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

A Year of Important Conversations

In April 2020, as it was becoming clear that the COVID-19 pandemic would indefinitely alter our daily lives, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute launched the Understanding Our New World virtual conversation series.

In the last year, we've hosted nearly 40 hour-long conversations with leaders in government, diplomacy, academia, philanthropy, and the military. Even as the pandemic eases, the Institute will continue to provide these wide-ranging conversations that are respectful, probing, and civil — the kind of conversations that Paul Simon relished.

Events are free and open to the public; registration is required.

Upcoming Events

A Conversation with John Gaddis, Yale Professor, Historian, and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer

10:00 a.m. CT Tuesday, May 25, 2021

REGISTER

Watch our latest conversation: Illinois Poet Laureate Angela Jackson

Past Events

Watch any of our Understanding Our New World conversations on YouTube.

Understanding Our New World speakers:

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