Andrew Ross Sorkin

SPECIAL EVENT: October 22, 2025

7:30 p.m. at the Altria Theater

What really brought Wall Street to its knees in 1929? And could it happen again? 

In a gripping evening of insight and storytelling, bestselling author and financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin will take The Richmond Forum deep inside the most infamous market collapse in history. Drawing from his highly anticipated new book, “1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History,” Sorkin will unpack the cascading decisions, unchecked ambition, and human folly that turned a roaring boom into a catastrophic bust. 

With the same narrative force that made “Too Big to Fail” a modern classic, Sorkin will connect the speculative frenzy of the Roaring Twenties to the financial systems of today, revealing unsettling parallels and offering a powerful reflection on risk, psychology, and the seductive illusion that “this time is different.”  

This special program supports the Richmond Forum Speech & Debate Initiative, which empowers local students to speak with confidence, think critically, and lead with conviction. As Richmond prepares to host the 2026 National Speech & Debate Tournament, your attendance helps ensure more young voices have the chance to be heard. 

Format: Speech with Audience Q&A

Andrew Ross Sorkin is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, and leading voice on Wall Street, corporate America, and global finance. He serves as a columnist for The New York Times and co-anchors “Squawk Box”, CNBC’s flagship morning program. He is also the founder and editor-at-large of DealBook, the Times’ pioneering online financial news platform, which he launched in 2001.

Sorkin is the author of the 2009 bestselling book “Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves”, widely regarded as the definitive account of the 2008 financial crisis. The book spent more than six months on The New York Times bestseller list, was named the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award winner for Best Business Book, and was a finalist for both the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. The HBO Films adaptation of “Too Big to Fail”, which Sorkin co-produced, garnered 11 Emmy nominations.

His forthcoming book, “1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History”, will be published in October 2025. It explores the decisions, delusions, and dramatic collapse that defined the 1929 stock market crash—and the striking parallels to today’s financial world.

Beyond journalism, Sorkin is the co-creator of the Showtime drama series “Billions“, starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. He has several additional television and film projects currently in development. In 2024, he won the Emmy Award for “Outstanding Live Interview,” recognizing his incisive, long-form interviews with influential figures such as Elon Musk, Hillary Clinton, LeBron James, and Kim Kardashian.

This fall, Sorkin will host a new streaming interview series for NBC, airing on NBC News Now and available on Peacock, YouTube, NBCNews.com, and major platforms including Roku, Fire TV, and Samsung TV Plus.

Over the course of his career, Sorkin has broken major financial news stories, including Chase’s acquisition of J.P. Morgan, Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Compaq, and IBM’s landmark sale of its PC division to Lenovo. He led The Times’s coverage of Vodafone’s $183 billion bid for Mannesmann—the largest takeover in history. His reporting during the 2008 crisis covered the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and the A.I.G. bailout, placing him at the forefront of business journalism.

Sorkin has received multiple honors, including three Gerald Loeb Awards and two Society of American Business Editors and Writers Awards for breaking news. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.

He is co-chair of The New York Public Library’s Business Leadership Council and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Remarkably, Sorkin began writing for The New York Times before graduating from high school and is a graduate of Cornell University.