That Said With Michael Zeldin

Stevie Van Zandt while, perhaps, best known as a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band and leader of Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, he is also a writer, producer, actor (having starred in the Sopranos and Lilyhammer), radio host on Sirius/XM’s Little Steven’s Underground garage, political activist, founder of TeachRock.org, and much more. He is also a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Join me and Stevie Van Zandt as we discuss his terrific new memoir, Unrequited Infatuations, which traces his odyssey from a teenager in suburban New Jersey to the Rock and Hall of Fame.

Guest

Stevie Van Zandt

What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early ‘60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story.

The first true heartbeat of UNREQUITED INFATUATIONS is the moment when Stevie Van Zandt trades in his devotion to the Baptist religion for an obsession with Rock and Roll. Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones created new ideas of community, creative risk, and principled rebellion. They changed him forever. While still a teenager, he met Bruce Springsteen, a likeminded outcast/true believer who became one of his most important friends and bandmates. As Miami Steve, Van Zandt anchored the E Street Band as they conquered the Rock and Roll world.

And then, in the early ‘80s, Van Zandt stepped away from E Street to embark on his own odyssey. He refashioned himself as Little Steven, a political songwriter and performer, fell in love with Maureen Santoro who greatly expanded his artistic palette, and visited the world’s hot spots as an artist/journalist to not just better understand them, but to help change them. Most famously, he masterminded the recording of “Sun City,” an anti-apartheid anthem that sped the demise of South Africa’s institutionalized racism and helped get Nelson Mandela out of prison.

By the ‘90s, Van Zandt had lived at least two lives—one as a mainstream rocker, one as a hardcore activist. It was time for a third. David Chase invited Van Zandt to be a part of his new television show, the Sopranos—as Silvio Dante, he was the unconditionally loyal consiglieri who sat at the right hand of Tony Soprano (a relationship that oddly mirrored his real-life relationship with Bruce Springsteen).

Underlying all of Van Zandt's various incarnations was a devotion to preserving the centrality of the arts, especially the endangered species of Rock. In the twenty-first century, Van Zandt founded a groundbreaking radio show (Underground Garage), a fiercely independent record label (Wicked Cool), and developed a curriculum to teach students of all ages through the medium of music history. He also rejoined the E Street Band for what has now been a twenty-year victory lap.

UNREQUITED INFATUATIONS chronicles the twists and turns of Stevie Van Zandt’s always surprising life. It is more than just the testimony of a globe-trotting nomad, more than the story of a groundbreaking activist, more than the odyssey of a spiritual seeker, and more than a master class in rock and roll (not to mention a dozen other crafts). It's the best book of its kind because it's the only book of its kind.

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School,

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Every October, the nation observes National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime and new breast cancer diagnoses are expected to number more than 200,000 for women and more than 2,000 for men for the coming year.

To help bring greater awareness of the disease, join Michael Zeldin in this special edition as he discusses breast cancer from diagnosis to cure with journalist Ali Rogin, author, Beat Breast Cancer Like A Boss, and Dr. Felice Gersh, integrative medicine physician and women's health advocate and author, including her latest book -- Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know.

Guests

Ali Rogin

Ali Rogin is a producer with the PBS NewsHour foreign affairs team, writing and reporting pieces for TV and the web. Her reports have also appeared on MSNBC, ABC, SiriusXM, and nationally-syndicated FM radio shows. Rogin is a ten-year veteran of D.C.’s political scene, covering the White House, Capitol Hill, and the State Department. She covered the 2012 presidential election, first as a campaign embed during the Republican primary, and then as part of the Obama re-election campaign press corps during the general election. During her senior year at New York University, she discovered she had the BRCA1 genetic mutation and decided to have prophylactic surgery before her graduation in 2009. A New Jersey native, Rogin lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.

 

Dr. Felice Gersh

Felice Gersh, M.D. is a multi-award winning physician with dual board certifications in OB-GYN and Integrative Medicine. She is the founder and director of the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine, which provides comprehensive health care for women by combining the best evidence-based therapies from conventional, naturopathic, and holistic medicine.

She taught obstetrics and gynecology at Keck USC School of Medicine for 12 years as an Assistant Clinical Professor, where she received the highly coveted Outstanding Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award. She now serves as an Affiliate Faculty Member at the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, through the University of Arizona School of Medicine, where she lectures and regularly grades the case presentations written by the Fellowship students for their final exams. Additionally, she is a sought after medical forensic expert and has worked on numerous high profile legal cases.

