The Colbert Report - Season 7 / Year 2011

Ed Rendell explains that America is wussing out by not doing anything about China and canceling football games because of weather.

Ron Paul wants to return to the gold standard, while David Leonhardt explains why Americans don't need to worry about inflation. Geoffrey Canada works to educate kids and teach them how to grow up without using violence.

Atul Gawande explains how checklists make flying, surgery and Van Halen shows safer.

Ronald DePinho wants to reverse the aging process and increase years of healthy living so that older people can continue to work.

Fen Montaigne explains how global warming affects Antarctic penguins and rising sea levels.

Chris Hughes talks about working for the Obama campaign and helping people connect to a non-profit through Jumo.

Stephen informs Bernard-Henri Levy that Americans think of public intellectualizing the same as public urination.

Kevin Spacey explains that Jack Abramoff went to prison for overcharging Native Americans, but Stephen thinks that makes him a patriot.

Sherry Turkle doesn't want to get rid of technology, but she thinks it's time to put it in its place.

Cornel West wants the love to flow so that poor people will have the same dignity as investment bankers.

Ron Reagan helps Stephen remember that his father raised taxes and provided amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Chris Matthews remembers John F. Kennedy as a war hero who was the first president to stand up for civil rights.

Charlie Rose admits that he rarely sits down for interviews himself because he has nothing to say.

Amy Chua explains how she tried to raise her two daughters the same way her strict Chinese immigrant parents raised her.

Stephen answers Obama's call to entrepreneurs and reviews the State of the Union address with Michael Waldman. Christine Yvette Lewis is a working nanny who advocates for fair labor standards for domestic workers.

Stephen uses the power of time-traveling porn to predict the 2012 presidential election, and Daryl Bem discusses his theory of extrasensory pornception. Brian Greene says math is the gateway to reality and calls Stephen a bag of particles governed by the laws of physics.

Samer Shehata believes the U.S. can push for a stable Middle East by supporting the 83 million Egyptians rising up. Paul Offit believes the visibility of the smallpox vaccination scar during swimsuit season is a small price to pay for better health.

Leslie Dach confirms the ugly rumors that Wal-Mart is collaborating with the Obama administration to sell fruits and vegetables at a lower price. Michael Lewis explains how Wall Street got so good at disguising bad loans that they bought some for themselves.

Sean Dorrance Kelly believes that we've lost the notion of what's sacred in our existence.

Jane McGonigal says 10 years of scientific research show that playing video games is actually the most productive thing we can do.

James Murphy explains why he's walking away from fame in his last TV appearance as LCD Soundsystem.

Christiane Amanpour brings a gift for Christiane Aman-purr and believes Egypt's democratic uprising will last. David Albright explains why no one will take credit for setting back the Iranian nuclear program with Stuxnet.

Eric Foner says Abraham Lincoln didn't see slavery as a fundamental problem confronting America until well into his career.

H. Jeffrey Leonard explains the impact of big companies' late payment policies on small business.

Eugene Jarecki reveals that Ronald Reagan raised taxes and was the first president to have a gay sleepover in the White House.

Randi Weingarten says state workers in Wisconsin are willing to do their part with budget cuts, but they don't want to lose their voice. Bing West believes America diverted itself from the war by trying to make a modern nation out of Afghanistan.

Stephanie Coontz says that women in the 1960s who wanted more in life than to be a housewife were diagnosed with penis envy.

Glenn Greenwald praises WikiLeaks for shining a light on what government and corporations do in secret. Mike Huckabee believes there aren't nearly enough potential presidential candidates working for Fox News.

Michael Scheuer believes the war on terror has barely begun because the American people don't have a clue about why they're being attacked.

Evan Osnos believes America needs to be working as hard as China if it wants to come up with the next big technological idea.

Stephen hopes he's not the surprise on the obituary page, and Harry Connick, Jr. won't be tickling the ivories.

Mark Moffett says plants need an animal intermediary to carry the pollen to the next plant and do the deed.

Joshua Foer explains that having a European coach was like bringing a gun to a knife fight at the U.S. Memory Championship.

Dan Sinker questions the sanity of anyone who actually thought he was Rahm Emanuel on Twitter.

