Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Alan Alda and our production team sit down for an impromptu "Table Talk" about our upcoming season's highlights. We'll discuss and play clips from Alan’s conversations with Tom Hanks, Paul McCartney, Betty White and many more! Alan, Graham, Jean, and Sarah take you behind the scenes of season 7. You'll find out what it's like to live in an actual "Octopus's Garden" tended by a real Giant Pacific Octopus named Rudy — and you'll hear some things about Paul McCartney's creative life you haven’t heard before. Season 7 is going to be great and it all starts Tuesday, February 25th with Tom Hanks! If you'd like to get even more exclusive behind the scenes clips, video, content, and opportunities to communicate with Alan, consider joining our Patreon Listeners Community at: www.patreon.com/clearandvivid 

From Saturday Night Live, to Late Night, from The Simpsons to Conan Needs a Friend - Conan O'Brien is an unstoppable force of comedy. In this happy back and forth among Alan Alda, Conan O'Brien, and Conan's hair — these two students of communication and comedy invite you into a conversation that's full of joshes, jives, jokes, a few shared jitters, and a whole lot of joy. The producers wish to thank Conan, #TeamCoco, and all the great folks who helped bring Alan and Conan together for this special season 6 finale. Enjoy!

Do animals – other than we humans – have thoughts, feelings? Are their emotions similar to ours? Carl Safina is an ecologist who explores our relationship with the living world—and how it could be better. His recent work, and new book, probes how free-living animals experience life - and takes a serious look at their thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Carl's love of nature has led him to a lifetime of studying the world we live in — a world from which we’ve become increasingly separated. In this episode, Alan Alda and Carl Safina look at communication across the animal kingdom, as they reflect on the other animals in the world - with a firm understanding that a lot of what we are, we actually share with them.

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of the best-selling book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer." The book won a Pulitzer Prize and became the basis for a Ken Burns documentary series on the subject of cancer for PBS. In this fascinating conversation with Alan Alda, Dr. Mukherjee talks about the extraordinary power scientists like him have now to edit our genes using the tool known as CRISPR. Dr. Mukherjee uses CRISPR in his own laboratory at Columbia University to pioneer innovative ways to treat cancer. Dr. Mukherjee is a masterful storyteller and he possesses an obvious command of the science behind his books. He has a special ability to make science both personal and intimate, as you'll experience in this episode. 

Is there life in the universe beyond planet Earth? It's the question everyone, including Alan Alda, wants to understand. In this episode, Alan asks Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, the head of the world-renown Carl Sagan Institute, about life in the cosmos. What Dr. Kaltenegger has to say is surprising and inspiring. Before you stare up at the sky tonight, be sure to hear what Dr. Kaltenegger has to say about which of the billions of planets might be more like ours than we ever thought possible.