Speaker History

Lecture Schedule

All lectures begin at 8 p.m.

ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS WITH FAREED ZAKARIA
The Linda and Mitch Hart Lecture
Tuesday, September 24, 2024

JANE GOODALL
The Clements Foundation Lecture
Wednesday, October 2, 2024

CANDACE NELSON
The Anita and Truman Arnold Lecture
Tuesday, November 12, 2024

NANDO PARRADO
The Garry Weber Lecture
Tuesday, December 10, 2024

MAJOR GENERAL CHARLES BOLDEN, JR.
The Gaedeke Group Lecture
Tuesday, February 4, 2025

CONDOLEEZZA RICE
The Comerica Bank Lecture
Tuesday, March 25, 2025

SOLEDAD O’BRIEN
The Oncor Lecture
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

HENRY WINKLER
The Associa Lecture
Tuesday, May 13, 2025

2023-2024

  • James Stavridis and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Chris Urmson interviewed by Andrew Card
  • Lisa Ling
  • Baratunde Thurston
  • Jimmy Chin
  • Lisa Genova
  • Ken Jennings
  • David Grann
  • Theresa May

2022-2023

  • Tom Friedman and David Brooks with David Gergen
  • Lonnie G. Bunch III
  • Tara Stoinski
  • Marlee Matlin
  • Ian Bremmer
  • Jonathan Haidt
  • Robert P. George and Cornel West
  • Martha Stewart

2021-2022

  • Jon Meacham and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • George W. Bush
  • Jerome Adams
  • Ayesha Khanna
  • Walter Isaacson
  • Carla Harris
  • Kendra Scott

2020-2021

  • Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham with David Gergen
  • David Axelrod and Karl Rove
  • Spike Lee
  • Arthur C. Brooks
  • Tammie Jo Shults
  • Kara Swisher
  • Bob Costas
  • Zanny Minton Beddoes
  • Adm. William H. McRaven
  • Paul Nicklen

2019-2020

  • Robert Gates and James Stavridis with David Gergen
  • Shiza Shahid
  • Raj Chetty
  • David Rubenstein
  • Misty Copeland
  • Brian Grazer
  • Zanny Minton Beddoes
  • David Axelrod and Karl Rove

2018-2019

  • James Baker, III and Leon Panetta with David Gergen
  • Jon Meacham
  • Thomas Friedman
  • Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Bill Browder
  • Lisa Randall
  • Howard Schultz
  • Amy Cuddy
  • Kathy Bates

2017-2018

  • Richard Haass and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Amanda Lindhout
  • Sarah Parcak
  • Ian Bremmer
  • Darren Walker with Walter Isaacson
  • David Petraeus
  • Shawn Achor
  • Jeff Bridges

2016-2017

  • Tom Brokaw and Doris Kearns Goodwin with David Gergen
  • Bryan Stevenson
  • Scott Kelly
  • David Leonhardt
  • Angela Duckworth
  • Brandon Stanton
  • Indra Nooyi
  • Alan Alda

2015-2016

  • Richard Haass and Condoleezza Rice with David Gergen
  • Robert Edsel
  • Shankar Vedantam
  • Ken Burns
  • Sarah Kay
  • Rob Lowe
  • Keith Alexander and Kevin Mandia
  • James Carville and Karl Rove with Jim Lehrer

2014-2015

  • Madeleine K. Albright and Colin L. Powell with David Gergen
  • Peter Thiel
  • David Brooks
  • Platon
  • Robin Roberts
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Michio Kaku
  • Nate Silver

2013-2014

  • Robert Gates and Leon Panetta with David Gergen
  • Robert A. Caro
  • Sir Ken Robinson
  • Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson
  • Khaled Hosseini
  • Garry Kasparov
  • A.J. Jacobs
  • Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer

2012-2013

  • William Bennett and Chris Matthews with David Gergen
  • Regis Philbin
  • Jane McGonigal
  • Sanjay Gupta
  • Michael Beschloss, Douglas Brinkley
  • M.K. Asante, Jr.
  • Niall Ferguson
  • Álvaro Uribe

