Van Jones Gets Surprised with His First-Ever Times Square Billboard for New Podcast — Watch!

Van Jones Gets Surprised with His First-Ever Times Square Billboard for New Podcast — Watch! "I would dream of someday ... doing something that would be good enough for a Times Square

billboard," says the CNN host and author

Glenn Garner is a form writer-reporter who worked heavily with PEOPLE's Movies and TV verticals. He left PEOPLE in 2023.

People Editorial GuidelinesPublished on November 15, 2021 10:00AM EST Van Jones recently experienced a lifelong dream come true.

In an exclusive clip, the CNN host and author, 53, reacts with tears of joy to the surprise unveiling of his first-ever Times Square billboard in New York City, promoting his new Amazon

Music weekly interview podcast Uncommon Ground with Van Jones.

"When I was a young activist, I would take the train down from Harlem or up from the Village. And I would just walk around under those bright lights on Times Square — in awe. I couldn't

afford a Broadway theater ticket or a Carnegie Hall performance. So staring up at those big, fancy billboards — that was all the entertainment I could afford in N.Y.C. But it was enough,"

Jones tells PEOPLE. "And I would dream of someday writing a book, producing a show, being on TV — doing something that would be good enough for a Times Square billboard.