CNN and Time today launch a series of Fareed Zakaria specials that will examine some of the most pressing issues of the 2012 election. The specials will accompany feature articles by Zakaria in Time magazine.

The first of the specials, 'Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Car', debuts tonight on CNN Domestic at 8:00pm DST and will air on CNN International this weekend. Details from CNN below.

CNN Press Release: Fareed Zakaria Launches Quarterly Series on American Renewal on CNN and in TIME Magazine

CNN and TIME’s Fareed Zakaria will launch a quarterly series of television specials for CNN/U.S. and CNN International and feature articles for TIME that pursue solutions to the most pressing issues central to the 2012 election: health care, immigration, jobs, and energy, it was announced today. The first special, Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Care, will debut on Sunday, March 18 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm ET & PT on CNN/U.S., and on CNN International on Saturday, March 24 at 9:00pm ET. The companion article for TIME will be in the edition that hits newsstands on Friday, March 17.

“We Americans need to recognize that there are many areas where we could learn a lot from what other countries are doing. America’s best companies routinely benchmark to global standards. What we’re trying to do in this series is just that – look around the world and ask, ‘what can we learn?’ In the process, we also found areas where we could teach the rest of the world a thing or two.” Zakaria said.

The one-hour in-depth premieres as the nation arrives at the two-year anniversary of the historic passage of The Affordable Care Act in Congress – and days from when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to review the federal legislation for its constitutionality. He will explore how other nations have addressed the challenges of costs and quality of care, as well as a successful community model within the U.S.

While health care costs in America totaled 17.6 percent of GDP in 2009, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the high cost of health care seems uncorrelated to quality of care. Zakaria reports Americans no longer rank within the top 25 nations for healthy life expectancy or infant mortality.

Put plainly, New Jersey’s Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers founder and family medicine practitioner, Jeffrey Brenner, MD, says: “We’re spending a whole lot in our country for health care, and we’re not getting our money’s worth.”

For the special, Zakaria also interviews David Goldhill, the president and CEO of the Game Show Network, who penned an editorial for The Atlantic magazine (“How American Health Care Killed My Father,” Sept. 2009); New Yorker magazine’s Atul Gawande, MD; William Hsiao, PhD, an economics professor at Harvard who helped design Taiwan’s health care system; and The Washington Post’s T.R. Reid, author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care (2010) for insights from his tour of health systems around the world.

Digital resources with more information on health care models in the U.S. and abroad will be explored in-depth at www.cnn.com/gps. The site will also include excerpts from the program, as well as articles and multimedia content for the upcoming specials on immigration, jobs, and energy.

Dan Logan and Maite Amorebieta produced Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Care. Tom Goldstone is the executive producer for the special series and of the FAREED ZAKARIA GPS unit.

This first edition of Global Lessons will replay on Saturday, March 24 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm ET and PT on CNN/U.S. Future Global Lessons programs will focus on immigration, jobs, and energy. Companion articles to the specials on these topics authored by Fareed Zakaria will be featured in TIME throughout 2012.

CNN Press Release - Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION Debuts Sunday at 8:00pm ET and PT

TIME Magazine Companion Story “When Will We Learn?” Hits Newsstands Friday

American primary and secondary education were once envied by much of the world, but over the last few decades U.S. students have fallen behind – while students in other countries have benefitted from improvements to their educational systems. CNN and TIME magazine’s Fareed Zakaria interviews innovative and creative leaders working on solutions to fix what ails American education in his November primetime special, Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION, on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:00pm & 11:00pm ET & PT, and for a companion TIME magazine cover article, “When Will We Learn?” that hits newsstands Friday.

PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment, ranks 15-year-olds for basic skills achievement in 65 industrialized nations. In the latest PISA rankings, the U.S. ranks 15th in reading, 23rd in math, and 31st in science. Zakaria guides viewers through tours of what is working in education in countries with high rankings – to South Korea where students have more classroom time; and Finland, where professionalization of the teacher workforce has improved educators – in order to mine ideas for what could put U.S. education back on the right track.

Featured in the special are:

· Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation has donated $5 billion dollars to schools, libraries, and scholarships tells Zakaria that the single most important determinant in the quality of a student’s education is the teacher. The Gates Foundation is the leading source of private money for education in the U.S..

· Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, an educational organization that provides free, self-paced tutorials and student assessments online. Khan’s famous podcasts have delivered more than 83 million free lessons in math, science and other topics, and he tells Zakaria that customizing education can improve learning through leveraging how students learn differently. He thinks it would not be that difficult to teach all American students this way.

· NYU Professor, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education, and author (The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, 2010) Diane Ravitch has spent a lifetime in education policy analysis and has seen education reforms come and go – and harm students. Ravitch supports a rigorous national curriculum and tells Zakaria that standardized testing, charter schools, and modeling public education after business models have politicized American education and degraded schools for a generation.

· Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, in Washington, now leads StudentsFirst, a nonprofit aimed at education reform through, among other measures, ending teacher tenure and supporting charter school alternatives to traditional public schools.


