Welcome to ‘Better Know a Guest’, your introduction to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
The Oscars were held last night in Los Angeles with a visibly nervous Seth MacFarlane at the helm. Honouring musicals of the past decade, and my personal favourite, a tribute to ’50 Years of James Bond’, the Academy tried to breath new life into the ceremony with the youthful and risky MacFarlane. Do you think the show was a success? Should they have called Amy & Tina? What do you thinking of the evenings winners? But most importantly, what do you think “Stephen” will make of it all?
Monday, February 25th (2013)
Simon Garfield (Author: ““On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks”)
Simon Garfield is an award-winning, prolific British journalist and non-fiction writer, whose work touches on subjects as varied as Gordon Ramsay, (and other famous folks), to topics of science, health, Las Vegas, and travel to other far away places, typically in articles he pens for The Observer. In his many non-fiction books he takes on intriguing topics such as how fonts got their origins Just My Type, how Mini Automobiles are manufactured today (Mini), and even a book on the origin of the color mauve, entitled of course, Mauve. More seriously, he describes the experiences of British families during World War II in his works Our Hidden Lives* and We Are at War.
“His droll humor and infectious curiosity will keep readers engrossed as he uncovers surprising ways in which maps chart our imaginations as much as they do the ground underfoot.” — Publishers Weekly
“Garfield has a knack for creating high-spirited, erudite and user-friendly books on subjects that may seem crashingly dull to all but a few fanatics. . . . Garfield is a terrific guide. . . . “On the Map” is a treasure: exhilarating, witty, compulsively readable and just plain fun.” – The Seattle Times
Born: 19 March, 1960 (United Kingdom)
Education: University College School | London School of Economics
Awards: Student Journalist of the Year (1981) | Somerset Maugham Prize | Mind Journalist of the Year (2005)
Written Works: Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry | The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS | Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Follow: Website | @SimonGarfield
Tuesday, February 26th (2013)
Dr. Michio Kaku (Director: “National Institutes of Health)
Dr. Michio Kaku is Japanese American theoretical physicist, best-selling author, educator, and populariser of science through contributions to literature, radio, film and television. The co-founder of the string field theory, Dr. Kaku continues Albert Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified thoery. Examining Earth’s recent and future encounters with asteroids and other space rocks, Dr. Kaku’s ‘Asteroid Apocalypse’ is the cover story in the latest issue of Newsweek.
Previous Appearance on ‘The Colbert Report’: Episode #06088
Born: January 24, 1947 (San Jose, California, USA)
Education: Cubberley High School | Harvard University | University of California, Berkeley
Television: Horizon: “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” | Through the Wormhole | How the Universe Works
Written Works: Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel | Parallel Worlds | Einstein’s Cosmos | Hyperspace
Follow: Blog | @MichioKaku
Wednesday, February 27th (2013)
Paola Antonelli (Curator: “‘Architecture and Design’ at the Museum of Modern Art)
Recently rated as one of the top one hundred powerful people in the world of art by Art Review, Paola Antonelli is one of the world’s foremost design experts, and the current curator of the ‘Architecture and Design’ department at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Prior to her appointment at MoMA, Antonelli worked as a practicing architect, but stepped back in order to focus on teaching, writing about design and curating gallery exhibitions. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Antonelli work as an editor for Domus and Abitare Magazine’s, and has contributed articles to Metropolis, the Harvard Design Review, and Harper’s Bazaar. Ever aware that the majority of MoMA’s visitors are attracted by world renowned artists, such as Picasso and Matisse, Antonelli works hard to ensure that visitors will be both entertained and enlightened by design based exhibitions.
Born: 1963 (Sassari, Sardinia, Italy)
Education: Politecnico di Milano University
Curated Exhibitons: Design and the Elastic Mind | Achille Castiglioni: Design! | Humble Masterpieces | Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design | SAFE: Design Takes on Risk
Written Works: Exit to Tomorrow: World’s Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005 | Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design and Objects of Design from the Museum of Modern Art.
Follow: @CuriousOctopus
Thursday, February 28th (2013)
Jon Favreau (Director of Speech Writing for President Obama)
Jonathan “Jon” Favreau is Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Favreau attended the College of the Holy Cross, graduating as valedictorian. In college, he accumulated a variety of scholastic honors, and took part in and directed numerous community and civic programs. After graduation, he went to work for the John Kerry Presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign, and eventually was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. While working for the Kerry campaign, he first met Barack Obama. In 2005, Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent speechwriter. Favreau was hired as Obama’s speechwriter shortly after Obama’s election to the United States Senate. Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama has referred to him as his “mind reader.” He went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful Presidential election campaign. In 2009, he was named as a White House staff member, as Director of Speechwriting.
