To celebrate ten seasons of Overheard with Evan Smith, this special episode takes a look back at some of the guests who have educated and enlightened us – those who bring us the written word. From best selling authors like John Grisham to newcomers like Saeed Jones, the conversations are always entertaining.
Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee mentored Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of the company. Still a large shareholder, he now thinks Facebook is destroying our democracy. The author of “Zucked” discusses the existential threat he believes the social network poses to society.
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 author of “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe,” as well as “The New Normal” and “The Moonalice Legend: Posters and Words, Volumes 1-9.” He has served as a technical advisor for seasons two through five of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” series and was also responsible for raising the money that created the Wikimedia Foundation.
Russell Gold is the Senior Energy Reporter at The Wall Street Journal and author of the book “The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World.” Gold was part of the Journal’s reporting team on the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill and explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. That reporting earned the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Story and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.
Mary Matalin and James Carville are the odd couple of American politics — a diehard Republican and a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat happily married despite their famous ideological differences. Their book, “Love and War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home,” was published in 2014.
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson holds the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Astrophysics. He hosted NOVA ScienceNow on PBS for 5 seasons. Tyson was twice appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on space commissions.
Naomi Wolf is a best-selling author whose writings on gender equality and female sexuality put her squarely in the center of so many conversations coursing through politics today. Her book, “Vagina: A New Biography,” was released in 2012.
Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and is the author or co-author of many non-fiction books and fiction novels, including “Victory at Yorktown.”
Bob Balaban is an actor, director and producer whose credits include “Midnight Cowboy,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and Christopher Guest’s movies. He’s also an occasional author of children’s books, including the “Creature from the Seventh Grade” series.
Jeffrey Toobin is a New Yorker staff writer and CNN legal analyst whose book on the nation’s nine most important robed jurists was published in 2012. It’s called “The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court.”
