- [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 hugely talented and much loved actor who won academy awards for milk and mystic river. he's also a director, a political activist, and the author of a novel, his first, called bob honey who just do stuff. he's sean penn, this is overheard. 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 and- i 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? i think i just got an f from you, actually. this is overheard. (audience cheering) sean penn, welcome. - thank you very much. - very nice to meet you, an honor to meet you. - thank you, back at you. - as a fan of yours and as an admirer of your work for many years, of course i've

- [female narrator] 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 the acclaimed author of come to me, a finalist for the national book award and the new york times best sellers away and lucky us. her new novel is white houses. she's amy bloom, this is overheard. she's amy bloom, this is overheard. 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 and... you could say that he 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? i think i just got an f from you, actually. this is over. (applauding) amy bloom, welcome. thank you it's nice to be here thank you very much for being here, congratulations úon this book which i really enjoyed enormously, and one thing was, many thi

- [narrator] 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. she's an activist and academic and the author of 28 books including three bestselling collections of poetry. her latest is a good cry: what we learn from tears and laughter. she's nikki giovanni. this is overheard. (applause) - [interviewer] let's be honest. is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having been taught properly? and how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa and ... to say that he's made his own bed but you caused him to sleep in it. you know, 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? i think i just got an f from you actually. i think i just got an f from you actually. - nikki giovanni, welcome. - thank you, i'm glad to be here. - very nice to be with you. so i have a big existential question for you to begin. why poetry? there are a lot of forms of express

- [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

- [voiceover] 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 front and center on the trump beat for the new york times. one of a handful of reporters at the nation's best news orgs whose daily scoops have made journalism great again. he's michael schmidt, this is overheard. (montage of audio clips) mike schmidt, welcome. - thanks for having me. - good to see you, probably not for the first time, someone says to you, the president's been talking about you today. right? do you have the story in the newspapers. we sit here today on an average sunday. you have a story with your colleague, maggie haberman in the new york times about the prospect of the president adding an attorney to his team specifically focused on the threat of impeachment, this is an attorney who had worked on? - clinton. - clinton's impeachment. now, the president denies this is true, but he denies it in his own charming way, on twitter, and in doing so attacks the story that you wrote. this is kind of li

- [narrator] 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 109th mayor of new york, a few months into his second term leading the biggest city in america, and on the long list of names floated as possible candidates for president in 2020. he's bill deblasio, this is overheard. (light music) - [evan] let's be honest. is this about the ability to learn or is this about the experience of not having to talk properly? how have you avoided what has befallen other nations in africa and-- you could say that 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 gonna run for president? (overlapping voices) (audience cheers) - mr. mayor, welcome. - thank you. - thank you very much for being here. let me go right to the elephant in the room, or the donkey as it were. - the donkey in the room? - do you understand-- - you just coined a new phrase, the donkey in th