Fantasy Colbert League: January 25-January 28
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We are inching closer and closer to the Olympics. I love them enough as so as it is, so this is really exciting for me. On a personal note, I have just started my last semester of college, so everything is bittersweet right now, but it’s nice that I always have Stephen at night.
Monday, January 25: Kati Marton
Kati Marton is an author and a journalist. Her new book, Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, explores the lives of her parents as documented in the secret files of Budapest police from the time of Communist reign in Europe after World War II. Kati has also written two other books, Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History, and The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World. Born in Hungary in 1949, Kati’s parents were reporters who previously survived the Holocaust, after Kati’s grandparents had been killed at Auschwitz. Her parents received numerous awards for their reporting of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, but fled the country afterwards. Ms. Marton has studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, also in Paris. For her work, Kati has won such awards as the George Foster Peabody Award and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. The Commander’s Cross is the highest civilian honor to be awarded. Kati is currently married to the United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.
Fract: Keeping journalism in the blood – Kati’s second husband was the former ABC Nightly News anchor Peter Jennings. They were married from 1979 until 1994 and had two children together.
Tuesday, January 26: Paul Begala
Paul Begala has been The Colbert Report before – in 2006 and in 2008. His book, Third Term: Why George W. Bush (Hearts) John McCain, was released in 2008 before the presidential election, and explains the evolution of the relationship between the former president, and the 2008 runner-up. Paul Begala was an advisor to Bill Clinton, and back in 1992, along with James Carville, helped the president win the election. Begala has his Bachelor of Arts and his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently teaching at the School of Law at the University of Georgia as a Sanders Political Leadership Scholar. Until 2008, Paul Begala was a consultant to Freddie Mac, and has also written the books, Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush, and It’s Still the Economy, Stupid: George W. Bush, The GOP’s CEO.
Fract: Fans of The Daily Show might know Paul Begala from something else – he was Tucker Carlson’s, not-so-sidekick on Crossfire before the cancellation of the show in 2005.
Mika Brzezinski
Mika Brzezinski is a journalist for MSNBC, serving as a co-host of Morning Joe since 2008. Her book, All Things at Once, tells the story of her not-always-easy life. Born in New York City, Mika moved to Washington D.C. as a child when her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was appointed the National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter in 1976. Mika majored in English at Georgetown University, but transferred to Williams College in Massachusetts, where she finished her degree. She began her career at ABC in 1990 for World News This Morning, where she was an assistant. A year later she moved to a local FOX affiliate, and by 1992, she was working for a CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut. Mika took a one year hiatus from CBS in 2000 to work for MSNBC, but after September 11th, she returned as the “Ground Zero” reporter. She is married to James Hoffer, a news reporter for ABC, and they have two children. Mika has been critical of journalists infatuated with the Obama family who lose a critical eye, and offered support to Sarah Palin, even though she did not necessarily agree with her views.
Mika is on Twitter – you can follow her here.
Fract: A media’s obsession with celebrity? Mika’s producers wanted to push a story about Paris Hilton’s release from jail as the top story, but Mika believed that a Republican Senator’s break with George W. Bush on war stance was more important. In protest, she attempted to burn the story’s script on air.
Wednesday, January 27: Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin is a mathemagician with a book called, Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks. In the book, co-authored with Michael Shermer, the two men set out to teach new tricks for calculating numbers in your head. He also co-authored a more advanced book with Jennifer Quinn called, Proofs that Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof. Dr. Benjamin specializes in combinatorics, a field of mathematics concerning the counting of discrete, finite sets of numbers. He is a professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, and has won the Mathematical Association of America’s teaching awards in 1999 and 2000, regionally and nationally, respectively. Arthur gives a lecture series called, “The Joy of Mathematics” through The Teaching Company, and was named “America’s Best Math Whiz” by Reader’s Digest in the May 2005 issue.
Fract: Some cool research, I must admit – when Dr. Benjamin was pursuing his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, his dissertation was titled, “Turnpike Structures for Optimal Maneuvers.”
Thursday, January 28: David Gergen
Like Paul Begala, David Gergen is already a “friend of the show,” having appeared on the program in 2006, and again in 2008. Gergen is a political consultant, and was a presidential advisor during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Born in North Carolina, David ending up attending Yale for his undergraduate work, and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard. His time working for many presidential administrations led to his book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton. Though he is still involved with political commentary, Gergen now devotes much time to academia – he is a professor of public service at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and has also taught at Duke University, in his hometown of Durham. He also serves as an editor-at-large for U.S. News and World Report, having worked as a journalist there from 1984 through 1993, and makes appearances on CNN shows like Anderson Cooper 360 and Hardball.
Fract: Due to his frequent appearances on many television shows, Gergen has become a target for satire. A humorist Joe Bob Briggs once noted his physical similarities to a well-known cartoon character, The Cat in the Hat.
Enjoy the show!
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2 Comments
January 25th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Two things:
1) I’m excited about Arthur Benjamin on Wednesday. Anybody else grow up as a child in the ’90s? He used to sell this pack of audio cassette tapes and VHS tapes called Math-E-Magics that our family actually bought. It was awesome. That propelled my math ability by a good number of grade levels.
2) A shout-out to Monday night’s TDS guest, Bill Gates, who’s promoting the Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation. Oops, I mean Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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January 25th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I’m pretty excited for that interview tonight with Kati Marton – her new book sounds really interesting. Looks like another great week!
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