Welcome to Better Know a Guest, your weekly guide to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
Hey there Hubsters! After a relaxing weekend, a new week greets us in this ever dynamic Colbert-news related landscape, we have a great roster of guests to consider, some of whom Stephen has referenced rather frequently on the Report. This includes a prominent mathematician, legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, “Lean In” movement activist and businesswoman Sheryl Sandberg, and Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, on hand to discuss their Rainforest Foundation.
Is there anything you hope Stephen or Jon will cover this week? As usual, let us know in the comments below!
Monday, April 7 (2014)
Edward Frenkel (Author: “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality”)
Edward Frenkel is a Russian mathematician who teaches at the University of California Berkeley, specializing in representation theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. His book Love and Math is a passionate defense of mathematics and how it is at the center of everything. To do so, it recounts two stories: one, the wonders of mathematics, the other, the story of a young man who learns the subject. The latter is Frenkel’s own story about his journey to become a professor. Along the way, Frenkel insists on a different approach to teaching math, one that is easier to understand and does not seem as tedious. Publisher’s Weekly praised the book, saying, “Frenkel’s gusto will draw readers into his own quest, pursuing the deepest realities of mathematics as if it were a giant jigsaw puzzle, in which no one knows what the final image is going to look like.”
Born: 2 May 1968 (Kolomna, Russia)
Education: Gubkin University of Oil and Gas | Harvard University
Awards: Herman Weyl Prize
Filmmaking: Rites of Love and Math | The Two-Body Problem | Numberphile
Follow: Website | @EdFrenkel
Tuesday, April 8 (2014)
Jane Goodall (Author: “Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants”)
Jane Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, and antropologist who is known for her 45-year study of chimpanzee behavior in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her new book Seeds of Hope examines the role that plants play in the world, by exploring their ability to transform an ecosystem. From her childhood home in England to her second home in Tanzania, she reflects on the impact that plants have had on her life, as well as the effect they continue to have on ours. Goodall introduces readers to hard-working botanists and the Millennium Seed Bank which preserves over a billion seeds. Booklist reviews gave it a positive review, noting that “Goodall’s intimate writing style and sense of wonder pull the reader into each account … The mix of personal and scientific makes for a compelling read.”
Born: 3 April 1934 (London, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom)
Education: Newnham Collge, Cambridge | Darwin College, Cambridge
Books: My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees | Innocent Killers | In the Shadow of Man | The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior | Through a Window: 30 Years of Observing the Chimpanzees of Gombe | 40 Years a Gombe | Africa in My Blood | Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued From the Brink
Films: Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees | Miss Goodall: The Hyena Story | Among the Wild Chimpanzees | The People of the Forest | Chimpanzee Alert | The Gombe Chimpanzees | The Chimpanzee Diaries | Animal Minds | Chimps R US | Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees | Jane Goodall’s Return to Gombe | Chimps, So Like Us | When Animals Talk, We Should Listen
Awards: Order of the British Empire | United Nations Messenger of Peace | Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement | French Legion of Honor | Medal of Tanzania | Kyoto Prize | Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science | Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence | Prince of Asturias Award
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 17 April 2012 | 13 November 2009
Follow: Website | @JaneGoodallInst
Wednesday, April 9 (2014)
Sheryl Sandberg (Author: “Lean In: For Graduates”)
Sheryl Sandberg is an American businesswoman and COO of Facebook. She encourages women to be more assertive in the workplace and aims to empower women to succeed in their careers. The original Lean In was so popular that Sheryl Sandberg has created another version geared exclusively towards young graduates just entering the workforce. It includes a letter to graduates from Sandberg, as well as six additional chapters. The author offers advice for resume writing, getting the most out of a first job, negotiating a salary, interviewing, and more. She encourages graduates to go after the career they love. It has been released to rave reviews, with Oprah Winfrey herself calling it “Honest and brave . . . The new manifesto for women in the workplace.”
