with Evan Smith

Joan Walsh is The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent and a CNN political analyst. She is the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America, which the Philadelphia Daily News called “one of the best books of 2012 – and even more relevant now.” She served as Salon magazine’s first editor-in-chief for six years.

Nikki Giovanni is a poet, writer, activist and educator. Her works cover everything from race and social issues to children’s literature. She has received the Langston Hughes Medal, the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the NAACP Image Award, more than 20 honorary degrees from national colleges and universities and a Grammy nomination. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey named her one of the top 25 Living Legends. Her latest collection of poems is titled A Good Cry.

Yamiche Alcindor is the White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and a contributor for NBC and MSNBC. Before joining NewsHour, she worked as a national political reporter for The New York Times where she covered Congress and wrote about the impact of President Donald Trump’s policies on working class people and people of color. She earned a master’s degree in broadcast news and documentary filmmaking from New York University and a bachelor’s in English, government and African American studies fr

Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and is currently covering President Donald Trump. Before joining The Times in 2008 he spent 20 years writing for The Washington Post. Baker has written four books. His most recent is titled Obama: The Call of History.

Khizr Khan is the Gold Star father, author, and a Constitutional Rights Advocate. He attended Punjab University Law School in Pakistan before moving to the US where he attended Harvard Law. In 2016, he and his wife Ghazala spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Khan’s latest book is titled An American Family: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice.

John Hodgman is an author, comedian and actor. His books The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require and That Is All have all been New York Times best sellers. Hodgman has appeared on The Daily Show, hosts the Judge John Hodgman podcast and has a weekly column in The New York Times Magazine. His latest book is titled Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches.

Kurt Andersen is a critically acclaimed writer and host of the public radio program Studio 360. He has written many novels including national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book of the year Turn of the Century, and the New York Times bestseller Heyday. His latest novels are titled Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History and You Can’t Spell America Without Me, a parody on Donald Trump’s first year as president co-written with Alec Baldwin.

Richard Linklater is a writer and director. He is best known for his films Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, Slacker and Everybody Wants Some. Linklater is the Artistic Director and founder of the Austin Film Society. He has won a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture. Linklater currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.

Walter Isaacson is an author, Professor of History at Tulane, and the former CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine. He has written many biographies including Einstein: His Life and Universe, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and most recently, Leonardo da Vinci.

Helen Thorpe is an author and journalist who has been a staff writer for the New York Observer, The New Yorker, and Texas Monthly. She has also been published in the New York Times Magazine, Slate and numerous other publications. Her radio stories have aired on This American Life and Sound Print. Her latest book is titled The Newcomers.