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.
Hello, Colbert News Hub! After a fun week of watching and being conflicted about the Scottish Referendum (sticking together seemed like the safer idea, but splitting up would’ve been so much funnier), and watching more Sky News than I could’ve ever predicted, I am ready to start this fall with a fresh batch of stories. To begin, New York yesterday hosted a HUGE climate change rally, with almost 400,000 people showing up to march for climate change awareness and action. Tuesday’s guest Naomi Klein will certainly have something to say about that, and I’m sure “Stephen” will have some beef with it.
Also this week in American news: China! Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce website (sort of like Amazon or eBay, only with more government censorship) had its IPO on Friday, raising $23.1 billion. Jack Ma, the founder and CEO, told news outlets that he “had a dream”, and that was “to be bigger than Walmart”. He also says he’s been inspired by Forrest Gump, which he’s seen at least 10 times. So he should be a favorite of the Colbert Report writers, I’d think. Other threatening-to-American-exceptionalism news included the revelation that hipster favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was sold to Russian investors. So we export hipsters now. The week also saw the release of the iPhone 6, which I am on my way to buy as soon as I finish writing this. I am not expecting it to be pre-loaded with nude photos of Bono (but maybe of Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, Hope Solo, Lake Bell, Avril Lavigne, and Leelee Sobieski, who had their own nude photos hacked his week).
Stephen’s upcoming guests are a father-son rock band, a journalist, BILL FREAKING COSBY, and a psychologist. Jon’s are an investigative journalist, a retired Marine Corps general, a Pitbull trainer, and a science writer.
Let us know who you’re excited for, and what you’d like to see covered this week!
Monday, September 22 (2014)
Tweedy (Band: “Sukierae”)
Tweedy is a father-son band featuring Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer Tweedy. Jeff Tweedy is known for being the lead singer of the rock band Wilco since its formation in 1994. Jeff got his start in rock music in the 80s, making music for several years in the late 80s/early 90s with the band Uncle Tupelo before founding Wilco, who are still performing and recording today. Jeff has also performed solo acoustic shows, played on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and IFC’s “Portlandia”, and collaborated with other artists – notably Mavis Staples, with whom he performed in 2010 at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Spencer Tweedy has been playing drums since the age of 7 in a band called The Blisters, and has played drums on Mavis Staples’ album “One True Vine” in 2013. When Jeff started working on a solo album earlier this year, he enlisted Spencer to help play drums and it grew into a group effort. They released their first album last week – it’s name, “Sukierae”, is a nickname for Jeff’s wife and Spencer’s mother Sue Miller, who is fighting lymphoma, and the album is an upbeat tribute to her. The duo has been touring with additional band members – Jim Elkington on guitar, Darin Gray on bass, and Liam Cunningham on keyboards.
Born: August 25, 1967 (Jeff), December 17, 1995 (Spencer)
Education: Southern Illinois University (Jeff) | Northside College Prep high school (Spencer)
Discography: Sukierae
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Wilco Interview – October 30, 2008 | Interview with Mavis Staples – December 6, 2010
Follow: @JeffTweedy | @SpencerTweedy
Tuesday, September 23 (2014)
Naomi Klein (Journalist and Author: “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate“)
Naomi Klein is a Canadian journalist and author who focuses on the negative impact of capitalism. She got her start writing for magazines in Canada, before publishing her first book No Logo in 1999 which argued against branding and globalization. Klein is also a political activist and frequent protester, often on environmental issues, as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement and is on the board of 350.org, a nonprofit environmental organization. Klein has also been involved in film projects, including a short-film adaptation of her book “The Shock Doctine” (about how companies and governments take advantage of crises to promote capitalist policies) with well known director Alfonso Cuaron and a full-length adaptation of that same book by Michael Winterbottom. She is currently a syndicated columnist at The Nation and The Guardian, a contributor for Harper’s and a reporter for Rolling Stone, and has written on a wide range of topics including the Iraq war and Sarah Palin’s environmental policies. Her new book “This Changes Everything” was released last week, and it is about how current capitalist policies are incompatible with environmentalism.
