Linda Fairstein

Linda Fairstein – lawyer, former prosecutor, and author of twenty-two books – is one of America’s foremost legal experts on crimes of violence against women and children.

For three decades, from 1972 until 2002, Fairstein served in the office of the New York County District Attorney, where she was chief of the country’s pioneering Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit for twenty-six years.  In that position, she supervised the investigation and trial of cases involving sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, and homicides arising out of those crimes.

Fairstein is an honors graduate of Vassar College (1969) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1972).  In 1998, several of Fairstein’s law school classmates established a scholarship fund in her honor, supporting law students pursuing careers in the public sector.

She received dozens of awards for her legal work and advocacy, and in many instances was the first woman to be so honored.  These include the Federal Bar Council’s Emory Buckner Award for Public Service and the UJA Federation’s Proskauer Award.  For her groundbreaking work on behalf of victims of violence, Fairstein received Columbia University’s School of Medicine Award for Excellence; the Anti-Violence Project’s “Courage” Award; Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year Award; the American Heart Association Women of Courage Award, and many similar honors.  In 2010, Fairstein was awarded the New York Women’s Agenda Lifetime Achievement Award for her leadership in the field of domestic violence.

In 1993, Linda Fairstein published her first book – a non-fiction work entitled SEXUAL VIOLENCE:  Our War Against Rape – which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Fairstein is the author of eighteen crime novels, published by Dutton, featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.  KILLER LOOK – was published in July, 2016, and like the fourteen which preceded it became an “instant”
New York Times bestseller.  DEADFALL will be published in July, 2017.   Many of the books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

In November, 2016, Fairstein debuted a second series, for middle-grade readers, featuring a twelve-year old sleuth named Devlin Quick.  That novel, INTO THE LION’S DEN, was inspired by the author’s childhood devotion to the famed Nancy Drew series.  The second one, DIGGING FOR TROUBLE, will be published in November, 2017.

Fairstein was awarded the Nero Wolfe Award for Excellence in Crime Writing in 2008, and in 2010 received the Silver Bullet Award of the International Thriller Writers.

Fairstein is a trustee of Vassar College.  She is on the boards of several non-profit organizations:  Safe Horizon, which is the country’s largest victim advocacy organization; God’s Love We Deliver, which feeds seriously ill New Yorkers; and she leads the national project to end the rape evidence kit backlog at the Joyful Heart Foundation.  She is the board chair emeritus of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Fairstein lives in Manhattan and is married to Michael Goldberg.

"Battle of the Bands"

The I-Man and the Imus in the Morning gang compare original songs to contempary renditions.

Jim Lehrer

Anchor, Co-Anchor and Executive Editor, PBS Newshour, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer and The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (1976-2011) and Legendary Presidential Debate Moderator

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Jim Lehrer received an A.A. degree from Victoria College and a B.J. in 1956 from the University of Missouri before joining the Marine Corps. From 1959 to 1966, he was a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and then The Dallas Times-Herald. He was also a political columnist at The Times-Herald for several years and in 1968 became the city editor.

Lehrer's newspaper career led him to public television, first in Dallas, as KERA-TV's executive director of public affairs, on-air host and editor of a nightly news program. He subsequently moved to Washington, DC, to serve as the public affairs coordinator for PBS, and was also a member of PBS's Journalism Advisory Board and a fellow at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Lehrer went on to join the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT) as a correspondent.

It was Lehrer's work with NPACT that led to his initial association with Robert MacNeil and, ultimately, to their long-term partnership. In 1973, they teamed up to provide NPACT's continuous live coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings, broadcast on PBS. Following that Emmy-winning collaboration, Lehrer was the solo anchor for PBS coverage of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry of Richard Nixon.

In October 1975, the half-hour Robert MacNeil Report, with Jim Lehrer as the Washington correspondent, premiered on Thirteen/WNET New York. Over the next seven years, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (as it was renamed in 1976) won more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence. In September 1983, Lehrer and MacNeil launched their most ambitious undertaking, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The 1995-96 season marked the 20th year of their journalistic odyssey, as well as MacNeil's departure and Lehrer's stewardship of the program as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In 2009, the program title changed to PBS NEWSHOUR to reflect the program’s expanded role as the hub of news and public affairs programming on PBS both online and on air.

Lehrer has been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including the 1999 National Humanities Medal, presented by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Also in 1999, Lehrer was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame with MacNeil and into The Silver Circle of the Washington, DC, Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has won two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit and the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Medal of Honor. In 1991, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded honorary degrees by 42 colleges and universities.