Born: 28 August, 1969 (Washington, D.C., United States)
Education: North Miami Beach High School | Harvard College | Harvard Business School
Awards: 50 Most Powerful Women in Business | TIME 100 | John H. Williams Prize
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 4 April 2013
Follow: Website | @SherylSandberg
Thursday, April 10 (2014)
Sting and Trudie Styler (Founders: “The Rainforest Foundation”)
Sting is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist, who known for his work as the songwriter, lead singer, and bassist of ‘The Police’, as well as his successful solo career. His wife Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer, her most well known roles being in Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The two formed ‘The Rainforest Foundation’, a charity to promote the rights of indigenous peoples living in the rainforest and the preservation of the rainforest itself. Funds from this foundation support three other projects: Rainforest Foundation UK, Rainforest US, and Rainforest Foundation Norway, which focus on Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, respectively. It also grants money to other NGOs that share the foundation’s commitments and work with indigenous communities. Sting will also perform songs from his new solo album, “The Last Ship”.
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 2 December 2010
Follow: @OfficialSting | @RainforestUS
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at ‘The Daily Show’!
Monday, April 7 (2014)
Matt Taibbi (Author: “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap”)
Matt Taibbi is an American author and journalist who reports on politics, media, finance, and sports. His new book The Divide examines what he refers to as the “divide” – growing wealth disparity and mass incarceration. The area where these two trends overlap is fueled by a shift in American citizenship in which basic rights are determined by income. It allows destructive fraud by the wealthy go unpunished while the impoverished are targeted for extra policing. In the book, Taibbi examines the world of whistleblowers, stop-and-frisk, “welfare queens”, and the demonization of immigrants. The New York Times calls it a “relentlessly disturbing, penetrating exploration of the root causes of the trauma that upended economic security in millions of American homes . . . a full-scale indictment of Wall Street and Washington.”
Born: 2 March 1970 (Boston, Massachusetts, United States)
Education: Concord Academy | Bard College
Books: The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia | Spanking the Donkey: On the Campaign Trail with the Democrats | Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire | The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, & Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire | Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America | Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
Awards: National Magazine Award
Follow: @MTaibbi
Tuesday, April 8 (2014)
Denis Leary (Actor: “Draft Day”)
Denis Leary is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and film producer. He stars in the upcoming film Draft Day, which follows the general manager of the Cleveland Browns as he tries to secure the number one draft pick for his team. Sonny Weaver, Jr. (Kevin Costner) has to try to break the team’s thirteen year unlucky streak. The film also stars Jennifer Garner as Sonny’s love interest Ali, Ellen Burstyn as Sonny’s mother, as well as Frank Langella and Sean Combs. The film has received mixed reviews with many calling it “Oscar bait” and noting its similarities to ‘Moneyball’. CBS Houstan’s Sports Radio criticised Leary’s portrayal of the Browns’ head coach, calling it ‘so over the top that, at times, it felt like he was supposed to be comic relief. His 1980′s style sweatsuit jacket (which never came off) was icing on the cake.’
Born: 18 August 1957 (Worcester, Massachusetts, United States)
Education: Saint Peter-Marian High School | Emerson College
Filmography: The Sandlot | The Ref | Natural Born Killers | National Lampoon’s Favorite Deadly Sings | The Thomas Crown Affair | Ice Age | Ice Age: The Meltdown | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | The Amazing Spider-Man | Ice Age: Continental Drift | The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Television: Remote Control | Afterdrive | Space Ghost Coast to Coast | The Rosie O’Donnell Show | The Job | Contest Searchlight | Crank Yankers | Rescue Me | The Simpsons
Bibliography: No Cure for Cancer | Rescue Me: Uncensored: The Official Companion | Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy, and Stupid | Suck on This Year: LYFAO @ 140 Characters or Less | Denis Leary’s Merry F#%$in’ Christmas
Awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Award | CableACE Awards | Edinburgh International Arts Festival | BBC Festival
Better Know a Guest: April 7 – 10, 2014
Welcome to Better Know a Guest, your weekly guide to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
Hey there Hubsters! After a relaxing weekend, a new week greets us in this ever dynamic Colbert-news related landscape, we have a great roster of guests to consider, some of whom Stephen has referenced rather frequently on the Report. This includes a prominent mathematician, legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, “Lean In” movement activist and businesswoman Sheryl Sandberg, and Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, on hand to discuss their Rainforest Foundation.
