Alec Baldwin’s new podcast Here’s the Thing, on WNYC, is charming and intelligent. There’s nothing gimmicky or over-produced about it. It is simply Baldwin interviewing people he “wants to know more about”, as is stated in the opener. The current list includes actors, directors, writers, politicians and producers. The diversity in guests is refreshing and well curated. Baldwin doesn’t steal the show, but includes enough of his own personality and anecdotes to make it more appealing than your average interview podcast. Its smart and funny and definitely worth a listen. Particularly entertaining is the episode featuring Erica Jong and her Daughter Molly Jong-Fast, in which mother and daughter go head to head on the feminist movement and the experience of being a young woman today. Baldwin seems an unexpected moderator to such a discussion and the fact that he performs so well pays tribute to his versatility, curiosity and dimensionality. And that’s to say nothing of his dulcet tones, which make listening an auditory pleasure. You get the sense you could hear Baldwin reading instruction manuals and get some satisfaction out of it and with such universally engaging and illuminating content its sure to be a success.