2011-2012

  • James A. Baker, III and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Special event: Robert M. Gates
  • Neil DeGrasse Tyson
  • Katie Couric
  • Michael Lewis
  • Dambisa Moyo
  • Michael Pollan
  • Walter Isaacson
  • Charles Krauthammer and Bill Moyers

2010-2011

  • Richard Haass and Robert Rubin with David Gergen
  • Ray Kurzweil
  • Michael J. Fox
  • Joseph Stiglitz
  • T.D. Jakes
  • Joshua Cooper Ramo
  • Geoffrey Canada and Margaret Spellings
  • Tina Brown

2009-2010

  • Thomas L. Friedman and Fareed Zakaria with David Gergen
  • Clarence Thomas
  • Christopher Buckley
  • Buzz Aldrin
  • Ian Bremmer, Stephen Hadley and Claire Shipman
  • Jill Bolte Taylor
  • Kenneth Cole
  • Special Event: George W. Bush and Laura W. Bush
  • Diane Keaton

2008-2009

  • James A. Baker, III and Sam Nunn with David Gergen
  • Clark T. Randt, Jr.
  • Quincy Jones
  • Philippe de Montebello
  • Chris Jordan
  • Nicholas D. Kristof
  • Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
  • Cokie Roberts

2007-2008

  • Jim Lehrer and George Stephanopoulos with David Gergen
  • Marcus Buckingham
  • Dick Rutan and Brian Binnie
  • Azar Nafisi
  • Martin Sheen with Gary Cogill
  • Bob Woodruff with Lee Woodruff
  • Special event: Tony Blair
  • Ralph J. Cicerone, Harvey V. Fineberg and Charles M. Vest
  • Douglas Brinkley

2006-2007

  • Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel with David Gergen
  • Lee Kuan Yew
  • Anderson Cooper
  • Malcolm Gladwell
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Vicente Fox
  • Steve Levitt
  • Jared Diamond

2005-2006

  • Colin Powell with David Gergen
  • David McCullough
  • Eliot Spitzer
  • Carly Fiorina
  • Frank Gehry
  • Isabel Allende
  • Juan Enriquez
  • Christiane Amanpour

2004-2005

  • Bob Dole and Al Gore with David Gergen
  • Michael Lewis
  • Fareed Zakaria
  • Ward Connerly and Tavis Smiley with Catherine Crier
  • Ken Burns
  • Laurie Garrett
  • Wade Davis
  • Barbara Walters

2003-2004

  • Bill Cohen and George Mitchell with David Gergen
  • Zahi Hawass
  • Tom Clancy with Rena Pederson
  • James A. Baker, III
  • William Bennett, Jack Valenti with Michelle Malkin
  • Stockard Channing with John Guare
  • George Will
  • Michael Dell with Alan Webber

2002-2003

  • Thomas Friedman and Bernard Shaw with David Gergen
  • Sidney Poitier
  • Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  • Paul Sereno
  • Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly
  • Ward Connerly, Bob Gates and Charlie Rose
  • John Irving
  • Gary Hamel 
  • Dick Cheney

2001 - 2002

  • Jane Goodall
  • Dave Barry
  • Elizabeth Dole and Robert Dole
  • Sandy Berger and Richard Holbrooke with David Gergen
  • Francis Collins
  • Robert Hughes
  • David Halberstam
  • Special event: Rudolph W. Giuliani
  • Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with Hugh Sidey
  • Madeleine Albright

2000 - 2001

  • Bill Kristol and Bill Moyers with David Gergen
  • Pat Conroy
  • Ambassador Richard Butler
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Hanan Ashrawi and Itamar Rabinovich with Tom Friedman
  • Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard
  • Lou Dobbs
  • Robert Ballard
  • Julie Andrews

1999 - 2000

  • Cokie Roberts and William Safire with David Gergen
  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu
  • George Stephanopoulos
  • Marvin Hamlisch
  • Sam Abell and Dr. Stephen Ambrose
  • F. W. de Klerk
  • Ann Compton
  • Newt Gingrich and Sam Nunn with Tim Russert
  • Stephen Jay Gould

