Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Thursday, August 30, 2012

Hometown | Washington, DC

Why You (Should) Know Him

• “Bueller? Bueller?” (see video below)
• His trademark monotonous, “Wow,” bookended Clear Eyes advertisements throughout the 1990s. (see video below)
• He was host of Win Ben Stein’s Money, a seven-time Emmy-winning quiz show on Comedy Central that aired from 1997-2002.
• The Wall Street Journal, the now-defunct The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, King Features Syndicate, Barrons, Los Angeles Magazine, New York Magazine, E! Online, The American Spectator, The New York Times Sunday Business Section, Yahoo! Personal Finance and Newsmax Media all boasted his byline. Furthermore, he is a commentator for CBS’ Sunday Morning and Fox News.  

Why He’s Buzzing | A follow-up to 2004′s How to Ruin Your Financial Life, Stein’s latest text, How to Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio, will be released in October 2012.

Trivia

• A graduate of Montgomery Blair High School class of 1962, Stein’s classmate was journalist Carl Bernstein. Actress Goldie Hawn graduated from the same high school in 1963.
• According to his bio, he was a speechwriter and lawyer in 1973 and 1974 for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. But he did not write the line, “I am not a crook.”
• In 1976, Time magazine speculated that Stein could have been Deep Throat.
• Stein’s Hollywood career launched with his role in 1986′s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. His economics lecture was unscripted, as he pulled from his own knowledge and experience.
• His resume includes working as an economist at the Department of Commerce as a poverty lawyer, a trial lawyer in trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission, a university adjunct at American University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and at Pepperdine University. He has taught about the political and social content of mass culture, political and civil rights under the Constitution, libel law, securities law and ethical issues.
• He is the only actor to appear in The Mask, Son of the Mask and the animated TV series The Mask as Dr. Arthur Neuman, according to his IMDB profile.
• Despite his onscreen persona, Stein received the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2008 Entertainment Merchants Association’s Home Entertainment Awards for being outspoken on his economic and political beliefs.

Selection of written works and projects

Bibliography

1978    On the Brink: A Novel
1978    Dreemz
1979    The View from Sunset Boulevard: America as Brought to You by the People Who Make Television
1988    Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: the Diary of a Mad Screenwriter
1992    A License to Steal: the Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation
2002    How to Ruin Your Life
2003    How to Ruin Your Love Life
2004    How to Ruin Your Financial Life
2004    Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth and What to Do About It
2005    Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and How to Beat It
2008    How to Ruin the United States of America
2012    How to Really Ruin Your Financial Life and Portfolio

Filmography

1984                The Wild Life
1986                Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
1987-1990       Charles in Charge (TV series, four episodes)
1989-1991       The Wonder Years (TV series, 12 episodes)
1992                Honeymoon in Vegas
1993                Dennis the Menace
1993                Full House (TV series, two episodes)
1995                Casper
1995                Married with Children (TV series, one episode)
1997                Seinfeld (TV series, one episode)
1998                Breakfast with Einstein
2004-2008       The Fairly OddParents (TV series, voice, seven episodes)
2006-2008       The Emperor’s New School (TV series, voice, eight episodes)
2003-2009       Family Guy (TV series, two episodes)
2013               The Engagement Ring

Ben Stein Video Clips

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

Clear Eyes Advertisement

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hometown | Born in Beirut, Lebanon

Why You (Should) Know Him

• He garnered cult fame through the Bill & Ted film franchise with his portrayal of Theodore “Ted” Logan.
• The science fiction action films of The Matrix trilogy featured him as computer hacker Neo.

Why He’s Buzzing | Reeves narrates and produces Side by Side, a documentary that analyzes the past and future of filmmaking. He’s also making his directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi, slated for 2013.

