Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Karina Canellakis is an American conductor and former violinist internationally acclaimed for her expressive symphonic and operatic leadership. She is currently Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Notably, Canellakis was the first woman to be appointed Principal Guest Conductor for the London Philharmonic and the first woman to be Chief ...

Anjelica Huston has lived many lives, all with grace and charisma. As the daughter of John Huston (director of The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, and more) she was movie royalty from birth. But she grew up in rural Ireland and went to high school in Swinging-Sixties London. That meant she developed a set of values far removed from Hollywood high society. Her first career was as a high-end fashion m...

Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan is a renowned civil litigator and trial lawyer with decades of experience in commercial, higher education, government regulation, civil rights, and employment litigation…but is perhaps best known for her recent triumph defending her client E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump. In both 2023 and 2024, Kaplan took on Trump in court and won both cases, securing two unanimous jury verdicts agai...

One need not look very far to see that the television landscape has rapidly changed in the last few years, with an influx of new streaming platforms and shifting audience viewing patterns. Another notable upheaval: In 2023, Don Lemon, the Edward R. Murrow and Emmy Award-winning journalist and longtime host of “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” was let go from CNN after seventeen years with the network. Following his exit, Le...

Chris Whipple is an Emmy award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker, author, and political analyst. A former CBS 60 Minutes producer, Whipple is also the EP and writer of the Discovery Channel documentary series “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers” and the Showtime Network documentary series “The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs”. Whipple continued his research on these topics in two of his books and is...

When John Dean found his conscience, America found its backbone and impeached a president. The Nixon Administration tried to undermine American democracy during the election of 1972 through now-legendary dirty tricks aimed at their Democrat opponents. They almost got away with it. Dean was Nixon’s White House Counsel, and participated in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. Then he began cooperating with investigators, and...

Marc Shaiman is a renowned composer, lyricist, arranger, and music producer known for his prolific work across film, television, and theater. In this episode, Alec and Marc discuss his career, as well as his new memoir, Never Mind The Happy. Shaiman's work in film includes “When Harry Met Sally”, “Sister Act”, “City Slickers”, “A Few Good Men”, “Sleepless in Seattle&rd...

Join award-winning actor Alec Baldwin in conversation with some of the most dynamic artists, policymakers, and performers working today. This season, Alec speaks with composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman, Vanity Fair journalist Chris Whipple, conductor and violinist Karina Canellakis, and civil rights lawyer Roberta Kaplan, just to name a few. If you like listening as much as Alec likes talking with interesting people, subscribe now ...

E Jean Carroll was once described by one of her editors as being “institutionally incapable of being uninteresting” - and Carroll is exactly that. Elizabeth “E” Jean Carroll is a journalist, author, and advice columnist. Her “Ask E Jean” column was one of the longest-running advice columns in American publishing, featured in Elle magazine from 1993 to 2019. In addition to Elle magazine, she has w...

Kat Owens is a plastic pollution researcher, artist, and activist. She merges science, policy, and the arts to address plastic pollution in her ongoing art series “Entangled and Ingested” which showcases portraits of animals affected by plastic pollution…made of plastic. Owens is also a National Geographic Explorer, a Fulbright Nehru fellow, and a Professor at the University of Hartford in the Department of Polit...

Jonathan Mahler is a longtime staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the best-selling book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, New York Times notable book The Challenge: Hamdan V. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power, and recently published book The Gods of New York: The Tumultuous Eighties, from Donald Trump to the Tompkins Square Riots. Mahler’s first book was adapted into a mini-se...

Daniel Squadron and Melissa Walker are an unexpected duo. Formerly a New York State Senator, Daniel Squadron represented New York’s 25th and 26th districts for almost ten years. After leaving public office, Squadron co-founded a civic engagement initiative called The States Project - of which he is currently President. Melissa Walker was formerly a magazine editor and journalist published in countless magazines such as Sevent...

Tommy James started making music when he was 4 years old and he hasn’t stopped. Tommy is a musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and the frontman of rock band Tommy James and the Shondells. Known for timeless classics such as “Crimson and Clover”, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, “Hanky Panky”, “Sweet Cherry Wine”, and “Draggin’ the Line” Tommy James has ama...

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is one of the most in-demand maestros in the world, and one of Alec’s favorite conductors. Järvi is currently the chief conductor of the NHK symphony orchestra in Tokyo and the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich. Over his career, he’s led orchestras in Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Malmö, and, for the decade between 2001 and 2011, here in the United States, as the musical directo...

Mallory McMorrow is a state senator representing Michigan’s 8th district and also a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2026 election. Mallory McMorrow currently serves as the Michigan Senate Majority Whip and is the first woman in state history to hold that position. A member of the Democratic Party, McMorrow represents the 8th district and previously represented the 13th district from 2019 to 2023. Pr...

Coming from a challenging, working class upbringing in the United Kingdom, Steve Jones discovered his outlet in music - as founding guitarist of the groundbreaking punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Despite the release of only one album,”Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” the band changed the course of music and history - vocalizing issues of class in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” &ndash...

Zoë Schlanger is an author, journalist, and current staff writer at the Atlantic, where she covers the newsletter “The Weekly Planet”. Schlanger has written for major outlets such as Newsweek, Quartz, Wired, The New York Times, The Nation, Time Magazine, and NPR. Schlanger is also the author of the 2024 book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. He...

Patti LuPone was only four years old when she realized she belonged on stage, and she started by entertaining family members in her Long Island living room.

LuPone won her second Tony Award for Evita, which she initially described as merely “noise from Britain.” Although she has enjoyed tremendous, long-term success, she talks candidly to Alec about blows to her career and ego. 

Originally aired Fe...

Andrea Barton Reeves is a former ad litem lawyer, CEO of Harc. Inc - a nonprofit organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities and their families, and the founding CEO of the Connecticut Paid Leave Program - the state’s first new agency in 12 years thanks to which over 200,000 individuals and families have received paid family leave benefits. With over twenty years of experience in advocacy, Barton Reeves has ...