Born: May 8, 1970 (Montreal, Canada)
Education: University of Toronto
Books: No Logo | Fences and Windows | The Shock Doctrine | This Changes Everything
Documentaries: The Take | The Shock Doctrine
Awards: James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism | IPE Outstanding Activist-Scholar Award | Honorary doctorate of Civil Laws, Kings College
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – October 2, 2008
Follow: Website | @NaomiAKlein | Facebook
Wednesday, September 24 (2014)
Bill Cosby (Comedian and Actor)
Bill Cosby is a comedian best known for his comedy albums and his very successful sitcom The Cosby Show. Cosby got his start in stand-up comedy while in college in Philadelphia, before moving to New York and getting involved in the stand-up scene there. Cosby performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1963 and was then picked up by Warner Brothers records, for whom he recorded many popular comedy albums. He also began recording music, and has released more than 10 musical albums. Cosby’s first acting job was in an action series called I Spy, which made him the first African-American co-star in a dramatic series. He had several other television projects in the 70s, including a sitcom in which he played a gym teacher, a variety show, and an educational animated series called Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The Cosby Show premiered in 1984, and quickly became one of the top rated primetime shows for the majority of its 8-year run. The show is well known today for its wholesome humor and the fact that it was the first to portray a smart, upper-class black family. Since the Cosby Show ended in 1992, Cosby has continued to act and develop shows for television and last year released a Comedy Central special called Bill Cosby: Far from Finished. He is currently involved in an online art project which asks people from around the world to upload 12-second recordings of their laughter, and his personal collection of African American art will be displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in November.
Born: July 12, 1937 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
Education: Temple University | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Comedy Albums: Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow … Right! | I Started Out as a Child | Why Is There Air? | Wonderfullness | Revenge | To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With | 200 M.P.H. | 8:15 12:15 | It’s True! It’s True! | Sports | Live: Madison Square Garden Center | When I Was a Kid | For Adults Only | Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs | Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby | Fat Albert | My Father Confused Me… What Must I Do? What Must I Do? | Bill’s Best Friend | Bill Cosby: Himself | Those of YOu With or Without Children, You’ll Understand | Oh, Baby! | Far From Finished
Music: Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings | Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band! | Badfoot Brown & The Bunions Bradford Funeral and Marching Band | At Last Bill Cosby Really Sings | Bill Cosby Is Not Himself These Days | Disco Bill | Where You Lay Your Head | My Appreciation | Hello Friend | Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby | State of Emergency | Keep Standing
Television: The Cosby Show | Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids | Cosby | A Different World | Kids Say the Darndest Things | I Spy
Filmography: Hey, Hey, Hey It’s Fat Albert | Man and Boy | Aesop’s Fables | Journey Back to Oz | The Devil and Max Devlin | The Cosby Mysteries | Jack | Fat Albert
Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom | Bob Hope Humanitarian Award | Mark Twain Prize for American Humor | Emmy Award | Primetime Emmy Award | Grammy Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – November 20, 2013
Follow: Website | @BillCosby | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Thursday, September 25 (2014)
Walter Mischel (Author: “The Marshmallow Test“)
Walter Mischel is a psychologist and professor at Colombia University, best known for his work on personality and willpower. In 1968 Mischel published a paper called “Personality and Assessment”, in which he argued that people’s personality traits change based on the situation they are in. Mischel’s other large contribution to psychology is the “Marshmallow Test”, a series of experiments at Stanford University in the 1960s. In the experiments – which Stephen has tried – Mischel and his colleagues gave young children a small treat, like a marshmallow, and told them that if they could wait to eat it for about 15 minutes they could eat two. In general, the children who were good at resisting the marshmallow were more successful later in life. The test has been widely used and cited, most recently in an experiment where a parrot performed as well on the test as an average toddler. In his current book The Marshmallow Test, Mischel discusses the study and argues that self-control can be learned; a child who fails the marshmallow test is not destined to be doomed later in life, but rather can learn strategies for self control.
Born: February 22, 1930 (Vienna, Austria)
Education:Ohio State University
Books: Essentials of Psychology | Introduction to Personality: Toward an Integrative Science of the Person | The Marshmallow Test
Awards: APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award | Grawemeyer Award, University of Louisville | Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize | John P. McGovern Award Lecture in Behavioral Sciences
Follow: Website
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, September 22 (2014)
Jenny Nordberg (Author: “The Underground Girls of Kabul“)
Jenny Nordberg is an investigative journalist, and is currently a foreign correspondent and columnist for the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet. Her current project and new book center around the practice in Afghanistan called “bacha posh”, where parents disguise their young girls as boys to get a better education and save them from discrimination. Nordberg has been studying and reporting on this subject for at least five years; in 2010 she wrote a cover story on bacha posh for the New York Times. Previously, Nordberg worked on articles and documentaries on a range of subjects including freight railroads, Haitian democracy, Iraqi refugees, nuclear development in Pakistan, and Europe’s financial crisis. “The Underground Girls of Kabul” is her first book, and it was recently released on September 16.
