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.

Past Events

Watch the full series on YouTube.

2023

• Miles Rapoport - Executive director of 100% Democracy - February 6, 2023

• Shannon McGregor - Professor of journalism and political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - January 26, 2023

• Susan Hayward - Associate Director for the Religious Literacy and Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School - January 10, 2023

2022

Rachel Kleinfeld - senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and one of the nation’s leading experts on democracy - December 12, 2022
Liz Alderman - New York Times, Chief European Business Correspondent - November 7, 2022
Daniel Kurtz-Phelan - Editor of Foreign Affairs - October 7, 2022
Ira Shapiro - Author, Former U.S. Trade Ambassador - September 15, 2022
Rebecca Donner  - Award-winning biographer - September 7, 2022
Gareth Evans - Former foreign minister of Australia - August 15, 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