PAST PRESIDENTS AND SPEAKERS
Click here for a downloadable version: Tuesday Club Speakers
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1999-2000 (President: Larry Wright)
September—Mayor Kirk Watson on the future of Austin
October—Jan Jarboe Russell on her new book, Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson
November—Daniel Okrent (book publisher) on the end of print in the digital age
December—Marcia Ball performed and spoke about her musical education
January—Jack Blanton on philanthropy
February—Steven Weinberg on cosmology
March—Bill Broyles on screenwriting
April—Harry Middleton discusses the recorded tapes of LBJ during his presidency
2000-01 (President: Paul Woodruff)
September—Paul Burka, Dave McNeely, and friends on the state of presidential campaigns.
October—Lee Walker on transportation in Austin in 2100
November—Jonathan Sessler on inventing a new molecule that fights cancer
December—Craig Hella Johnson performed with the Conspirare Choir and Cynthia Clawson
January—Tom Palaima (Greece) and David Crew (Germany) on the collapse of democratic institutions in
ancient Athens and the Weimar Republic
February—Louise Weinberg on the U.S. Supreme Court
March—Stephen Harrigan on his new book, The Gates of the Alamo
April—Governor Rick Perry
2001-02 (President: Nancy Scanlan)
September—Frank Bash on the world post-9/11 (this was four days after 9/11)
October—Molly Ivins on the views of others (specifically France) with regard to the attack of 9/11 and our response
November—John Burnett on Ground Zero and Afghanistan
December—Karen Kuykendall performed with friends
January—Panel discussion on “the Liveable City” with Former Mayor Gus Garcia, Robin Rather and Mike Levy
February—James Loehlin, Robert Solomon, and Paul Woodruff on love and platonic love
March—Arthur Miller on the comparison between Einstein and Picasso
April—John Robertson (professor at UT law school) on potential uses of embryonic stem cell to treat
disease and organ replacement and also human cloning
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2002-03 (President: Roy Schwitters)
September—William H. Press on nuclear weapons (to test or not to test)
October—Dean William Powers on the collapse of Enron
November—Louise and Steven Weinberg and Jamie Galbraith read from Copenhagen
December—Cheryl Parrish transforms Headliners into Cafe Momus
January—Peter Bay on classical music
February—Rocky Kolb on the origin and fate of the universe
March—Dean Burnham on the Republican control of all three branches of the federal government and its implications.
April—Peter Galbraith on nation building in Iraq and other places
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2003-04 (President: Rebecca Cohen)
September—Evan Smith and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst on redistricting
October—Tom Eccles (NY Public Art Fund) on his art projects in NY
November—Juan Miro on the conservative nature of American architecture and why we don’t think outside of the box
December—Holiday party at the Bauer House
January—Larry Wright on his experiences living in Saudi Arabia before and during the American invasion of Iraq
February—Dr. Norman Chenven moderated panel of Dr. Frank Mazza and Dr. Betty Edmond on minimizing medical errors
March—Jack Martin on managing campaigns for corporations
April—Carolyn Pfeiffer (Burnt Orange Productions) and Tom Schatz on producing independent films
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2004-05 (President: Sandy Levinson)
September—Michael Lind on presidents during war
October—Jeffrey Rosen on defending privacy and security in the digital age
November—Doug Laycock on church and state
December—Mady Kaye performed at the Harry Ransom Center
January—F. Scott McCown on school finance
February—Jack Cloonan on the war on terror and the moral dilemmas in any war.
March—Elspeth Rostow on her life
April—Salameh Nematt on the Middle East
2005-06 (President: Elizabeth Crook)
September: Bill Brands about Andrew Jackson and the Birth of American Democracy
October: Richard Moore, State Treasurer of North Carolina on “What Investors need to know in a Post-Enron World.”
November: Fernando Schutte on crime and kidnappings in Mexico
December: Steve Weinberg about History of Tuesday Club then Floyd Domino on the piano, with the main choral ensembles of UT
in the lounge afterward.
January: Evan Smith on balance between objectivity and advocacy in the media
February: Tom Phillips on the U.S. Voting System
March: Bob Berney, President of Picturehouse, on the movie industry
April: David Buss, professor of psychology UT, on “The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating.”
