A Charlie Rose Global Conversation

We begin tonight a series of conversations about the United States military’s mission to arrest the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and bring him to the United States for trial on drug charges. Is it part of the controversial new initiative in American foreign policy? We start with Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times. He is one of the world’s most influential foreign affairs columnist...

* This conversation was recorded on Dec 22nd 2025, before the events in Venezuela. We hope to follow up with David Ignatius soon on Venezuela and more. America is at an interesting moment. We are approaching one year into the second Trump administration and are one quarter of the way through the 21st century. On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate our 250th birthday. I am asking a series of extraordin...

Freedom was at the heart of America 250 years ago on July 4th, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Freedom of speech was recognized as an American right. It was essential to the responsibility of journalism in America to hold power accountable. How was journalism doing as America celebrates its 250th birthday, enters the second quarter of the 21st century and the second year of...

Rob ReinerFrank GehryTom StoppardBill MoyersDiane KeatonJane GoodallRobert RedfordDavid LynchVal KilmerGene HackmanRoberta FlackRichard Chamberlain Terence StampJim LovellGeorge Foreman Charles Rangel Sam MooreJules FeifferBrian WilsonAthol FugardDick CheneyFrederick SmithJames WatsonEdmund White

Fareed Zakaria has spent decades explaining the forces shaping the modern world, and America’s place within it. He is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, a weekly international affairs program he has anchored since 2008. He writes a weekly foreign affairs column for The Washington Post. He previously served as Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs and as Editor of Newsweek International. Zakaria i...

America is at an extraordinary moment in its history. We are one quarter of the way through the 21st century, and in 2026 we will celebrate our 250th birthday. I am asking a series of extraordinary Americans - many without fame or fortune, speaking from lived experience as well as poetry - to take the temperature of America in 2026.What is the American idea? What do we stand for? Which values do w...

America is at an interesting moment. We are one quarter of the way through the 21st century, and in 2026 we will celebrate our 250th birthday. I am asking a series of extraordinary Americans—many without fame or fortune, but rich in experience and poetry—to take the temperature of America in 2026.What is the American idea? What do we stand for? What values do we need to remind ourselves of? How is...

Rob Reiner, who became famous for his acting in All in the Family and was much admired as a director of classic films, was brutally murdered on December 14, 2025, in his Brentwood, Los Angeles, home alongside his wife, photographer Michele Singer Reiner. He was 78. She was 70.Their deaths are the subject of a homicide investigation. Their son, Nick Reiner, is being held. Rob Reiner, the son of leg...

Rob Reiner, who became famous for his acting in All in the Family and was much admired as a director of classic films, was brutally murdered on December 14, 2025, in his Brentwood, Los Angeles, home alongside his wife, photographer Michele Singer Reiner. He was 78. She was 70.Their deaths are the subject of a homicide investigation. Their son, Nick Reiner, is being held. Rob Reiner, the son of leg...

Spike Lee received an honorary Academy award for his “lifetime achievement and significant contribution to cinema recognizing him as a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers.”In more than 35 films, he has explored politics, history, sports, music, and culture with a voice that is unique. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as part of the independent film movement, begin...

Joe Manchin came from immigrant parents and grandparents in in Farmington West Virginia to the Governor’s Mansion in Charleston, and then to the United States Senate in Washington, where he served from 2010 to 2025. Manchin left the Democratic Party in 2024 to register as an independent. During his Senate career, Manchin was known for taking centrist positions and for working with both parties. He...

A Charlie Rose Global Conversation. Frank Gehry - a great and distinctive architect by any definition - died on December 5, 2025. He was 96.Gehry was perhaps most famous for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Disney Concert Hall, the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris and his home in Santa Monica, California, connected to chain link fence. He is survived by his wife, Berta, their children and grandc...

Sir Tom Stoppard, the Czech-born British playwright in a nation of brilliant playwrights, made an incredible contribution to the world’s theatre. Stoppard died on November 29 at his home in England. He was 88. Stoppard was taken from then Czechoslovakia in 1939 to Singapore to be with his father a doctor who died during WWII. His mother later married a British journalist, Kenneth Stoppard, and the...

A Charlie Rose Global Conversation:Tom Freston is very much admired for his winning personality and unconventional leadership of MTV, the culture defining cable tv channel that merged music and television. He added Comedy Central, South Park and Live Aid to his success. It all led to becoming CEO of Viacom and then being fired within a year by Sumner Redstone. Freston has spent his time since then...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia - widely known as MBS - came to Washington this week to meet with President Trump and business leaders. It is his first visit to America in eight years and seven years after the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi. The Crown Prince also attended a White House dinner and, the next day, met with business leaders at the Kennedy Center. Thi...

Jonathan Karl is a reporter’s reporter. He is the Chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week, the ABC News Sunday morning program. His new book on the 2024 campaign is Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America. It is his fourth book on President Trump, the previous three were:Front Row at the Trump Show, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, a...

James Watson, an American scientist and Nobel laureate who was involved in two of the most important scientific achievements of the 20th century, died on Thursday. He was 97.James Watson and Francis Crick received the Nobel prize in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, the genetic blueprint for life. It is considered one of the most momentous breakthroughs in the history of science. He...

The voters have spoken, and we have the first indication of what they think since the election of 2024 which put Donald Trump back in the White House for a second term. Our focus is what these results say and what are their implications for the future. Joining me is Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who has advised candidates including John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeb Bush and now co-hos...

The voters have spoken, and we have the first indication of what they think since the election of 2024 which put Donald Trump back in the White House for a second term. Our focus is what these results say and what are their implications for the future. Joining me in separate conversations Molly Ball, a political reporter who has written for Politico, The Atlantic, TIME, and most recently The Wall...

Remembering the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84. We honor his decades-long struggle with heart disease, and reflect on his significant influence on U.S. foreign policy and national security.

Michael McFaul has spent a lifetime studying Russia and the global contest between great powers. A Rhodes Scholar and Stanford professor, he speaks from the perspective of scholar, diplomat and author. From 2012 to 2014, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Russia under President Obama, after three years on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russ...

John Malone is one of the most important architects and builders of contemporary media. He went from Phi Beta Kappa at Yale to a Ph. D. at Johns Hopkins and then jobs at Bell Labs, McKinsey, and Jerrold Electronics before being recruited by Bob Magness to come west to Colorado and grow the cable industry. As CEO of Tele-Communications Inc. and Liberty Media, he played a major role in putting toget...

Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress whose wit, warmth, and singular style made her one of the most recognizable figures in American film, died on October 11 in California. She was 79.She first came to national attention as Kay Adams in 1972 in The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola’s landmark portrait of family and power. Five years later she became an icon in Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s modern rom...

Amos Yadlin has spent his life defending the State of Israel - first as a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, then as head of military intelligence, and later as a respected strategic thinker. He was one of eight F-16 pilots who destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.From 2006 to 2010 he was in charge of intelligence for the IDF.He helped oversee the 2007 Israeli strike that eliminate...

General Stanley McChrystal's story begins as the son of a general and continues through a military career that saw him make important stops as he rose through the ranks - leading a Ranger battalion, serving with the 82nd Airborne, overseeing U.S. counterterrorism operations in Iraq as head of JSOC (the Joint Special Operations Command), and ultimately rising to his final post as commander of a...