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! Hopefully those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a great holiday! I know my few days off from school were much-needed. Now that our favorite fake newsmen are back, what topics do you hope they tackle? So much has happened, but I’m looking forward to their reaction to the nuclear deal with Iran.
Stephen’s guests this week are psychologist Daniel Goleman, NASA scientist Ed Stone, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, and CEO of the Ford Motor Company Allan Mulally. At the moment, The Daily Show‘s guest list for the week is TBA, so that will be added later!
Monday, December 2 (2013)
Daniel Goleman (Author: “Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence”)
Daniel Goleman is an American an author, psychologist, and science journalist, who has written for The New York Times, and authored of over ten books on topics including psychology, education, ecology, and leadership. His work has earned him two Pulitzer Prize nominations. His latest book Focus: The Hiddent Driver of Excellence examines attention, a characteristic of the human mind that has been underrated. He believes that attention is an important field of study as our world moves faster and becomes more complicated.
Born: March 7, 1946 (Stockton, California, United States)
Education: Amherst College | Harvard University
Books:The Varieties of the Meditative Experience | Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self Deception | Emotional Intelligence: Conversation with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health | Harvard Business on What Makes a Leader? | Working with Emotional Intelligence | Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance | The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace | Social Intelligence: The New Science of Social Relationships | Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama | Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Can Buy Can Change Everything | The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights | Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence
Awards: Career Achievement Award, American Psychological Association | Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Follow: Website | @DanielGolemanEI | Facebook | LinkedIn
Tuesday, December 3 (2013)
Ed Stone (Scientist: NASA Voyager Project)
Edward Carroll Stone is an American scientist, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, and former director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Labratory. Stone has been a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions. One of his most famous contributions to space exploration is his continuing role as project scientist for the Voyager mission, whose twin spacecraft studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune between 1979 and 1989. The Voyagers are still traveling in space and are expected to continue returning scientific information as they reach the outer bounds of our solar system in the next few years. He will be discussing the ‘Voyager Project’ which aims to explore regions of space in which nothing from Earth has flown before. Since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager spacecrafts are now further away from the Earth and sun than Pluto, and have made an historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, that is filled with matter ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago.
Born: January 23, 1936 (Knoxville, Iowa, United States)
Education: Burlington Junior College | University of Chicago
Awards: Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement | Carl Sagan Memorial Award | National Academy of Sciences | National Medal of Science
Follow: Voyager Profile
Wednesday, December 4 (2013)
Bryan Stevenson (Executive Director: Equal Justice Initiative)
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a private non-profit organization dedicated to criminal justice reform, and is a professor at New York University School of Law. Stevenson is well-known for his focus on the criminal justice system’s bias towards the poor and people of color, and has helped clear the names of several condemned prisoners and has worked to reform the criminal justice system. Following his speech at TED2012, Stevenson received the strongest standing ovation ever seen at TED, with over $1 million being raised by attendees to fund a campaign run by Stevenson to end the practice of putting children in adult jails and prisons
Born:1959
Education: Eastern University | Harvard Law School | John F. Kennedy School of Government
Awards: Gruber Prize for Justice | American Bar Association’s Wisdom Award for public service | ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty | MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award | Reebok Human Rights Award | Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice | Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award | Olof Palme Prize
Follow: New York University Profile
Thursday, December 5 (2013)
Allan Mulally (CEO: Ford Motor Company)
Allan Mulally is an American engineer and business executive and CEO of the Ford Motor Company. He revived the company — which had been in financial trouble during the late 2000s recession – -and avoided a bailout from the US government. Previously, he was an engineer and then CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Mulally is the subject of Bryce G. Hoffman’s book “An American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company”.
Born: August 4, 1945 (Oakland, California, United States)
Education: University of Kansas | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management
Follow: @Ford
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at ‘The Daily Show’!
