You’d be pretty hard-pressed to find a journalist today whose reporting is more relevant than Strobe Talbott’s. In over 20 years with TIME magazine, he covered foreign affairs, focused on Russia. He recently wrote in The Atlantic that “the vast damage to American interests wrought by Putin is likely to deepen for years to come.”
That’s why North by Northwestern has chosen Strobe Talbott as the subject of its first-ever live interview event. “NBN Live with Strobe Talbott” will be a conversation on the state of media and journalism between Talbott and me, the editor-in-chief of North by Northwestern.
The event, presented with the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, takes place next Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in Harris Hall 108. Seating is first-come, first-served for students, faculty and staff. There will be a dessert reception to follow.
Talbott comes to Northwestern for a second time next week as the Buffett Institute’s first distinguished visitor. When he left TIME, after working his way up to Washington bureau chief and editor-at large, Talbott entered government. President Bill Clinton, who was a Rhodes Scholar with Talbott at the University of Oxford in the late ‘60s, appointed him as deputy secretary of state, which Talbott held for seven of Clinton’s eight years in office. After that, he moved into policy research as the president of the prestigious Brookings Institution. Talbott left his post at Brookings last year, and is now a distinguished fellow in residence focused on foreign policy.
While the Tillerson firing has yet to be authoritatively explained, circumstances suggest that POTUS canned his SecState for supporting May’s claim that Russia comitted murder in the UK. If so, Trump is, yet again, siding with Putin against a key ally.
— Strobe Talbott (@strobetalbott) March 13, 2018
Talbott’s significant experience in journalism, coupled with his contrasting roles in government and research, make him someone who I think students – whether they’re interested in media, international relations or academia – should know about. I can’t wait to see you at this event and introduce you to Talbott’s wealth of knowledge on media.
You can submit questions to ask Talbott during the event on this form. You can also find out more information about the conversation on NBN’s Facebook event. And if you can’t make the event, don’t worry – you’ll find coverage of it here afterward.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 4 p.m. to reflect that the entire event will now take place in Harris Hall 108. No portion of the event will take place in Harris 107.