Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mr. Nicholas Kristof answers questions from Amira Nazer ’17 and Bryce Wachtell ’17 ranging from politics to privilege.
On Tuesday night, students and faculty gathered for a special program featuring Mr. Nicholas Kristof — a journalist, author, and op-ed columnist for the New York Times, and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
He was invited to speak as part of the Thalheimer Educator in Residence Program, a biennial program founded in 2006 by the Thalheimer family. Mr. Krisof was the ninth Thalheimer speaker; other notable lecturers included Bob Woodward, Fouad Ajami, David Brooks, and Seymour Hersh. HPRSS teacher Mr. Joel Backon is responsible for the Thalheimer Educator in Residence Program. Mr. Backon noted, “The Thalheimer Educator in Residence Program brings esteemed public figures to Choate Rosemary Hall to provide insights and observations on very broadly defined issues of the day.”
Mr. Backon said, “We were looking for somebody who had a broad range of interests and expertise.” He continued, “Particularly in an election year, we didn’t want to bring in a journalist who could only talk about the election. He’s an expert in so many different areas. He’s a passionate fighter for women’s rights. He’s also an expert on China, and he’s been following the refugee crisis very closely. We thought that his interests would appeal to a wide range of students.”
Mr. Kristof spent all of Tuesday at Choate, meeting with various classes as he was stationed in the Humanities rotunda fielding questions from different students. Teachers were able to bring their entire classes. Mr. Backon elaborated, “We found the rotunda to be better than having the speaker go to a classroom and try to squeeze people into that classroom.”
During the special program, Mr. Kristof spoke for 20 minutes and was then interviewed by two students, Amira Nazer ’17 and Bryce Wachtell ’17, for about 45 minutes, leaving 25 minutes for Q&A at the end.
Mr. Backon predicted that the student interviewers would “represent to some degree the kinds of things the student body is interested in, which Mr. Kristof might not know. I feel more confident having two representatives of our student body coming up with the questions.”
The students chosen as interviewers are usually selected from The Choate News masthead or the journalism course. Both students are enrolled in journalism, and Wachtell is Editor-in-Chief of the 110th masthead. Mr. Mike Peed, Mr. Nick Molnar, and Mr. Backon worked with Nazer and Wachtell to help develop the questions they asked. Mr. Kristof did not have access to the questions ahead of time, although he noted, “I don’t really need the questions ahead of time, people ask me questions all the time.”
Mr. Kristof’s talk mixed his own stories and experience with advice and takeaways for the audience. After telling a humorous anecdote about a miscommunication in Indonesia, Mr. Kristof said, “I would like to see all of you struggle a bit. That is when you are building new muscles and learning about the world in an experience that may be overwhelming but is memorable and will shape you.”
Mr. Kristof covered topics ranging from climate change to human trafficking. The conversation also turned to President Donald Trump P ’00 and U.S. politics at times. “I’ve covered lots of national politicians, but I’ve never covered a national politician who is so ill informed about policy or so evasive,” said Mr. Kristof.
He also talked about the problems with echo chambers on high school and college campuses and why ideological diversity is necessary. “Part of an education is to be exposed to ideas that are different from the ones you know.” Mr. Kristof continued, “The problem is that it becomes really easy to demonize people who we are not familiar with. If we liberals are champions of inclusiveness, it has to be inclusiveness also to people who don’t think at all like us.”
On interviewing Mr. Kristof, Nazer said, “His talk was very insightful. He answered the questions well, and he did a very good job at staying on the topic and not rambling.” She continued, “He had a very important message to share in that you can do something, and it can have an impact on other people. His talk was about making effective change and being an active citizen and active thinker.”
Though Chris Overmeer ’17 liked Mr. Kristof’s talk itself, he commented on the open mic Q & A afterwards, “I didn’t like the questions people asked because it would have been more important for us to ask questions about his personal experiences as opposed to politics.”
Mr. Kristof closed his talk by turning the focus back to the audience: “The fact that we are all in this room right now means that we have won the lottery at birth. The question then becomes what is your obligation to give back to those who didn’t win. That is the question that I hope you will think about, and take with you through your time at Choate, into college, and beyond to help address the inequity of those who didn’t win the lottery at birth.”
