Dennis Raimondi interviews presidential candidate Barack Obama

"Hannah Riley Bowles" is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School and on the staff of the Center for Public Leadership. She is engaged in research on negotiation and leadership. She is interested in how people negotiate for resources and opportunities to advance into leadership positions and when gender differences tend to arise in negotiation expectations and performance. She teaches and has conducted case research on leadership in crisis and complex multi-party conflict. Earlier in her career, she was a research associate at Harvard Business School, Strategic Environmental Associates, and Conflict Management Group.

She was a technical advisor to the Minister of Natural Resources, Energy & Mines of Costa Rica and served in 1995 on the Costa Rican delegation to the UN Climate Change negotiations. She was fellow at the Argentinean National Institute of Public Administration, the West German Parliament, and Oxford University's Forestry Institute. Bowles is the faculty director of Women & Power, the Kennedy School's executive program for women leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors. She won the Kennedy School's 2003 Manuel Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has a DBA from the Harvard Business School, an MPP from the Kennedy School, and an AB from Smith College.  read more »

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach has recently been named the new director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics.

Mr. Leach has agreed to take a leave from Princeton University, where he is the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.

Prior to his arrival at Princeton, Leach served 15 terms in Congress as a Republican representative from eastern Iowa. During his congressional career he served as chairman of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and was author or co-author of several significant pieces of legislation, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, reforming the financial services industry. He was educated at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, and the London School of Economics.

This will be the former Congressman's second appearance on Speaking Freely.

Craig Jessop,
Music Director, Mormon Tabernacle Choir

When Jessop became music director of the Choir in October 1999, he stepped into a position tailor-made for him. Not only had he served as the Choir's associate director from 1995 to 1999, he had also been a member of the Choir for four years during college. Growing up, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was his musical inspiration.

Under his leadership, the Choir has continued to live up to its tradition of excellence and has explored new territory in the musical and performance realms. As the music director of not only the Choir, but also the Orchestra at Temple Square and the Temple Square Chorale,

Jessop draws on the strengths of these three entities and combines them as appropriate to enhance the level of musical excellence in performance.
 read more »

Walter Frederick ("Fritz") Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota on Jan. 5, 1928, the son of Theodore Sigvaard Mondale and Claribel Cowan Mondale. He spent his boyhood in the small towns of southern Minnesota, where he attended public schools. After he helped manage Hubert H. Humphrey's first successful U.S. Senate campaign in 1948, he earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1951. After completing service as a corporal in the U.S. Army, Mondale received his LL.B (cum laude) from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1956, having served on the law review and as a law clerk in the Minnesota Supreme Court.  read more »

This week on Speaking Freely, host Dennis Raimondi has a short interview with Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giulliani. Giulliani, the former mayor of New York City, who was traveling through Iowa, is the Republican national frontrunner, though he is presently fourth in the polls in Iowa.

A lawyer, businessman, and politican from the state of New York, Giuliani served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, eventually becoming U.S. Attorney.

Giuliani later served two terms as as Mayor of New York (1994–2001). Giuliani gained international attention during and after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In 2001, Time magazine named him "Person of the Year" and he was knighted by Quenn Elizabeth II.  read more »

Michelle Obama, wife of United States Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Ms. Obama received her BA with honors from Princeton University and her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

Jacob Soboroff, representative of WhyTuesday.org

Why Tuesday is an effort to make America's democracy stronger through increased voter participation.

www.whytuesday.org

Mitt Romney
(born March 12, 1947) was the 70th Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Elected in 2002, Romney served one term and did not seek re-election in 2006; his term expired January 4, 2007. Romney is a Republican candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election.

He is a former CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and the co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. He also served as president and CEO of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games held in Salt Lake City.

JACQUELINE MUREKATETE
Internationally recognized for her work as a humanitarian, speaking out for victims and survivors of genocide. Jacqueline was not yet ten when she lost her immediate and extended family in the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Her story has been featured in the NY Times, the Washington Times, NPR, CNN, PBS, NBC, ABC, and other leading media outlets worlwide.