In the last seven presidential elections, Lehrer has served as a moderator for twelve of the nationally televised debates among the candidates. In 1996, he was selected to be the sole moderator of all three debates—two presidential and one vice presidential. In 2000, he was again selected as the sole moderator of the three presidential debates, which were conducted in different formats—podium, round-table and town hall. His 12th debate was the first 2012 Obama-Romney face off in Denver, Co.

In addition to his best-selling book, Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain (September 2011), a lively and revealing book that pulls back the curtain on more than 40 years of televised political debate in America, Lehrer is the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books, two memoirs and three plays.  His novel, Super, published in April 2010 , is a story of celebrity and murder aboard the Sante Fe’s railroad’s famous Super Chief, known as “The Train of the Stars” during Hollywood’s heyday.  Oh Johnny, published in April 2009, is a portrait of a young man’s coming of age during World War II. Mack to the Rescue, published in April 2008 is the 7th in his successful series of novels featuring a fictional lieutenant governor of Oklahoma.  Eureka, published in October 2007 is an endearing portrait of American middle age.  The Phony Marine, published in November 2006, explores questions of character and heroism. The Franklin Affair, published in April 2005, explores the world of historians and the quest for truth and justice. No Certain Rest, published in August 2002, wrestles with a Civil War mystery.  Other novels include The Special Prisoner, about a World War II POW; White Widow, about a Trailways bus driver in the 1950’s; Blue Hearts and Purple Dots, are about the adventures of retired C.I.A. agents; The Last Debate, a cautionary tale about journalism, politics and ethics, was also produced as a movie for the Showtime Channel in 2000; and Lehrer’s first novel, Viva Max! the story of a platoon of modern Mexican soldiers who attempt to re-take the Alamo, was made into a 1969 comedy movie starring Jonathan Winters and Peter Ustinov. His latest novel is Top Down: A Novel of the Kennedy Assassination (October 2013). The plays are Chili Queen, Church Key Charlie Blue , The Will and Bart Show and  Bell.. The memoirs are We Were Dreamers and A Bus of My Own.

Lehrer and his wife, Kate, have been married since 1960. They have three daughters—Amanda, Lucy and Jamie—and six grandchildren. Kate, also a writer, is the author of four novels, Best Intentions (1987), When They Took Away the Man in the Moon(1993) and Out of Eden (1996) and Confessions of a Bigamist (2004).

"Bo-Monday" with Bo Dietl

Richard “Bo” Dietl was a New York City Police Officer and Detective from June 1969 until he retired in 1985.  Bo was one of the most highly decorated detectives in the history of the police department, with several thousand arrests to his credit.  There were two particular cases that represent his career highlights.  The first was what former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch labeled “...the most vicious crime in New York City history” (1981) which involved a nun who was raped and tortured in an East Harlem convent as 27 crosses were carved into her by two men, who later confessed and were convicted.  The second was the Palm Sunday Massacre in 1984, which was one of New York City’s most bloody mass slayings, of ten people.  Bo was instrumental in the arrest and conviction of the suspects in both cases.

In 1986, Bo was nominated for the U.S. Congress by the Republican and Conservative parties of New York State for the 6th Congressional District (to fill the seat of the late Joseph Addabbo). In a 7-1 Democratic District, the Rev. Floyd Flake edged out Bo by a mere 2,500 votes - one of the closest races in New York history. 

President George Bush appointed Bo as Co-Chairman of the National Crime Commission.  Governor George E. Pataki appointed Bo Chairman of the New York State Security Guard Advisory Council.  He served as Security Consultant to the National Republican Convention and as Director of Security for the New York State Republican Convention

Richard “Bo” Dietl is the Founder & Chairman of Beau Dietl & Associates. Founded in 1985, Beau Dietl & Associates has grown to become one of the premier investigative and security firms in the nation and is a full service organization providing a wide

Gordon Chang

Gordon G. Chang is the author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World, released by Random House in January 2006.  Showdown focuses on nuclear proliferation in general and the North Korean crisis in particular.  His first book is The Coming Collapse of China (Random House, August 2001). He is a contributor at Forbes.com and blogs at World Affairs Journal.

He lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades, most recently in Shanghai, as Counsel to the American law firm Paul Weiss and earlier in Hong Kong as Partner in the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.

His writings on China and North Korea have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and Barron's. 

He has spoken at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale, and other universities and at The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, RAND, the American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other institutions.  He has given briefings at the National Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and the Pentagon.  He has also spoken before industry and investor groups including Bloomberg, Sanford Bernstein, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia.  Chang has appeared before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.  

He has appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, CNBC, MSNBC, PBS, the BBC, and Bloomberg Television. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and is a frequent co-host and guest on The John Batchelor Show.