Trivia

• While direct translations vary, his name Reeves was from his uncle, Henry Keanu Reeves. The name “Keanu” is a derivation from the name Keaweaheulu (his great-great uncle), which loosely means “the soft breeze raising” or “cool breeze over the mountains” in Hawaiian.
• Upon first arriving in Hollywood, Reeves’ agent thought the name “Keanu” might be too exotic. This resulted in his early credits as K.C. Reeves, Norman Kreeves or Chuck Spadina.
• According to his IMDB profile, Reeves was not an avid high school student, but compensated for it with his skills on the ice rink. He played the position of goalie for his ice hockey team and earned the nickname “The Wall.”
• In the 1989 auditions for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Reeves and Alex Winter were paired up—Winter auditioned for the role of Ted and Reeves for the role of Bill. Each actor was cast, but in the opposite part for which they auditioned.
• The Simpsons character Jimbo Jones is based on the character, Ted, from the Bill & Ted franchise.
• In October 1997, he ranked #23 of “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All time” in UK’s Empire magazine.
• He deferred a portion of his salary for The Devil’s Advocate to ensure that Al Pacino would be cast, which he did again for The Replacements to cast Gene Hackman.
• He reportedly learned over 200 martial arts moves in his training for 2003′s The Matrix Reloaded.

Selection of Honors/Awards

1986   Youngblood
1986   River’s Edge
1988   Dangerous Liaisons
1989   Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
1991   Point Break
1992   Bram Stoker’s Dracula
1994   Speed (nominated for MTV Movie Awards for Best Kiss, Best Male Performance and Most Desirable Male; nominated for Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor; won MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen duo with Sandra Bullock)
1995   Johnny Mnemonic
1997   The Devil’s Advocate
1999   The Matrix
2000   The Replacements
2001   Sweet November
2003   The Matrix Reloaded (nominated for MTV Movie Award for Best Fight and Best Kiss)
2003   The Matrix Revolutions
2005   Constantine
2006   The Lake House
2010   Henry’s Crime
2013   47 Ronin
2013   Man of Tai Chi

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdates | Thursday, July 19 and Friday, July 20, 2012

Hometown | Toronto, Ontario, Canada as Frank Owen Goldberg

Why You (Should) Know Him | He has arguably the most creative portfolio in architecture. You can chalk up Spain’s Guggenheim Museum, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Prague’s Dancing House and 8 Spruce Street in New York City and Germany’s Vitra Design Museum (to name a few!) in his résumé. His buildings are tourist attractions all over the world—but his Santa Monica home also attracts a bulk of visitors. Check out the gallery below to see some of his work.

Why He’s Buzzing | In 2009, it was announced that Gehry was unanimously chosen to be lead designer of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial after a closed competition of 44 entries.

Trivia

• His grandfather gave him his Hebrew name “Ephraim.” He only used it at his bar mitzvah.
• Gehry studied at Los Angeles City College while working as a truck driver in L.A. In addition, his list of odd jobs includes being a radio announcer.
• He failed his first art class on perspective in college. He retook the class to get better results.
• After attending Los Angeles City College, Gehry attended the University of Southern California. He graduated at the top of his class with a bachelor’s in architecture in 1954.
• In 1956, Frank Owen Goldberg changed his name to Frank O. Gehry at his wife’s suggestion.
• He served in the U.S. Army with Leonard Nimoy.
• In true Canadian fashion, Gehry is a hockey fanatic. So much so that there is reportedly a hockey league in his office. In 2004, he even designed the World Cup of Hockey trophy.
• He is a Distinguished Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. He also teaches advanced design studio classes at Yale’s School of Architecture.
• While his reputation is that he makes an effort to stay within clients’ budgets, the downtown Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall project went $174 million over budget.
• He made a guest appearance as himself on The Simpsons in the episode “The Seven-Beer Snitch.” He also lent his voice on Arthur.
• Fish play a big part in Gehry’s design. Several buildings, a jewelry line, household items and sculptures are modeled after a fish motif
• He holds multiple honorary doctorates from universities all over the United States and Canada.