Is there anything you hope Stephen or Jon will cover this week? As usual, let us know in the comments below!
Monday, April 7 (2014)
Edward Frenkel (Author: “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality”)
Edward Frenkel is a Russian mathematician who teaches at the University of California Berkeley, specializing in representation theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. His book Love and Math is a passionate defense of mathematics and how it is at the center of everything. To do so, it recounts two stories: one, the wonders of mathematics, the other, the story of a young man who learns the subject. The latter is Frenkel’s own story about his journey to become a professor. Along the way, Frenkel insists on a different approach to teaching math, one that is easier to understand and does not seem as tedious. Publisher’s Weekly praised the book, saying, “Frenkel’s gusto will draw readers into his own quest, pursuing the deepest realities of mathematics as if it were a giant jigsaw puzzle, in which no one knows what the final image is going to look like.”
Born: 2 May 1968 (Kolomna, Russia)
Education: Gubkin University of Oil and Gas | Harvard University
Awards: Herman Weyl Prize
Filmmaking: Rites of Love and Math | The Two-Body Problem | Numberphile
Follow: Website | @EdFrenkel
Tuesday, April 8 (2014)
Jane Goodall (Author: “Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants”)
Jane Goodall is a British primatologist, ethologist, and antropologist who is known for her 45-year study of chimpanzee behavior in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her new book Seeds of Hope examines the role that plants play in the world, by exploring their ability to transform an ecosystem. From her childhood home in England to her second home in Tanzania, she reflects on the impact that plants have had on her life, as well as the effect they continue to have on ours. Goodall introduces readers to hard-working botanists and the Millennium Seed Bank which preserves over a billion seeds. Booklist reviews gave it a positive review, noting that “Goodall’s intimate writing style and sense of wonder pull the reader into each account … The mix of personal and scientific makes for a compelling read.”
Born: 3 April 1934 (London, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom)
Education: Newnham Collge, Cambridge | Darwin College, Cambridge
Books: My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees | Innocent Killers | In the Shadow of Man | The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior | Through a Window: 30 Years of Observing the Chimpanzees of Gombe | 40 Years a Gombe | Africa in My Blood | Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued From the Brink
Films: Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees | Miss Goodall: The Hyena Story | Among the Wild Chimpanzees | The People of the Forest | Chimpanzee Alert | The Gombe Chimpanzees | The Chimpanzee Diaries | Animal Minds | Chimps R US | Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees | Jane Goodall’s Return to Gombe | Chimps, So Like Us | When Animals Talk, We Should Listen
Awards: Order of the British Empire | United Nations Messenger of Peace | Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement | French Legion of Honor | Medal of Tanzania | Kyoto Prize | Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science | Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence | Prince of Asturias Award
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 17 April 2012 | 13 November 2009
Follow: Website | @JaneGoodallInst
Wednesday, April 9 (2014)
Sheryl Sandberg (Author: “Lean In: For Graduates”)
Sheryl Sandberg is an American businesswoman and COO of Facebook. She encourages women to be more assertive in the workplace and aims to empower women to succeed in their careers. The original Lean In was so popular that Sheryl Sandberg has created another version geared exclusively towards young graduates just entering the workforce. It includes a letter to graduates from Sandberg, as well as six additional chapters. The author offers advice for resume writing, getting the most out of a first job, negotiating a salary, interviewing, and more. She encourages graduates to go after the career they love. It has been released to rave reviews, with Oprah Winfrey herself calling it “Honest and brave . . . The new manifesto for women in the workplace.”