Education: Stockholm University | Columbia University
Books: The Underground Girls of Kabul
Awards: Pulitzer Prize | Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award | Investigative Reporters and Editors award
Follow: The Underground Girls of Kabul | @NordBergJ | Facebook
Tuesday, September 23 (2014)
Gen. Tony Zinni (Author, “ Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield “)
Tony Zinni is an author and the former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command. His new book, “Before the First Shots are Fired” explores the question of when war is necessary, and what steps can be taken to prevent it diplomatically and politically. A marine for 35 years, he started out after college as a 2nd Lieutenant and worked his way up to the Commander in Chief of United States Central Command, which is responsible for Marine operations in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. After retiring, Zinni joined the boards of several universities and corporations and has been working as a public speaker specializing on Middle Eastern strategy, diplomacy, team building, and leadership. He also served on two U.S. peace envoys, one for the Middle East and one for Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sudan. “Before the First Shots are Fired” is his fourth book, co-authored with writer Tony Koltz.
Born: September 19, 1943 (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, United States)
Education: Villanova University | Salve Regina University | Central Michigan University
Books: Battle Ready | The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose | Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom | Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield
Awards: Military Decorations (30) | Papal Gold Cross of Honor | Union League Abraham Lincoln Award | Italic Studies Institute Global Peace Award | Navy Distinguished Sea Service Award | VFW Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award | Marine Corps University Foundation Chapman Award | Penn Club Award | St. Thomas of Villanova Alumni Metal | George P. Shultz Award for Public Service | UNICO National Grand Patriot Award | Wallach Peacemaker Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – April 5, 2006
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – August 3, 2009
Follow: Website
Wednesday, September 24 (2014)
Tia Torres (Pit Bull Trainer and Founder of Villalobos Rescue Center)
Tia Torres is a pit bull trainer and founder of New Orleans’ Villalobos Rescue Center, at which rescued pit bulls are cared for by ex-convicts on parole. An animal lover since childhood, Torres’ strong relationship with dogs (and horses and a goat) helped her through difficult times of homelessness and instability. She joined the army and later became a youth gang counselor before falling in love with pit bulls and starting the Villalobos rescue center. Now the center is the largest pit bull rescue and rehabilitation facility in the world, with an average of 150 dogs at any given time and employing about 50 ex-cons. It is the subject of the Animal Planet reality show “Pit Bulls & Parolees”, which focuses on the relationships between the pit bulls and the ex-cons as they all turn their lives around. The show is about to premiere its sixth season on October 4.
Born: 1960
Education: US Army
Filmography: Pit Bulls & Parolees
Follow: @VRC_Pitbull | Villalobos Rescue Center on Facebook | Pitbulls & Parolees on Facebook
Thursday, September 25 (2014)
Steven Johnson (Author: “How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World“)
Steven Johnson is an author of books and articles about popular science, history, and innovation – specifically how different events and trends have influenced inventors throughout history. He gave a popular TED talk in 2010 about how people’s best ideas come slowly over time by bouncing ideas around in groups, rather than in single “eureka” moments. He has written on subjects ranging from how a cholera outbreak led to medical innovations to how pop culture is making people smarter, because it is increasingly complex and makes everyone think. Johnson’s new book “How We Got to Now”, about the history of inventions, will be released September 30th. It has been developed into a 6-part miniseries airing on PBS this fall.
Born: June 6, 1968
Education: Brown University | Colombia University
Books: Interface Culture | Emergence | Mind Wide Open | Everything Bad is Good for You | The Ghost Map | The Invention of Air | Where Good Ideas Come From | The Innovator’s Cookbook | Future Perfect | How We Got to Now
Awards: Newhouse School Mirror Award | Entertainment Weekly’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2006
Follow: Website | @StevenBJohnson
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – June 7, 2005
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – March 5, 2009
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly favourite guest poll!! See you all next week!!
Better Know A Guest: September 22 – 25, 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.