Monday, December 2 (2013)
Sir Ian McKellen (Actor: “The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug”)
Sir Ian McKellen, CBE is an English Actor. The recipient of many acting awards, McKellen’s work ranges from Shakespearean projects to modern science fiction and fantasy. He began his career in theatre, making his first West End appearance in the 60s, before moving on to film roles. His film career took off in the 90s with films like Six Degrees of Separation and Richard III. McKellen has since become famous for his roles as Magneto in the X-Men movies and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. He is involved in charity work and is a vocal advocate of LGBT rights. The actor’s latest project is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in which he reprises his role as Gandalf for the second installment of Peter Jackson’s three-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ Appearance(s): Interview – Hobbit Week December 3rd, 2012
Born: May 25, 1939 (Burnley, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom)
Education: Bolton School | St. Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge
Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing | Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ | The Promise | Edward II | Hamlet | ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore | Dr. Faustus | King John | Romeo and Juliet | The Winter’s Tale | Macbeth | The Alchemist | Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour | Three Sisters | Bent | Amadeus | Coriolanus | Wild Honey | The Cherry Orchard | The Duchess of Malfi | The Real Inspector Hound | Othello | Richard III | Uncle Vanya | Peter Pan | An Enemy of the People | Present Laughter | Dance of Death | Aladdin | The Cut | King Lear | The Seagull | Waiting for Godot | The Syndicate
Filmography: Six Degrees of Separation | Last Action Hero | Richard III | Gods and Monsters | X-Men | The Lord of the Rings trilogy | X2 | Flushed Away | X-Men: The Last Stand | The Da Vinci Code | Stardust | The Golden Compass | King Lear | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | The Wolverine
Awards: Golden Globe Award | Saturn Award | Annie Award | British Independent Film Award | Critics Choice Award | Chlotrudis Award | GLAAD Media Award | Independent Spirit Award | Screen Actors Guild Award
Follow: Website | @IanMcKellen | Facebook | Instagram | flickr
Tuesday, December 3 (2013)
Jared Leto (Actor: “Dallas Buyers Club”)
Jared Leto is an American actor, musician, songwriter, and singer. He has appeared in the films Prefontaine, Girl, Interrupted, Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club, and American Psycho. Leto is the lead vocalist and main songwriter of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band was formed in 1998 in Los Angeles with members Shannon Leto (his brother) and Tomo Milicevic. The band’s debut album Thirty Seconds to Mars was released in 2002, and is known for its energetic shows, which have been compared to artists like Pink Floyd and U2. In his latest role, Letowho recently received the Best Supporting Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle, plays a transgender woman in the film ‘Dallas Buyers Club’. In preparation for the role, Leto lost nearly 40 pounds and never broke character, both on and off set, to maintain the character’s authenticity.
Born: December 26, 1971 (Bossier City, Louisiana, United States)
Education: School of Visual Arts, New York City
Filmography: Prefontaine | Urban Legend | The Thin Red Line | Fight Club | Girl, Interrupted | American Psycho | Requiem for a Dream | Sunset Strip | Panic Room | Chapter 27 | Mr. Nobody
Discography: 30 Seconds to Mars | A Beautiful Lie | This is War
Awards: Satellite Award | MTV Video Music Award | Toronto International Film Festival Award | New York Film Critics Circle
Follow: Website | @JaredLeto
Wednesday, December 4 (2013)
Jehane Noujaim (Director: “The Square”)
Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian American film director, who was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Kuwait and Cairo. Noujaim worked in MTV’s news and documentary department as a producer for the series UNfiltered, before leaving MTV to produce and direct the acclaimed Startup.com. Noujaim has since worked in both the Middle East and the United States on various documentaries including Born Rich, Only the Strong Survive, and Down from the Mountain. In 2004, she directed Control Room, a documentary about US Central Command and its relations with Al Jazeera and other news organizations that covered the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2007, she co-directed the film Shayfeen.com part of the Why Democracy project. Noujaim organized Pangea Day, a series of video conferences in New York City, Rio de Janiero, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali. In 2012 she released Rafea: Solar Mama and in 2013 released The Square, a film about the Egyptian revolution.
Born: Washington, D.C., United States
Education: Milton Academy | Harvard University
Filmography: Unfiltered | Born Rich | Only the Strong Survive | Down from the Mountain | Control Room | Shayfeen.com | Rafea: Solar Mama
Awards: TED Prize | Gardiner Fellowship
Follow: @JehaneNoujaim
Thursday, December 3 (2013)
Jorge Ramos (Anchor: “America with Jorge Ramos”)
Jorge Ramos is a Mexican journalist, and anchor for Noticiero Univision and for the Sunday morning talk show Al Punto. Ramos has appeared on political news shows like NBC’s Today, CNN’s Talk Back Live, ABC’s Nightline, CBS’s Early Show, and Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor. He began his career in journalism in Mexico City. While there, one of the news networks censored one of his reports, which convinced him to immigrate to the United States. Ramos has written several books on the US politics of immigration. He began hosting America with Jorge Ramos, which debuted on October 29, 2013. The Show focuses on the issues and events that divide American politics.
Born: March 16, 1958 (Mexico City, Mexico)
Education: Universidad Iberoamericana | University of Miami
Books: The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Are Transforming Politics in America | No Borders: A Journalist’s Search for Home | Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History | The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future
Shows: Al Punto | Mundo Latino
Awards: Emmy Award | Maria Moors Cabot Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ Appearance(s): Interview — August 11, 2008 | October 2, 2012
Follow: Website | @JorgeRamosNews
Better Know a Guest: December 2 – 5, 2013
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! Hopefully those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a great holiday! I know my few days off from school were much-needed. Now that our favorite fake newsmen are back, what topics do you hope they tackle? So much has happened, but I’m looking forward to their reaction to the nuclear deal with Iran.
