Understanding Our New World | Paul Simon Public Policy Institute | SIU

We regularly host hour-long conversations with leaders in government, diplomacy, academia, philanthropy, and the military, providing wide-ranging conversations that are respectful, probing, and civil — the kind of conversations that Paul Simon relished.

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COMING SOON

Understanding Our New World: Gareth Evans, Former Foreign Minister of Australia

5:00 p.m. CT Monday, August 15

We will talk about Evans' new book Good International Citizenship: The Case for Decency.

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Understanding Our New World: Ira Shapiro, Author and Former U.S. Trade Ambassador

2:00 p.m. CT Monday, September 12 

We will talk about Shapiro's new book The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America

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Past Events

Watch the full series on YouTube.

2022

David Greising – President and CEO of the Better Government Association – July 20, 2022

Tanisha Fazal – Professor of political science at the University of Minnesota – June 1, 2022

Peter S. Goodman – Global economic correspondent for The New York Times – May 23, 2022

Melinda Henneberger – Vice president and editorial page editor for the Kansas City Star – May 3, 2022

Dale Fowler – Illinois state senator (R-Harrisburg) – April 26, 2022

Jason Barickman – Illinois State Senator (R-Bloomington) – April 21, 2022

April Kornfield – Director of debates for Braver Angels – April 12, 2022

Danielle Allen – Harvard University professor, director of Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, author – April 5, 2022

Adam Schiff – Congressman (D-CA 28th District), chair of House Intelligence Committee – March 29, 2022

Julian Zelizer – Princeton University professor of public affairs and history, CNN political analyst – March 17, 2022

Tom Zoellner – Politics editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of The National Road: Dispatches from a Changing America – March 1, 2022

Janel L. Forde – Director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services – February 18, 2022

Karin Olofsdotter – Ambassador of Sweden to the United States – January 13, 2022

2021

Ruth Simmons – President of Prairie View A&M University – November 29, 2021
Alice Hill – David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations – November 23, 2021
Anne-Marie Slaughter – CEO of New America – November 28, 2021
Stavros Lambrinidis – European Union ambassador to the United States – November 2, 2021
Elizabeth Shackelford – Senior fellow on U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs – October 19, 2021
Tammy Duckworth – U.S. senator from Illinois – October 4, 2021
Monique Jones – President of Forefront – September 20, 2021
Andrew Bacevich – Author, historian, president of Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft – September 9, 2021
Amy McGrath – Retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and former candidate for U.S. Senate – August 31, 2021
Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz – Illinois state representative of the 17th District – August 17, 2021
Tim Knight – President and CEO of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation – July 21, 2021
Candice Millard – Biographer and New York Times bestselling author – July 9, 2021
Audra Wilson – President & CEO of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law – July 7, 2021
Nicole Perlroth – New York Times cybersecurity reporter – June 15, 2021
Susana Mendoza – Illinois Comptroller – June 4, 2021
John Gaddis – Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History and Distinguished Fellow of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, Yale University – May 25, 2021
Angela Jackson – Illinois Poet Laureate – April 22, 2021
Jim Bullard – President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis – April 8, 2021
Elizabeth Hinton – Yale University Professor and Historian – March 25, 2021
Barbara Bodine – Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University – March 11, 2021
Don Harmon – Illinois State Senate President (D-39th District) – March 8, 2021
Alexis Coe – Presidential Historian – February 19, 2021
Edward Larson – Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian – February 1, 2021
John Allen – President of the Brookings Institution – January 26, 2021
Timothy Lynch – Professor of American Politics at the University of Melbourne, Australia – January 19, 2021
Sharon Bush – Executive Director of the Grand Victoria Foundation – January 5, 2021

2020

Fredrik Logevall – Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian – December 16, 2020
Jorge Castañeda – Mexico's Former Foreign Minister – December 10, 2020
Eliot Cohen – Dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University – December 1, 2020 
Theresa Mah – Illinois State Representative – November 12, 2020
Ertharin Cousin – Former Executive Director of the World Food Programme – November 9, 2020
Margaret MacMillan – Duff Cooper Prize-winning Historian – October 28, 2020
Kimberly Lightford – Illinois Senate Majority Leader (D-4th District) – October 20, 2020
Hanh Le – Executive Director of the Weissberg Foundation – October 6, 2020
John Danforth – Former U.S. Denator (R-Missouri) – September 30, 2020
Pete Buttigieg – Former U.S. Presidential Candidate and Former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana – September 24, 2020
Richard Haass – President of the Council on Foreign Relations – September 21, 2020
Sherrod Brown – U.S. Senator (D-Ohio) – September 18, 2020
Michelle Howard – Retired United States Navy Four-Star Admiral – September 1, 2020
Mary Robinson – Former President of Ireland – August 26, 2020
Donald McHenry – Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations – August 19, 2020
Carmen Rojas – President of the Marguerite Casey Foundation – August 11, 2020
Jim Durkin – Illinois House Republican Leader (R-82nd District) – August 4, 2020
Juliana Stratton – Illinois Lieutenant Governor – July 30, 2020
Charles Ray – Former U.S. Ambassador  to Cambodia and Zimbabwe – July 21, 2020
Angelique Power – President of The Field Foundation – July 7, 2020
Leon Panetta – Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA – July 1, 2020
William Burns – President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace – June 18, 2020
Emanuel "Chris" Welch – Illinois State Representative (D-7th District) – June 11, 2020
Darin LaHood – U.S. Congressman (R-Illinois) – June 8, 2020
Rahm Emanuel – Former Mayor of Chicago – June 4, 2020  
Carl Hulse – Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times – June 1, 2020
Dr. Teresa Amott – President of Knox College – May 21, 2020
Jan Eliasson – Former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations – May 14, 2020
David Kennedy – Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian – April 29, 2020