A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special: Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION – debuts Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. It will replay on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. Preview available here: Fareed Zakaria and Brooke Baldwin discuss what makes a great teacher.

Fareed Zakaria’s TIME magazine cover story, When Will We Learn? hits newsstands Friday, Nov. 4.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak to CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that will air later Friday on CNN International. The special live broadcast is scheduled to air at 10:30pm (U.S. Eastern) / 0230 GMT (Saturday). Details from CNN below.

- Editor's note: Ahmadinejad was also interviewed earlier this week on Al Jazeera English by former CNN anchor Tony Harris.

CNN Press Release: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Speaks Exclusively to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria will interview Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week in Tehran. Zakaria and President Ahmadinejad will discuss the death of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, recent U.S. accusations of an alleged Iranian assassination plot against the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, the release of the American hikers from detention in Tehran, internal Iranian democracy movements, and other subjects.

The Iranian president will be interviewed in Tehran at the presidential palace.

This exclusive interview will air live in a special broadcast on CNN International on Friday, Oct. 21 at 10:30pm ET on CNN International. The full interview will air inside FAREED ZAKARIA GPS on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 10:00am ET on CNN/U.S.

CNN Domestic will tonight premiere a new primetime special from Fareed Zakaria. Details from CNN below.

CNN Press Release: There’s lot of talk in Washington about creating jobs - and there’s lot of angst in America about the lack of jobs. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says the plans out there won’t create jobs quickly enough. So what will? Zakaria sits down with Jeffrey Immelt, CEO and Chairman of GE and “jobs czar” for the Obama Administration to talk about his proposals for how government can encourage job growth, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) about infrastructure, Andrew Liveris president, chairman, CEO of the Dow Chemical Company and author of Make It In America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy about how to save manufacturing in America. Zakaria also interviews Starwood president / CEO Frits van Paasschen about the ultimate outsource-proof industry: tourism and how to strengthen it, and Dan Ackerson chairman / CEO of General Motors about the health of auto industry.



CNN’s Fareed Zakaria's special on solutions for America’s jobs crisis, RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM: GETTING BACK TO WORK – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special airs Sunday at 8:00pm ET & PT on CNN.

CNN Domestic will tonight debut a new Fareed Zakaria special. Details from CNN are below.

CNN Press Release: Fareed Zakaria Talks to America’s Top Innovators About the Best Way Forward in New Primetime Special

Restoring the American Dream: How to Innovate – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special debuts Sunday and is featured in TIME magazine

In 2011, for the first time in history, China is on track to outpace the United States in patent filings. From the political right to the political left, nearly everyone agrees that innovation is key to American job growth. CNN and TIME magazine’s Fareed Zakaria interviews America’s top innovation experts for their best ideas on how to fuel creativity and the U.S. economic recovery for a new special, CNN Presents: Restoring the American Dream: How to Innovate, debuting Sunday, June 5 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT. Fareed Zakaria’s TIME magazine story, “Innovate Better” is featured in the June 13th issue, currently on newsstands.

But just what is “innovation” and who is good at it? If America is falling behind, how can the U.S. rebound? Should government or the private sector take the lead? And, who are the winners and losers if America can get back to innovating?

To answer these questions, @FareedZakaria speaks with:

• Silicon Valley venture capitalist Len Baker, who has grown businesses such as Shutterfly®, FaceTime® software, Openwave, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
• Dr. Regina Dugan, Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the federal agency that developed GPS technology – and over 40 years ago, the development of the internet.
• Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
• Innovation strategist and author of Innovation Nation, Dr. John Kao
• Google, Inc. executive chairman, Eric Schmidt
• Paul Romer, economist and visiting professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Zakaria points out that China and South Korea have the world’s fastest-growing economies and are leveraging heavy government investment to promote innovation and infrastructure development. Dr. Kao warns that America may be in danger of leaving some American workers behind and “becoming a nation of innovation haves and have-nots,” since jobs leveraging new technologies and science will follow the availability of a skilled labor force.

Schmidt strikes a note of optimism: he feels there are industries that are likely to be “born in America” first – including innovations in plastics that move in response to human touch, and innovations in nanotechnology, the engineering science of very small things. “This research was done in American universities,” Schmidt says, “the manufacturing plants for that need to be where the research is done.”

The special replays Saturday, June 11 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT. For more on Fareed Zakaria’s insights on innovation and the economy, please visit: www.cnn.com/gps.

CNN Domestic debuts a new Fareed Zakaria special this weekend. Details from CNN are below.

CNN Press Release: Getting Back to Real Exceptionalism the Focus of New “Restoring the American Dream” FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Primetime Special

Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to #1 – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special debuts Sunday at 8:00pm ET and PT

America used to be on top of the world across the board, besting the rest in education, innovation, wealth, and life expectancy – but now it’s falling behind other nations, in some instances way behind. America is now number 49 among the world’s nations in life expectancy, number 79 in elementary school enrollment, number 23 in infrastructure, and only the fourth most competitive economy.

