Overheard with Evan Smith Season 2, Episode 16: Russell Banks

1

Joe Klein

Joe Klein talks about the primaries and the latest from Washington. Longtime wonks might know him best as the mysterious Anonymous, author of the novel Primary Colors, which took heavy inspiration from the Clinton administration.

2

John Heilemann

You know John Heilemann from his New York magazine work, his TV news analysis and his mega-best-selling book Game Change, co-written with Mark Halperin. The HBO movie airs soon and a 2012 follow-up is on the way. Can't wait.

3

Margaret Hoover

Margaret Hoover is a FOX News commentator with a magnificent Republican pedigree - but she'not your typical FOX News Republican. Her new book is American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party.

4

Andrew Card

Andrew Card served at the highest levels of government in the last three Republican administrations, most recently as George W. Bush's Chief of Staff. He's currently acting dean of Texas A&M's Bush School of Government and Public Service.

5

Juan Williams

Veteran political journalist Juan Williams spent 23 years at the Washington Post and eleven years as a senior news analyst at NPR. He's now a political analyst for Fox News. His new book is Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate.

6

Bill Keller

Bill Keller stepped down as executive editor of The New York Times after more than 8 years in that highest-of-all-high-impact journalism jobs, during which time the paper won 18 Pulitzers. His next chapter: columnist and magazine writer.

7

Andy Borowitz

Andy Borowitz is a comedian, satirist and New Yorker magazine contributor whose fake news web site, The Borowitz Report, and its accompanying social media extensions should be at the top of everyone's must-read list.

8

Jim Lehrer

Jim Lehrer is a veteran journalist and prolific author whose measured, congenial presence on public TV has been a welcome respite from the incivility of the world for more than four decades. His latest book is Tension City.

9

Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean is a veteran and much-loved New Yorker writer whose credits include The Orchid Thief, Saturday Night and the anthology The Bullfighter Checks Her Make-up. Her latest book is Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend.

10

Len Downie

Len Downie spent 44 years as a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, retiring in 2008 as executive editor. During his 17 years in charge, the Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes. Today he's a professor at ASU's Cronkite School.

11

John Hodgman

John Hodgman is an actor, author and humorist best known for his regular contributions to The Daily Show and his star turn on those Mac vs. PC commercials. His most recent book is That is All.

12

Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers is an icon of public media and progressive politics whose first job in journalism - as a cub reporter in Marshall, Texas - was six decades ago. His newest public television show, Moyers and Company, debuts this month.

13

Jeff Tweedy

Jeff Tweedy is a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose critically acclaimed, creatively adventurous band Wilco has just released its eighth studio album, The Whole Love - the first on its own record label.

14

Molly Shannon

Molly Shannon is an Emmy-nominated actress and comedian whose credits include Never Been Kissed, Kath and Kim and Saturday Night Live, where she spent six years as a cast member. Her first book is Tilly the Trickster.

15

Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe is the self-described "headmaster of British rock" - a much-admired songwriter, musician and producer with four-plus decades of music to his name and a recently-released 13th studio album.

16

Russell Banks

Russell Banks is an admired and accomplished American novelist whose credits include Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter - which, not insignificantly, were made into pretty terrific movies. His new novel is Lost Memory of Skin.

17

Dylan Ratigan

Dylan Ratigan is the feisty host of a daily MSNBC talk show whose first book, Greedy Bastards, rails against what he calls government corruption and corporate communism. He's traveling the country to explore the root causes of unemployment.

18

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is the world's most celebrated practitioner of mind-body medicine - a champion of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness. He's written more than 60 books, including 19 New York Times best-sellers.

19

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf is an iconic rock and roll singer whose 1977 Bat Out of Hell is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 43 million copies sold. He's also an actor whose credits include The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.

20

Jill Abramson

Jill Abramson is the top editor of The New York Times - the first woman ever to serve in that capacity in the paper's 160-year history.

21

Seymour Hersh

Seymour Hersh is a venerated investigative reporter for The New Yorker who published his first piece in the magazine 41 years ago. He's won a Pulitzer Prize, two National Magazine Awards, five George Polk Awards, and countless other honors.

22

Howard Fineman

Howard Fineman is the editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group and an NBC and MSNBC political analyst who previously spent thirty years writing and blogging and columnizing about politics for Newsweek.

23

Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel is a tireless activist, celebrated humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner. His lectures and writings on his experiences in the concentration camps have enlightened generations about the horrors of the Holocaust.

24

Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater is a director/screenwriter. He founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel, and is lauded for launching and solidifying the city of Austin as a hub for independent filmmaking.

25

Mark Updegrove

Mark Updegrove is the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum and the author of several books on the American presidency - most recently Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency.

26

Chris Isaak

Chris Isaak is a stylishly retro rock musician and sometime actor who covers Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and other Sun Records legends on his most recent release, Beyond the Sun.

27

Robert Caro

Robert Caro is a two-time Pulitzer winner whose multiple volumes about Lyndon Johnson have reinvigorated and reset the bar for biography. The magnificent fourth volume, The Passage of Power, has just been published.

28

Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Leonard Pitts, Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald whose latest book, Freeman, a novel set in the months following the Confederate surrender, was recently published.

29

Michael Morton

Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit: the murder of his wife. In late 2011, he became the 45th person in the state of Texas to be exonerated based on DNA evidence.

30

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson is a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico who's running for President of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party.