Selection of Honors/Awards

1947   Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
1989   Awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for Architecture
1994   Recipient of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
1995   Received the Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award
1998   Awarded the National Medal of Arts
1999   Awarded the AIA Gold Medal
2000   Given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2004   Awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service
2006   Was inducted into the California Hall of Fame at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver
2007   Received the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from the National Building Museum

Selection of Works by Frank Gehry

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Thursday, July 12, 2012

Hometown | Tenafly, NJ

Why You (Should) Know Her

• She co-starred alongside Lisa Kudrow as Romy in the fake-it-til-you-make-it Post-It inventors in the 1997 comedy, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.

Why She’s Buzzing | She’s starring in Union Square, a guerilla-type indie film that hits theaters July 13.

Trivia

• Her father, Paul Sorvino, is a character actor and director. One of his notable roles was playing Paulie Cicero in 1990′s Goodfellas. According to her IMDB profile, her father initially discouraged her from becoming an actor.
• Sorvino graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1989 with a degree in East Asian Studies/Chinese. She also helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, a co-ed a cappella group.
• In 1990, she made her acting debut on an episode of Law & Order which, at that time, starred her father. Her scene ultimately was left on the cutting room floor, but she earned a Screen Actors Guild card.
• In 1997’s Mimic, Sorvino played Dr. Susan Tyler, a character who used genetic engineering on insects. Entomologist Thomas Eisner named the defense mechanism of the sunburst diving beetle “mirasorvone” in her honor.
• In 2006, she received Amnesty International’s Artist of Conscience Award. She’s been affiliated with Amnesty International since 2004.
• Since 2009, Sorvino has been a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador and has made efforts against human trafficking in Darfur.

Selections from Filmography

1994   Barcelona
1995   Mighty Aphrodite (won Academy Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Chlotrudis Award, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award,  Golden Globe Award, National Board of Review Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award and Southeastern Film Critics Association Award—all for best supporting actress)
1996   Norma Jean & Marilyn (nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe Award)
1997   Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (nominated for MTV Movie Award)
1997   Mimic (nominated for Saturn Award)
1998   The Replacement Killers
2000   The Great Gatsby
2001   The Triumph of Love
2003   Will & Grace (Episode “Last Ex to Brooklyn” as Diane)
2003   Gods and Generals
2005   Human Trafficking (nominated for Golden Globe)
2007   Reservation Road
2008   House (Episode “Frozen” as Dr. Cate Milton)
2009    Attack on Leningrad
2011   Angels Crest
2011   Union Square
2012   Perfect Sisters

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Friday, July 6, 2012

Hometown | Lawrence, KS

Why You (Should) Know Her

• Her life and her fight against Pacific Gas and Electric Company were portrayed in Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 film starring Julia Roberts in the title role. Erin Brockovich went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for best picture and best director in 2001.

Why She’s Buzzing | The documentary Last Call at the Oasis features Brockovich at length and has been showing at selected theaters since May 2012. According to the documentary’s website, the film presents “a powerful argument for why the global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century” and “[illuminates] the vital role water plays in our lives, exposing the defects in the current system and depicting communities already struggling with its ill-effects.”

Trivia

• After a brief stint working at Kmart, she entered a beauty pageant, ultimately winning the Miss Pacific Coast crown in 1981.
• As portrayed in Erin Brockovich, she was able to play a significant role in making a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993. However, she was able to do so without any formal legal education.
• Brockovich had a cameo role in Erin Brockovich as a waitress aptly named Julia R.
• In fact, according to her biography, it was while organizing papers on a pro bono real estate case that she found medical records that sparked her investigation on PG&E against the small town of Hinkley. The end result? The largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.
• On her website, Brockovich claims the film about her is 98% accurate. That includes how the character dressed herself, her “potty mouth,” and how her character was twice divorced with three children. Of the movie, she says, “The movie had its positive and negative effects on my life. I didn’t aspire for this to happen. All I was doing was what was in my heart to do and that was to extend my hand of friendship, understanding and compassion towards another. Had my intentions been anything other than pure, this case, this movie and my life, as it is today would not exist.”
• She was a host on ABC’s Challenge America with Erin Brockovich and on Lifetime’s Final Justice with Erin Brockovich.
• Her book, Take it From me: Life’s a Struggle But You Can Win, was published in 2001 and made it on The New York Times‘ Business Bestseller’s List.
• The city of Barstow, CA named August 16 “Erin Brockovich Day” in 2000.

