Brian Greene
Physicist and String Theorist
Author, The Elegant Universe
Brian Greene
is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists and a brilliant
communicator of cutting-edge scientific concepts.
In his national best-seller, The Elegant Universe, Greene
recounts how the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics
transformed our understanding of the universe and takes us on a thrilling
journey through hidden dimensions, superstrings, and black holes in a quest
to unify the laws of nature.
His latest book, The Fabric of the Cosmos:
Space, Time and the Texture of Reality, inspired The
Washington Post to describe him as “the single best explainer of
abstruse concepts in the world today.”
With artful metaphors and humorous analogies, Greene helps us to
better understand the universe’s rules—the laws of physics—so that we
can more deeply appreciate our lives within it. A Harvard graduate and a
Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Greene is a professor in both Physics and
Mathematics at Columbia University.
TUESDAY
October
7, 2008
Martha
Raddatz
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent
Author, Long Road Home
In November
2005, Martha Raddatz was named ABC News Chief White House Correspondent,
where she reports on all aspects of the Bush Administration for World
News Tonight, Nightline, and other ABC News broadcasts.
Previously, she was the network’s national security correspondent.
She joined ABC News in January 1999 as State Department correspondent
and began covering the Pentagon in May 2003.
No longer on the military beat, Raddatz returns to Iraq every few
months to be with the troops.
In her first book, Long Road Home, she chronicles an ambush on
April 4, 2004, of an Army platoon on a routine peacekeeping mission in Sadr
City, having never before seen combat.
Additionally, Raddatz has written for The New Republic and
appears frequently on PBS’ Washington Week in Review.
TUESDAY
November
11, 2008
Anna
Deavere Smith
Playwright, Actress
Professor
Hailed
by Newsweek as “the most exciting individual in American
theater,” playwright and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith uses her
singular brand of theater to combine the journalistic technique of
interviewing subjects from all walks of life with the art of recreating
their words in performance. Most commonly known for her role as national
Security Advisor Nancy McNally on NBC’s The West Wing, Ms. Smith
has also appeared in the films The Human Stain, Philadelphia, Dave, The
American President, and on TV’s The Practice.
She is also the author of several books and plays including, Talk
To Me: Travels in Media & Politics, where she raises our attention
to “the power of the media in shaping our ‘truths.’”
Smith is a tenured professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New
York University and teaches a course on “The Art of Listening” at the
NYU School of Law. Her new play, Let Me Down Easy, debuted in 2007.
TUESDAY
December
2, 2008
David
Sanger
Chief Washington Correspondent
The New York Times
David
Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times, provides
compelling front-page analyses of national and international events.
His columns dig deep to explain the most complex events of our time.
For 24 years as a Times correspondent covering a wide range of
topics, Sanger is one of the nation’s must lucid analysts.
Sanger’s career started as a business reporter in the early days of
the computer industry, and he served as the Times’ Bureau Chief in Tokyo.
He has been a regular on public affairs and news shows, including
PBS’ Washington Week in Review, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie
Rose, and Face the Nation.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Sanger is a graduate of
Harvard College.
His first book, The Inheritance:
The World America Now Faces, will be released in January 2009 and
will examine the Bush administration’s legacy and the complex challenges
facing the next president.
TUESDAY
February
3, 2009
Jeannette
Walls
Journalist and Author
The Glass Castle
Jeannette
Walls is the author of the powerful memoir, The Glass Castle, which
has been on the New York Times best-seller list for over 18 months.
In The Glass Castle, Walls describes growing up in the desert of the
American Southwest and then in a West Virginia mining town with her three
siblings and the brilliant, unorthodox, irresponsible parents who manage at
once to neglect them, love them, and teach them to face their fears. Despite
her hardships, Walls develops the determination to leave West Virginia at
the age of 16, move to New York City, enroll in Barnard College, and
eventually become a well-known columnist for New York Magazine and
MSNBC.com, as well as a TV personality, appearing on GMA,
Larry King Live, and Oprah.
Walls lives in the Virginia piedmont with her writer husband, John
Taylor, and has been working on her second book. A major motion picture
about her life is currently being developed.
TUESDAY
March
3, 2009