Hello, Colbert News Hub! After a fun week of watching and being conflicted about the Scottish Referendum (sticking together seemed like the safer idea, but splitting up would’ve been so much funnier), and watching more Sky News than I could’ve ever predicted, I am ready to start this fall with a fresh batch of stories. To begin, New York yesterday hosted a HUGE climate change rally, with almost 400,000 people showing up to march for climate change awareness and action. Tuesday’s guest Naomi Klein will certainly have something to say about that, and I’m sure “Stephen” will have some beef with it.
Also this week in American news: China! Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce website (sort of like Amazon or eBay, only with more government censorship) had its IPO on Friday, raising $23.1 billion. Jack Ma, the founder and CEO, told news outlets that he “had a dream”, and that was “to be bigger than Walmart”. He also says he’s been inspired by Forrest Gump, which he’s seen at least 10 times. So he should be a favorite of the Colbert Report writers, I’d think. Other threatening-to-American-exceptionalism news included the revelation that hipster favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was sold to Russian investors. So we export hipsters now. The week also saw the release of the iPhone 6, which I am on my way to buy as soon as I finish writing this. I am not expecting it to be pre-loaded with nude photos of Bono (but maybe of Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, Hope Solo, Lake Bell, Avril Lavigne, and Leelee Sobieski, who had their own nude photos hacked his week).
Stephen’s upcoming guests are a father-son rock band, a journalist, BILL FREAKING COSBY, and a psychologist. Jon’s are an investigative journalist, a retired Marine Corps general, a Pitbull trainer, and a science writer.
Let us know who you’re excited for, and what you’d like to see covered this week!
Monday, September 22 (2014)
Tweedy (Band: “Sukierae”)
Tweedy is a father-son band featuring Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer Tweedy. Jeff Tweedy is known for being the lead singer of the rock band Wilco since its formation in 1994. Jeff got his start in rock music in the 80s, making music for several years in the late 80s/early 90s with the band Uncle Tupelo before founding Wilco, who are still performing and recording today. Jeff has also performed solo acoustic shows, played on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and IFC’s “Portlandia”, and collaborated with other artists – notably Mavis Staples, with whom he performed in 2010 at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Spencer Tweedy has been playing drums since the age of 7 in a band called The Blisters, and has played drums on Mavis Staples’ album “One True Vine” in 2013. When Jeff started working on a solo album earlier this year, he enlisted Spencer to help play drums and it grew into a group effort. They released their first album last week – it’s name, “Sukierae”, is a nickname for Jeff’s wife and Spencer’s mother Sue Miller, who is fighting lymphoma, and the album is an upbeat tribute to her. The duo has been touring with additional band members – Jim Elkington on guitar, Darin Gray on bass, and Liam Cunningham on keyboards.
Born: August 25, 1967 (Jeff), December 17, 1995 (Spencer)
Education: Southern Illinois University (Jeff) | Northside College Prep high school (Spencer)
Discography: Sukierae
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Wilco Interview – October 30, 2008 | Interview with Mavis Staples – December 6, 2010
Follow: @JeffTweedy | @SpencerTweedy
Tuesday, September 23 (2014)
Naomi Klein (Journalist and Author: “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate“)
Naomi Klein is a Canadian journalist and author who focuses on the negative impact of capitalism. She got her start writing for magazines in Canada, before publishing her first book No Logo in 1999 which argued against branding and globalization. Klein is also a political activist and frequent protester, often on environmental issues, as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement and is on the board of 350.org, a nonprofit environmental organization. Klein has also been involved in film projects, including a short-film adaptation of her book “The Shock Doctine” (about how companies and governments take advantage of crises to promote capitalist policies) with well known director Alfonso Cuaron and a full-length adaptation of that same book by Michael Winterbottom. She is currently a syndicated columnist at The Nation and The Guardian, a contributor for Harper’s and a reporter for Rolling Stone, and has written on a wide range of topics including the Iraq war and Sarah Palin’s environmental policies. Her new book “This Changes Everything” was released last week, and it is about how current capitalist policies are incompatible with environmentalism.