Born: 28 August, 1969 (Washington, D.C., United States)
Education: North Miami Beach High School | Harvard College | Harvard Business School
Awards: 50 Most Powerful Women in Business | TIME 100 | John H. Williams Prize
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 4 April 2013
Follow: Website | @SherylSandberg
Thursday, April 10 (2014)
Sting and Trudie Styler (Founders: “The Rainforest Foundation”)
Sting is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist, who known for his work as the songwriter, lead singer, and bassist of ‘The Police’, as well as his successful solo career. His wife Trudie Styler is an English actress and producer, her most well known roles being in Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The two formed ‘The Rainforest Foundation’, a charity to promote the rights of indigenous peoples living in the rainforest and the preservation of the rainforest itself. Funds from this foundation support three other projects: Rainforest Foundation UK, Rainforest US, and Rainforest Foundation Norway, which focus on Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, respectively. It also grants money to other NGOs that share the foundation’s commitments and work with indigenous communities. Sting will also perform songs from his new solo album, “The Last Ship”.
Previous ‘Daily Show’ Appearance(s): Interview – 2 December 2010
Follow: @OfficialSting | @RainforestUS
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at ‘The Daily Show’!
Monday, April 7 (2014)
Matt Taibbi (Author: “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap”)
Matt Taibbi is an American author and journalist who reports on politics, media, finance, and sports. His new book The Divide examines what he refers to as the “divide” – growing wealth disparity and mass incarceration. The area where these two trends overlap is fueled by a shift in American citizenship in which basic rights are determined by income. It allows destructive fraud by the wealthy go unpunished while the impoverished are targeted for extra policing. In the book, Taibbi examines the world of whistleblowers, stop-and-frisk, “welfare queens”, and the demonization of immigrants. The New York Times calls it a “relentlessly disturbing, penetrating exploration of the root causes of the trauma that upended economic security in millions of American homes . . . a full-scale indictment of Wall Street and Washington.”
Born: 2 March 1970 (Boston, Massachusetts, United States)
Education: Concord Academy | Bard College
Books: The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia | Spanking the Donkey: On the Campaign Trail with the Democrats | Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire | The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, & Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire | Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America | Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
Awards: National Magazine Award
Follow: @MTaibbi
Tuesday, April 8 (2014)
Denis Leary (Actor: “Draft Day”)
Denis Leary is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and film producer. He stars in the upcoming film Draft Day, which follows the general manager of the Cleveland Browns as he tries to secure the number one draft pick for his team. Sonny Weaver, Jr. (Kevin Costner) has to try to break the team’s thirteen year unlucky streak. The film also stars Jennifer Garner as Sonny’s love interest Ali, Ellen Burstyn as Sonny’s mother, as well as Frank Langella and Sean Combs. The film has received mixed reviews with many calling it “Oscar bait” and noting its similarities to ‘Moneyball’. CBS Houstan’s Sports Radio criticised Leary’s portrayal of the Browns’ head coach, calling it ‘so over the top that, at times, it felt like he was supposed to be comic relief. His 1980′s style sweatsuit jacket (which never came off) was icing on the cake.’
Born: 18 August 1957 (Worcester, Massachusetts, United States)
Education: Saint Peter-Marian High School | Emerson College
Filmography: The Sandlot | The Ref | Natural Born Killers | National Lampoon’s Favorite Deadly Sings | The Thomas Crown Affair | Ice Age | Ice Age: The Meltdown | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | The Amazing Spider-Man | Ice Age: Continental Drift | The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Television: Remote Control | Afterdrive | Space Ghost Coast to Coast | The Rosie O’Donnell Show | The Job | Contest Searchlight | Crank Yankers | Rescue Me | The Simpsons
Bibliography: No Cure for Cancer | Rescue Me: Uncensored: The Official Companion | Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy, and Stupid | Suck on This Year: LYFAO @ 140 Characters or Less | Denis Leary’s Merry F#%$in’ Christmas
Awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Award | CableACE Awards | Edinburgh International Arts Festival | BBC Festival