Upcoming and Past Speakers

2024 - 2025 Speakers

October 17, 2024

David Grann: The Art of Storytelling

David Grann is an award-winning New Yorker writer and the bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager. Revered for nonfiction that jumps off the page, Grann doesn’t just write about incredible people-he walks in their shoes. Whether crossing the ocean or trekking through the Amazon, Grann digs deep to give his stories a pace and intensity unlike any other. In his talks, Grann explores his creative process- from what initially inspires him to investigate a story to his painstaking research and then links the (often) forgotten histories to their relevance to today. Known as “the man Hollywood can’t stop reading,” Grann breathes new life into historical events, gifting his readers factually accurate tales that read like a thrilling work of fiction and that are ripe for adaptation.

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November 21, 2024

Patrick Radden Keefe: Empire of Pain: Uncovering the Secrets of the Sackler Family 

Patrick Radden Keefe is a master investigative journalist at the New Yorker, and best-sellling author of five books, whose groundbreaking reporting has exposed the Sackler family for their role in the opioid crisis. He shares the secret history of this family whose fortune was built on Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. He tells a sweeping story, tracing three generations of the Sackler family with arresting behind-the-scenes details and his deadpan wit. His talk explores the way in which greed and arrogance caused a family and its company to lose their way, with devastating results. In his talks he offers a colorful and often funny behind-the-scenes look at the sagas he has spent his career exploring and makes an inspiring case for the power of old-fashioned storytelling.

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January 16, 2025  

Orin Grossman: Three Musical Masterpieces That Every Music Lover Should Listen To

Orin Grossman has been delighting audiences the world over with his unique approach to performing and explaining great American and European music. Professor Grossman will present three musical works from the same period by musicians young and old at the peak of their composing careers. All three share the excitement of ushering in or extending a new musical era. And yet these compositions could not be more different than if they had been written hundreds of years apart. Individually they each speak to us about the power of musical expression; together they illustrate how many ways music can excite the imagination. The three compositions are 1)  Ludwig van Beethoven, Fifth Symphony  2) Frederic Chopin, Ballade #1 for Piano; 3) Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, which will be performed in its entirety.

February 20, 2025

David Lampton: Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping 

David M. Lampton is a leading authority on U.S./China relations. He is Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies Emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Since 2019 he has also been the Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow and Research scholar at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center. In addition, he is former president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and former Dean of Faculty at SAIS. Among other awards, he has received the Committee of 100’s “2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to US-China Relations.” Dr. Lampton will speak primarily on the topics in his book, Following the Leader.

March 20, 2025  

Edward O’Donnell: Why History Matters: How an Understanding of History is Essential to Citizenship, Morality, Leadership, Business, and Even Personal Happiness

Edward T. O’Donnell is a history professor and Chair of the History Department at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. O’Donnell frequently contributes history-themed op-eds to national publications; he has been featured in many historical documentaries and programs and has curated several major museum exhibits on American history. He currently hosts a popular US history podcast, In The Past Lane. Using vivid examples from topics such as the history of slavery, the Civil War, immigration, and women’s rights this lecture will explore the five essential elements of history and how they hold the potential to strengthen our democracy, promote human rights, boost a healthy patriotism, and inform our public policy decisions on issues such as taxes, healthcare, war, and privacy.

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April 17, 2025  

Liza Mundy: The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA

Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times-bestselling author of five books including her latest work, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA (2023). Her narrative non-fiction aims to engage, delight, and inform readers by providing a compelling take on important parts of American history that have long been overlooked, expanding our collective understanding of our past by telling true stories of the people, often unsung, who shaped our world. The Sisterhood recounts the true story of the women espionage officers—tough, brilliant, resilient—who helped build the world’s foremost spy agency. It received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus, calling it “a story that deserves to be told about women who deserve to be remembered.”

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Past Speakers

Below is an alphabetical list of past speakers.