Distinguished Voices Lecture Series
2023-2024 Lecture Schedule
Presidential Lecture: Walter Isaacson
"Elon Musk"
Monday, October 23, 2023 | 7 p.m.
Click Here to Reserve Your Seat
Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023.
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About Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is a Professor of History at Tulane. He has been the editor of Time Magazine, the CEO and Chairman of CNN, and the CEO of the Aspen Institute. He is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City, a cohost of the PBS show Amanpour & Co., a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast “Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.”
He is the author of Elon Musk (2023), The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).
Isaacson was born on May 20, 1952 in New Orleans. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times in London and then New Orleans’ Times-Picayune. He joined TIME in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of digital media before becoming the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.
He is chair emeritus of Teach for America. From 2005-2007 he was the vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held from 2009 to 2012.
In 2023, he was awarded the National Humanities Award by President Joe Biden. Isaacson is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the American Philosophical Society. He serves on the board of United Airlines, Halliburton Labs, the New Orleans City Planning Commission, the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Society of American Historians, and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.
Ambassador Michael Oren
"Israel and the Middle East: Navigating Complexities"
Tuesday, November 14, 2023 | 7 p.m.
Adam W. Herbert University Center
Online tickets will be available in October.
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About Michael Oren
Statesman, historian, and parliamentarian, Ambassador Michael Oren has devoted his life to serving Israel and the Jewish people around the world.
As a Member of Knesset and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, he interacted with foreign leaders and defended Israel in the media. He spearheaded efforts to strengthen Israel-Diaspora relations, to develop the Golan Heights, and to fight BDS. As Chairman of a classified subcommittee, he dealt with some of Israel's most sensitive security issues.
Prior to that, for nearly five years, Oren served as Israel's Ambassador to the United States. He was instrumental in obtaining US defense aid, especially for the Iron Dome system, and American loan guarantees for Israel's economy. He built bridges with diverse communities across the nation, wrote dozens of op-eds and conducted hundreds of media interviews, fortifying the U.S.-Israel alliance.
A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, Dr. Oren was a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown. He holds four honorary doctorates and was awarded the Statesman of the Year Medal by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy Prize for International Service. His last three books—Six Days of War, Power, Faith, and Fantasy, and Ally: My Journal Across the American-Israel Divide—were all New York Times bestsellers. He received the Los Angeles Times History Book of the Year Award, a National Humanities prize, and the Jewish Book Award.
Frequently interviewed by the U.S. and international press, he has had appeared on the Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher shows, 60 Minutes, and the View. He was the Middle East analyst for CBS and CNN.
Raised in New Jersey, Michael Oren made aliya in the 1970's, was an emissary to Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union and won two gold medals in the Maccabiah Games. In the Israel Defense Forces, he served as a Lone Soldier in the paratroopers and as an IDF Spokesman, participating in several wars and reaching the rank of major. He established the Lone Soldier caucus in the Knesset.
Michael Oren was named by NPR as one of the best college commencement speakers ever, by Politico as one of the fifty most influential thinkers in America, by the Forward as one of the five most influential Jews in America, and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the ten most influential Jews worldwide.
Currently, he is writing a book about Israel's War of Independence. Michael is the father of three and grandfather of five and lives in Jaffa.
University Development and Alumni Engagement at (904) 620-4334 five business days before the event to enable us to provide you with the appropriate accommodation.