- [female speaker] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy and by claire and carl stuart. and by claire and carl stuart. - i'm evan smith. he's a harvard educated attorney whose status as a gold star father was both celebrated and politicized in the 2016 presidential campaign. his new book is an american family: a memoir of hope and sacrifice. he is khizr khan. this is overheard. (upbeat music) - let's be honest. is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having been taught properly? (mumbled snippets of interviews) mr. khan, an honor to meet you. - thank you. - and thank you very much for being here, sir. - thank you. i am honored to be here. - i believe this book is extraordinary in many ways but maybe the most extraordinary way is it is the most patriotic book i've ever read. i walk away from reading this book with a sense of hope and optimism about america and a feeling of great patriotism. i don't know if that's what you intended. did you intend that? - this really is a story

- [announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy, and by claire and carl stuart. - i'm evan smith. he's a comedian, actor, podcaster and best-selling author who made facts up before making facts up was cool. his latest book, not made up, is vacationland: true stories from painful beaches. he's john hodgman, this is overheard. john hodgman, welcome. - thank you so much, it's wonderful to be here. - good to see you and welcome back, and congratulations on this. - thank you, this is my book, vacationland. - it's a lovely book. you know that, we're gonna talk almost exclusively about this - we can talk about whatever you like. - the cover is one of the great book covers of the year. it's a great design. i think the design is fantastic. - and may i credit the genius of aaron draplin of portland, oregon, an amazing designer who works in this kind of '70s, what he calls "thick line" style. he designs logos and corporate identities. he also created field notes, those little notebooks you can get at bookstores. so he's an

- [announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy, and by claire and carl stuart. - i'm evan smith, he's the co-founder of spy magazine, the host of the public radio program studio 360, and a best selling author whose most recent books are fantasyland: how america went haywire and the parody memoir you can't spell america without me, the really tremendous inside story of my fantastic first year as president donald j. trump. he's kurt andersen, this is overheard. (audience applauding) let's be honest, is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having been taught properly? how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa? hate to say that he'd made his own bed, but you caused him to sleep in it. you saw a problem and over time took it on. let's start with the sizzle before we get to the steak. are you gonna run for president? think i just got an f from you, actually. (audience applauding) kurt andersen, welcome. - happy to be here. - good to be with you, congratulations o

- [announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy. and by clair and carl stuart. - i'm evan smith, he's the chief white house correspondent for the new york times and the author of four books. most recently, obama the call of history. he's peter baker, this is overheard. (audience applause) let's be honest, is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having been taught properly? how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa? you can say he made his own bed, but you caused him to sleep in it. you saw a problem and over time you took it on. let's start with the sizzle before we get to the steak. are you going to run for president? i think i just got an f from you. this is over. (audience applause) peter baker, welcome. - thank you for having me. - nice to see you, congratulations on this book. - thank you very much. - this is a big book. - it is a big book. - it's a coffee table book and as advertised i went, "oh okay, i'm going to look at it. "it's going to be all pict

- [announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy, and by claire and carl stuart. and by claire and carl stuart. - i'm evan smith. she's a next generation journalism star who left a high profile gig at the new york times to become the new white house correspondent for pbs's newshour. she's yamiche alcindor, this is overheard. she's yamiche alcindor, this is overheard. yamiche alcindor welcome, nice to see you. - thanks for having me here. - i'm trying to think about your new job in this way. is being a white house correspondent at the moment the best job ever or the worst job ever? - in my mind it's not the best job ever because i think that there's a lot of jobs in journalism that are amazing, but this is one of the best gigs in town for sure. in dc i think it's the best job, because you have a front row seat to a history making president. before donald trump was elected, i said if we get him, he'll be the first reality tv president. i think that that's completely still true. i think if you are covering donald tr