Kat Owens is a plastic pollution researcher, artist, and activist. She merges science, policy, and the arts to address plastic pollution in her ongoing art series “Entangled and Ingested” which showcases portraits of animals affected by plastic pollution…made of plastic. Owens is also a National Geographic Explorer, a Fulbright Nehru fellow, and a Professor at the University of Hartford in the Department of Politics, Economics, and International Studies. Owens works with her students on a variety of projects to address real-world problems, such as collecting marine debris and addressing pollution along their hometown shorelines in Connecticut. Owen’s research in marine plastic pollution and river debris has been supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Fulbright Nehru Foundation, and the National Geographic Society.

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Jonathan Mahler is a longtime staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the best-selling book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, New York Times notable book The Challenge: Hamdan V. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power, and recently published book The Gods of New York: The Tumultuous Eighties, from Donald Trump to the Tompkins Square Riots. Mahler’s first book was adapted into a mini-series for ESPN and his second book, The Challenge, won The Scribes Book Award in 2009. Formerly a columnist for Bloomberg View, Mahler’s writing has also appeared in Slate, the Daily Beast, and New York Magazine. Mahler’s work in sports journalism has been featured in the anthology book series The Best American Sports Writing and received numerous journalism and media awards, including the Gerald Loeb Award and the Mirror Award.

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Daniel Squadron and Melissa Walker are an unexpected duo. Formerly a New York State Senator, Daniel Squadron represented New York’s 25th and 26th districts for almost ten years. After leaving public office, Squadron co-founded a civic engagement initiative called The States Project - of which he is currently President. Melissa Walker was formerly a magazine editor and journalist published in countless magazines such as Seventeen, Glamour, Teen Vogue, The NY Observer, and New York Magazine. Walker has also authored 10 young adult novels. After a fateful meeting at a holiday party, the two began working together on The State’s Project’s Giving Circles program, co-founded by Walker. The Giving Circles has engaged more than 35,000 donors and raised tens of millions of dollars since its formation in 2018 and works within the States Project to shift the balance of power in state legislatures - ultimately leading to greater political change nationwide.

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Tommy James started making music when he was 4 years old and he hasn’t stopped. Tommy is a musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and the frontman of rock band Tommy James and the Shondells. Known for timeless classics such as “Crimson and Clover”, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, “Hanky Panky”, “Sweet Cherry Wine”, and “Draggin’ the Line” Tommy James has amassed 23 Gold singles, 9 Platinum albums, and over 100 million records sold worldwide. He was honored with a BMI Five Million-Air Award for over 21 million radio plays and his music has appeared in over 200 TV shows and films, and in countless commercials. To date, over 300 musicians have recorded covers of James' music, including: Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Prince, R.E.M., Kelly Clarkson, Bruce Springsteen, and even The Boston Pops.

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Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is one of the most in-demand maestros in the world, and one of Alec’s favorite conductors. Järvi is currently the chief conductor of the NHK symphony orchestra in Tokyo and the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich. Over his career, he’s led orchestras in Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Malmö, and, for the decade between 2001 and 2011, here in the United States, as the musical director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He and his musical family are pillars of the thriving classical music scene in his home country of Estonia. Paavo Järvi talks to Alec about how slowing down in the pandemic offered Paavo time to think, his early love of music, what it was like to come to the United States from Soviet-era Estonia as a 17-year-old, and what he took away from a decade of conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Originally aired November 30, 2021

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Mallory McMorrow is a state senator representing Michigan’s 8th district and also a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2026 election. Mallory McMorrow currently serves as the Michigan Senate Majority Whip and is the first woman in state history to hold that position. A member of the Democratic Party, McMorrow represents the 8th district and previously represented the 13th district from 2019 to 2023. Prior to running for the Michigan Senate in 2018, McMorrow worked in industrial design for design firms and for companies such as Mattel and Gawker.

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Coming from a challenging, working class upbringing in the United Kingdom, Steve Jones discovered his outlet in music - as founding guitarist of the groundbreaking punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Despite the release of only one album,”Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” the band changed the course of music and history - vocalizing issues of class in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” – and influencing fashion, art and society. Since then, Jones has continued to play music (both solo and with bands The Professionals and Neurotic Outsiders) and was the host of the popular, long-running radio show, “Jonesy’s Jukebox.” In 2022, his insightful memoir, “Lonely Boy,” was adapted into the FX television series, the Danny Boyle-directed “Pistol.” Steve Jones talks to host Alec Baldwin about the roots of punk rock, coming up alongside Vivienne Westwood and Chrissie Hynde, and the road to getting clean – and beginning life anew.

Originally aired May 14, 2024

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Zoë Schlanger is an author, journalist, and current staff writer at the Atlantic, where she covers the newsletter “The Weekly Planet”. Schlanger has written for major outlets such as Newsweek, Quartz, Wired, The New York Times, The Nation, Time Magazine, and NPR. Schlanger is also the author of the 2024 book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. Her work focuses on science and environment- in particular climate change, pollution, and environmental justice. In this episode, host Alec Baldwin and Zoë Schlanger discuss environmental policy, climate change, and the impact of the 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires as Schlanger covered in her Atlantic article “What Happens When a Plastic City Burns”.

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