Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

We are continuing our summer tradition at “Here’s The Thing” where members of the staff select their favorite interviews from the archives. This week, we revisit Alec Baldwin’s conversations with two amazing women in entertainment, Lena Dunham and Carol Burnett. Lena Dunham, creator and star of the ground-breaking “Girls” and writer/director of the recent film “Catherine Called Birdy,” spoke with Alec in 2013 about making her first film, “Tiny Furniture,” how her work evolved following its success and what it's like to play a version of herself. In 2015, Alec spoke with comedian and actress Carol Burnett about making 11-seasons of the Emmy-winning “The Carol Burnett Show,” navigating being a woman in show business in the 60s and creating her incredible performance as Miss Hannigan in “Annie.”

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Against the backdrop of soaring stock prices and multi-million dollar executive packages, the labor movement is undergoing a resurgence. A Starbucks location in Buffalo, NY became the first within the coffee chain to unionize in 2021, and since then, more than 330 stores in 39 states have followed suit – with more elections underway. All the while, the Starbucks corporation was engaging in controversial labor-busting practices: the National Labor Relations Board found that Starbucks violated federal labor laws and a federal judge ruled that Starbucks engaged in “egregious and widespread misconduct.” Guest Gianna Reeve is an employee of the Camp Road Starbucks in the Buffalo area – and an organizer with Starbucks Workers United. Reeve joins Alec Baldwin to share her experience at one of the first stores to organize, the conditions that led to the unionization efforts, and what the Starbucks Workers United organization hopes for the future.

Gianna Reeve is a featured participant in the upcoming documentary “The Baristas vs The Billionaire.” To learn more, visit: www.baristasvsbillionaire.com

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This past year marked the 75th Anniversary of the Actors Studio, the nonprofit organization that has shared “truth in acting” with decades of film, television and theater professionals. This episode is the next in our series celebrating some of those responsible for the studio’s success. Guests Roberta and Katherine Wallach are the daughters of stage and screen stars Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach. Jackson and Wallach met during a 1946 production of the Tennessee Williams’ play, “This Property Is Condemned.” They became early members of the Actors Studio and would go on to perform together in film, tv and theater for decades. Roberta and Katherine are actors in their own right, members of the studio, and sit on its Board of Directors. Katherine Wallach has appeared in “Goodfellas,” “The King of Comedy” and “Gangs of New York” and also uses her creative talents as a jewelry designer. Roberta Wallach is a Drama-Desk nominee and began her film career while still in high school. The siblings share what it was like growing up around acting royalty, their father’s perspective on them going into the family business and their thoughts on their parents' enduring legacy.

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Rafael Payare, or “Rafa,” as he’s known more informally, is the energetic, electrifying and unmistakable conductor that is taking the classical world by storm. Payare currently serves as Music Director of both the Montreal and San Diego Symphonies. A graduate of Venezuela’s famed El Sistema program, Payare first attracted attention as winner of Denmark’s Malko International Conducting Competition in 2012. Since then, he’s brought his exuberance and elegance to conduct preeminent orchestras across the globe, from London to New York, Munich to Boston, and Stockholm to Chicago. Rafael Payare speaks with Alec about the many important conductors he’s learned from, how he approaches putting together a music program, and why finding the right chemistry with an orchestra is like falling in love.

The following compositions are featured in this episode:

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Rafael Payare, provided courtesy of Pentatone. You can find the album here.

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103 “The Year 1905,” conducted by Rafael Payare, courtesy of the San Diego Symphony on Platoon. You can find the album here.

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Filmmaker Ryan White has made a dizzying array of unique documentaries, including “The Keepers,” about the unsolved murder of a Catholic nun, “The Case Against 8” about the fight for marriage equality, “Good Night Oppy,” which traces the journey of NASA’s Mars Rover and “Assassins,” about the murder of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. The Emmy-nominated director’s latest project, “Pamela, A Love Story,” is a raw look at the life of 90’s bombshell Pamela Anderson. It showcases a more vulnerable side of the actress and re-examines the major life events of the star – from her rise to fame to the infamous, stolen sex tape with her then-husband, Tommy Lee. Alec speaks with Ryan White about what he learned filming with Anderson, the impact the documentary had on her life and how he balances the light and the dark of his projects.

