Fantasy Colbert League Weekly: March 16 – 19

Welcome to No Fact Zone’s weekly roundup of ‘Colbert Report’ guests, created in the spirit of the oft-enjoyed Fantasy Colbert League. While we can’t start up the online version of the game again, we can make it so that you can get the information you need about the guests before they come on the show.

Just like you, we want to be it-getters before the interviews start. So we’ve compiled brief bios, issues or events that Stephen might bring up during the interview, and a fun Fract (Freedom Fact) to impress your fellow viewers during the commercial breaks. Read, enjoy, and see if you can anticipate how Stephen might nail each of the following guests!

Note: As always, guests are subject to change.

Monday, 3/16: Jonathan Chait, Neil Gaiman

All right, kids – you wished for it, and now distinguished author Neil Gaiman, who was arguably more excited for Stephen to mock him for winning a Newbery award than to actually win the award itself, is coming to the Report! He won the Newbery for ‘The Graveyard Book,’ a tale of a boy raised in a graveyard. I would’ve loved this book when I was in middle school. Look for a fascinating exchange of wits tonight!

Columnist Jonathan Chait is a senior editor at The New Republic and contributes to The New Republic‘s group blog called The Plank. According to said blog, Chait will be visiting Stephen to talk about his column ‘Wasting Away in Hooverville.’

• Fract: Gaiman’s ‘The Graveyard Book’ will be made into a movie, joining ‘Stardust‘ and ‘Coraline‘ in the list of Gaiman’s books-turned-movies.

Tuesday, 3/17: David Grann

Author David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, writing about – as he says – ‘everything from New York City’s antiquated water tunnels to the hunt for the giant squid.’ His work is The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, a tale of British explorer Percy Fawcett’s search for an ancient civilization in the wilds of the Amazon rainforest.

• Fract: In 2005, Grann hiked deep into the Amazon to retrace Fawcett’s steps, giving his wife as few details as possible about the natives who kidnapped the last party of people looking for Fawcett in 1996.

Wednesday, 3/18: Juan Cole

Professor Juan Cole is president of the Global Americana Institute, a nonprofit group working to get American literary classics translated into Arabic. A professor of history at the University of Michigan, Cole teaches and writes about Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the conflicts with Iraq. His latest work is ‘Engaging the Muslim World.’

• Fract: Cole’s weblog, ‘Informed Consent,’ which he has written since 2002, won a number of awards between 2004 and 2006. He believes that academics should not worry about risking their careers when they consider starting a blog.

Thursday, 3/19: John McCardell

John McCardell Jr., formerly the president of Middlebury College in Vermont, founded the nonprofit organization Choose Responsibility to help teens and parents discuss and debate the effects of the legal drinking age (which is 21 years old in the United States). Founded in 2006, Choose Responsibility was born out of a study and now proposes a series of changes to the laws that will focus attention on 18- through 20-year-olds as well as 21-year-olds. Let’s see how Stephen reacts to this, both as a father and as an interviewer.

• Fract: According to a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, the United States has a high rate of alcohol-related accidents compared to other countries where the legal drinking age is 20 years old or younger.