Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Mark Twain once likened biographies to “the clothes and buttons of the man” saying “the biography of the man himself cannot be written.” The quote is a favorite of Patricia Bosworth, a 1950s model-actor turned biographer known for capturing the lives of Diane Arbus, Montgomery Clift, and Marlon Brando. All three were revered and haunted by internal demons—a narrative...

Dubbed “the hottest artist on the classical music planet” by The New York Times, pianist Lang Lang has reached a level of stardom rare for classical musicians.  But his prominence is hard-won.  Alec, who adores Lang Lang's charisma and talent, elicits from his guest stories of hardship during his childhood in northeastern China, and of his slow climb to the top, via...

Illeana Douglas is an Emmy-nominated actress, writer, producer, director, and author whose career spans film, television, and classic-cinema preservation. The granddaughter of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Melvyn Douglas, Illeana Douglas has appeared in acclaimed films such as as “Goodfellas”, “Cape Fear”, “To Die For”, “Grace of My Heart", "Chasing...

Edie Falco says she is nothing like Carmela Soprano. Nor does she have much in common with Nurse Jackie. But Falco made these characters two of the most identifiable and  human  women in television history. She has an armful of Emmys, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild Awards—and a cadre of dedicated fans—to prove it. Along the way, she's battled cance...

Daniel Immerwahr is a historian, scholar, professor, and author whose work explores U.S. and global history, with a particular focus on the ways the past continues to shape the present. He currently teaches U.S. and global history at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences. Immerwahr is also the author of the nonfiction historical book Thinking Small, which won the...

Mick Fleetwood is the drummer and a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, one of the most successful rock bands of all time. Fleetwood talks to Alec about how dyslexia led him to drumming, how supportive parents encouraged his talent and his move to London as a teenager, how his friendship with the band’s founder, guitarist Peter Green, evolved into a lifelong friendship, and how Fleetwood Mac b...

Josh Fox is an independent filmmaker, playwright, and environmental activist best known for his Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning 2010 documentary, GASLAND. He is also the founder and artistic director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company working closely with actors, filmmakers, theater-makers, writers, activists, and artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, including activist...

Our summer tradition at Here’s the Thing continues, as staff members choose their favorite conversations from the archives for our Summer Staff Pick series. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversation with Justine Bateman. In 2023, as the writers’ and actors' strike in Hollywood stretched into the fall, many have called this moment “existential.” After negotiations with...

Kurt Andersen has spent four decades chronicling America’s culture and politics in both fiction and nonfiction. In 1986, Andersen co-founded Spy Magazine, which became a cultural zeitgeist and influenced a generation of journalists. Andersen then co-created and hosted Studio 360, a Peabody Award-winning public radio show and podcast about art and pop culture which aired from 2000 to 2020. He...

Our summer tradition at Here’s the Thing continues, as staff members choose their favorite conversations from the archives for our Summer Staff Pick series. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversation with Jon Anderson. Many words can be used to describe singer-songwriter Jon Anderson; cautious is not one of them. Born in England in 1944, he began singing on his brother’s daily rou...

You would recognize Emmy Award-nominated actor Stephen Root from over 300 film and television credits including iconic roles in “Office Space”, “NewsRadio”, “King of the Hill”, “Dodgeball”, “Idiocracy”, and “Barry” - for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Step...

Our summer tradition at Here’s the Thing continues, as staff members choose their favorite conversations from the archives for our Summer Staff Pick series. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversation with Becca Heller. On January 27th, 2017, Donald Trump issued the travel ban barring visitors and migrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Becca Heller, founder of the Internatio...

Our summer tradition at Here’s the Thing continues, as staff members choose their favorite conversations from the archives for our Summer Staff Pick series. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversation with Richard Kind. Single-handedly redefining the term “character actor,” the accomplished Richard Kind is surely one of the hardest working people in show business. His resume...

Jon Tenney is a Juilliard-trained actor and director whose work spans film, television, and theater. Best known for portraying FBI Agent Fritz Howard on the hit TNT drama “The Closer”, Tenney appeared on the series for all seven seasons and directed episodes of both “The Closer” and its spin-off, "Major Crimes”. His television credits also include roles in “Scan...

This week on Here’s the Thing, Alec talks with Grammy-winning guitarist Peter Frampton. “Sound is very inspirational to me,” explains Frampton – and it always has been: he started playing guitar before he was 8 years old. Frampton talks about his musical roots in England, playing in bands like The Preachers and The Herd. At age 14 he was playing at a recording session...

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,...

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 o...

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. Or...

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...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 docume...

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 recei...

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 Un...