1998 - 1999

  • Bill Moyers and George Will with David Gergen
  • Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Professor Stephen Hawking
  • Mary Matalin
  • Dr. Robert Ballard
  • Li Lu
  • John Major
  • Dick Cheney, Robert Crandall and Eckhard Pfeiffer with Jane Bryant Quinn
  • President George H.W. Bush

1997 - 1998

  • Bill Bradley and Jack Kemp with David Gergen
  • David McCullough
  • Bernadine Healy, M.D.
  • General Brent Scowcroft
  • Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • The Honorable Oscar Arias and The Honorable Lech Walesa
  • Ted Turner
  • Robert Reich
  • Barbara Bush

1996 - 1997

  • David Brinkley, Andrea Mitchell and Pierre Salinger with David Gergen
  • Herb Cohen
  • Carol Burnett
  • Paul Harvey
  • Dr. Nicholas Negroponte
  • Tom Brokaw and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Dr. Johnnetta Cole
  • Ambassador James Laney
  • James Carville, John Sununu and Judy Woodruff with Warren Rudman

1995 - 1996

  • Gregory Peck
  • Dr. Nannerl Keohane
  • President George H.W. Bush
  • Brian Mulroney
  • Sam Donaldson and William Safire
  • Maya Angelou
  • Herbert D. Kelleher
  • Peter Jennings

1994 - 1995

  • General Colin Powell
  • The Honorable Margaret Thatcher
  • President Jimmy Carter
  • Dr. Francis Collins
  • Cokie Roberts
  • Dr. Lester Thurow
  • John Grisham
  • Marian Wright Edelman
  • Professor Stephen Hawking

1993 - 1994

  • Larry King
  • Akio Morita
  • Jack Kemp
  • Bill Moyers
  • Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar
  • Secretary Dick Cheney
  • Tom Peters
  • Hodding Carter III and Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Benno Schmidt

1992 - 1993

  • Charles Kuralt
  • William Bennett and Mayor Edward Koch
  • Dr. Sally Ride
  • Gov. Mario Cuomo
  • Dr. Red Duke
  • Dan Rather
  • Ambassador Vernon Walters
  • Jesse Jackson

1991 - 1992

  • David Brinkley Edwin Newman
  • William F. Buckley, Jr and George McGovern
  • George F. Will
  • The Honorable Winston Churchill III
  • Carlos Fuentes
  • Beverly Sills
  • Special event: General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

1990 - 1991

  • Robert MacNeil
  • Judge Robert Bork
  • Dr. Henry Kissinger
  • Alistair Cooke
  • Art Buchwald
  • William Safire
  • Elizabeth Dole
  • The Crisis in American Education

1989 - 1990

  • Tom Brokaw
  • David Stockman
  • Simon Wiesenthal
  • Vladimir Sakharov
  • Liv Ullmann
  • Tom Wolfe
  • Alex Haley

1988 - 1989

  • Mike Wallace
  • The Honorable Caspar Weinberger
  • Financial Institution and Markets for the 1990's
  • Dr. Richard Leakey
  • President Gerald Ford

1987 - 1988

  • Sam Donaldson
  • Dr. Robert Ballard
  • The Right Honorable Edward Heath
  • Elie Wiesel

1986 - 1987

  • Drs. Christiaan Barnard and William DeVries
  • Edwin Newman
  • Charlton Heston
  • Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

1985 - 1986

  • Dr. Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Dr. Rollo May
  • George F. Will
  • Steve Allen

1984 - 1985

  • Dr. Jonas Salk
  • Dr. Carl Sagan
  • Eric Sevareid
  • Jane Bryant Quinn

1983 - 1984

  • George Ball
  • Ted Koppel
  • Lorin Hollander
  • William F. Buckley, Jr.

1982 - 1983

  • Dr. Henry Kissinger
  • Sander Vanocur
  • Beverly Sills