Overheard with Evan Smith

Susan Page is the Washington Bureau Chief of USA Today, where she writes about politics and the White House. Susan has covered six White House administrations and ten presidential elections. She has interviewed the past nine presidents from Richard Nixon through Donald Trump—and reported from six continents and dozens of foreign countries. She has appeared as an analyst on PBS NewsHour, CBS' Face...

Douglas Brinkley is a highly regarded and best-selling author, CNN Presidential Historian, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His most recent book, "American Moonshot," is a chronicle of the turbulent 1960s and JFK's audacious plan to put a man on the moon.

Roger McNamee has been a Silicon Valley investor for 35 years. He co-founded successful funds in venture, crossover and private equity. His most recent fund, Elevation, included U2's Bono as a co-founder. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Roger plays bass and guitar in the bands Moonalice and Doobie Decibel System. He is the a...

Timothy Shriver is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics International, the organization founded by his mother, Eunice Shriver. He serves with over 5.6 million Special Olympics athletes in 172 countries, all working to promote health, education, and a more unified world through the joy of sports. Before joining Special Olympics in 1996, Shriver was and remains a leading educa...

Alejandro Escovedo is a Mexican-American rock musician with Texas roots. His decades-long career includes performing in the punk rock group The Nuns, and alternative country bands Rank and File and The True Believers. He has collaborated with Bruce Springsteen, John Cale, Los Lobos, Peter Buck & Scott McCaughey, Los Texmaniacs, and Chuck Prophet. No Depression magazine declared him the Artist of t...

Robert Rodriguez has been a celebrated and innovative filmmaker for more than 25 years. The San Antonio native has directed films such as  El Mariachi ,  From Dusk 'Til Dawn , the  Spy Kids  and  Sin City  franchises, and the upcoming  Alita: Battle Angel,  a partnership with producer James Cameron. In 2013, Rodriguez ventured into television and launched his own cable TV channel, El Rey. He co-fo...

Bob   Mould  is an American indie rock musician, part of the influential 1980s punk band Hüsker Dü and the 1990s band Sugar. Hüsker Dü was one of the first underground bands to sign with a major record label and their eight albums inspired a generation of musicians.  Mould 's autobiography,  See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody , chronicles his story from a small town in New York to hi...

Tommy Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. His first novel "There There" is being hailed by The New York Times as "an energetic revelation of a corner of American life." Orange was born and raised in Oakland...

Brooklyn Decker broke into the public consciousness as a model gracing the pages of Vogue, Elle, GQ, Glamour, Esquire, and Cosmopolitan. But she cemented her place in pop culture history by appearing on the cover of the popular Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Decker successfully made the transition from being one of the biggest names in modeling to become a Hollywood actress. She currently appe...

Michael Beschloss is a historian and author of ten books on presidential history including The New York Times bestsellers Presidential Courage and The Conquerors , as well as two volumes on Lyndon Johnson's White House tapes. His latest book Presidents of War chronicles the difficult decisions made by presidents from James Madison during the War of 1812 to present. Beschloss was also editor of the...

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Endowed Chair. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She is the author of five books including her 2018 publication,  Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.  Her TEDx Houston talk on the power of vulnerability has garnered more than...

Jason Reitman is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. Reitman made his feature film debut with the 2006 Sundance hit  Thank You For Smoking . He earned Academy Award nominations for directing  Juno  and  Up In The Air , the latter of which earned Reitman a Golden Globe Award, WGA Award and BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay. His other films include  Young Adult, Labor Day, Men, Women and Children ,...

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her novel  The House on Mango Street  has sold over six million copies, been translated into more than twenty languages and is required reading from elementary through college across the nation. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur...

Mary Chapin Carpenter is a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter. Her latest album,  Sometimes Just The Sky , celebrates her acclaimed 30-year recording career, and features reimagined versions of one song from each of Carpenter's twelve albums, plus one newly penned track. Over the course of her career, she has sold 14 million records, won two Country Music Association Awards, two Acad...

Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laugh-out-loud funny – and ruthlessly honest. Her new book is  Almost Everything: Notes on Hope . Lamott is the author of the  New York Times  bestsellers  Hallelujah Anyway ;  Small Victories ;  Stitches ;  Help, Thanks, Wow ;  Some Assembly Requ...

Lawrence O'Donnell hosts "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" on MSNBC. His background in politics, entertainment and news, leads to lively discussions as he addresses the biggest issues and most compelling stories of the day. Among other political positions, O'Donnell served as Senior Advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1989 through 1992. He is an Emmy Award-winning executive producer...

Andrew Bujalski's first feature film, Funny Ha Ha , was called one of the most influential films of the '00s by New York Times critic A.O. Scott. He has also written and directed the films Mutual Appreciation , Beeswax , Computer Chess , and Results , which have played festivals worldwide including Sundance, Berlin, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. The Boston Globe describes him as "unerringly polit...

John Kerry has served most of his adult life in public service - as Navy lieutenant in combat in Vietnam, a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, Democratic nominee for president of the United States, five-term senator, and U.S. Secretary of State. He has been witness to and participant in some of the most important events of our recent history. His latest book, "Every Day Is Extra," is a revealing mem...

Michael Avenatti is an attorney and entrepreneur who routinely appears on broadcast and print media as a commentator on a range of legal issues. He has represented parties in a number of lawsuits that have gained international media attention, including cases brought against Donald Trump, the National Football League, various celebrity defendants, high-ranking business executives and Fortune 100 c...

Sean Spicer is the former White House Press Secretary in the Trump administration. He is the founder and President of RigWil LLC, a strategic consulting firm that provides insights to C-suite corporate and association executives. His book The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President was released in July of 2018. A husband and father of two, Spicer resides in Virginia.