Overheard With Evan Smith On Klru-tv

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Endowed Chair. She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She is the author of five books including her 2018 publication, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Her TEDx Houston talk on the power of vulnerability has garnered more than 36 million views. Brené and her husband, Steve, live in Houston and have two children.

Jason Reitman is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. Reitman made his feature film debut with the 2006 Sundance hit Thank You For Smoking. He earned Academy Award nominations for directing Juno and Up In The Air, the latter of which earned Reitman a Golden Globe Award, WGA Award and BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay. His other films include Young Adult, Labor Day, Men, Women and Children, and Tully, his third collaboration with Diablo Cody and second with Charlize Theron. Reitman has produced three seasons of the Hulu comedy series Casual through his Right of Way Films. He also executive produced the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash and the Jean-Marc Vallee directed Demolition. Reitman’s 2018 film is The Front Runner, which he co-wrote and directed.

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold over six million copies, been translated into more than twenty languages and is required reading from elementary through college across the nation. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, several honorary doctorates and book awards nationally and internationally, the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the National Medal of Arts, awarded to her by President Obama in 2016. She is dual citizen of the United States and Mexico.

Mary Chapin Carpenter is a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter. Her latest album, Sometimes Just The Sky, celebrates her acclaimed 30-year recording career, and features reimagined versions of one song from each of Carpenter’s twelve albums, plus one newly penned track. Over the course of her career, she has sold 14 million records, won two Country Music Association Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards and is one of only 15 female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor – she is laugh-out-loud funny – and ruthlessly honest. Her new book is Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Hallelujah Anyway; Small Victories; Stitches; Help, Thanks, Wow; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Bird by Bird; and Traveling Mercies, as well as several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, Lamott lives in Northern California.

Lawrence O’Donnell hosts “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on MSNBC. His background in politics, entertainment and news, leads to lively discussions as he addresses the biggest issues and most compelling stories of the day. Among other political positions, O’Donnell served as Senior Advisor to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1989 through 1992. He is an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and writer for the NBC series “The West Wing,” and creator and executive producer of the NBC series, “Mister Sterling.” Born in Boston, O’Donnell is a graduate of Harvard College.

Andrew Bujalski's first feature film, Funny Ha Ha, was called one of the most influential films of the '00s by New York Times critic A.O. Scott. He has also written and directed the films Mutual Appreciation, Beeswax, Computer Chess, and Results, which have played festivals worldwide including Sundance, Berlin, and the 2014 Whitney Biennial. The Boston Globe describes him as "unerringly polite and somewhat disheveled." His latest film, Support the Girls, premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival.

John Kerry has served most of his adult life in public service - as Navy lieutenant in combat in Vietnam, a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, Democratic nominee for president of the United States, five-term senator, and U.S. Secretary of State. He has been witness to and participant in some of the most important events of our recent history. His latest book, “Every Day Is Extra,” is a revealing memoir where he acknowledges faults, mistakes, and lessons learned the hard way.

Michael Avenatti is an attorney and entrepreneur who routinely appears on broadcast and print media as a commentator on a range of legal issues. He has represented parties in a number of lawsuits that have gained international media attention, including cases brought against Donald Trump, the National Football League, various celebrity defendants, high-ranking business executives and Fortune 100 companies. He is also a professional race car driver, having participated in races across the United States and Europe.

Sean Spicer is the former White House Press Secretary in the Trump administration. He is the founder and President of RigWil LLC, a strategic consulting firm that provides insights to C-suite corporate and association executives. His book The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President was released in July of 2018. A husband and father of two, Spicer resides in Virginia.

Amy Chozick is a New York-based writer-at-large for The New York Times and a frequent contributor to The Times Magazine, writing about the personalities and power struggles in business, politics and media. Most recently she led the paper’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. She is the author of Chasing Hillary, a memoir from HarperCollins.

Lee Ann Womack is a country music singer and songwriter who came to fame in 2000 with her single I Hope You Dance. Womack has won five Academy of Country Music Awards, six Country Music Association Awards and one Grammy Award and has sold over six million albums. Her latest album, titled The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone, is a hybrid of country, soul, gospel and blues.

Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice. As President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund for more than a decade, Richards has worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care. After starting her career as a labor organizer, working with women earning minimum wage, she went on to start her own grassroots organizations, and later served as Deputy Chief of Staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Junot Díaz is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. A graduate of Rutgers University, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Schmidt is a reporter for The New York Times and contributor for MSNBC. Schmidt is known for his investigative reporting and coverage of Trump. In 2015, Schmidt broke the news of Hillary Clinton’s personal email usage for government business. He also was the first to report the James Comey memo on Trump’s orders to drop the Michael Flynn investigation. Before working for The Times, Schmidt worked at The Boston Globe.

Bill de Blasio is the 109th Mayor of New York City. Since assuming office in 2014, Mayor de Blasio has worked on initiatives including Pre-K for All, Paid Sick Leave and Housing New York. Previously, Mayor de Blasio served as regional director at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as head of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2000 for the U.S. Senate.

Sean Penn is an actor, producer, director and writer. He is best known for his roles in Mystic River, I Am Sam and Milk. Penn has worked on over 100 theater and film productions and has been nominated for five Academy Awards, a Directors Guild and Writers Guild Award, and won two Oscars. His written work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. His first novel is titled Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff: A Novel.

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013. Tapper currently hosts a one-hour weekday program, The Lead with Jake Tapper, which debuted in March 2013, and has hosted CNN’s Sunday morning show, State of the Union, since June 2015. Tapper has won a number of awards, including a 2017 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, the Los Angeles Press Club’s Presidents Award for Impact on Media, and The Canadian Journalism Foundati

Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic. She conducts the “Talk” interviews featured in The New York Times Magazine. She also hosts “With Friends Like These,” a podcast from Crooked Media. She was the senior political correspondent for MTV News from 2016 until they pivoted to video. Since starting the political blog Wonkette in 2004, she has worked at outlets including Time magazine, GQ, Air America, and The Guardian.

Walter Mosley is a best-selling author. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, he has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and several NAACP Image awards. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Mosley’s short fiction has appeared in a wide array of publications, including The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Playboy, and his nonfiction has been published in The New York Tim