Born: June 2, 1981 (Winchester, Massachusetts, USA)
Education: College of the Holy Cross
Campaigns: John Kerry | Barack Obama
Follow: Facebook
And now, let’s check in with our good friend over at ‘The Daily Show’ – Jon Stewart!
Monday, February 25th (2013)
Donnie Wahlberg (Actor: “Blue Bloods”)
The former ‘New Kid on the Block’, actor, and film producer appears to promote his new TNT “docu-series” Boston’s Finest, which chronicles the lives of actual Boston police officers. Prior to this, he has starred in several blockbuster films, including Ransom (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999), Band of Brothers (2001), Saw II-IV (2005-2007), Righteous Kill (2008) and What Doesn’t Kill You (2008).
Fun Fact: “New Kids On The Block” were originally called “Nynuk”.
Follow: Facebook | @DonnieWahlberg
Tuesday, February 26th (2013)
Lori Silverbush & Kristi Jacobson (Directors: “A Place at the Table”)
Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush are the directors of the documentary “A Place at the Table” (2013), focusing on hunger in the United States.
Kristi Jacobson is an award-winning director, producer and writer of non-fiction film and television, and the founder of production company ‘Catalyst’. Her work has premiered at the Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals and has been presented both nationally and internationally on HBO, ESPN, Lifetime and Channel Four (UK), with written works published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jounral and Vanity Fair.
Fellow filmmaker Lori Silverbush is the writer, producer and director of ‘On the Outs’ (2004).
Fun Fact: “A Place at the Table” was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Wednesday, February 27th (2013)
R.J. Cutler (Filmmaker: “The World According to Dick Cheney”)
R.J. Cutler is a documentary filmmakers and creator of ‘serious’ reality television. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Southern California, Cutler’s works have focused on politics (‘The War Room’), education (‘American High’) and race relations (‘Black. White.’). Cutler’s works have received Emmy, Peabody, Academy Award, GLAAD and Producer’s Guild Award nominations and wins.
Fun Fact: Worked as a producer on ‘Greatest American Dog’.
Follow: @RJCutler
Thursday, February 28th (2013)
Rachel Maddow (Host: “The Rachel Maddow Show”)
Rachel Maddow is an American television host, political commentator, and author. In 2008, Maddow became the first openly gay anchor of a major prime-time news program when ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ debuted on MSNBC. A graduate of Stanford and Oxford universities, Maddow’s broadcast career began on WRNX as a radio host. The move to television came when Maddow was given her own television show after sitting in for Keith Olbermann on ‘Countdown’ in 2008.
Fun Fact: While working on her doctoral dissertation, Maddow met her partner, artist Susan Mikula after being hired to do yard work at her home.
Follow: Website | @Maddow
Better Know a Guest: February 25 – 28, 2013
Welcome to ‘Better Know a Guest’, your introduction to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
The Oscars were held last night in Los Angeles with a visibly nervous Seth MacFarlane at the helm. Honouring musicals of the past decade, and my personal favourite, a tribute to ’50 Years of James Bond’, the Academy tried to breath new life into the ceremony with the youthful and risky MacFarlane. Do you think the show was a success? Should they have called Amy & Tina? What do you thinking of the evenings winners? But most importantly, what do you think “Stephen” will make of it all?
Monday, February 25th (2013)
Simon Garfield (Author: ““On The Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks”)
Simon Garfield is an award-winning, prolific British journalist and non-fiction writer, whose work touches on subjects as varied as Gordon Ramsay, (and other famous folks), to topics of science, health, Las Vegas, and travel to other far away places, typically in articles he pens for The Observer. In his many non-fiction books he takes on intriguing topics such as how fonts got their origins Just My Type, how Mini Automobiles are manufactured today (Mini), and even a book on the origin of the color mauve, entitled of course, Mauve. More seriously, he describes the experiences of British families during World War II in his works Our Hidden Lives* and We Are at War.
Born: 19 March, 1960 (United Kingdom)
Education: University College School | London School of Economics
Awards: Student Journalist of the Year (1981) | Somerset Maugham Prize | Mind Journalist of the Year (2005)
Written Works: Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Industry | The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS | Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Follow: Website | @SimonGarfield
Tuesday, February 26th (2013)
Dr. Michio Kaku (Director: “National Institutes of Health)
Dr. Michio Kaku is Japanese American theoretical physicist, best-selling author, educator, and populariser of science through contributions to literature, radio, film and television. The co-founder of the string field theory, Dr. Kaku continues Albert Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified thoery. Examining Earth’s recent and future encounters with asteroids and other space rocks, Dr. Kaku’s ‘Asteroid Apocalypse’ is the cover story in the latest issue of Newsweek.
