Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

This week, Alec speaks with two powerful women working tirelessly to help those most in need of assistance navigating the complicated – and very often expensive – criminal justice system: Attorneys Susan Church and Renate Lunn. Susan Church is a trial and appellate attorney focusing on immigration law and criminal defense with her firm Demissie & Church. She successfully sued President Trump f...

Every other week this fall, we’re airing some of Alec’s favorite episodes from our archives. This week, we feature two powerhouses of the political world: Katie Porter and Lorena Gonzalez in conversations from 2021. Democrat Lorena Gonzalez served in the California State Assembly from 2013 to 2022, representing her hometown of San Diego in the 80th Assembly District. The Stanford, Georgetown, and...

The multitalented Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and even an occasional singer. He’s also one of Alec’s favorite broadcasters, as host of the Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio. McEnroe’s show unpacks the week’s events in news and pop culture, as well as covering some truly eccentric topic...

Every other week this fall, we will be airing some of Alec’s favorite episodes from our archives. This week, we feature two supernovas of the musical world: acclaimed soprano Renée Fleming and the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman. Opera singer Renée Fleming, whose voice has been described as "double cream," remembers her beginnings in music, overcoming stage fright and her professio...

Aasif Mandvi is a British-American actor, comedian, playwright and author, whose diverse career traverses Broadway, Merchant-Ivory, Marvel, television and comedy. His theater work includes Oklahoma! on Broadway, the Pulitzer-Prize winning play Disgraced and Mandvi’s off-Broadway, one man show, Sakina’s Restaurant , which explored the South Asian immigrant experience and won an Obie. He also create...

Every other week this fall, we will be airing some of Alec’s favorite episodes from our archives. This week features two incredible authors: chronicler of Hollywood legends, Sam Wasson, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning The New Yorker writer, Lawrence Wright. Sam Wasson tackles distinctive creators and seminal moments in Hollywood history, from Blake Edwards and Paul Mazursky, to Audrey Hepburn and t...

Alec Baldwin speaks with two individuals using media to inspire, inform – and transform –  civic engagement in America.  Civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger is the founder and executive director of Zealous, an organization harnessing the power of storytelling for social justice. Hechinger believes that inaccurate narratives on crime and policing help shape perception and policy - and he’s seekin...

Guest Host Talia Schlanger speaks to the co-creator and subjects of Netflix’s Emmy-winning series, “Love on the Spectrum.” The show, which premiered in the  U.S. after two Australian seasons, follows individuals on the autism spectrum through struggles and successes in their search for love. Director and producer Cian O’Clery is joined by participant Kaelynn Partlow, who is also an autism therapis...

Author Ken Auletta has been the chief political correspondent for the New York Post , a weekly columnist for the Village Voice , contributing editor at New York magazine and contributor to The New Yorker since 1977.  He is the author of twelve books, including five national bestsellers — Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way ; Greed and Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of the House of...

It’s Alec’s turn to pick one of his most beloved episodes in the summer archive series. This week, we feature one of his favorite musicians, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, from their 2013 conversation. Over the course of a career that has lasted more than half a century, Lightfoot has achieved global stardom and exceptional influence. Bob Dylan’s a fan—he's said, “I can’t think of an...

Dr. David Starkey is one of Britain’s leading historians, with a focus on the monarchy’s history and contemporary role. His work includes numerous books and television series covering the English monarchy, particularly the wives of Henry VIII and the reign of Elizabeth I.  He’s known for his regular appearances on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze , BBC 1's Question Time and This Week and most recently...

Our staff picks continue at Here’s The Thing, where every other week throughout the summer, members of our team select their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s 2013 interview with acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Columbus. As a director, Columbus has brought to life some of the biggest American family films in history: Adventures in Babysitting, Home Alone , and Mrs...

Richard Stanley is a South African filmmaker, known for his boundary-pushing work in the horror and science fiction genres. Stanley grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, studying anthropology and filming tribal dance and initiation rituals. In the 90s, he directed the horror features Hardware and Dust Devil . He was then famously fired from an adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlo...

Every other week throughout the summer, members of the Here’s The Thing staff are selecting their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s conversations with two of the funniest comedians in the business – and coincidentally, two of the most popular episodes from our archives.  Chris Rock is known for his work on SNL, his stand up specials, the sitcom Everybody Loves Chr...

Cheryl Hines has been displaying her comedic chops for 11 seasons of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm, earning her critical acclaim and two Emmy nominations. She’s also known for her work in the feature film “Waitress,” the sitcom “Suburgatory” and most recently, the second season of “The Flight Attendant.”  Hines utilized her talents behind the scenes, producing the television series “Campus Ladies” a...

Our Here’s the Thing Summer Staff Picks series continues, featuring our favorite episodes from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s interviews with two great American storytellers, Ira Glass and Alex Gibney.  Ira Glass has been the host and creative force of WBEZ’s This American Life since 1995. The public radio personality revolutionized nonfiction storytelling by using a voice that's perso...

Few artists have the unique voice and talent of David Sedaris, master of satire and social critique – and one of America’s preeminent humor writers. He is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Calypso, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever , having sold 12 million copies of his books, trans...

It’s summer, and every other week, members of the Here’s The Thing staff are selecting their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec’s interviews with two extraordinary women in media, Sheila Nevins and Tina Brown, recorded in 2017.  Sheila Nevins was the head of HBO Documentary Films from 1979 until 2018 and now leads MTV Documentary Films.  She has overseen the producti...

Television director James Burrows has been working since the 1970s on beloved series like Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, and Will & Grace . He has directed over 1,000 hours of television, co-created the long-running, critically-acclaimed series Cheers and is the recipient of 11 Emmy Awards and a DGA Lifetime Achievement Award. His golden touch becomes apparent when you consider that a stagger...

Alex Ross has been a music critic at The New Yorker since 1996. His beat is classical music, but his work spans literature, history, the visual arts, film, and ecology. The MacArthur Genius Grant recipient was cited by the foundation for his ability to offer “new ways of thinking about the music of the past and its place in our future.”  He is also the author of three books, “Listen to This,” “The...

Sarah Polley is a storyteller – and a remarkable one. Whether as a precocious child actor in Road to Avonlea and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, as a documentarian unpacking her family history in Stories We Tell or as screenwriter and director of the Academy Award-nominated Away From Her, Polley is adept at portraying complex and honest depictions of humanity. And now, she is the author of a r...

Abe Laboriel Jr. is the drummer on speed dial for some of the biggest names in the music business, including Eric Clapton, k.d. lang, Eddie Vedder, Melissa Etheridge…and Paul McCartney, as member of McCartney’s band for the past two decades. Son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel and nephew of Mexican rocker Johnny Laboriel, the Berklee-College-of Music-trained drummer has mus...

Writer and essayist Adam Gopnik has been called “one of the greatest thinkers and wordsmiths of our age.” He is best known as a staff writer for The New Yorker , to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism since 1986. The international best-selling author has penned ten titles spanning memoir, essays and children’s literature and is the recipient of thr...

Singer, songwriter, and composer Rufus Wainwright continues to surprise and delight with a new tour and album, Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios, paying homage to one of his heroes, Judy Garland, and her historic recording . Wainwright was practically born into songwriting as son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and touring with his family by the age of thirteen. The Juno-A...

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Todd Rundgren is in a class all his own. Whether scoring Top 40 hits, playing all of the instruments on his albums or wildly experimenting with musical genres, Rundgren is continuously pushing the boundaries of creativity. That ethos and ingenuity can be found in his numerous solo albums from the 70s...