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

Virtual Conversation with Tanisha Fazal, University of Minnesota Professor of Political Science

10:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 1

We will talk about Fazal's essay in Foreign Affairs titled The Return of Conquest? Why the Future of the Global Order Hinges on Ukraine and her research on health diplomacy and health care in conflict zones.

REGISTER

Past Events

Watch the full series on YouTube.

2022

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

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