Overheard with Evan Smith

Aimee Mann lead the 80s new-wave group Til Tuesday before embarking on a solo career. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her song "Save Me," from the film Magnolia. Her most recent album Charmer was released in 2012.

Richard M. Daley is the longest-serving mayor in the history of Chicago, following his father. Daley served in the Illinois State Senate and as the Cook County State's Attorney. He left office in 2011.

Joyce Banda is Malawi's first female president. She served as Minister of Foreign of Affairs and Vice President. Banda is an advocate for women's and children's rights. Forbes magazine named her one of Africa's most powerful women.

Chris Isaak is a stylishly retro rock musician and sometime actor who covers Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and other Sun Records legends on his most recent release, Beyond the Sun.

Mark Updegrove is the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum and the author of several books on the American presidency - most recently Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency.

Richard Linklater is a director/screenwriter. He founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 together with his frequent collaborator Lee Daniel, and is lauded for launching and solidifying the city of Austin as a hub for independent filmmaking.

Elie Wiesel is a tireless activist, celebrated humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner. His lectures and writings on his experiences in the concentration camps have enlightened generations about the horrors of the Holocaust.

Howard Fineman is the editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group and an NBC and MSNBC political analyst who previously spent thirty years writing and blogging and columnizing about politics for Newsweek.

Seymour Hersh is a venerated investigative reporter for The New Yorker who published his first piece in the magazine 41 years ago. He's won a Pulitzer Prize, two National Magazine Awards, five George Polk Awards, and countless other honors.

Jill Abramson is the top editor of The New York Times - the first woman ever to serve in that capacity in the paper's 160-year history.

Meat Loaf is an iconic rock and roll singer whose 1977 Bat Out of Hell is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 43 million copies sold. He's also an actor whose credits include The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.

Deepak Chopra is the world's most celebrated practitioner of mind-body medicine - a champion of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness. He's written more than 60 books, including 19 New York Times best-sellers.

Dylan Ratigan is the feisty host of a daily MSNBC talk show whose first book, Greedy Bastards, rails against what he calls government corruption and corporate communism. He's traveling the country to explore the root causes of unemployment.

Russell Banks is an admired and accomplished American novelist whose credits include Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter - which, not insignificantly, were made into pretty terrific movies. His new novel is Lost Memory of Skin.

Nick Lowe is the self-described "headmaster of British rock" - a much-admired songwriter, musician and producer with four-plus decades of music to his name and a recently-released 13th studio album.

Molly Shannon is an Emmy-nominated actress and comedian whose credits include Never Been Kissed, Kath and Kim and Saturday Night Live, where she spent six years as a cast member. Her first book is Tilly the Trickster.

Jeff Tweedy is a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose critically acclaimed, creatively adventurous band Wilco has just released its eighth studio album, The Whole Love - the first on its own record label.

Bill Moyers is an icon of public media and progressive politics whose first job in journalism - as a cub reporter in Marshall, Texas - was six decades ago. His newest public television show, Moyers and Company, debuts this month.

John Hodgman is an actor, author and humorist best known for his regular contributions to The Daily Show and his star turn on those Mac vs. PC commercials. His most recent book is That is All.

Len Downie spent 44 years as a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, retiring in 2008 as executive editor. During his 17 years in charge, the Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes. Today he's a professor at ASU's Cronkite School.

Susan Orlean is a veteran and much-loved New Yorker writer whose credits include The Orchid Thief, Saturday Night and the anthology The Bullfighter Checks Her Make-up. Her latest book is Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend.

Jim Lehrer is a veteran journalist and prolific author whose measured, congenial presence on public TV has been a welcome respite from the incivility of the world for more than four decades. His latest book is Tension City.

Andy Borowitz is a comedian, satirist and New Yorker magazine contributor whose fake news web site, The Borowitz Report, and its accompanying social media extensions should be at the top of everyone's must-read list.

Bill Keller stepped down as executive editor of The New York Times after more than 8 years in that highest-of-all-high-impact journalism jobs, during which time the paper won 18 Pulitzers. His next chapter: columnist and magazine writer.

Veteran political journalist Juan Williams spent 23 years at the Washington Post and eleven years as a senior news analyst at NPR. He's now a political analyst for Fox News. His new book is Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate.

Andrew Card served at the highest levels of government in the last three Republican administrations, most recently as George W. Bush's Chief of Staff. He's currently acting dean of Texas A&M's Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Margaret Hoover is a FOX News commentator with a magnificent Republican pedigree - but she'not your typical FOX News Republican. Her new book is American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party.