David Brooks describes the way unconscious emotions affect people's decisions and values.

Reza Aslan thinks Peter King's hearings to investigate Muslim radicalization are a useless enterprise.

The escalating conflict in Libya means good news for troops, Stephen's self-portrait goes up for auction, and Steve Martin does some bluegrass.

Ayman Mohyeldin says the American cable companies that refuse to carry Al Jazeera help contribute to the misinformation about the Middle East.

Nathan Myhrvold uses modern scientific methods to cook 72-hour pastrami and pistachio ice cream without cream.

Jody Williams doesn't believe she's better than men, but she thinks she's smarter than a lot of them.

Michael Moore says labor unions are on the ropes because wealthy people have done everything they can to destroy them.

Anthony Fauci explains to Stephen why AIDS is still a big problem, even with abstinence education.

Tim Shriver asks Stephen to lead a campaign to get people to stop using the r-word.

Piers Gibbon was oddly offended when he learned that cannibals in New Guinea had never eaten a white man.

Andrew Chaikin explains why humans need to follow in the footsteps of their robotic emissaries and travel to Mars.

James Franco addresses his pop culture critics and believes Stephen would win a Renaissance man-off.

David Tang provides celebrities the platform to correct lies and misinformation for much less than the cost of a lawyer.

Jeff Greenfield writes alternate American histories to prove that the flip of a coin can produce powerful political results.

Stephen wants Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage to bust the myths of evolution and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Ray Kurzweil predicts that people will merge with technology and become a billion times smarter by 2045.

Morgan Spurlock pulls the curtain back on product placement and advertising in "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."

Caroline Kennedy and Stephen read poetry by W.H. Auden and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Ron Paul defines liberty, criticizes the Federal Reserve and doesn't believe in the income tax.

A.C. Grayling's humanist Bible, "The Good Book," is a collection of great wisdom, but it's nothing Stephen would kill somebody else over.

Even though Ice-T has never done drugs, Stephen wants to know where to score some pure, uncut street cred.

Wade Graham reveals what American gardens in closets with grow lights say about the culture.

Francis Fukuyama believes Osama bin Laden's death weakens the argument for American troops staying in Afghanistan.

It would take real courage for Rex Ryan to announce that the New York Jets will be the first team to play touch football.

Amy Farrell says America's diet industry reinforces the culture of fat shame.

Bill James discusses Lizzie Borden's innocence, Winnie Judd's murderous phase and John Wayne Gacy's valuable paintings.

Lupe Fiasco wears his smart glasses to speak out against Obama, the war on terror and segregation in Chicago.

Geoffrey Rush talks about method acting, mentoring Ryan Reynolds but playing a feral eight-year-old.

Eric Greitens recalls his difficult Navy SEAL training and refuses to trash-talk the other services.

John Bradshaw discusses the new science of understanding that dogs really want to be with people.

Alison Klayman explains the Chinese government's possible reasons for beating and imprisoning artist Ai Weiwei.

Stephen asks Amy Kremer if she'd raise taxes to save 8 million lives from a ticking nuclear bomb.

Austan Goolsbee wants to focus on the budget by cutting spending and raising high-income tax rates.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar discusses the Harlem Rens and his missing statue in front of the Lakers stadium.

James Stewart describes the corrosive effect lying has on society and the short-term harm that comes with telling the truth.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says mountaintop mining is not a good thing for American democracy.

Salman Khan hopes that anyone with an Internet connection will use his YouTube lessons to learn.

Werner Herzog explains why he added radioactive albino crocodiles to his documentary about cave paintings.

Sugar Ray Leonard describes what he thinks of boxing today and thumb wrestles Stephen.

Bre Pettis uses the MakerBot to print a three-dimensional copy of Stephen's head.

Tom Ridge believes natural gas is a matter of economic and national security.

Henry Kissinger will negotiate with Mao Zedong but has cut off relationships with an eight-year-old.

Janny Scott thinks the real story of Barack Obama's mother is far more interesting than the oversimplified version.

Keith Olbermann refuses to acknowledge Bill O'Reilly's victory and doesn't miss having to shave every day.

Florence and the Machine will join Stephen for day two of StePhest Colbchella '011.

