Doc Rivers knows ball. The former NBA player and title-winning coach (Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks) believes that America is overdue for a true reckoning — and that the moment is now. “We're having more difficult conversations now than we ever had,” he tells Nicolle. Drawing parallels between basketball and the nation that built the game, Rivers likens America in the second Trump presidency to a divided team, encouraging us to fiercely participate in democracy in order to save it. “You have to try to put yourself out to make the team better as a whole,” he says. Now retired and removed from the day-to-day grind of the court, Rivers reflects on attacks on the press, a lackluster education system and threats to voting rights ahead of the midterms. But given all that, he makes it a point to stay outspoken — and hopeful. “I always think this country survives everything,” he says. “And it's going to survive this — but we gotta do it together.”

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Aaron Sorkin is acutely aware of the criticism that his work is too optimistic — and with “The Social Reckoning,” he’s doubling down. “I just like when an audience feels two inches taller than they did when they walked in,” he tells Nicolle. The Oscar-and-Emmy award-winning writer and director has inspired countless political hopefuls with “The West Wing,” including Nicolle, who envisioned a place for herself in the White House after watching Allison Janney’s portrayal of Press Secretary C.J. Cregg. Sorkin follows up 2010’s “The Social Network” by assessing Facebook in the age of Trump: telling the story of whistleblower Frances Haugen’s decision to release internal documents surrounding misinformation and potential harms from the platform, alongside a now older Mark Zuckerberg as he reckons with the power of the technology he’s created. Sorkin chose to intentionally release the movie prior to the upcoming midterms — knowing that, if there’s a moment for optimism, it’s right now.

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If Michael Lewis has a superpower, it’s the ability to make anything — even the most esoteric subject — interesting. Now, one of the country’s biggest nonfiction writers is tackling Elon Musk, DOGE, his attempts to gut the federal government — and the public servants who resisted him. In “Blockers," named after Musk’s term for the public servants who pushed back against DOGE, Lewis puts the spotlight on six unsung heroes of the federal bureaucracy who did what they could to save the agencies they served. Speaking to Nicolle, Lewis says that “it’s a miracle” these people chose to do the jobs they do, and that DOGE ended up being a “great distraction” that caused chaos and allowed Donald Trump to seize control of the government. Lewis says he wants us to pay attention to the stories of these federal employees because they remind us of our "better selves."

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