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orm causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader was educated at Princeton and Harvard and first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, a critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers that became known as one of the most important journalistic pieces of the 20th century. Following the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader led a group of volunteer law students — dubbed "Nader's Raiders" — in a groundbreaking investigation of the Federal Trade Commission, leading directly to that agency's overhaul and reform. In the 1970s, Nader leveraged his growing popularity to establish a number of advocacy and watchdog groups including the Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. Nader's activism has been directly credited with the passage of several landmark pieces of American consumer protection legislation including the Clean Water Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He has been repeatedly named to lists of the "100 Most Influential Americans", including those published by Life Magazine, Time Magazine, and The Atlantic, among others. He ran for President of the United States on several occasions as an independent and third party candidate, using the campaigns to highlight under-reported issues and a perceived need for electoral reform. A two-time Nieman Fellow, Nader is the author or co-author of more than two dozen books, and was the subject of a documentary film on his life and work, An Unreasonable Man, which debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Nader has been a guest on multiple episodes of Saturday Night Live, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Meet the Press, Democracy Now!, and The Late Show with David Letterman. In 2003 he appeared on Da Ali G Show and, in 2008, was interviewed by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 1988, Nader appeared on Sesame Street as "a person in your neighborhood", the episode also featuring Barbara Walters and Martina Navratilova. Nader's appearance on the show was memorable because it was the only time that the grammar of the last line of the song – "a person who you meet each day" – was questioned and changed. Nader refused to sing a line which he deemed grammatically improper, so a compromise was reached by which Nader sang the last line solo, with the modified words: "a person whom you meet each day." The song "Fast Cars" from the Buzzcocks' 1978 album Another Music in a Different Kitchen includes the line "sooner or later, you're gonna listen to Ralph Nader",[98] referring to his efforts to raise awareness of lackluster vehicular safety standards. Ralph Nader is mentioned in season 2, episode 23, "Semi-Friendly Persuasion" of the TV series, The A-Team, aired in 1983. In the episode, Templeton Peck impersonates a government agent from the Bureau of Weights and Measures who is investigating a crooked hardware store owner. During his conversation with the store owner, Peck begins, "We love guys like you. Ralph eats them for breakfast." The store owner replies, "Ralph?" to which Peck responds, "Nader! You're his kinda guy! Crooked, and proud of it!"[99] The October 14, 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live features an animated portrayal of Nader in a TV Funhouse episode. In the episode, Nader has teamed-up with Pat Buchanan to steal the 2000 U.S. presidential election, only to be stopped by the "X-Presidents" (a superhero group composed of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford). Californian punk rock band NOFX's 2003 song Franco Un-American includes the line "the President's laughing 'cause we voted for Nader", referring to Nader's possible role in inadvertently changing the result of the 2000 U.S. presidential election The October 25, 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live features Bill Hader portraying Ralph Nader during a "Weekend Update" sketch. In the sketch, Seth Meyers asks Hader (as Nader) where he has been recently, to which Hader replies "food co-ops, armed compounds — I was at Burning Man for a couple of days, that was kinda cool". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader Image By Stephen C. Webster (Ralph Nader, b/w) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons