Intended Audience
Free TICKET - CLICK HERE
At 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7 in the Nancy R. and Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center Auditorium at St. Mary's College of Maryland, a distinguished national panel will examine the question, “Can the inalienable rights referenced by the fathers of the Constitution exist for all Americans in the 21st century?” Moderated by Jessica Yellin, former Chief White House and Chief Domestic Affairs Correspondent for CNN and founder of News Not Noise, the panel will feature Jelani Cobb, award-winning writer, author and thoughtful voice in progressive politics; Mara Liasson, a national political correspondent for NPR and frequent Fox News Channel contributor; and Bill Kristol, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative and founder of influential publications such as “The Weekly Standard” and “The Bulwark.”
The panel is funded by the College's Andrew J. Goodpaster Endowed Leadership and Honor Lecture Series.
This will be a free ticketed event, open to the public. Reserve your tickets now.
PARKING: Enter the campus via Mattapany Road. Follow signs to parking for this event. Accessible parking is available directly behind the Nancy R. & Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center (Lot H on the Campus Map).
About the panelists:
JESSICA YELLIN (moderator): Jessica Yellin is the founder of News Not Noise, a fresh voice in media that provides daily news reports on Instagram. You can find the account @JessicaYellin. She is the former Chief White House Correspondent for CNN and an Emmy and Gracie award-winning political journalist reporting for CNN, ABC News, and MSNBC. Yellin has covered Capitol Hill, domestic politics, state and national elections, the culture wars, and issues facing women in the workplace. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Details, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, California. Her first novel, Savage News, about reporting-while-female, is available now from HarperCollins.
JELANI COBB: Against the backdrop of a pandemic that disproportionately affects Black people, and a renewed push for racial justice, historian and Peabody Award-winning journalist Jelani Cobb emerges as a clear voice in the fight for a better America. A PBS Frontline correspondent for two critically acclaimed documentaries—Policing the Police and Whose Vote Counts—Cobb explores the enormous complexities of race and inequality, while offering guidance and hope for the future. A long-time writer for The New Yorker, and editor of its recent anthology collection The Matter of Black Lives, Cobb’s work is described as having the “rigor and depth of a professional historian with the alertness of a reporter, the liberal passion of an engaged public intellectual, and the literary flair of a fine writer.”
MARA LIASSON: Mara Liasson is the national political correspondent for NPR and a contributor to FOX News Channel (FNC). She joined FOX in 1997 and serves as a panelist on Special Report with Brett Baier and FOX News Sunday, FOX Broadcasting Company's public affairs program that airs nationwide each Sunday morning. Liasson joined NPR in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and newscaster. She covered Congress and served as the White House correspondent during all eight years of the Clinton administration. Now, as the national political correspondent her reports can be heard on the award-winning newsmagazines, All
Things Considered and Morning Edition. During her tenure, she has covered the all the presidential elections since 1992 and reports on Senate and House races every election year. She is an expert on elections, national policy and on relations between the White House and Congress. Liasson received a Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism. From September 1988-June 1989, she took a leave of absence to attend Columbia University in New York. Shortly thereafter, she returned to NPR as its congressional correspondent. Liasson has received numerous awards and honors for her reporting, including the White House Correspondents' Association’s "Merriman Smith Award" in 1994, 1995 and 1997 for excellence in daily news reporting. Liasson earned her bachelor's degree from Brown University.
BILL KRISTOL: William Kristol is a founding director of Defending Democracy Together, an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to defending America’s liberal democratic norms, principles, and institutions. Kristol is also editor-at-large of The Bulwark, a publication dedicated to providing political analysis free from the constraints of partisan loyalties or tribal prejudices. Kristol has long been recognized as a leading participant in and analyst of American politics. He was a founder of the Weekly Standard in 1995 and edited the influential magazine for over two decades. Before that, he served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations. Prior to coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He received his undergraduate degree and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.