CNN and TIME magazine’s Fareed Zakaria says the U.S. has arrived at a crowded crossroads where much of the rest of the world is catching up. He interviews some of the best minds in science, economics, leadership and innovation on the challenges we face, and offers his own solutions on how America can regain its number one status.

Foursquare co-founders Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley, Harvard University professors Joseph Nye and Niall Ferguson, international macroeconomist Dambisa Moyo, Swedish physician and statistician Dr. Hans Rosling, Columbia University economist Jeffery Sachs all weigh in on the best way forward for America.

Restoring the American Dream: Getting Back to #1 – A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special debuts Sunday, March 6 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. It will replay on Saturday, March 12 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S.

Fareed Zakaria’s TIME magazine cover story, “Are America’s Best Days Behind Us?” hits newsstands today, Friday, March 4.

Fareed Zakaria hosts a new primetime special on CNN Domestic tonight. The program will also air across CNN International on January 2.

CNN Press Release: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Hosts Primetime Special on Leading During Troubled Times on Sunday, Dec. 26

In these times of crisis, America needs leaders who are not just good, but great. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria interviews titans in business, government, and academia for insights on power, persuasion, command, and decision making. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, corporate turnaround king Lou Gerstner, Yale University president and economist Rick Levin, and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman talk to Zakaria about how to lead, and what qualities it takes to do it right.

How to Lead – A Special Edition of Fareed Zakaria GPS debuts Sunday, Dec. 26 on CNN/U.S. at 8:00pm ET and PT. The special airs at 8:00am ET (1300 GMT) on Sunday, Jan. 2 on CNN International.

CNN Press Release - Special Broadcast of Fareed Zakaria GPS, Dateline Davos: Obama’s World Airs Sunday, Feb. 1, at 1 p.m. (ET)

CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and world affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria delve into the heart of the World Economic Forum with reports from Davos, Switzerland. Their reports culminate on Sunday, Feb. 1, with a special broadcast of Fareed Zakaria GPS at 1 p.m. followed by Dateline Davos: Obama’s World hosted by Amanpour.

For the special edition of Fareed Zakaria GPS, Zakaria will gather world leaders to discuss whether anyone can pull the global economy back from the brink, considering specifically if newly elected Barack Obama can provide a lifeline to struggling world powers. Guests will include British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

For Dateline Davos: Obama’s World, Amanpour reports live from the World Economic Forum and moderates a panel from the forum including U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.); International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohammed ElBaradei, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Amanpour and panelists will debate and discuss the numerous, significant challenges facing the new U.S. president including the world economic crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and relations with Russia and Iran.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

• Aneesh Raman left CNN. :(

• Alicia Keys posted a special commentary to CNN.com prior to her documentary "Alicia in Africa" which premieres July 4th.

• These anchors/reporters have new photos added to CNN.com:

Mari Ramos

Alina Cho

Robin Curnow

Nkepile Mabuse

Chad Myers

Fareed Zakaria

CNN Pressroom - One-of-a-Kind Global Get-Together Will Air in United States, Around World

Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and one of the world’s leading journalists and commentators on international affairs, has joined CNN as the host of a weekly international news program that will air both on CNN/U.S. and on CNN International around the world, it was announced today by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.

With Americans growing increasingly aware that their most pressing concerns – including prevention of terrorism attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the security of jobs and retirement nest eggs, the safety of their families’ food and toys and the health of the environment – are intertwined with events around the globe, Zakaria will draw upon his vast experience and extensive Rolodex to bring thought leaders and world leaders together to make sense of it all on a global stage.

In addition to anchoring the new weekend program, Zakaria will contribute analysis to other CNN programs across CNN Worldwide. He is based in New York.

“Fareed is the best in the world at boiling down – without dumbing down – complex issues,” Klein said. “His weekly global get-together on CNN will be invaluable to viewers who are beginning to realize that, for their own personal and financial security, they urgently need to know what’s really going on in their world.”

“CNN’s global reach is such a powerful tool for understanding a world that is growing ever more interconnected,” Zakaria said. “For one hour a week we’ll shrink the planet down to a digestible size and get to know the most important people and ideas from everywhere that are affecting our viewers’ lives.”

Zakaria will continue in his role as editor of Newsweek International, overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad, as well as writing his regular column on foreign affairs in the magazine.

Zakaria has served as an analyst for ABC News, a roundtable member of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS. Before joining Newsweek, he was managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a leading journal of international politics and economics. Zakaria is the author of, most recently, The Future of Freedom, an international bestseller published in 2003 and now being translated into 20 languages. He has a new book forthcoming in May 2008. He's won numerous awards and been named to various lists, most recently the Prospect/Foreign Policy list of the world's 100 most important intellectuals. He serves on the board of Yale University, the Council of Foreign Relations and a number of other not-for-profit organizations.


Zakaria earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.