2006-07 (President: James Magnuson)
September: Larry Wright on his book, The Looming Tower
October: David Oshinsky, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Polio: An American Story
November: Colm Toibin, on his novel, The Master
December: Wild Basin Winds music group
January: Evan Smith moderating panel of Susan Combs, Kirk Watson and Bill Miller on the state of our politics
February: Greg Curtis on his book, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists
March: Playwright Steven Dietz
April: Mayor Will Wynn on Austin and global warming
2007-08 (President: Evan Smith)
September—Mark Halperin on the 2008 elections and beyond
October—Donald Evans, Henry Cisneros and Wayne Slater
November—Congressman Silvestre Reyes on immigration
December—James Dick, pianist and founder of Festival Hill
January—James A. Baker, III
February—Elsa Murano, Bill Powers and Paul Burka on higher education
March—Mark McKinnon and Matthew Dowd on the election
April—Dr. Bernard “Bud” Weinstein, Ray Perryman, Jamie Galbraith and Fred Zipp on the economy and how it will affect
the election.
2008-09 (President: Bill Brands)
September—Lucas A. “Scot” Powe on the Supreme Court
October—James M. Lindsay on world affairs
November—Robert Bryce
December—Billy Wolfe, pianist and music director of Ballet Austin
January—James W. Pennebaker on how the words we choose affect our worlds
February—Sam Gosling
March—Philip Bobbitt on terrorism
April—Sada Cumber on relations between America and the Islamic world
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2009-10 (President: Bea Ann Smith)
September—Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. on his vision for the UT system
October—Kristine Huskey on Guantanamo and human rights
November—Mechele Dickerson on vanishing financial freedom
December—Marcia Ball on piano with holiday sing-along
January—Tom Staley on maintaining and growing the Ransom Center’s collection
February—Holland Taylor on her one-woman play about Ann Richards
March—Dr. Gretchen Ritter on problems and promises for public research universities
April—Dr. Ned Rifkin on the Blanton
2010-11 (President: Mark Morrison)
September—Evan Smith, Matthew Dowd, Patricia Kilday Hart and Wayne Slater on November elections
October—Mark Updegrove on post-presidents and legacy making
November—Susan Combs on Texas’ financial future
December—Pianist Anton Nel and holiday party
January—Arthur Andersson on architecture
February—Burton Richter on “Climate, Energy, Security and Action.”
March—Dean Larry Sager on The U.S. Constitution and the Politics of 2011.
April—Frank Gavin
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2011-12 (President: Tom Phillips)
September—Dr. Michael White on “Whose Bible Is It Anyway? Reflections on the 400th Anniversary of the King James Version.”
October—Karl Rove
November—Dr. David M. Hillis on “DNA Detectives: From Attempted Murder to Global Pandemics”
December—Dr. James Morrow and the main choral ensemble of the University of Texas
January—Dr. Gregory Fenves
February—Mark McKinnon on “American Politics: Broken? Is there a better way?”
