Emily Botein

David Simon cut his teeth as a crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun until the newspaper industry began to collapse. Simon began writing for television and "The Wire" was born.

When Stacy Keach first pursued a career in acting, he started with Shakespeare, which took him from a festival in Oregon to studying classical theater in England.  

Elaine Stritch was known recently as Alec Baldwin's mother on TV's "30 Rock." In this extensive conversation from 2013, the two showbiz legends discuss Stritch's seven-decade career.

"It was a fascinating career. I am absolutely glad I’m done," says former New York City Commissioner of Correction and Probation, Martin Horn.

Debbie Reynolds sits down with Alec to look back on her over six decades in show business and talks about her big break in "Singing in the Rain."

Even after over 25 years in the business, Thom Yorke, Radiohead and Atoms for Peace frontman, admits performing is “either wicked fun or really awful.”  

In 2012, Luck was in his final year at Stanford when he learned he was the top NFL draft pick. He tells Alec, "You try sitting in a lecture after you've been drafted by a team."

"No one needs another blowhard yelling at them. No one gives a rat’s patootie about my opinion," the NBC Nightly News anchor tells Alec.

Patti LuPone was only four years old when she realized she belonged on stage. LuPone entertained her audience—even if they were only family members in her Long Island living room.

Some media critics have speculated that this 2013 interview may have been a factor in the former New York Times executive editor's dismissal.

Dunham thought she’d be a “weird Gender and Women’s Studies teacher who occasionally showed movies at film festivals,” and never imagined she’d encounter the success she has.

Filmmaker Judd Apatow thinks each of his movies is "a letter to myself telling me something that I need to know about how to live my life."

Jamie and Alex Bernstein speak to Alec about their maestro father, Leonard Bernstein. They knew him in the tux and tails, but they also knew him as the dad who loved games.

Lewis Lapham tells Alec Baldwin about being a rookie reporter at The Examiner and what it was like to go to India with The Beatles.

Paula Pell was singing and dancing at a Florida theme park when she got a call from SNL. She moved to New York, and two decades later, Pell became the show’s head writer.

Most people know Andrew McCarthy for his roles in "St. Elmo’s Fire" and "Pretty in Pink" as a member of the Brat Pack, but those movies were only one stop on Andrew McCarthy’s journey.

Photographer Peter Beard has documented the destruction of wildlife in Africa, including the plight of the African Elephant, the very topic of Richard Ruggiero’s doctoral dissertation.  

Alec talks with David Brooks on stage at Joe’s Pub. Brooks is known as a Conservative voice, but former Obama advisor David Axelrod described him as a “true public thinker.” 

Pulitzer-prize winner George Will's passion for politics began early: he remembers Truman’s election when he was just seven years old.

Fred Armisen has always been ambitious; when he was a punk rock drummer, he recalls, he always "wanted much more."