Nicholas Kristof has worked almost nonstop for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist. Join us as he returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs and recounts the eventfilled path from a smalltown farm in Oregon to every corner of the world.

Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author, has reported from Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, as well as India, Africa and Europe. In the process, he has witnessed and written about centurydefining events such as the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of workingclass America.

Kristof will introduce us to some of the extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic even as he witnesses the worst of humanity.

This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Photo by David Hume Kennerly.

May 21, 2024

Speakers

Nicholas Kristof
OpEd Columnist, The New York Times; Author, Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life; X @NickKristof

In Conversation with Dan Ashley
Anchor, ABC7 News; Member, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California Board of Governors; X @DanAshleyABC7

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The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum , bringing together its 20,000 members for more than 500 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.

Founded in 1903 in San Francisco California , The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to Anthony Fauci in 2020.

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