Felice Gersh, M.D. is a prolific writer and lecturer who speaks globally on women’s health and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed medical journals. She has been featured in several films and documentary series, including The Real Skinny on Fat with Montel Williams and Fasting with Valter Longo, Ph.D. Dr. Gersh  is the bestselling author of PCOS SOS and the PCOS SOS Fertility Fast Track. Her newest book, Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know, will be published at the end of October, 2021.

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he taught a study group on Independent Investigations of Presidents.

Previously, Michael was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served as Deputy Independent/ Independent Counsel, investigating allegations of tampering with presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s passport files, and as Deputy Chief Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee,

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Join Michael Zeldin in his conversation with Luke Epplin as they discuss his new book, Our Team, The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball. This is a compelling story of the integration of the American League eleven weeks after Jackie Robinson integrated the National League and the improbable union of four baseball pioneers on the Cleveland Indians climaxing in the World Series of 1948.

Guest

Luke Epplin

Luke Epplin's writing has appeared either online or in print in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, GQ, Slate, and The Paris Review Daily. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, earned his master's degree from New York University, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Chile. Born and raised in rural Illinois, Epplin now lives in Queens.

 

 

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he taught a study group on Independent Investigations of Presidents.

Previously, Michael was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served as Deputy Independent/ Independent Counsel, investigating allegations of tampering with presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s passport files, and as Deputy Chief Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee, October Surprise Task Force, investigating the handling of the American hostage situation in Iran.

Michael is a prolific writer and has published Op-ed pieces for CNN.com, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hill, The Washington Times, and The Washington Post.

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Frederick Douglas was the “prose poet of America’s (and perhaps a universal) body politic. He searched for the human soul, envisioned through slavery and freedom in all their meanings. There had been no other voice quite like Douglass’s.”

Join me and Professor David Blight as we discuss his Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom. The lessons Douglass taught about freedom, dignity, and justice nearly 150 years ago are as important and relevant today as they were then.

Guest

David W. Blight, Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University

David W. Blight  is a teacher, scholar and public historian. At Yale University he is Sterling Professor of History, joining that faculty in January, 2003. As of June, 2004, he is Director, succeeding David Brion Davis, of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. In his capacity as director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, Blight organizes conferences, working groups, lectures, the administering of the annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and many public outreach programs regarding the history of slavery and its abolition. He previously taught at Amherst College for thirteen years. In 2013-14 he was the William Pitt Professor of American History at Cambridge University, UK, and in 2010-11, Blight was the Rogers Distinguished Fellow in 19th-Century American History at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. During the 2006-07 academic year he was a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, New York Public Library. In October of 2018, Simon and Schuster published his new biography of Frederick Douglass, entitled, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which garnered nine book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. The Douglass book has been optioned by Higher Ground Productions and Netflix for a projected feature film. Blight works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards of museums and historical societies, and as a member of a small team of advisors to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum team of curators. For that institution he wrote the recently published essay, “Will It Rise: September 11 in American Memory.”  In 2012, Blight was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and delivered an induction address, “The Pleasure and Pain of History.” In 2018, Blight was appointed by the Georgia Historical Society as a Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellow, which recognizes national leaders in the field of history as both writers and educators whose research has enhanced or changed the way the public understands the past.

Blight’s newest books include annotated editions, with introductory essay, of Frederick Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (Yale Univ. Press, 2013), Robert Penn Warren’s Who Speaks for the Negro, (Yale Univ. Press, 2014), and the monograph, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era (Harvard University Press, published August 2011), which received the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Award for best book in non-fiction on racism and human diversity. American Oracle is an intellectual history of Civil War memory, rooted in the work of Robert Penn Warren, Bruce Catton, Edmund Wilson, and James Baldwin.  Blight is also the author of A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including their Narratives of Emancipation, (Harcourt, 2007, paperback in 2009).  This book combines two newly discovered slave narratives in a volume that recovers the lives of their authors, John Washington and Wallace Turnage, as well as provides an incisive history of the story of emancipation.  In June, 2004, the New York Times ran a front page story about the discovery and significance of these two rare slave narratives.

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Join Michael Zeldin in a conversation with Jason Miller, communications strategist and spokesman for former president Donald Trump as the review the presidential election of 2020, the Big Lie, and the events of January 6, 2021.  Click hereto listen to PART ONE of this two-part season premiere.

