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January 17, 2009 - TOM FRIEDMAN

Thomas L. Friedman, one of the world’s preeminent commentators on international affairs, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner. Vanity Fair has called him “the country’s best newspaper columnist.” Mr. Friedman joined The New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter specializing in OPEC and oil-related news and later served as the chief diplomatic, chief White House and international economics correspondents. His reporting has covered the Middle East conflict, the end of the Cold War, U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat. His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to seven hundred other newspapers worldwide. Friedman’s latest books include Hot, Flat, and Crowded - Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How it Can Renew America and the international bestseller The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. A frequent guest on programs such as Face the Nation and Charlie Rose, Friedman appears in his own segment, “Tom’s Journal,” on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

February 7, 2009 - NINA TOTENBERG

Nina Totenberg is National Public Radio’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR’s critically acclaimed newsmagazines, All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. Totenberg’s coverage of legal affairs and the Supreme Court has won her widespread recognition. Newsweek says, “The mainstays (of NPR) are Morning Edition and All Things Considered. But the crème de la crème is Nina Totenberg.” She is also a regular panelist on Inside Washington, a weekly syndicated public affairs television program produced in the nation’s capital. In 1988, Totenberg won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her coverage of Supreme Court nominations. In 1991, her ground-breaking report about University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Judge Clarence Thomas led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Totenberg has received numerous awards and honors.

February 10, 2009 - GREG MORTENSON     >> SPECIAL APPEARANCE!

Additional Ticket Required!  Series Ticket Holders can reserve seats any time.
General Admission Tickets available starting December 1, 2008.
Call Box Office for details: 772.778.5249.

Greg Mortenson, author of New York Times Bestseller “Three Cups of Tea,” about one man’s mission to promote peace - one school at a time. Mr. Mortenson will describe his work with the non-profit Central Asia Institute (where he is co-founder and Executive Director) which has built 74 secular primary schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since a 1993 climb on Pakistan's K2, he has dedicated his life to promote community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Performances are schedule for 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. with a fundraising reception at 5:15 p.m. at the Emerson Center. Collaborating with the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation, the net proceeds of this event will be shared among the Emerson Center, The Foundation, and the Central Asia Institute.

To download a special flier with more details about this event, >>click here<<.

February 28, 2009 - JUAN WILLIAMS

Juan Williams is an Emmy Award-winning writer, and radio and television correspondent. Williams joined Fox News in 1997 as a political contributor. He is a regular panelist on Fox Broadcasting’s Sunday morning public affairs program, “Fox News Sunday.” In addition, Williams anchors weekend daytime live coverage on the Fox News Channel. Before coming to Fox, Williams spent 23 years at the Washington Post, where he served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House correspondent. Williams hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) national call-in show “Talk of the Nation” from 2000-2001. He is currently a senior national correspondent for NPR. The recipient of an Emmy Award for television documentary writing, Williams also won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including, “Politics – The New Black Power.” Williams is also the author of the non-fiction bestseller “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965”, the companion volume to the critically acclaimed PBS television series.

March 21, 2009 - DAVID McCULLOUGH

David McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history,” “a matchless writer.” He is twice winner of the National Book Award, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In December 2006 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. His books have been praised for their scholarship, their understanding of American life, their “vibrant prose,” and insight into individual character. Mr. McCullough’s most recent book, 1776, the number one New York Times national bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, has been called, “brilliant…powerful,” “a classic.” There are three million copies in print, while Mr. McCullough’s previous work, John Adams, remains one of the most critically acclaimed and widely read American biographies of all time. It is presently in its sixty-third printing. John Adams, the seven-part mini-series on HBO, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, was one of the most acclaimed and talked about television events of the year. In a crowded, productive career, he has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television -- as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including The Civil War. His is also the narrator’s voice in the movie Seabiscuit. Mr. McCullough’s other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman. His work has been published in ten languages and, in all, nearly 9,000,000 copies are in print. As may be said of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print. His current project is a book about Americans in Paris, from the 1830’s to 1930’s.