Daschle Dialogues

Jonathan Karl, the ABC News Chief Washington correspondent who has covered the White House under four presidents, has been confirmed for the Daschle Dialogues series at South Dakota State University.

Karl is the co-anchor of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” He has covered eight presidential elections and is the author of two The New York Times best-sellers: Front Row at the Trump Show and Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.

The event took place Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022 at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times No. 1 best-selling author, was the featured guest for the 4^th annual Daschle Dialogues series at South Dakota State University.

Goodwin’s seventh book, “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” was published in September 2018 to critical acclaim and became an instant New York Times best-seller. A culmination of Goodwin’s five-decade career of studying the American presidents focusing on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson, the book provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field and for all of us in our everyday lives.

Goodwin’s career as a presidential historian and author was inspired when, as a 24-year-old graduate student at Harvard, she was selected to join the White House Fellows, one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. Goodwin worked with President Johnson in the White House and later assisted him in the writing of his memoirs.

She then wrote “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” which became a national best-seller and achieved critical acclaim. It will be re-released in March 2019, with a new foreword highlighting LBJ’s accomplishments in domestic affairs that have stood the test of time.

Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.” “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys” was adapted into an award-winning five-part television miniseries.

Her memoir, “Wait Till Next Year,” is the heartwarming story of growing up loving her family and baseball. Her sixth book, “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism,” won the Carnegie Medal and is being developed into a film.

Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” served as the basis for Steven Spielberg’s hit film, “Lincoln” and was awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize, the inaugural Book Prize for American History and the Lincoln Leadership Prize.

“Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of the nation’s most pre-eminent authors and historians,” Daschle said. “I have long admired her and her work.”

“It is an incredible honor for South Dakota State University to host an author and presidential historian of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s caliber,” said SDSU President Barry H. Dunn. “We are deeply grateful to Senator Daschle for providing this enriching experience to our students, faculty and the state’s residents.”

Tom Brokaw, best known as the anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News” from 1982-2004, will visit South Dakota State University Oct. 19 to participate in the third Daschle Dialogues. The event brings nationally relevant figures to campus for an appearance with alumnus Tom Daschle. Daschle is a 1969 graduate and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader who represented South Dakota in Congress for 26 years.

Brokaw hosted all three major NBC News programs—“NBC Nightly News,” “TODAY,” and for a brief time, “Meet the Press.” He still serves as a special correspondent for NBC News.

Brokaw’s career highlights include being the only American network anchor to report from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and he conducted the first interview with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Brokaw anchored NBC News’ coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

“It is an honor to have Tom Brokaw as the next guest at South Dakota State University,” Daschle said. “He is recognized around the globe for his work as a journalist, and he will certainly bring an insightful and seasoned perspective on both national and international developments during a most transformational time in our country.”

Brokaw is the author of “The Greatest Generation,” a book about the generation of Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and then went to fight in World War II or contributed to the war effort at home.

“The opportunity to welcome Senator Daschle back to SDSU and have Tom Brokaw as our guest is special, and I look forward to having them both to our campus,” said Barry Dunn, president of SDSU. “Tom is certainly well-known for his work as a journalist, but more importantly, he is recognized for his role in American history. He is an individual who had a prominent impact on great moments in both American and world history.”

Brokaw has earned numerous awards, including nearly 10 Emmys and Peabody Awards. He was most recently awarded a Peabody in 2013, given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014 and the French Legion of Honor in 2016. Brokaw was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2006.

Brokaw was born in Webster and graduated from Yankton High School. He attended the University of Iowa before earning a degree from the University of South Dakota in 1964. Brokaw’s television career began at KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa.

Madeleine K. Albright, the first woman to become the U.S. Secretary of State, visited the SDState campus October 13 as part of the Daschle Dialogues.

The event marked the second-annual Daschle Dialogues, which brings nationally relevant figures to campus for an appearance with alumnus Tom Daschle, who represented South Dakota in Congress for 26 years.

Daschle, a 1969 State graduate, joined Albright onstage at the 1,000-seat Larson Memorial Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center.

"Secretary Albright is one of the most respected and experienced leaders in the world today," Daschle said. "I am delighted to be able to introduce her to our SDSU audience at our Daschle Dialogues event this fall."

How Much Partisanship Is Too Much?

Senator Tom Daschle and Senator Trent Lott Discuss How and Why To Rebuild Bipartisan Bridges

Moderated by Chuck Raasch, a 1976 journalism graduate who has spent 27 years as a national correspondent for Gannett News Service, USA Today and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

This event was held Oct. 1, 2014, at the SDSU Performing Arts Center. You can view it on the C-SPAN website.