Events

Past Event

Reporter Nights: Science Journalism in the Time of COVID-19 with Elizabeth Kolbert

July 21, 2020
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
America/New_York
Online Event
“I Don’t Believe This”: What Can the COVID-19 Crisis Teach Environmentalists About Communicating the Unimaginable? Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Staff Writer at The New Yorker, and the author of The Sixth Extinction, and Field Notes from a Catastrophe, will speak about the links between the current pandemic and the destruction of the natural world. Ms. Kolbert, whose reports and books have tackled such difficult topics as mass extinctions of wildlife and the impact of global warming on cities, will share her thoughts on how writers can bring difficult subjects to an often disbelieving public. Are some stories too frightening or distant for readers to imagine or accept? To what degree did inadequate and inconsistent science reporting leave the world unprepared for the worst pandemic since 1918? About this series: Join us as we continue this dynamic live series exploring the mass media’s coverage of the biggest science story of our lifetime: the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer, Claudia Dreifus, SPS Lecturer in Professional Studies and contributor to The New York Times and The New York Review of Books, will moderate thought-provoking conversations with The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert and The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan analyzing the pandemic’s origins, the resulting issues in science communications highlighted by the crisis, and how lessons learned from the pandemic can be applied to other environmental-related disasters. A third evening will feature a panel of top science reporters and editors. Presented by Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies’ M.S. in Sustainability Management program, Reporter Nights represent another way Columbia is bringing its world-class community of scholars and practitioners to you this summer. This is a unique opportunity to engage in the conversations that are shaping the world and driving innovation as we navigate the “new normal” and beyond. Only at Columbia. Previous Reporter Nights featured Donald McNeil, The New York Times science and health correspondent who broke the COVID-19 story, John Schwartz, who covers climate change for the Times, and Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes, the author of Why Trust Science and Merchants of Doubt. _____________________________________________________________________________________ For questions, please contact Samantha Ostrowski, Associate Director, Graduate Programs in Sustainability Management and Science, at [email protected]. For additional information about program offerings at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, please contact an Admissions Counselor at 212-854-9666 or [email protected].

Contact Information

Samantha Ostrowski