You know John Heilemann from his New York magazine work, his TV news analysis and his mega-best-selling book Game Change, co-written with Mark Halperin. The HBO movie airs soon and a 2012 follow-up is on the way. Can't wait.

Joe Klein talks about the primaries and the latest from Washington. Longtime wonks might know him best as the mysterious Anonymous, author of the novel Primary Colors, which took heavy inspiration from the Clinton administration.

Holland Taylor is an award-winning actress, acclaimed for her work on stage, in film and on television, whose one-woman play about the life of former Texas governor Ann Richards will be soon be coming to a theater near you.

Gail Collins is a funny and fearless twice-weekly columnist for The New York Times, the first woman ever to serve as the paper's editorial page editor and the author of several books. Her new book will be about, yes, Texas.

Calvin Trillin has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1963, and over those many years he's written enough pieces about Texas food and politics and life in general to fill an anthology. Trillin on Texas is in bookstores now.

Diane Wood is a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals judge respected across the political spectrum as an intellectual heavyweight. Twice, she's made Obama's short list for the Supreme Court. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

Wyatt Cenac's reports for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have introduced his work to a wide audience. But his work reaches far beyond his role as a fake news writer and correspondent.

Garrison Keillor is an author, humorist, storyteller and icon of public broadcasting whose weekly radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, has been a part of our lives, in one form or another, since 1974.

Bill Paxton is a gifted actor whose credits include One False Move, Weird Science and Apollo 13, but legions of wannabe sister wives know him as polygamist Bill Henrickson on HBO's Big Love, soon ending a marvelous five-year run.

Lawrence Lessig is a celebrated academic, an acclaimed author, and an energetic activist whose great cause is rights and freedoms in the digital sphere. He's also increasingly an advocate for accountability in institutions.

John Mackey is co-founder & CEO of Whole Foods Market, the largest U.S. natural foods grocer and a growing global presence, with more than 300 stores in North America and the U.K. Whole Foods marks it's 30th anniversary this year.

Matthew Dowd has worked at the heart of American politics for more than 25 years, shaping strategies and campaigns for both Democrats and Republicans. It's widely reported that his latest advice is for President Barack Obama.

Singer-songwriter Chely Wright has been named Best New Female Vocalist and one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People. She's also author of a memoir, the first openly gay country music star and founder of The LIKE ME Organization.

Lawrence Wright's most recent book, The Looming Tower, won a Pulitzer and set the highest possible bar for reporting on our complicated post-9/11 world. His next big project - for The New Yorker and a book - examines Scientology.

Douglas Brinkley's books explore U.S. history from old times to new, from one end of the country to the other, through profiles of events and people and institutions. His latest book is The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom.

PA Governor Ed Rendell leaves public life this month after 8 years as Governor, a stint as the DNC's head and many years in public office before that. He talks about wussiness in America, infrastructure problems and learning to drive again.

Author and activist Michael Pollan's work mixes journalism, environmentalism, animal rights, anthropology, and foodiness. He's become an educator, agitator, guide for the not-so-simple act of buying and consuming food.

Billy Bradley has been a three-term US Senator, a candidate for the 2000 Democratic nomination, an NBA hall of famer, a Rhodes Scholar, the author of six books, the host of a radio show and a partner in a New York investment bank.

Frazier's varied mix of humorous essays, meticulously reported books of non-fiction, and wide-ranging magazine articles, tackle the history of the Great Plains, a humorous look at the life of Don Johnson and a trip through Siberia.

Sam Tanenhaus is editor of The New York Times Book Review, and his biography of Whittaker Chambers was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His latest book is The Death Conservatism.

The midterms are behind us and a new political landscape is taking shape. Howard Dean, former Vermont governor, 2004 contender for the Democratic presidential nomination and former DNC chair, joins us to discuss what's ahead.

Jim Leach became head of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2009, after 30 years in Congress. A Republican, Leach often strayed from the party line and advocates civility - attitudes he has vowed to bring to his NEH job.

Star food writer Amanda Hesser is a prolific food writer for The NY Times, former food editor of The NY Times Magazine, co-creator of the recipe lover's blog food52 and the author of the new, 1000-recipe The Essential NY Times Cookbook.

P. J. O'Rourke was a political satirist when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were still in short pants - and he was angry at the establishment when Sarah Palin was still reading sports scores on the local news.

Longtime Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter joins us to discuss the latest in politics, the midterm elections and The Promise: President Obama, Year One, his new book about the beginning of Obama's presidency.