Born: May 8, 1970 (Montreal, Canada)
Education: University of Toronto
Books: No Logo | Fences and Windows | The Shock Doctrine | This Changes Everything
Documentaries: The Take | The Shock Doctrine
Awards: James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism | IPE Outstanding Activist-Scholar Award | Honorary doctorate of Civil Laws, Kings College
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – October 2, 2008
Follow: Website | @NaomiAKlein | Facebook
Wednesday, September 24 (2014)
Bill Cosby (Comedian and Actor)
Bill Cosby is a comedian best known for his comedy albums and his very successful sitcom The Cosby Show. Cosby got his start in stand-up comedy while in college in Philadelphia, before moving to New York and getting involved in the stand-up scene there. Cosby performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1963 and was then picked up by Warner Brothers records, for whom he recorded many popular comedy albums. He also began recording music, and has released more than 10 musical albums. Cosby’s first acting job was in an action series called I Spy, which made him the first African-American co-star in a dramatic series. He had several other television projects in the 70s, including a sitcom in which he played a gym teacher, a variety show, and an educational animated series called Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The Cosby Show premiered in 1984, and quickly became one of the top rated primetime shows for the majority of its 8-year run. The show is well known today for its wholesome humor and the fact that it was the first to portray a smart, upper-class black family. Since the Cosby Show ended in 1992, Cosby has continued to act and develop shows for television and last year released a Comedy Central special called Bill Cosby: Far from Finished. He is currently involved in an online art project which asks people from around the world to upload 12-second recordings of their laughter, and his personal collection of African American art will be displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in November.
Born: July 12, 1937 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States)
Education: Temple University | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Comedy Albums: Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow … Right! | I Started Out as a Child | Why Is There Air? | Wonderfullness | Revenge | To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With | 200 M.P.H. | 8:15 12:15 | It’s True! It’s True! | Sports | Live: Madison Square Garden Center | When I Was a Kid | For Adults Only | Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs | Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby | Fat Albert | My Father Confused Me… What Must I Do? What Must I Do? | Bill’s Best Friend | Bill Cosby: Himself | Those of YOu With or Without Children, You’ll Understand | Oh, Baby! | Far From Finished
Music: Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings | Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band! | Badfoot Brown & The Bunions Bradford Funeral and Marching Band | At Last Bill Cosby Really Sings | Bill Cosby Is Not Himself These Days | Disco Bill | Where You Lay Your Head | My Appreciation | Hello Friend | Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby | State of Emergency | Keep Standing
Television: The Cosby Show | Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids | Cosby | A Different World | Kids Say the Darndest Things | I Spy
Filmography: Hey, Hey, Hey It’s Fat Albert | Man and Boy | Aesop’s Fables | Journey Back to Oz | The Devil and Max Devlin | The Cosby Mysteries | Jack | Fat Albert
Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom | Bob Hope Humanitarian Award | Mark Twain Prize for American Humor | Emmy Award | Primetime Emmy Award | Grammy Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – November 20, 2013
Follow: Website | @BillCosby | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Thursday, September 25 (2014)
Walter Mischel (Author: “The Marshmallow Test“)
Walter Mischel is a psychologist and professor at Colombia University, best known for his work on personality and willpower. In 1968 Mischel published a paper called “Personality and Assessment”, in which he argued that people’s personality traits change based on the situation they are in. Mischel’s other large contribution to psychology is the “Marshmallow Test”, a series of experiments at Stanford University in the 1960s. In the experiments – which Stephen has tried – Mischel and his colleagues gave young children a small treat, like a marshmallow, and told them that if they could wait to eat it for about 15 minutes they could eat two. In general, the children who were good at resisting the marshmallow were more successful later in life. The test has been widely used and cited, most recently in an experiment where a parrot performed as well on the test as an average toddler. In his current book The Marshmallow Test, Mischel discusses the study and argues that self-control can be learned; a child who fails the marshmallow test is not destined to be doomed later in life, but rather can learn strategies for self control.
Born: February 22, 1930 (Vienna, Austria)
Education:Ohio State University
Books: Essentials of Psychology | Introduction to Personality: Toward an Integrative Science of the Person | The Marshmallow Test
Awards: APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award | Grawemeyer Award, University of Louisville | Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize | John P. McGovern Award Lecture in Behavioral Sciences
Follow: Website
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, September 22 (2014)
Jenny Nordberg (Author: “The Underground Girls of Kabul“)
Jenny Nordberg is an investigative journalist, and is currently a foreign correspondent and columnist for the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet. Her current project and new book center around the practice in Afghanistan called “bacha posh”, where parents disguise their young girls as boys to get a better education and save them from discrimination. Nordberg has been studying and reporting on this subject for at least five years; in 2010 she wrote a cover story on bacha posh for the New York Times. Previously, Nordberg worked on articles and documentaries on a range of subjects including freight railroads, Haitian democracy, Iraqi refugees, nuclear development in Pakistan, and Europe’s financial crisis. “The Underground Girls of Kabul” is her first book, and it was recently released on September 16.