Josh Romney, the thirty-three-year-old son of presidential hopeful, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Josh is on the campaign trail for his Dad. Josh recently visited all ninety-nine Iowa counties.

Allan Cox, the author of Your Inner CEO, and founder of Allan Cox and Associates, Inc. Allan has authored seven previous books, including the best seller, Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter.

GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON OF NEW MEXICO

Governor Richardson is currently a candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election. He previously served as a U.S. Representative, Ambassador to the United Nations, and as the Secretary of Energy. He was chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention as well as Chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

GUSTAVO COLLANTES OF HARVARD

Gustavo Collantes is a Research Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, who focuses on energy and climate change policy, particularly as they relate to transportation, and the economics and politics of low-carbon energy alternatives.

Gustavo will be at the Kennedy School of Government, while retaining collaborative research with the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis. Until recently, he led the Policy and Business Strategy track of the Hydrogen Pathways project at UC Davis.  read more »

Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
Senator Dodd served as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut from 1975 until 1981, when he became a U.S. Senator. He served as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997. He is now the state's senior Senator. He currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.  read more »

Congressman Tom Udall of New Mexico.
Congressman Udall serves on the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittees on the Interior and Environment; Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; and, the Legislative Branch. He is also the Co-Vice Chair of the House Native American Caucus and a member of the Bipartisan Rural Caucus, the Democratic Hispanic Working Group, the Education Task Force, and the Congressional Law Enforcement Caucus, among others.

He is currently campaigning on behalf of Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico who is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination to run for president in 2008.

Jackie Dodd, wife of U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd of Connecticut [D]

Jackie Dodd spent 20 years working in national security policy, foreign affairs and trade for the US Government. As CEO and Vice Chair of the Export-Import Bank during the Clinton administration, Mrs Dodd visited over 90 countries around the world, leading trade negotiations and opening new markets to US goods.

Prior to her executive branch experience Mrs Dodd worked on issues of national security in the Congress, she holds a MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.

SENATOR HILARY RODHAM CLINTON

Senator Clinton is the U.S. Senator from New York, and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, and was the First Lady of the U.S. from 1993 to 2001.

MRS. ELIZABETH EDWARDS

Mrs. Edwards is the wife John Edwards, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who is currently seeking the Democratic Party's nomination to run for President in 2008.

Representing John McCain

Dennis Raimondi speaks freely with Iowa Senator Charles Grassley

Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is the
senior United States Senator from Iowa. He is a member of the
Republican Party. He chaired the Finance Committee from January to June
2001, and from January 2003 to December 2006, and currently serves as
the committee's Ranking Member.
Grassley has been ranked as high as the third most powerful senator. A
late December 2007 poll shows Grassley remains highly popular in Iowa,
with 66% approving of his job.

Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D. is a best-selling author, popular television personality and sought after motivational speaker, who has been a pioneer in the field of personal transformation. She was one of the first people to popularize the idea of self-help in the 1980's and one of the first nationally recognized female motivational teachers on
television.

Barbara is the author of fourteen best-selling books which have sold over eight million copies. Her first book, How to Make Love All the Time, was a national bestseller and launched Barbara's career. Barbara has written regularly for magazines including Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, McCalls, Readers Digest, Redbook, and Family Circle.   read more »

This Week's Guests:
FORMER U.S.CONGRESSMAN MICKEY EDWARDS. Congressman
Edwards was a member of Congress for 16 years and chairman of the House
Republican Policy Committee. He was national chairman of the American
Conservative Union and one of three founding trustees of the Heritage
Foundation. He has taught at Harvard and Georgetown and is now on the
faculty of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs and a vice president of the Aspen Institute. He
has been a regular columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles
Times and a weekly commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things
Considered. He lives in Hingham, Massachusetts and Washington, DC.
Congressman Edwards is the author of the book RECLAIMING CONSERVATISM.
How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost and How it Can Find
Its Way Back.  read more »