New Boston Speakers Series Announces 2011-2012 Season

Inaugural season at Boston Symphony Hall will feature David McCullough, Michael Pollan and Tom Brokaw. End Quote

Boston, MA-NH (1888PressRelease) March 24, 2011 - The new Boston Speakers Series has lined up an impressive list of authors, journalists, activists, leaders and other renowned personalities to participate in its inaugural 2011-2012 season. Modeled after the highly acclaimed Philadelphia Speakers Series, which is now in its seventh consecutive sold-out season, the series will close with one of the most trusted figures in broadcasting, Tom Brokaw.

Held at Boston Symphony Hall, the series will begin on Oct. 5, 2011 with two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, followed by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee; former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson; sustainable food activist Michael Pollan; author and professor Azar Nafisi; one-time con-man and subject of Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," Frank Abagnale; and legendary broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw.

"We are pleased to present the inaugural season of the Boston Speakers Series as we've had tremendous success with similar series in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and St. Louis," said Bill Conrow, president and founder of the series. "Each of the magnificent speakers lined-up for this season will have our subscribers on the edge of their seats with their enthralling and fascinating stories and experiences. What many look forward to most about the evenings with our speakers is the opportunity for follow-up questions after the presentations. The audience has the chance to get the story behind the story, and delve into our speakers' personalities without the filter of today's media."

Speaking on Oct. 5, David McCullough, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will discuss his most recent work, "The Greater Journey," which is to be released this Spring and explores the lives of Americans in Paris from the 1830's to the 1900's. His Pulitzer Prize winning biographies "Truman" and "John Adams," have both been adapted into television movies by HBO. His last book, "1776," was the number one best-seller in the United States upon its release. An accomplished historian and author, McCullough also has narrated several PBS documentaries and the motion picture "Seabiscuit."

Other speakers include:

* Nov. 9 - Michelle Rhee, an outspoken advocate for school reform, Rhee founded The New Teacher Project in 1997, which has recruited 23,000 new teachers across the country. Under her leadership as Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, the worst performing school district in the country at the time saw double-digit growth in state reading and math scores among seventh, eighth and tenth graders. Rhee most recently founded StudentsFirst, an organization aiming to raise $1 billion to reform education in the nation.

* Nov. 30 - She was a covert CIA operative and he was the American Ambassador to Africa and Iraq. His 2003 New York Times op-ed piece suggesting the Iraqi nuclear threat had been exaggerated allegedly resulted in the exposure of her identity as a CIA agent working in counter-proliferation. Former American diplomat, Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, former covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame Wilson will illustrate their enthralling story, which was told in the motion picture "Fair Game" starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

* Jan. 25, 2012 - Michael Pollan has been named as one of the Top 10 New Thought Leaders by Newsweek and was named to the 2010 TIME 100 list. He's written four New York Times Best-sellers, including his most recent work "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual." For the past 25 years, Pollan has been exploring and writing about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect . He also appeared in the Academy Award nominated documentary, "Food Inc."

* Feb. 22, 2012 - Azar Nafisi is the highly acclaimed author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran," which spent 117 weeks on The New York Times Best-seller list and has been translated into 32 languages. The book paints a vivid portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and its effect on Nafisi as a secular woman and professor. Nafisi, who has written articles for The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, is the executive director of Cultural Conversations at the Foreign Policy Institute of John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

* March 28, 2012 - Thirty years ago, Frank Abagnale was known as one of the world's most famous confidence men. Now, he provides consulting on subjects such as forgery and embezzlement for financial institutions and the U.S. government. Abagnale was the subject of the major motion picture "Catch Me If You Can," directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.

* April 25, 2012 - One of the most trusted and respected figures in television, legendary journalist Tom Brokaw will discuss his career in broadcast news, which spans nearly five decades and ranges from reporting on the civil rights movement in Atlanta to serving as NBC's White House correspondent during Watergate. Best known for his more than 20 years as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, Brokaw has interviewed every president since Lyndon B. Johnson and has traveled the world to cover international stories. The best-selling author of "The Greatest Generation," Brokaw has received numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement and was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

With media support from WGBH Radio (89.7 FM), all of the presentations will take place on Wednesday nights at Boston Symphony Hall, beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are sold by subscription only and prices range from $245 to $455 per person. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the ticket office as soon as possible to order their seats. For more information, visit www.BostonSpeakersSeries.org or call 617-266-1200 or 1-888-266-1200.

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