Overheard With Evan Smith On Klru-tv

Joel Klein has been called one of the most influential people in public education. He was chancellor of New York City schools for eight years under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He is the current CEO for Amplify, the educational division of News Corp.

Kevin Nealon is a comedian and actor who spent 9 years on Saturday Night Live, including three as the anchor of Weekend Update, and 7 seasons in the cast of the Showtime series Weeds.

Mary Matalin and James Carville are the odd couple of American politics — a diehard Republican and a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat happily married despite their famous ideological differences. Their latest book is "Love and War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home."

Lucinda Williams is a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, whose highly acclaimed self-titled album, Lucinda Williams, was released 25 years ago this month. That album featured the song Passionate Kisses, later performed by Mary Chapin Carpenter and which earned Williams a Grammy for Best Country Song in 1994.

Amy Tan is the author of three best-selling novels including her 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club. Her newest novel, The Valley of Amazement, was published in November and is already on The New York Times best-seller list. The editors of The New York Times Book Review also named it a 2013 Notable Book. Tan co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay of The Joy Luck Club movie, released in 1993. Millions of copies of her books are in print and they have been translated into thirty languages.

John Sayles is an Academy Award-nominated writer and director whose credits include Lone Star, Passion Fish, The Brother From Another Planet and The Return of the Secaucus Seven. His 18th film, Go For Sisters, was recently released.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is the coolest astrophysicist in the universe and a nerd rockstar. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of National History and the host of the new documentary series Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. Her latest book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism is a riveting history of the first decade of the Progressive Era.

Reza Aslan is a religious scholar and author of the New York Times best-seller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. His first book No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam was named one of the most important books of our decade and was translated into thirteen languages.

Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are veteran political reporters, famous for scoop-filled presidential campaign narratives. Their best-selling book Game Change spawned an Emmy Award-winning film. Double Down is their best-selling follow-up on the 2012 race.

Mark Leibovich is The New York Times Magazine Chief National Correspondent and a National Magazine Award winner.

Mark Kelly is a retired American astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain. He is also the husband of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot at a constituent event in Tucson in 2011. Kelly flew his first NASA mission in 2001 and retired in 2011. He is the recipient of numerous naval awards including two Defensive Superior service medals and four Air Medals.

Jonathan Lethem is an award-winning, best-selling novelist, essayist and short story writer. Lethem’s most recent novel, released in September, is Dissident Gardens.

Jonathan Alter is an author and commentator, who was at Newsweek for close to three decades. He has written three New York Times best-sellers about American presidents. Alter's most recent book is The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies.

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for The Washington Post. He won the Pulitzer in 2009 for Commentary for his writing about the 2008 campaign and the historical significance of the election of the first African-American president. Robinson is also an author and often joins the roundtable of NBC's Meet the Press.

Aimee Mann lead the 80's 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.

Lawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His most recent book is Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief.

Jeffrey Toobin is a New Yorker staff writer and CNN legal analyst whose second book on the nation’s nine most important robed jurists has just been published. It’s called The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court.

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.