Selection of Honors/Awards

• Consumer Advocate of the Year and the Presidential Award of Merit from the Consumer Attorneys of California
• The Julius B. Richmond Award from the Harvard School of Public Health
• Honorary Doctor of Laws from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2005
• Special Citizen Award from the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Loyola Marymount University in 2007
• Honorary Master of Arts in Business Communication from Jones International University

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Friday, June 29, 2012

Hometown | Baldwin, Nassau County, NY

Why You (Should) Know Him

• Surely you’re familiar with the brilliant, cannibalistic villain Hannibal Lecter portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Well, Demme directed Silence of the Lambs…and won the Academy Award for best director for the film.
• He also directed 1993′s Philadelphia, one of the first Hollywood pictures to address issues of HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia.
• Demme is also making a mark as a documentarian and concert movie-maker, as evidenced by his trilogy of Neil Young documentary concert films and the Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense.

Why He’s Buzzing | The Oscar-winning filmmaker is out with not one, but two projects—a post-Hurricane Katrina documentary, I’m Carolyn Parker, and his third feature-length documentary on folk-rocker Neil Young, Neil Young Journeys. You can watch the 2007 conversation with Demme below, where he describes why he decided to make a documentary about post-Katrina New Orleans.

Trivia

• He’s a protégé of big-time film producer Roger Corman.
• Demme’s film The Silence of the Lambs was the third film to win Oscars in the five biggest categories: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was also the first horror film to be awarded Best Picture, after being only the second to be nominated for that category. 1973′s The Exorcist was the first.
• He directed indie film Rachel Getting Married—and even cast some of his friends to counter the “real” actors Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt. The film was shot in a naturalistic style, like a documentary.
• According to his IMDB profile, his trademarks include: frequently casting Charles Napier, Chris Isaak, Buzz Kilman, Tracey Walter and Paul Lazar; working with Taj Fujimoto as his director of photography; using New Order songs in movie soundtracks.
• On June 3, 1990, he was awarded an honorary degree by Wesleyan University.
• Entertainment Weekly voted him the 45th greatest director of all time.

Selection of projects and awards

Film

1974    Caged Heat
1978    Columbo (episode “Murder Under Glass”)
1979    Last Embrace
1984    Stop Making Sense (documentary)
1986    Something Wild
1987    Swimming to Cambodia
1988    Haiti Dreams of Democracy (TV documentary)
1988    Married to the Mob
1991     Silence of the Lambs (won Academy Award for best picture and best director; nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, Saturn Award; won Berlinale Silver Bear for best director)
1992    Cousin Bobby (documentary)
1993    Philadelphia (nominated for Berlinale Golden Bear Award)
1998    Storefront Hitchcock (documentary)
2001    Bruce Springstreen: The Complete Video Anthology 1978-2000 (video-documentary)
2004    The Manchurian Candidate
2006    Neil Young: Heart of Gold
2007    Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward (PBS TV mini-series)
2008   Rachel Getting Married
2009   Neil Young Trunk Show (documentary)
2011    Neil Young Journeys (documentary)
2011    I’m Carolyn Parker (documentary)

Demme’s May 25, 2007 conversation with Tavis
On his decision to film a documentary on post-Katrina New Orleans, featuring the namesake of his latest documentary, Carolyn Parker.

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hometown | Dedham, MA

Why You (Should) Know Him

• As one of the world’s most renowned boxing trainers, Roach also boasts a clientele that pack a punch—this includes Amir Khan, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
• He’s the owner of the world famous Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, CA.