Florence Welch recalls being discovered while singing drunkenly in a girl's bathroom.

Talib Kweli thinks his conscious rapper label is a limitation and a compliment.

Jack White brings out Stephen's record, "Charlene II (I'm Over You)."

Grover Norquist, lobbyist for Americans for Tax Reform, must choose between terrorized grandmothers and higher taxes.

Emmy-winning filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi discusses her documentary, "Citizen U.S.A," about citizenship ceremonies throughout the 50 states.

Gary Sinise discusses his documentary, "Lt. Dan Band: For the Common Good," and the importance of supporting America's troops.

Timothy Garton Ash talks about his book "Facts Are Subversive" and discusses the decline of the Western world in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.

Michael Shermer discusses his book "The Believing Brain," which explains how people form beliefs first, then filter data to reinforce them.

Dan Savage thinks monogamy shouldn't be the ultimate defining characteristic of a successful marriage because fooling around can sometimes save a marriage.

David McCullough explains why 19th century Americans moved to Paris rather than stay in the states and appreciate American mayonnaise.

Jose Antonio Vargas explains which is more difficult: coming out of the closet as a gay man or as a border gay.

John Prendergast talks about the birth of South Sudan, the creation of its flag and the oil curse that might plague its future.

David Carr of the New York Times admits that papers sell based on the misery of others, but that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sells misery best.

Michael Sandel uses real-world examples to test big philosophical concepts and ethical questions about justice and cannibalism.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman likens the brain to a neural Parliament with different political parties that are battling it out to steer the ship of state.

Particle physicist Brian Cox talks about the future of the universe and the possibility of the Higgs boson particle.

NPR host Brooke Gladstone explains why her graphic novel is similar to radio and fights the popular notion that the media control minds.

Missy Cummings wants to replace the military's cumbersome battlefield surveillance technology with lightweight, smartphone-operated drones.

Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer takes no PAC money and wants to kick the special-interest hogs off the trough.

Barack Obama makes a deal with Republicans, a new technology honors the dead, and Zappos' C.E.O. Tony Hsieh always does free returns.

Bloomberg News' Al Hunt believes Barack Obama lost the debt ceiling negotiation, but he doesn't think the Republicans won.

Art crime investigator Robert Wittman recovers stolen paintings around the world and explains the challenges of museum security.

Chef Anthony Bourdain worries about the ballooning of Americans and occasionally eats endangered birds with a hood over his head.

Psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi believes that mental illness can foster great leadership, but the Republican presidential candidates are too "normal."

The Cars' Ric Ocasek remembers the '80s music scene and promises Stephen any future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards.

AmericansElect.org CEO Elliot Ackerman believes that individuals should have the power and tools to draft and directly nominate their own presidential candidate.

Gloria Steinem believes Americans know that women can do what men can do, but they don't know that men can do what women can do.

Ambassador Susan Rice explains U.S. involvement in Syria and Libya, and tells Colbert Nation what they can do to help with Somalia's humanitarian tragedy.

Space shuttle Atlantis crewmembers -- Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus -- discuss their final mission and the future of American space travel.

Jeff Bridges talks about winning an Oscar, playing The Dude, keeping it real for his bluesy music.

Once the world's most wanted hacker, Kevin Mitnick talks about his start as a phone prankster and his years as a government fugitive.

Tim Pawlenty discusses his reasons for dropping out of the presidential race and endorses Stephen in the 2012 election.

Robin Wright believes that, by rejecting extremism, Muslims have created the most important political turning point of the early 21st century.

Tom Brokaw recalls the experience of reporting on the 9/11 attacks and explores how Americans have been shaped by the tragedy.

Diane Sawyer discusses the unedited recordings of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, released 50 years after John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

Al Gore talks about his work on the Climate Reality Project and marvels at the sophistication of Stephen's global warming metaphor.

Michael Moore describes the defining moment that transformed him from a quiet kid into an outspoken social critic.

David Copperfield explores the art and science of illusion and talks about "gut magic."

Author Jeffrey Kluger discusses the effect of sibling dynamics on people's lives and explains why Stephen is such a charmer.