March—Jim Bruseth on the archeological excavation of La Salle’s Fort St. Louis colony
April—Kenneth Starr on higher education in the 21st Century
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2012-13 (President: Steve Harrigan)
September—Dr. Steven Weinberg and Dr. Roy Schwitters on Higgs Boson
October—Dr. O. H. Frazier of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston
November—Sam Tanenhaus, then-editor of the New York Times Book Review
December—Dr. James Morrow and the main choral ensemble of the University of Texas
January—Selina Hastings on the real-friendship between two of her biographical subjects, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford
February—Julian Castro (then-mayor of San Antonio)
March—Robert Draper
April—Tanya Streeter, World Record free diver
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2013-14 (President: Roberta Wright)
September—Senator Wendy Davis
October—Ben Wear on the booming metropolis of Austin and its traffic
November—Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis on their book, Dallas, 1963
December—Musicians Christine Albert and Chris Gage
January—Skip Hollandsworth on “Bernie”
February—Jeffrey S. Kerr on his book, Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin
March—Louis Grachos, new director of The Contemporary Austin
April—Larry Wright on Camp David —How Peace is Made
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2014-15 (President: Tom Staley)
September—Steve Patterson, then-director of men’s athletics at the University of Texas at Austin
October—Dr. Clay Johnston inaugural Dean of the Dell Medical School
November—Cristina Garcia on her book, King of Cuba
December—Musicians “WhoDo” (members Larry Wright and Rico Ainslie’s band)
January—Dr. Kevin Anderson on Texas history and Texas’ rivers
February—Rick Hertzberg on current politics
March—Geoff Dyer on “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”
April—Philip Bobbitt on political ethics
2015-16 (President: Marc Winkelman)
September—Austin Mayor Steve Adler
October—Adrian Farrell, Consulate General of Ireland and Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, consul General of Mexico
November—Dr. H.W. (Bill) Brands on Ronald Reagan–Then and Now
December—Musicians Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis
January—Evan Smith and Matthew Dowd on the 2016 presidential election
February—Steve Harrigan on his book, A Friend of Mr. Lincoln
March—Mike Farrell on the death penalty
April—Evan Young and Sanford Levinson on the legacy of the late Justice Scalia
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​2016-17 (President: Sue Heinzelman)
September—Panel discussion with Senator Bill Bradley and Betty Sue Flowers, moderated by Ambassador
Bob Hutchings on the 2016 presidential race
October—Jamie Galbraith on his book, Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the
Future of Europe
November—John Henneberger on affordable housing
December—Musician Susanna Sharpe (of the Samba Police)
January—Dr. Amy Young (inaugural Chair of the Department of Women’s Health at Dell Medical School) on equality of women’s
health care
February—Dr. Stephennie Mulder on civil war in Syria and the loss of its cultural and religious antiquities
March—Professor Caitlin Casey (Department of Astronomy at UT Austin) on “the Obscured Universe: From the First
Galaxies to Today”
April—Panel discussion with Ambassador Bob Hutchings and Dr. Thomas Garza on US-Russia relations
2017-18 (President: Tim Staley)
September—Don Carleton and Daina Berry about UT housing the Confederate general statues
October—David Lake, lead architect for the new Austin central library
November—Jeremi Suri on his book, The Impossible Presidency
December—Band, The Rent Party
January—Syrian writer Osama Alomar about refugees and the impact of oppressive regimes, with Larry Wright moderating Q&A
February—Chancellor Bill McRaven on the state of higher education
March—SXSW Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest
April—High school student Conor Heffernan who was a lead organizer of March for our Lives Austin
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2018-19 (President: Dan Welcher)
September—Bill Wren, Special Assistant to the Superintendent of the McDonald Observatory, on “Dark Skies”
October—Larry Wright and Steve Harrigan (with Bill Brands moderating) on their books and observations about Texas
November—Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires performances
December—Holiday party with musicians Dianne Donovan and Mitch Watkins
January—Maestro Peter Bay, Music Director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, on Leonard Bernstein
February—Michael Starbird and Kurt Heinzelman on poetry
March—Andrew Sansom of Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University on the conservation
movement
April—Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath interviewed by Evan Smith on the state of public education
2019-20 (President: Ying Tang)
September—Dr. Michael Collins, Chairman of The Gault School of Archaeological Research, on when and how the first humans
arrived in the Americas.
October—Sidney Blumenthal, former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, on
"A House Divided: The Rise of Lincoln and the Making of the President in 1860.”
November—Simone Wicha, Director of Blanton Museum of Art, on the redesign of its outdoor spaces
December—Holiday party with band WhoDo!
January—Jamie Pennebaker on the healing power of writing after any form of trauma
February—Dr. Teresa Sullivan on “Coming to Our Census and Counting on Democracy.”
March—Canceled due to COVID-19
April—Canceled due to COVID-19
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2020-21 (President: Jamie Pennebaker)
All meetings were via Zoom.
September—Dr. Lauren Ancell Meyers, a world expert on disease outbreak, discussed COVID-19.
October—Panel with Stacey-Marie Ishmael, Emily Ramshaw, and Dan Rather on the election and the
essence of journalism
November—Evan Smith with Matthew Dowd and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto about the election
aftermath, transition of power, and the future of the world
December—Entertainment by Austin singer-songwriters Wendy Colonna and Barbara Nesbitt
January— Professor Laura King, Curators Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Missouri,
on the meaning of life in perilous times
February— Ross Harding, Melbourne-based engineer and sustainability expert, discussed consulting with forward-looking cities around the world to demonstrate that we no longer need to make a negative impact on the environment to make a profit.
