Books Featured on the Colbert Report

List of Books Featured on The Colbert Report (2012)

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Week of February 13, 2012

• 02.16.12 - Repeat show was broadcast b/c show suspended for 2 days
• 02.15.12 - Repeat show was broadcast b/c show suspended for 2 days
• 02.14.12 - William J. Broad, writer & author - The Science of Yoga (book)
• 02.13.12 - Bill McKibben, environmentalist & founder of 350.org - no book

Week of February 6, 2012
Stephen and the Colbert Nation are off the week of February 6. New shows return the week of February 13.

Week of January 30, 2012

• 02.02.12 - Christiane Amanpour, journalist - no book
• 02.01.12 - Ameena Mathews, activist - The Interrupters
• 01.31.12 - Björk, artist - Biophilia
• 01.30.12 - Lawrence Tribe, professor - no book

Week of January 23, 2012

• 01.26.12 - Drew Barrymore, actor & director - Big Miracle
• 01.25.12 - Terry Gross, NPR host & producer - no book | PLUS Maurice Sendak, author - In the Night Kitchen
• 01.24.12 - Andrew Sullivan, blogger & political commentator - no book
• 01.23.12 - Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, game theorist - The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

Stephen's Running in South Carolina and His PAC is Running Ads

Stephen announced his formation of an exploratory committee to be in the South Carolina primary. He's given up control of his Super PAC to do it. But, of course, the PAC is still running ads. This is the Mitt Romney attack ad they are running:

This whole election, PAC thing Stephen is doing - super meta.

New Year, New List - Welcome to 2012

Well, it's a new year - Happy 2012, Colbert Nation!

I've closed off the old 2011 book list and have started a new page for 2012's book list. It's at the top of the home page and in the top nav.

Thank you so much for visiting and for sharing and tweeting about my site! I think it's going to be a great year on Colbert - especially if Stephen's Prayer Sombrero (or, Somprayero) is any indication.

Photo Source: Video on ComedyNetwork.ca (c) Viacom

Brian Eno, Michael Stipe & Stephen Colbert Sing "Lean on Me"

I often don't watch the sign-off of Colbert. But this past Thursday, I am so glad I did. AMAZING version of "Lean on Me" sung by Colbert, Brian Eno (that night's guest) and Michael Stipe of REM whom Colbert added to his Rock and Roll Shelf of Fame.

This is a link to the video on Colbert Nation for US readers.

This is a link to the video on Comedy Central for Canadian readers.

I've embedded another version of it below, but Viacom pulls these down pretty fast, so it may not be there for very long. But if it's not there, definitely check out the official sites - great trio!

Colbert Micheal Stipe Brian Eno sing! from Ghost Pictures Pty Ltd on Vimeo.

The Goat Rodeo Sessions Play Google

I really enjoyed The Goat Rodeo Sessions featured on The Colbert Report - artists Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile are amazing! I went searching for more video and info about the group and found this awesome video from a session they did at Google New York. Great performances as well as a great Q&A with Googler Lauren Carpenter about music and technology.

Brooke Gladstone's Media Mirror

Brooke Gladstone, host of NPR's On the Media and a media analyst, was on Colbert this week. She has a new book out, The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media - and uses the form of a comic book or graphic non-fiction book which is very cool.

Gladstone had a couple of interesting things to say about our perception of the media. First, in general, we perceive it to have a significant and undue influence on us. Gladstone rejects this, saying that media is more a mirror of opinions that are already held by people, rather than an influencing force. And second, she chose the form of a graphic novel because she felt that it was an intimate medium, like radio, that the individual pictures that illustrate key historical moments and ideas would cause people to remember them.

I'm a fan of using the graphic form for non-fiction because I do think it slows you down when you read - giving you time to absorb ideas in a multiple media format, complex enough to be interesting and appeal to different types of learners, but not so complex as to be distracting.

Gladstone has published two comprehensive excerpts from her book over at Slate. The first, from the chapter on "Objectivity" and the second an explanation of "The Goldilocks Number".  Below is one of the panels from Objectivity.

 

Following is a trailer of Gladstone's book, The Influencing Machine.

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media from WW Norton on Vimeo.

Michael Sandel's Justice course at Harvard University

I thought the interview with Michael Sandel about his Justice course at Harvard was pretty great. I liked how his opening question caught Stephen a bit off guard:

Suppose four shipwrecked sailors are stranded at sea in a lifeboat, without food or water. Would it be wrong for three of them to kill and eat the cabin boy, in order to save their own lives?

It really is amazing to me that Harvard would put this whole course online - including discussion guides and reference material! Check out the first episode (class) below - "The Moral Side of Murder":

David McCullough's Greater Journey

I'm a little too excited about David McCullough's new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. I'm a bit of a history nerd in general and a fan of McCullough's specifically. I really enjoyed two of his earlier books John Adams and The Great Bridge. But Paris has always held a particular allure for me so really excited to read his take on the vibrant period of Americans in Paris in the mid to late 1800's.

Below is a video where McCullough discusses the story of the American artists and scientists who lived and studied in Paris and how this impacted culture in the US.

Alexandra Pelosi examines newly-minted US citizens in new HBO documentary

It was a real delight seeing Alexandra Pelosi on Colbert the other night. I actually knew nothing about Pelosi and her career as a documentary film maker. Her newest film, Citizen USA, looks amazing.

Caroline Kennedy Walks in Beauty and Reads Poetry with Stephen

OK, I'll admit it. When I first saw what Caroline Kennedy's new book, She Walks in Beauty, was about, I almost didn't tune in. Because I'm just not sure we need ANOTHER book about poetry.

Well, that would have been a mistake because I think Stephen's interview with Caroline was one of my favourite interviews of all time. It was Stephen at his most genuine - even if he was joking about poetry. And the alternating poetry reading between Stephen and Caroline was charming.

But my absolutely favourite thing was that Stephen shared the first poem he had to memorize  - Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

Nature's first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leafs a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay.

Stephen and I must have had the same curriculum in high school because coincidentally, it was the first poem I had to memorize in school. Freaky!

But, in any case, it did rekindle my interest in poetry and now I'm keen on Caroline's book. So I will definitely be checking this out from the library. 

Morgan Spurlock Sells Us the Greatest Story EVER!

Morgan Spurlock is famous for his over the top documentaries including Super-Size Me and Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden.  His newest film is The Greatest Film Ever Sold - a piece about product placement in the advertising industry.

The interview with Stephen was good; I saw Spurlock at TED this year - his talk goes into a bit more detail about the film and the process.