Guest

Jason Miller

CEO, GETTR 

Former Senior Advisor, Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America Contributor, Newsmax TV 

Jason Miller launched free speech social media platform GETTR on July 4th, 2021, and under his  leadership the platform reached 1M users in only three days – the fastest growth for a social  media platform of all time. GETTR now has more than 2M users globally, with a motto of “Free  Speech, Independent Thought and Superior Technology,” and a promise to never deplatform or  censor anyone for their political beliefs. GETTR’s tremendous growth has been fueled by an  international desire to oppose cancel culture and declare independence from the Big Tech  oligarchs in Silicon Valley, as well as an unparalleled guerrilla marketing campaign. 

The importance of GETTR’s emergence as a cancel-free platform was highlighted at the end of  Mr. Miller’s September 2021 trip to participate in CPAC Brazil. As he attempted to fly home to  the United States, Mr. Miller and his traveling party were detained for three hours and  questioned about the purpose of their visit, on orders from a politically minded Justice of  Brazil’s Supreme Court. Though they were not accused of any wrongdoing and eventually  released, the episode proved that enemies of freedom are everywhere: First they try to take  your freedom of expression, then they try to take your freedom itself.  

Before launching GETTR, Mr. Miller served as Senior Advisor to Donald J. Trump, 45th President  of the United States of America, where he quarterbacked President Trump’s successful 2021  Impeachment Defense Team, and before that he served as Senior Advisor to President Trump’s  2020 campaign and Senior Communications Advisor to President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Mr.  Miller also served as Communications Director for the Trump Transition Team. 

In addition to his earlier work managing campaigns for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and Governor,  as well as serving as a Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill, Mr. Miller has more than two decades of  corporate communications, public relations and policy expertise advising clients on how to deal  with the intersection of politics, policy, financial markets and the media. Mr. Miller has also  provided extensive high-profile litigation communications support. 

Mr. Miller currently serves as a Contributor for Newsmax TV, offering political analysis and  insights for the Make America Great Again movement, the 2022 mid-term elections and policy  debates in Washington, D.C. 

A native of Seattle, Washington, Mr. Miller is a graduate of The George Washington University.  He lives with his wife and two daughters in suburban Washington, D.C. You can learn more  about GETTR at gettr.com, and you can follow Mr. Miller on GETTR at @JasonMillerinDC.

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he taught a study group on Independent Investigations of Presidents.

Previously, Michael was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served as Deputy Independent/ Independent Counsel, investigating allegations of tampering with presidential candi...

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In our inaugural episodes of season two, we begin with a two-part interview with Jason Miller. Jason is an American communications strategist, political advisor and CEO of GETTR, a conservative social network alternative to Twitter. Jason is, perhaps, best known as the chief spokesman for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign and transition of former President Trump. In this episode we will discuss GETTR and the issues of free speech, social media censorship, and the digital town square. In part two, we will discuss the 2020 presidential election, The Big Lie, and the events of January 6th. 

Guest

Jason Miller

CEO, GETTR 

Former Senior Advisor, Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America Contributor, Newsmax TV 

Jason Miller launched free speech social media platform GETTR on July 4th, 2021, and under his  leadership the platform reached 1M users in only three days – the fastest growth for a social  media platform of all time. GETTR now has more than 2M users globally, with a motto of “Free  Speech, Independent Thought and Superior Technology,” and a promise to never deplatform or  censor anyone for their political beliefs. GETTR’s tremendous growth has been fueled by an  international desire to oppose cancel culture and declare independence from the Big Tech  oligarchs in Silicon Valley, as well as an unparalleled guerrilla marketing campaign. 

The importance of GETTR’s emergence as a cancel-free platform was highlighted at the end of  Mr. Miller’s September 2021 trip to participate in CPAC Brazil. As he attempted to fly home to  the United States, Mr. Miller and his traveling party were detained for three hours and  questioned about the purpose of their visit, on orders from a politically minded Justice of  Brazil’s Supreme Court. Though they were not accused of any wrongdoing and eventually  released, the episode proved that enemies of freedom are everywhere: First they try to take  your freedom of expression, then they try to take your freedom itself.  

Before launching GETTR, Mr. Miller served as Senior Advisor to Donald J. Trump, 45th President  of the United States of America, where he quarterbacked President Trump’s successful 2021  Impeachment Defense Team, and before that he served as Senior Advisor to President Trump’s  2020 campaign and Senior Communications Advisor to President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Mr.  Miller also served as Communications Director for the Trump Transition Team. 