March—Daina Berry, Radkey Regents Professor and chair of the History Department at University of Texas at Austin, discussed the history of slavery in Texas.
April— Eric Horvitz, chief scientific officer of Microsoft, discussed ways to use AI to augment human intelligence.
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2021-22 (President: Alex Wilson Albright)
September—Jason McLellan, Ph.D., one of the inventors of the COVID-19 vaccine
October—Dr. Andrew Torget on his new book, Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas
Borderlands, 1800-1850
November—Allison Orr, founder and artistic director of Forklift Danceworks, whose work is the subject of a
documentary film called Trash Dance
December—Marcia Ball on piano for a holiday sing-along, with a cocktail party featuring an Austin Classical Guitar
Society guitarist
January—A zoom-only meeting where members of the Club shared their favorite Tuesday Club stories in honor of
Tuesday Club’s 35th anniversary
February—Former Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Karen Kennard on issues related to incarcerating the
innocent.
March—Former Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus
May—Dr. Paige Harden of the Psychology Department of the University of Texas on how genetics affects human behavior
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2022-23 (President: Carol Flake Chapman)
September—Sewell Chan, new The Texas Tribune editor-in-chief, shared his perspective on the top issues for Texas journalists at the time
October—Fellow member Dr. Peniel Joseph with colleague and University of Texas Associate Dean Richard Reddick on racial justice
November—Doug Lewin, founder of Stoic Energy, and KUT’s Mose Buchele, host of the Podcast series called The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout, discussed power and how it has failed us many times
December—Holiday concert with WhoDo (members Larry Wright and Rico Ainslie’s band), with a cocktail party featuring an Austin Classical Guitar Society guitarist
January—Composer Graham Reynolds and Allison Orr of Forklift Danceworks showcasing their recent collaboration
February—Fellow member Ruth Pennebaker and humorist Wendi Aarons on our “golden years”
March—Fellow member Cynthia Levinson with writers Jennifer Ziegler, Chris Barton, and Gloria Amescua, as well as Round Rock ISD librarian Amelia Lewis regarding the recent banning of certain books
April—Professor Ray Mooney of the University of Texas at Austin Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and “The Deep Learning Revolution in Artificial Intelligence: Progress, Promise and Profligate Promotion”
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2023-24 (President: Steve Enniss)
September— Dr. Cherise Smith on her book, Michael Ray Charles: Studies in Blackness
October—David Ferriero, United States Archivist from 2009 to 2022
November—Larry Wright on his new book, Mr. Texas
December—Holiday concert with “Grouchy Like Riley,” with a cocktail party featuring an Austin Classical
Guitar Society guitarist
January—Michael Webber, the Josey Centennial Professor of Energy and Engineering at UT Austin, on the
climate crisis
February—Gina M. Masullo, Associate Director of the Center for Media Engagement at UT and Associate
Professor in the School of Journalism, on “Bridging Divides in an Era of News Distrust”
March—Jessica McDonald, the Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography at the
Harry Ransom Center, on “Collecting after Collectors: The Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom
Center”
April—Beto O’Rourke
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2024-25 (President: Barbara Chisholm)
September— Playwrights and directors Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn discussed taking work from the stage to
the screen
October— Dr. Mark Lawrence on LBJ's legacy and relevance during the 2024 presidential election
November—Dr. Lisa B. Thompson and Dr. Richard J. Reddick, hosts and producer of the KUT podcast Black Austin Matters
December— Marcia Ball on piano for a holiday sing-along, with a cocktail party featuring an Austin
Classical Guitar Society guitarist
January—KVUE senior reporter Tony Plohetski discussed the importance of local journalism.
February—KUT Transportation Reporter Nathan Bernier discussed the I-35 overhaul plan, the airport's expansion and growth, and Project Connect.
March—Ransom Center’s Robert De Niro Curator of Film Jenny Romero discussed the acquisition of the Lorne Michaels Collection.
April—Sarah Bird talked about her latest book, Juneteenth Rodeo
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