Fantasy Colbert League: October 11-October 14

We are getting SO close to the rally. I really think that I am going to be able to make it! And I am so excited! I am equally excited for this week’s episode, especially since Austan Goolsbee is back on the show. He is one of my favorites after his awesome appearances on Jon too. Which guests are you excited to see this week?

Robert Reich’s first appearance on the show was in the form of a phone interview, but now he is on in person promoting his new book, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. Reich was the Secretary of Labor from 1993 until 1997 under Bill Clinton, and is now the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of Calfornia at Berkeley in the Goldman School of Public Policy. Previously he also taught at Harvard and Brandeis University. After attending Dartmouth University, Reich was awarded the pretigious Rhodes Scholarship and went on to receive his degree in Law from Yale. As the Secretary of Labor, Robert helped implement the Family and Medical Leave Act. He wrote the book Locked in a Cabinet about his experience.

Follow Robert on Twitter here.

Fract: Highest honors: In 2008 Reich was named one of the 10 Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century by Time.

Brendan Steinhauser is the Director of Federal and State Campaigns for FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks is an organization which promotes less government and lower taxes in an effort for people to gain more freedom by recruiting volunteer activists. Steinhauser graduated from The University of Texas where he studied International Relations and American and European History, as well as leading the chapter of The Young Conservatives. He wrote the book The Conservative Revolution: How to Win the Battle for College Campuses, which is a guide for student leaders to gain support for conservative movements. Steinhauser also maintains his own website, The Conservative Revolution, but he is probably most well known for helping organize the Tea Party Movement and the Taxpayer March on Washington in 2009. He has appeared on numerous TV shows and has been quoted in many print publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Follow Brendan on Twitter here.

Fract: Brendan had a very successful and productive time in college. For everything he did he was awarded the Free Republic Collegiate Eagle Award.

Wednesday, October 13: Austan Goolsbee

Austan Goolsbee is returning as a “friend of the show” with this appearance. He also appeared in 2009. Goolsbee is the Staff Director and Chief Economist of Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Also a guest on The Daily Show, Goolsbee taught at the University of Chicago before taking a leave of absence to work in Washington. According to the White House webiste, Goolsbee is also “a member of the panel of Economic Advisers to the Congressional Budget Office, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation. He is a Senior Economist to the Democratic Leadership Council and the Progressive Policy Institute,” leaving him with much on his plate.

Follow Austan on Twitter here.

Fract: Similar backgrounds: While at his alma mater, Yale, Austan was part of a comedy improv troupe called, “Just Add Water.”

Thursday, October 14: Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is an author, writing about the topics of the English, Science, and travel, often in a humorous way. He is currently the Chancellor of Durham University in England. Bryson has moved back and forth between the United States, where he was born, and the United Kingdom, where is currently resides. He has a new book out called, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and he is also re-releasing his famous 2004 book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. The book won the Aventis Prize for “best general science book,” as well as the European Union Decartes Prize for “science communication.” Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryson was given a key to the city and a day has been named in honor of him in the city as well. Bill Bryson has been awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature, as well as the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society from the University College of Dublin.

Fract: Truth in literature: One scientist called Bryson’s humorous work, A Short History of Nearly Everything “annoyingly free of mistakes.”

Enjoy the show!