Why He’s Buzzing | While his presence is seen mostly ringside or closely behind his clients, Roach’s life is dissected, and we are given a raw, behind-the-scenes look in the HBO cinéma-vérité series, On Freddie Roach. Emmy-nominated director Peter Berg joins Roach for the conversation. Furthermore, he’ll be on the radar again come July 14, when his fighter Amir Khan goes head-to-head against Danny Garcia.

Trivia

• He was voted Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
• His father, Paul Roach, was the New England featherweight champion.
• Roach trained as a boxer as a youth alongside his brothers, Dominic Pepen “Pepper” and Joey. By 1978, he began professionally fighting in the lightweight class. On June 11, 1982, the Fighting Roach Brothers all had bouts at the Boston Garden. Pepper and Joey won their bouts, but Freddie lost in a unanimous decision at the main event against Rafael Lopez.
• By age 26, Roach went into retirement after showing early signs of Parkinson’s disease. The disease is held at bay with medication and training with boxers.
• After retirement, Roach worked odd jobs around Las Vegas before becoming an unpaid assistant to his former trainer Eddie Futch.
• Roach helped train Mark Wahlberg for his role as Micky Ward in the 2010 film The Fighter. Roach and his brothers fought and grew up with Ward and Ward’s brother, Dicky Eklund, as discussed in the video below.

Selection of Honors

2006     California Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee (as a non-boxer)
2008     World Boxing Council Lifetime Achievement Award

Freddie Roach: how I trained The Fighter star Mark Wahlberg

On Freddie Roach trailer, directed by Peter Berg

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdates | Wednesday, June 13

Hometown | Baltimore, MD

Why You (Should) Know Him

• For starters, he’s logged in 50 years with Sports Illustrated, where he is now the senior contributing writer. See this video clip on his thoughts of the evolution of sports writing.
• You can catch him on National Public Radio and on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel from time to time.
• According to his NPR profile, he’s been referred to as “the most influential sports voice among members of the print media” and “the world’s greatest sportswriter.”

Why He’s Buzzing | After such an illustrious career, he’s somehow managed to chronicle his life and fit it all into one book. That book, Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter, is now published and up for grabs.

Trivia

• To date, Deford has been named Sportswriter of the Year a total of six times. He’s also been voted Magazine Writer of the Year by Washington Journalism Review.
• In 2012, he received the Red Smith Award. He’s the first magazine writer to be honored with the award.
• His novel Everybody’s All-American was named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 25 Sports Books of All Time in 1981. It was also adapted for a film of the same title.
• For a time, Deford served as editor-in-chief of The National and wrote for Newsweek and Vanity Fair.
• He’s an advocate for the research and treatment of cystic fibrosis and served as chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for nearly 20 years; he’s still chairman emeritus. His daughter, Alex, was diagnosed with the illness and passed away at age 8. Deford honored her memory in the text Alex: The Life of a Child and, subsequently, a movie was made in 1986.
• He’s a member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.
• Even though he’s a sportswriter, most of his novels do not take place in the world of sports.
• Deford’s life and work are highlighted by ESPN’s “You Write Better Than You Play” documentary.

Selection of Awards and Accomplishments

1988     Emmy Award for his work as a writer during the Seoul Olympics
1994     CableACE for writing Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World, an HBO sports documentary
1999     National Magazine Award for Sports Illustrated article on Bill Russell
1999     Peabody Award for writer on Dare to Compete, an HBO documentary

Selected works (Bibliography)

1971      Five Strides on the Banked Track: The Life and Times of the Roller Derby
1981     Everybody’s All-American
1983     Alex: The Life of a Child
1993     Love and Infamy
2001    The Other Adonis: A Novel
2002    An American Summer: A Novel
2005    The Old Ball Game
2010     Bliss, Remembered
2012     Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Thursday, June 7, 2012

Hometown | Lettsworth, LA

Birth name | George Guy

Parents | Sam and Isabel Guy

Why You (Should) Know Him

• As a member of Muddy Waters’ band, Guy is credited as the pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and he’s often credited as the bridge between blues and rock and roll.
• He’s ranked 30th in Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time.
• His flair for entertaining, whether it’s playing his guitar with drumsticks or walking into the audience during a solo, helped him make a name for himself.
• On March 14, 2005, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Eric Clapton and B.B. King. (See video below)

Why He’s Buzzing | On May 8 2012, he released his autobiography, When I Left Home: My Story.

