Presenting an engaging conversation with prominent journalist and bestselling author Frank Bruni and thought provoking New York Times Op-Ed columnist Bret Stephens.
This event is generously sponsored by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
Frank Bruni is a prominent journalist and bestselling author who has written for The New York Times for over 30 years. During that time, he has worked as a White House correspondent, the Rome bureau chief, the paper’s chief restaurant critic, and an op-ed columnist—the Times’s first openly gay one. He currently writes an enormously popular Opinion-section newsletter and is partnered with Bret Stephens in The Conversation, a weekly feature that models spirited but respectful discussion across the partisan divide. He has made frequent television appearances, including on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Bruni is also the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, teaching courses in journalism and media with an emphasis on ethics and morality. At Duke, he founded and hosts a series of onstage conversations, “Independent Thinkers,” that spotlights people whose views don’t fit tidily into one partisan or ideological box, and who attempt to straddle divides. In his course, “America in the Age of Grievance,” which grew out of his most recent book, The Age of Grievance, he discusses issues that are urgent on campuses today, including free speech and cancel culture.
Bruni is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including The Beauty of Dusk, a memoir detailing his adjustment to the sudden loss of vision in one eye and the acceptance of the reality that the same fate could befall the other at any moment. The result is a poignant and uplifting education in vulnerability, resilience, and optimism. It reached #5 on the nonfiction bestseller lists and earned rave reviews from people and publications including Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, People, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
The Age of Grievance is a deep dive into why Americans are so angry and what we can do about it. He makes the case that we’ve conflated legitimate causes and petty complaints, creating a condition of constant self-victimization. We obsess over how we’ve been wronged and who’s to blame, rather than focusing on civil, productive dialogue and constructive action. This culture of grievance has become the enemy of progress and poses a threat to American democracy.
“In this feverish era for America and the world, Frank Bruni is the doctor we need. His diagnoses of our fractured politics are clear and compelling. His prescriptions are designed to heal. And his bedside manner—the wise, charming voice that has made him one of America’s most admired commentators—helps the medicine taste like sugar.” —David Von Drehle, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Charlie.
In Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, Bruni attempts to soothe the status-driven panic of students and their parents as they navigate what he calls the “college admissions mania,” and makes the case that being rejected by your first-choice college may be a blessing in disguise.
Bruni is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Randy Shilts Award for his career-long contributions to the LGBTQ community and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Newspaper Columnist. Prior to joining The New York Times, Bruni worked at the New York Post and the Detroit Free Press, where he was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing.
Bret Stephens is an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times.
Since joining the New York Times in 2017, Stephens has written about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his commentary at the Wall Street Journal, and previously served as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he took at the age of 28. He has reported stories from Gaza to Greenland, and is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder,” published in 2014.
Bret is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder, released in November 2014, and is currently working on a book about the free world. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including three honorary doctorates, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 2022, the government of Russia banned him for life from visiting that country.
In addition to his work at The Times, in 2021 Bret became editor-in-chief of Sapir (sapirjournal.org), a Jewish quarterly published by the Maimonides Fund. The mission of Sapir is to offer ideas for a thriving Jewish future. He is also currently at work on a book about the future of the free world.
Bret was raised in Mexico City and holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an MSc. from the London School of Economics. He sits on numerous academic advisory boards and was a co-founder, with Garry Kasparov, of the Renew Democracy Initiative, an organization dedicated to advancing democratic principles throughout the world.
He and his wife, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic and entrepreneur, live near New York City and have three children.
