Award-winning Journalists to Choate Students: Imperative to Care

During a panel on global peacekeeping, politics, and civil discourse, three award-winning journalists told Choate students, faculty, and staff that they are inviting people to care with their work and that in the face of divisions we need to care more about each other. Journalists Nicholas Kristof, Aaron David Miller, and Robin Wright spoke during the event moderated by Teacher Jonas Akins. Following the event held in Ann and George Colony Hall on April 17, each panelist met with smaller groups of School community members in optional afternoon break-out sessions. 

Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and columnist for The New York Times, advised that “it is important to be skeptical of one’s own cognitive biases. We look for information that confirms our prejudices instead of approaching (all sides of a story) with real humanity.”  

Wright, who is a joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and writer for The New Yorker told students, “The hard part of sorting out the truth (in covering a story) -- is that there is no single truth.” She said there are a lot of truths, and “the most important thing is to listen.” Wright also urged students to follow advice given by her father, a University of Michigan law professor. “You have to stand on top of the world and look down to see all sides.” Wright added that researching and thinking for oneself was an important aspect of gaining that perspective. 

Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, encouraged students to “Turn the M in ‘me’ upside down to create the W in ‘we.’” He explained, “This is a way to tether ourselves to issues and commitments larger than ourselves.” 

Dean of Equity and Inclusion Rachel Myers thanked the Thalheimer Educator in Residence Fund “for the extraordinary opportunity to engage with global issues through the lens of these esteemed journalists.”