In addition to his earlier work managing campaigns for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and Governor,  as well as serving as a Chief of Staff on Capitol Hill, Mr. Miller has more than two decades of  corporate communications, public relations and policy expertise advising clients on how to deal  with the intersection of politics, policy, financial markets and the media. Mr. Miller has also  provided extensive high-profile litigation communications support. 

Mr. Miller currently serves as a Contributor for Newsmax TV, offering political analysis and  insights for the Make America Great Again movement, the 2022 mid-term elections and policy  debates in Washington, D.C. 

A native of Seattle, Washington, Mr. Miller is a graduate of The George Washington University.  He lives with his wife and two daughters in suburban Washington, D.C. You can learn more  about GETTR at gettr.com, and you can follow Mr. Miller on GETTR at @JasonMillerinDC.

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard...

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Join Michael Zeldin for this extraordinary 90-minute conversation with Max Weinberg, Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame drummer from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, as they discuss Max’s musical career, his thoughts on music and drumming, his recollections of other great drummers, especially the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, and much more.

Guest

Max Weinberg, Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame drummer from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band

Max “the Mighty Max” Weinberg. A bundle of drive, neurosis and wily suburban street smarts, and source of great humor, Max found a place where Bernard Purdie, Buddy Rich and Keith Moon intersected and made it his own. The soul of dedication and commitment, each night in the midst of the continuous hurricane our sets are designed to be, the sheer physical pressure of three hours of nonstop, steamrolling rock music lies upon his shoulders more heavily than anyone else’s. Onstage, Max goes beyond listening to what I’m saying, signaling; he “hears” what I’m thinking, feeling. He anticipates my thoughts as they come rolling full bore toward the drum riser. It’s a near telepathy that comes from years of playing and living together. It’s a real-world miracle and it’s why people love musicians. They show us how deeply we can experience one another’s minds and hearts, and how perfectly we can work in congress. With Max at my back, the questions are answered before they’re asked.

There are twenty thousand people, all about to take a breath; we’re moving in for the kill, the band, all steel on an iron track, and that snare shot, the one I’m just thinking about but haven’t told or signaled anyone outside of this on-fire little corner of my mind about, the one I want right . . . and there it is! Rumble young man, rumble!

-Bruce Springsteen “Born To Run” (2016)

Max Weinberg's Jukebox

A truly interactive experience, Weinberg invites the audience to create the set list, in real time, that he and his crack four piece group will play that night. Performing songs from the glory days of rock and roll your guests get to choose from a video menu of over 200 songs — everything from the Beatles to the Stones to Bruce and The E Street Band’s biggest hits — and hear the group play ‘em the way they want to hear them played!

That’s right—the crowd gets to yell out their choices and Max plays them! This unique approach is fun and satisfying. How many times have you attended a show where you yearned to hear your favorite performer play your favorite song? With Max Weinberg’s Jukebox your dream will be realized.

MaxWeinberg.com

Follow Max on Twitter:@EStreetMax

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings.

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he taught a study group on Independent Investigations of Presidents.

Previously, Michael was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served as Deputy Independent/ Independent Counsel, investigating allegations of tampering with presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s passport files, and as Deputy Chief Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee, October Surprise Task Force, investigating the handling of the American hostage situation in Iran.

Michael is a prolific writer and has published Op-ed pieces for CNN.com, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hill, The Washington Times, and The Washington Post.

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Join Michael Zeldin in his conversation with Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of Begin Again, James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. The writings of James Baldwin and Dr. Glaude’s elicitation of the important lessons they have to teach us about the aftertimes in which we find ourselves and the steps we need to take if we are to find a progressive path forward for our country couldn’t be timelier.  It is a discussion of monumental importance in 21st century America. 

Guest

Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an intellectual who speaks to the complex dynamics of the American experience.  His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges our democracy face.  He is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  In his writings, the country’s complexities,  vulnerabilities, and the opportunities for hope come into full view. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B Du Bois, “not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful.”

He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies, a program he first became involved with shaping as a doctoral candidate in Religion at Princeton. He is the former president of the American Academy of Religion. His books on religion and philosophy include An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion, African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction and Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America, which was awarded the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize. Glaude is also the author of two edited volumes, and many influential articles about religion for academic journals. He has also written for the likes of The New York Times and Time Magazine.

