December 26, 2025 - Robert Reich, Marianne Leone, and Sam Waterston
About The Episode
Robert Reich served in three presidential administrations, including as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. As a professor he has been the ultimate explainer about rising inequality. As a public intellectual he pulls no punches–calling out the bullies: anyone and any institution that threatens democracy and human decency. It’s a life’s work on which he reflects in his book “Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America.” He joins The Culture Show to talk about it.
From there Marianne Leone is an actress, author, and screenwriter. She joins The Culture Show to talk about her novel “Christina The Astonishing," a coming-of-age story about Christina Falcone and her desire to break free from Catholic school nuns, Italian mothers, and small-town Massachusetts.
Finally, Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Sam Waterston joins The Culture Show to talk about the role that launched his career, Nick Caraway in the 1974 film adaptation of “The Great Gatsby.”