Stephen’s guests this week are psychologist Daniel Goleman, NASA scientist Ed Stone, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, and CEO of the Ford Motor Company Allan Mulally. At the moment, The Daily Show‘s guest list for the week is TBA, so that will be added later!
Monday, December 2 (2013)
Daniel Goleman (Author: “Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence”)
Daniel Goleman is an American an author, psychologist, and science journalist, who has written for The New York Times, and authored of over ten books on topics including psychology, education, ecology, and leadership. His work has earned him two Pulitzer Prize nominations. His latest book Focus: The Hiddent Driver of Excellence examines attention, a characteristic of the human mind that has been underrated. He believes that attention is an important field of study as our world moves faster and becomes more complicated.
Born: March 7, 1946 (Stockton, California, United States)
Education: Amherst College | Harvard University
Books:The Varieties of the Meditative Experience | Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self Deception | Emotional Intelligence: Conversation with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health | Harvard Business on What Makes a Leader? | Working with Emotional Intelligence | Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance | The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace | Social Intelligence: The New Science of Social Relationships | Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama | Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Can Buy Can Change Everything | The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights | Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence
Awards: Career Achievement Award, American Psychological Association | Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Follow: Website | @DanielGolemanEI | Facebook | LinkedIn
Tuesday, December 3 (2013)
Ed Stone (Scientist: NASA Voyager Project)
Edward Carroll Stone is an American scientist, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, and former director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Labratory. Stone has been a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions. One of his most famous contributions to space exploration is his continuing role as project scientist for the Voyager mission, whose twin spacecraft studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune between 1979 and 1989. The Voyagers are still traveling in space and are expected to continue returning scientific information as they reach the outer bounds of our solar system in the next few years. He will be discussing the ‘Voyager Project’ which aims to explore regions of space in which nothing from Earth has flown before. Since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager spacecrafts are now further away from the Earth and sun than Pluto, and have made an historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, that is filled with matter ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago.
Born: January 23, 1936 (Knoxville, Iowa, United States)
Education: Burlington Junior College | University of Chicago
Awards: Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement | Carl Sagan Memorial Award | National Academy of Sciences | National Medal of Science
Follow: Voyager Profile
Wednesday, December 4 (2013)
Bryan Stevenson (Executive Director: Equal Justice Initiative)
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a private non-profit organization dedicated to criminal justice reform, and is a professor at New York University School of Law. Stevenson is well-known for his focus on the criminal justice system’s bias towards the poor and people of color, and has helped clear the names of several condemned prisoners and has worked to reform the criminal justice system. Following his speech at TED2012, Stevenson received the strongest standing ovation ever seen at TED, with over $1 million being raised by attendees to fund a campaign run by Stevenson to end the practice of putting children in adult jails and prisons
Born:1959
Education: Eastern University | Harvard Law School | John F. Kennedy School of Government
Awards: Gruber Prize for Justice | American Bar Association’s Wisdom Award for public service | ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty | MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award | Reebok Human Rights Award | Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice | Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award | Olof Palme Prize
Follow: New York University Profile
Thursday, December 5 (2013)
Allan Mulally (CEO: Ford Motor Company)
Allan Mulally is an American engineer and business executive and CEO of the Ford Motor Company. He revived the company — which had been in financial trouble during the late 2000s recession – -and avoided a bailout from the US government. Previously, he was an engineer and then CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Mulally is the subject of Bryce G. Hoffman’s book “An American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company”.
Born: August 4, 1945 (Oakland, California, United States)
Education: University of Kansas | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management
Follow: @Ford
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at ‘The Daily Show’!