Known to be a convener of conversations and debates, Glaude takes care to engage fellow citizens of all ages and backgrounds – from young activists, to fellow academics, journalists and commentators, and followers on Twitter in dialogue about the direction of the nation. His scholarship and his sense of himself as a public intellectual are driven by a commitment to think carefully with others in public.

Glaude’s most recent book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, was released on  June 30, 2020. Of Baldwin, Glaude writes, “Baldwin’s writing does not bear witness to the glory of America. It reveals the country’s sins, and the illusion of innocence that blinds us to the reality of others. Baldwin’s vision requires a confrontation with our history (with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, with whiteness) to overcome its hold on us. Not to posit the greatness of America, but to establish the ground upon which to imagine the country anew.”

Some like to describe Glaude as the quintessential Morehouse man, having left his home in Moss Point, Mississippi at age 16 to begin studies at the HBCU. He holds a master’s degree in African American Studies from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University. He began his teaching career at Bowdoin College. In 2011 he delivered Harvard’s Du Bois lectures. In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Colgate University, delivering commencement remarks titled, “Turning Our Backs” that was recognized by The New York Times as one of the best commencement speeches of the year.  He is a columnist for Time Magazine and a MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe, and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace.

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The template for the renewed battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan may well be found in Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s book, The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice, (2021): the story of how the all-women’s Syrian Kurdish militia (YPJ) defeated ISIS and left in its wake the most far-reaching experiment in women’s justice and equality in their corner of the Middle East and beyond. Join Michael Zeldin in his conversation with Gayle as they discuss her book and its portends for future battles.

Guest

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (2011), about a young entrepreneur who supported her community under the Taliban, Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield (2015), and The Daughters of Kobani (2021), the story of what ISIS has left in its wake: the most far-reaching experiment in women’s equality in the least likely place in the world brought to you by women who have been battling ISIS town by town, street by street since 2013. These women served as America’s ground force in the fight to defeat the Islamic State and The Daughters of Kobani tells for the first time this David and Goliath story of how they came to serve ISIS its first battlefield defeat. Ashley’s War is currently being developed into a major motion picture at Universal with Reese Witherspoon producing, and The Daughters of Kobani has been optioned by HiddenLight Productions, founded by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton. 

Lemmon, who serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, along with private sector leadership roles in emerging technology and national security firms, began writing about entrepreneurship in conflict and post-conflict zones while studying for her MBA at Harvard following a decade covering politics at the ABC News Political Unit. This work from Afghanistan, Rwanda, Liberia, Bosnia and beyond has been published by the World Bank, Harvard Business School, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and CNN, among others. Following MBA study, she led public policy analysis during the global financial crisis at the global investment firm PIMCO.

Lemmon is a frequent speaker on national security topics, including at the Aspen Security Forum and TED forums, and has given talks at West Point, ODNI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the National Infantry Museum. Her TED Talk on Ashley’s War and the reshaping of the hero story to include women has received more than a million views worldwide.  She regularly appears on MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and National Public Radio. Along with her national security work, she has reported and written extensively on topics including child marriage in the United States for PBS NewsHour and on school choice, single moms and the power and importance of girls’ ambition for The Atlantic. Lemmon holds an MBA from Harvard and received the Dean’s Award for her work on women’s entrepreneurship. In addition to serving as a Robert Bosch Fellow in Germany, she served as a Fulbright scholar in Spain, on the board of the international aid organization Mercy Corps and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee. She speaks Spanish, German and French and is conversant in Dari and Kurmanci. 

Host

Michael Zeldin

Michael Zeldin is a well-known and highly-regarded TV and radio analyst/commentator.

He has covered many high-profile matters, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, the Gore v. Bush court challenges, Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump impeachment proceedings. 

In 2019, Michael was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kenn...

Join Michael Zeldin in a conversation with Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Authors ofI Alone Can Fix It, Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year: a compelling analysis of former President Trump’s final year in office as he struggled to lead the nation through the worst pandemic in a century. Rucker and Leonnig recount the pandemic debates within the Administration as well as provide insight into Trump’s response to the Black Lives Matter protests, his election defeat, and the January 6thattack on the U.S. Capitol.

Guests

Philip Rucker

Philip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post, leading its coverage of President Trump and his administration. He and a team of Post reporters won the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for their reporting on Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Rucker joined the Post in 2005 and previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House and the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He serves as an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in history.

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