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There is an important conversation happening regarding the rapidly-changing world of artificial intelligence and how it will affect us. Alec speaks with two leaders in the tech community that have worked on the systems integral to today’s A.I. revolution. Blake Lemoine is a computer scientist and former senior software engineer at Google. He was working on their Responsible A.I. team when he went public with his claim that the A.I. was sentient. Lemoine was subsequently fired and now champions accountability and transparency in the tech sector. Jay LeBoeuf is an executive, entrepreneur, and educator in the music and creative technology industries. He is the Head Of Business & Corporate Development at Descript, an audio and video editing platform that uses “voice cloning” technology. Alec speaks with LeBoeuf and Lemoine about the many applications of A.I., what dangers we need to be aware of and what is to come next in this transformative space.

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Last week, we lost the great singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. In honor of his passing, Alec is sharing his 2016 conversation with the musician, one of his favorites in the history of the podcast: Over the course of a career that has lasted more than half a century, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot achieved global stardom and exceptional influence. Bob Dylan’s a fan—he's said, “I can’t think of any [Lightfoot songs] I don’t like.” These songs—“Beautiful,” “Sundown,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” and many others—have been treasured by generations of popular musicians and listeners around the world. But Gordon Lightfoot was just one of many aspirants who moved to Toronto in the early 1960s to try their hand in the burgeoning folk music scene there. Lightfoot tells Alec about fitting a feeling to a melody, why he owes his first hit record to an exec's girlfriend, and how he wrote "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by pulling lines straight from the newspaper.

You can listen to all of the music from this episode and other selections from Gordon Lightfoot in a curated playlist here.

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Forty years ago, “Vietnam: A Television History,” the 13-part documentary series examining the Vietnam War, premiered on PBS. It served as a searing look into the background, cost and toll taken on the principal figures involved in the war, both at home and abroad. Judith Vecchione served as one of the producers on the series and joined Alec to speak about what went into creating such a wide-ranging and deep investigation of the conflict. The Emmy- and Peabody-winning Vecchione has served as an executive producer with Boston-based PBS station WGBH for the past 23 years, working on many ground-breaking projects, including the Civil Rights series “Eyes on the Prize.” Vecchione shares with Alec the weight of responsibility she felt in bringing “Vietnam: A Television History” to the public, what inspires her dedication to the important stories she produces, and how she mentors the next generation of documentary filmmakers.

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An area near the entrance to Death Valley National Park has the capacity to produce enough energy to power the entire planet if covered in solar panels. Yet for Nye County, Nevada residents, the question of what must be sacrificed – including the environmental and economic future of the area – and by whom, looms large. Hillary Angelo is the author of the Harper’s Magazine article, “Boomtown,” which explores the complexity of the solar land rush in the West. Angelo is an urban and environmental sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz. Dustin Mulvaney, who was featured in the article, is a solar expert and Professor at San José State University. Alec speaks with Angelo and Mulvaney about the objections of residents, what spaces might be used instead, and how to rethink the future of energy.

You can find the article, “Boomtown,” here:

https://harpers.org/archive/2023/01/boomtown-beatty-nevada-solar-farms-death-valley/

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Caroline Rhea is best-known as Aunt Hilda in the 90s sitcom, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” but the actor and comedian has been entertaining us in many forms for decades: hosting “The Biggest Loser” and “The Caroline Rhea Show,” performing in standup specials on Comedy Central and HBO, voicing Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb” and appearing as a panelist on game shows like “Hollywood Squares” and “Match Game” with Alec. Rhea speaks with Alec about getting back out on the road doing standup, why it was important to take time off from her career to raise her daughter, and why she’s most at home on stage.

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