Trivia

• He was born to a sharecropper’s family and raised on a plantation.
• By the time he was seven years old, he made his first instrument. According to his website, he ‘fashioned his first makeshift “guitar”–a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother’s hairpins.’
• His Harmony acoustic guitar was donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• He owns Legends club in Chicago and performs there frequently.
• By the time he started recording his own music, he was already a major influence on other artists, such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He notably picked the guitar with his teeth and played it over his head–two tricks that later influenced Jimi Hendrix.
• In 2008, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
• His daughter, Rashawnna “Shawnna” Guy, was the first female artist to be signed to Def Jam through Ludacris’ Disturbing the Peace Records.
• His late brother, Phil Guy, was also an American blues guitarist.
• His song “Stone Crazy” was ranked 78th in the list of 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time, also of Rolling Stone.
• He is the recipient of 23 W.C. Handy Awards, which is more than any other artist. He is also the second recipient of Billboard magazine’s The Century Award.

Selections from discography and awards

2003 Awarded the National Medal of Arts
1965 “Hoodoo Man Blues”
1967 ”I Left My Blues in San Francisco”
1968 “A Man and the Blues”
1991 “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues” – Won 1991 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
1993 “Feels Like Rain” – Won 1993 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
1994 “Slippin’ In” – Won 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
1999 “Buddy’s Baddest: The Best of Buddy Guy”
2001 “Sweet Tea” – Nominated for 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
2003 “Blues Singer” – Won 2003 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
2009 “The Definitive Buddy Guy”
2010 “Living Proof” – Won 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2005

Eric Clapton and B.B. King Induct Buddy Guy into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Buddy Guy’s Acceptance Speech

“If you don’t think you have the blues, just keep living.” – Buddy Guy, 2005

Rock and Hall of Fame Induction Performance

Photo courtesy: Van Evers, Tavis Smiley Media, Inc.

Airdate | Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Why You (Should) Know Her:

• She’s the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
• WuDunn was included in Newsweek’s 150 Women Who Shake the World.
• She is currently Mid-Market Securities’ senior managing director, where she raises capital for clients.

Why She’s Buzzing | Coming in hot with momentum from the “Made Visible” panel discussion and the best-selling success of her latest text, Half the Sky, WuDunn is an advocate for women’s rights, making a name for herself in the global war against the oppression of women. The Half the Sky Movement will also include a four-part series featured on PBS.

Sheryl WuDunn Trivia

• A Cornell University graduate, she’s also a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and Board’s Finance Committee. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.
• WuDunn is also a recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania and Middlebury College.
• In fall 2011, she was a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
• In 1988, WuDunn married reporter Nicholas D. Kristof. They became the first married couple to receive a Pulitzer Prize for journalism when they reported from Beijing on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
• The couple received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Her first best-selling book, China Wakes, was a result of her experiences in China from 1988-1993. WuDunn had to travel as a tourist through China when her press credentials were revoked by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
• WuDunn was the first Asian American reporter hired at The New York Times.
• She worked as an executive and journalist at The New York Times, covering international markets, energy, global technology and industry. She was anchor of The New York Times Page One, which was a nightly program that featured the next day’s Times stories and was one of the few Times employees who juggled the news and business sides of the publication.

Awards

• Pulitzer Prize (for reporting in China)
• George Polk Award (for reporting in China)
• Overseas Press Club (for reporting in China)

Bibliography (co-written with her husband)
1994   China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
2000   Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia
2009 Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

WuDunn with her husband, Nicholas Kristof, and their son Gregory in Tiananmen Square in 1993. (from Glamour.com)