Previous Appearance on ‘The Colbert Report’: Episode #06088
Born: January 24, 1947 (San Jose, California, USA)
Education: Cubberley High School | Harvard University | University of California, Berkeley
Television: Horizon: “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” | Through the Wormhole | How the Universe Works
Written Works: Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel | Parallel Worlds | Einstein’s Cosmos | Hyperspace
Follow: Blog | @MichioKaku
Wednesday, February 27th (2013)
Paola Antonelli (Curator: “‘Architecture and Design’ at the Museum of Modern Art)
Recently rated as one of the top one hundred powerful people in the world of art by Art Review, Paola Antonelli is one of the world’s foremost design experts, and the current curator of the ‘Architecture and Design’ department at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Prior to her appointment at MoMA, Antonelli worked as a practicing architect, but stepped back in order to focus on teaching, writing about design and curating gallery exhibitions. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Antonelli work as an editor for Domus and Abitare Magazine’s, and has contributed articles to Metropolis, the Harvard Design Review, and Harper’s Bazaar. Ever aware that the majority of MoMA’s visitors are attracted by world renowned artists, such as Picasso and Matisse, Antonelli works hard to ensure that visitors will be both entertained and enlightened by design based exhibitions.
Born: 1963 (Sassari, Sardinia, Italy)
Education: Politecnico di Milano University
Curated Exhibitons: Design and the Elastic Mind | Achille Castiglioni: Design! | Humble Masterpieces | Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design | SAFE: Design Takes on Risk
Written Works: Exit to Tomorrow: World’s Fair Architecture, Design, Fashion 1933-2005 | Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design and Objects of Design from the Museum of Modern Art.
Follow: @CuriousOctopus
Thursday, February 28th (2013)
Jon Favreau (Director of Speech Writing for President Obama)
Jonathan “Jon” Favreau is Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Favreau attended the College of the Holy Cross, graduating as valedictorian. In college, he accumulated a variety of scholastic honors, and took part in and directed numerous community and civic programs. After graduation, he went to work for the John Kerry Presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign, and eventually was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. While working for the Kerry campaign, he first met Barack Obama. In 2005, Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent speechwriter. Favreau was hired as Obama’s speechwriter shortly after Obama’s election to the United States Senate. Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama has referred to him as his “mind reader.” He went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful Presidential election campaign. In 2009, he was named as a White House staff member, as Director of Speechwriting.
Born: June 2, 1981 (Winchester, Massachusetts, USA)
Education: College of the Holy Cross
Campaigns: John Kerry | Barack Obama
Follow: Facebook
And now, let’s check in with our good friend over at ‘The Daily Show’ – Jon Stewart!
Monday, February 25th (2013)
Donnie Wahlberg (Actor: “Blue Bloods”)
The former ‘New Kid on the Block’, actor, and film producer appears to promote his new TNT “docu-series” Boston’s Finest, which chronicles the lives of actual Boston police officers. Prior to this, he has starred in several blockbuster films, including Ransom (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999), Band of Brothers (2001), Saw II-IV (2005-2007), Righteous Kill (2008) and What Doesn’t Kill You (2008).
Fun Fact: “New Kids On The Block” were originally called “Nynuk”.
Follow: Facebook | @DonnieWahlberg
Tuesday, February 26th (2013)
Lori Silverbush & Kristi Jacobson (Directors: “A Place at the Table”)
Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush are the directors of the documentary “A Place at the Table” (2013), focusing on hunger in the United States.
Kristi Jacobson is an award-winning director, producer and writer of non-fiction film and television, and the founder of production company ‘Catalyst’. Her work has premiered at the Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals and has been presented both nationally and internationally on HBO, ESPN, Lifetime and Channel Four (UK), with written works published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jounral and Vanity Fair.
Fellow filmmaker Lori Silverbush is the writer, producer and director of ‘On the Outs’ (2004).
Fun Fact: “A Place at the Table” was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Wednesday, February 27th (2013)
R.J. Cutler (Filmmaker: “The World According to Dick Cheney”)
R.J. Cutler is a documentary filmmakers and creator of ‘serious’ reality television. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Southern California, Cutler’s works have focused on politics (‘The War Room’), education (‘American High’) and race relations (‘Black. White.’). Cutler’s works have received Emmy, Peabody, Academy Award, GLAAD and Producer’s Guild Award nominations and wins.
Fun Fact: Worked as a producer on ‘Greatest American Dog’.
Follow: @RJCutler
Thursday, February 28th (2013)
Rachel Maddow (Host: “The Rachel Maddow Show”)
Rachel Maddow is an American television host, political commentator, and author. In 2008, Maddow became the first openly gay anchor of a major prime-time news program when ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ debuted on MSNBC. A graduate of Stanford and Oxford universities, Maddow’s broadcast career began on WRNX as a radio host. The move to television came when Maddow was given her own television show after sitting in for Keith Olbermann on ‘Countdown’ in 2008.
Fun Fact: While working on her doctoral dissertation, Maddow met her partner, artist Susan Mikula after being hired to do yard work at her home.
Follow: Website | @Maddow