Education: Stockholm University | Columbia University
Books: The Underground Girls of Kabul
Awards: Pulitzer Prize | Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award | Investigative Reporters and Editors award
Follow: The Underground Girls of Kabul | @NordBergJ | Facebook
Tuesday, September 23 (2014)
Gen. Tony Zinni (Author, “ Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield “)
Tony Zinni is an author and the former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command. His new book, “Before the First Shots are Fired” explores the question of when war is necessary, and what steps can be taken to prevent it diplomatically and politically. A marine for 35 years, he started out after college as a 2nd Lieutenant and worked his way up to the Commander in Chief of United States Central Command, which is responsible for Marine operations in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. After retiring, Zinni joined the boards of several universities and corporations and has been working as a public speaker specializing on Middle Eastern strategy, diplomacy, team building, and leadership. He also served on two U.S. peace envoys, one for the Middle East and one for Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sudan. “Before the First Shots are Fired” is his fourth book, co-authored with writer Tony Koltz.
Born: September 19, 1943 (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, United States)
Education: Villanova University | Salve Regina University | Central Michigan University
Books: Battle Ready | The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose | Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom | Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win Or Lose Off The Battlefield
Awards: Military Decorations (30) | Papal Gold Cross of Honor | Union League Abraham Lincoln Award | Italic Studies Institute Global Peace Award | Navy Distinguished Sea Service Award | VFW Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award | Marine Corps University Foundation Chapman Award | Penn Club Award | St. Thomas of Villanova Alumni Metal | George P. Shultz Award for Public Service | UNICO National Grand Patriot Award | Wallach Peacemaker Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – April 5, 2006
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – August 3, 2009
Follow: Website
Wednesday, September 24 (2014)
Tia Torres (Pit Bull Trainer and Founder of Villalobos Rescue Center)
Tia Torres is a pit bull trainer and founder of New Orleans’ Villalobos Rescue Center, at which rescued pit bulls are cared for by ex-convicts on parole. An animal lover since childhood, Torres’ strong relationship with dogs (and horses and a goat) helped her through difficult times of homelessness and instability. She joined the army and later became a youth gang counselor before falling in love with pit bulls and starting the Villalobos rescue center. Now the center is the largest pit bull rescue and rehabilitation facility in the world, with an average of 150 dogs at any given time and employing about 50 ex-cons. It is the subject of the Animal Planet reality show “Pit Bulls & Parolees”, which focuses on the relationships between the pit bulls and the ex-cons as they all turn their lives around. The show is about to premiere its sixth season on October 4.
Born: 1960
Education: US Army
Filmography: Pit Bulls & Parolees
Follow: @VRC_Pitbull | Villalobos Rescue Center on Facebook | Pitbulls & Parolees on Facebook
Thursday, September 25 (2014)
Steven Johnson (Author: “How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World“)
Steven Johnson is an author of books and articles about popular science, history, and innovation – specifically how different events and trends have influenced inventors throughout history. He gave a popular TED talk in 2010 about how people’s best ideas come slowly over time by bouncing ideas around in groups, rather than in single “eureka” moments. He has written on subjects ranging from how a cholera outbreak led to medical innovations to how pop culture is making people smarter, because it is increasingly complex and makes everyone think. Johnson’s new book “How We Got to Now”, about the history of inventions, will be released September 30th. It has been developed into a 6-part miniseries airing on PBS this fall.
Born: June 6, 1968
Education: Brown University | Colombia University
Books: Interface Culture | Emergence | Mind Wide Open | Everything Bad is Good for You | The Ghost Map | The Invention of Air | Where Good Ideas Come From | The Innovator’s Cookbook | Future Perfect | How We Got to Now
Awards: Newhouse School Mirror Award | Entertainment Weekly’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2006
Follow: Website | @StevenBJohnson
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – June 7, 2005
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – March 5, 2009
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly favourite guest poll!! See you all next week!!