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Talk of the Hill returns live and in person when Bill talks to David Rubenstein, patron of the arts, history and – true fact – pandas at the National Zoo. As co-founder of the Carlyle Group, Rubenstein became a billionaire and then set about giving money away – to the Kennedy Center, where he is chairman of the Board, and numerous other groups. In the last few years, he has also become an author; his latest book, “The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream,” comes out September 7.

Rubenstein grew up in Baltimore, the son of a postman and a homemaker. He got a scholarship to Duke University and later got a law degree from the University of Chicago. He worked in the Carter Administration and helped start the Carlyle Group in 1987. They currently have over $200 billion in assets under management.

Among his notable philanthropies is the $18.5 million he gave in 2016 to restore the Lincoln Memorial, and buying one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta for $24.5 million, which is in the custody of the National Archives. In 2011 he gave $4.5 million to the National Zoo for its panda reproduction program; when a panda was born in 2015, he gave another $4.5 million.

His new book features people like Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Paul Simon, Billie Jean King, and Henry Louis Gates reflecting on the nature of American democracy and culture.

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