Monday, December 2 (2013)
Sir Ian McKellen (Actor: “The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug”)
Sir Ian McKellen, CBE is an English Actor. The recipient of many acting awards, McKellen’s work ranges from Shakespearean projects to modern science fiction and fantasy. He began his career in theatre, making his first West End appearance in the 60s, before moving on to film roles. His film career took off in the 90s with films like Six Degrees of Separation and Richard III. McKellen has since become famous for his roles as Magneto in the X-Men movies and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. He is involved in charity work and is a vocal advocate of LGBT rights. The actor’s latest project is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in which he reprises his role as Gandalf for the second installment of Peter Jackson’s three-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ Appearance(s): Interview – Hobbit Week December 3rd, 2012
Born: May 25, 1939 (Burnley, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom)
Education: Bolton School | St. Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge
Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing | Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ | The Promise | Edward II | Hamlet | ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore | Dr. Faustus | King John | Romeo and Juliet | The Winter’s Tale | Macbeth | The Alchemist | Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour | Three Sisters | Bent | Amadeus | Coriolanus | Wild Honey | The Cherry Orchard | The Duchess of Malfi | The Real Inspector Hound | Othello | Richard III | Uncle Vanya | Peter Pan | An Enemy of the People | Present Laughter | Dance of Death | Aladdin | The Cut | King Lear | The Seagull | Waiting for Godot | The Syndicate
Filmography: Six Degrees of Separation | Last Action Hero | Richard III | Gods and Monsters | X-Men | The Lord of the Rings trilogy | X2 | Flushed Away | X-Men: The Last Stand | The Da Vinci Code | Stardust | The Golden Compass | King Lear | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | The Wolverine
Awards: Golden Globe Award | Saturn Award | Annie Award | British Independent Film Award | Critics Choice Award | Chlotrudis Award | GLAAD Media Award | Independent Spirit Award | Screen Actors Guild Award
Follow: Website | @IanMcKellen | Facebook | Instagram | flickr
Tuesday, December 3 (2013)
Jared Leto (Actor: “Dallas Buyers Club”)
Jared Leto is an American actor, musician, songwriter, and singer. He has appeared in the films Prefontaine, Girl, Interrupted, Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club, and American Psycho. Leto is the lead vocalist and main songwriter of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band was formed in 1998 in Los Angeles with members Shannon Leto (his brother) and Tomo Milicevic. The band’s debut album Thirty Seconds to Mars was released in 2002, and is known for its energetic shows, which have been compared to artists like Pink Floyd and U2. In his latest role, Letowho recently received the Best Supporting Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle, plays a transgender woman in the film ‘Dallas Buyers Club’. In preparation for the role, Leto lost nearly 40 pounds and never broke character, both on and off set, to maintain the character’s authenticity.
Born: December 26, 1971 (Bossier City, Louisiana, United States)
Education: School of Visual Arts, New York City
Filmography: Prefontaine | Urban Legend | The Thin Red Line | Fight Club | Girl, Interrupted | American Psycho | Requiem for a Dream | Sunset Strip | Panic Room | Chapter 27 | Mr. Nobody
Discography: 30 Seconds to Mars | A Beautiful Lie | This is War
Awards: Satellite Award | MTV Video Music Award | Toronto International Film Festival Award | New York Film Critics Circle
Follow: Website | @JaredLeto
Wednesday, December 4 (2013)
Jehane Noujaim (Director: “The Square”)
Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian American film director, who was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Kuwait and Cairo. Noujaim worked in MTV’s news and documentary department as a producer for the series UNfiltered, before leaving MTV to produce and direct the acclaimed Startup.com. Noujaim has since worked in both the Middle East and the United States on various documentaries including Born Rich, Only the Strong Survive, and Down from the Mountain. In 2004, she directed Control Room, a documentary about US Central Command and its relations with Al Jazeera and other news organizations that covered the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2007, she co-directed the film Shayfeen.com part of the Why Democracy project. Noujaim organized Pangea Day, a series of video conferences in New York City, Rio de Janiero, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali. In 2012 she released Rafea: Solar Mama and in 2013 released The Square, a film about the Egyptian revolution.
Born: Washington, D.C., United States
Education: Milton Academy | Harvard University
Filmography: Unfiltered | Born Rich | Only the Strong Survive | Down from the Mountain | Control Room | Shayfeen.com | Rafea: Solar Mama
Awards: TED Prize | Gardiner Fellowship
Follow: @JehaneNoujaim
Thursday, December 3 (2013)
Jorge Ramos (Anchor: “America with Jorge Ramos”)
Jorge Ramos is a Mexican journalist, and anchor for Noticiero Univision and for the Sunday morning talk show Al Punto. Ramos has appeared on political news shows like NBC’s Today, CNN’s Talk Back Live, ABC’s Nightline, CBS’s Early Show, and Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor. He began his career in journalism in Mexico City. While there, one of the news networks censored one of his reports, which convinced him to immigrate to the United States. Ramos has written several books on the US politics of immigration. He began hosting America with Jorge Ramos, which debuted on October 29, 2013. The Show focuses on the issues and events that divide American politics.
Born: March 16, 1958 (Mexico City, Mexico)
Education: Universidad Iberoamericana | University of Miami
Books: The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Are Transforming Politics in America | No Borders: A Journalist’s Search for Home | Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History | The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future
Shows: Al Punto | Mundo Latino
Awards: Emmy Award | Maria Moors Cabot Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ Appearance(s): Interview — August 11, 2008 | October 2, 2012
Follow: Website | @JorgeRamosNews