Author Daniel Yergin discusses hydrofracking, alternative energy sources and America's decreasing demand for oil.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the pro-Israel lobby J Street, discusses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestine's application for full U.N. membership.

Radiohead discuss their British invasion, their anti-corporate beliefs and the benefits of their self-distribution model.

Melinda Gates believes employing effective teachers is the single most important thing that can be done to fix America's public school system.

Ken Burns discusses the unforeseen consequences of Prohibition and the political and economic shifts that led to its end.

Entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks that billionaires are nice people, but that people think of them as checkbooks.

Dr. Jerome Groopman helps patients understand the risks and benefits of possible treatments so they can make informed health decisions.

John Lithgow talks about growing up in a theater family and getting hooked on acting in spite of himself.

Black Star's Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (A.K.A. Mos Def) discuss their musical partnership and working outside the major record label structure.

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine talks about fighting alongside Hamid Karzai in the Afghanistan War and remembers the troops who lost their lives there.

In this unedited, extended interview, Harry Belafonte talks about his widely successful musical career and what drove him to become a civil rights activist.

Steven Pinker believes the world is increasingly nonviolent and that this may be the most peaceful time in human existence.

Former FBI Special Agent Ali Soufan discusses the interrogation techniques he used to obtain intelligence from Al Qaeda operatives.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin weighs Stephen's single Grammy Award against his seven and admits to stealing America's Gwyneth.

Jon Huntsman addresses the controversy surrounding his faith and talks about serving as the U.S. Ambassador to China during Barack Obama's presidency.

Documentarian Susan Saladoff explores how the media and corporate America manipulated the public into believing the civil justice system is broken.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch describes the NCAA as a cartel that hoards the billions of dollars generated by unpaid college athletes.

Country music star Toby Keith takes on globalization and helps Stephen get the "ho"s out of America.

Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor explores the significance of historical objects.

Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile explain goat rodeos and discuss their totally American, genre-proof music.

Author Michael Pollan tries to cut through the confusion of food advertising claims with commonsense guidelines in his book "Food Rules."

Dr. Nathan Wolfe discusses the emergence of new viruses and their potential effect on people around the world.

Niall Ferguson explains that the U.S. economy has been the biggest in the world, since 1872, but will be overtaken by China in 2016.

Seth Meyers believes that "Saturday Night Live"'s Weekend Update provides an alternative for Americans unfulfilled by mainstream news options.

Father Jim Martin believes that Jesus had a great sense of humor, but most people in the 21st century just don't get his jokes.

Brian Eno explains why he walked away from rock superstardom in the 70s and discusses his generative video art project, "77 Million Paintings."

Designer Thomas Thwaites explains the process of building a toaster from scratch and shares his final product.

Elijah Wood talks about the extensive Antarctic training he endured to play a penguin in "Happy Feet Two."

Chris Matthews talks about John F. Kennedy's World War II heroism and critical health issues.

Author Susan Orlean recounts Rin Tin Tin's journey from stray puppy on a World War I battlefield to silent film star.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee discusses the history and science of cancer.

Eyadou ag Leche of Tinariwen discusses his band's Western musical influences and the band members' days in Muammar al-Gaddafi's rebel training camps.

Stephen Sondheim discusses the complexity of his characters and rates Stephen's performance in "Company."

Sir Richard Branson believes that business leaders have a responsibility to try to solve some of the world's biggest problems.

Jimmie Johnson explores the team dynamics involved in NASCAR racing and discusses the inspiration behind his Wii game.

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney contemplate the pressures of stardom.

The Bolshoi Ballet's David Hallberg describes Fred Astaire as his main artistic inspiration and explains that dance has always been his calling.

Jack Abramoff describes the controversial activities he engaged in as a Washington lobbyist and discusses the corrupting influence of campaign contributions.

Samuel L. Jackson explores Martin Luther King Jr.'s tremendous personal sacrifice and the pressures and dangers he dealt with on a daily basis.

Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide Mark Whitaker discusses growing up in a biracial family at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in most states.

General Ray Odierno enumerates the reasons why America's employers should hire homecoming Iraq war veterans.

Daniel Craig reveals his technique for staying sexy and arm-wrestles Stephen.