Chris Matthews was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 17, 1945. He is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and he did graduate work in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development adviser. He is a news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News produced panel discussion program, The Chris Matthews Show. He has written several books including Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry that Shaped Postwar… America, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions, Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think, and Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked.