-
Dr. Fareed Zakaria
Welcome to the Future of Freedom
March 19, 2005 -
Tim Russert
A View from Washington
February 19, 2005 -
Michael Beschloss & Walter Isaacson
Key Presidential Elections and Decisions That Have Influenced the Course of U.S. History
January 15, 2005 -
General Tommy Franks
November 13, 2004 -
Thomas L. Friedman
April 17, 2004 -
President Mary Robinson
Achieving Human Rights
March 20, 2004 -
Candice Bergen
Photographs and Stories
February 21, 2004 -
Robert Shiller & Jeremy Siegel
“The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century” vs. “Stocks for the Long Run”
January 17, 2004 -
Cal Ripken Jr.
The “Iron Man” Cal Ripken Jr.
November 15, 2003 -
Senator Fred Thompson
Homeland Security, The Federal Budget, and World Affairs
April 12, 2003 -
Louis Freeh
Intelligence, Justice, and National Security
March 15, 2003 -
PM Benazir Bhutto & Queen Noor with Gwen Ifill
February 15, 2003 -
Rudolph Giuliani
January 18, 2003 -
Ken Burns
The Lewis & Clark Expedition and the Opening of the American West
November 16, 2002 -
Madeleine Albright & James Baker with Gwen Ifill
World Affairs and U.S. Foreign Policy in the 21st Century
April 13, 2002 -
Doris Kearns Goodwin & David McCullough
The Art of Writing Presidential Biography
March 16, 2002 -
Dick Clark
Music…The Soundtrack of Our Lives
February 16, 2002 -
Rabbi Marc Gellman & Monsignor Thomas Hartman
January 19, 2002 -
Hal Holbrook
Mark Twain Tonight!
November 10, 2001 -
Dr. William Kelso
The Rediscovery of Jamestown
April 14, 2001
All Past Speakers
Over 240 distinguished speakers have participated in The Forum since its inception in 1987. Our list of alumni includes past U.S. presidents, sitting heads of state, leaders from the sciences, arts, business, and more. This alphabetical list contains all individuals who have taken our stage as speaker, panelist, or moderator. Those alumni who have returned to The Forum multiple times have been marked accordingly.
- Madeleine Albright
- Alan Alda
- Keith Alexander
- Lamar Alexander
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Ella Al-Shamahi
- Terry Anderson
- José Andrés
- Julie Andrews
- Neil Armstrong
- Reza Aslan
- James A. Baker III
- Robert Ballard (1999, 2011)
- James Balog
- Ehud Barak
- Dave Barry
- Robert Bennett
- William Bennett
- Candice Bergen
- Ben Bernanke
- Michael Beschloss
- Benazir Bhutto
- David Blaine
- Tony Blair
- Ed Bradley
- Terry Bradshaw
- Ray Brady (1997, 2000)
- Ian Bremmer
- Todd Brewster
- Tom Brokaw
- David Brooks
- Joyce Brothers
- Gordon Brown
- Art Buchwald (1988, 1991)
- William Buckley
- Dan Buettner
- James Burke
- Catherine Burns
- Ken Burns
- George H.W. Bush
- George W. Bush
- Laura Bush
- Frank Cappiello
- Frank Carlucci
- Hodding Carter III
- James Carville
- Rosanne Cash
- Dick Cavett
- Eugene Cernan
- Marvin Cetron
- John Chancellor
- Liz Cheney
- George Church
- Tom Clancy
- Dick Clark
- Marcia Clark
- Bill Clinton
- Glenn Close
- Michael Connors
- Alistair Cooke
- Anderson Cooper
- Patricia Cornwell
- Bill Cosby
- Bob Costas
- Jean-Michel Cousteau
- Jan Crawford
- Walter Cronkite
- William Crowe
- Harry S. Dent, Jr.
- Peter Diamandis
- Jared Diamond
- Lou Dobbs
- Sam Donaldson
- John Donvan (2012, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2020, 2022)
- Michael Douglas
- Frank Drake
- Paul Duke (1987, 1990)
- Mohamed ElBaradei
- Rafe Esquith
- Dr. Anthony Fauci
- Tina Fey
- Howard Fineman
- Carly Fiorina
- Steve Forbes
- Vicente Fox
- Tommy Franks
- Louis Freeh
- Thomas L. Friedman
- David Frost
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2008, 2016)
- Robert Gates
- Frank Gehry
- Marc Gellman
- David Gergen
- Rhiannon Giddens
- Gabrielle Giffords
- Julia Gillard
- Newt Gingrich (2000, 2018)
- Rudolph Giuliani
- Malcolm Gladwell
- John Glenn
- Jane Goodall
- Doris Kearns Goodwin (1997, 2002, 2013, 2017)
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Temple Grandin
- Bettina Gregory
- Sanjay Gupta
- Vijay Gupta
- Alexander Haig
- David Hartman
- Thomas Hartman
- Carla Hills
- Hal Holbrook
- Michael Holland
- Linda Holmes (2017, 2019)
- Philip K. Howard
- Ron Howard
- Gwen Ifill (2002, 2003)
- Bob Iger
- Steve Inskeep
- Walter Isaacson
- Dave Isay
- Peter Jennings
- Quincy Jones
- Matthew Kahn
- Marvin Kalb
- Hiroki Kato
- Mark Kelly
- Scott Kelly
- William Kelso
- Jack Kemp
- B.B. King
- Larry King
- Jeane Kirkpatrick
- Henry Kissinger
- Ted Koppel
- Charles Krauthammer
- John Krubski
- Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
- Charles Kuralt (1987, 1996)
- Tony Kushner
- Sherry Lansing
- Jim Lehrer
- Daniel Levitin
- Mara Liasson
- John Lithgow
- Bjorn Lomborg
- Howie Long
- James Lovell
- Peter Lynch
- Kaveh Madani
- John Major
- Wynton Marsalis
- Steve Martin
- Theresa May
- Frank McCourt
- David McCullough (1997, 2002)
- Charles McDowell
- Robert McFarlane
- George McGovern
- Victor McKusick
- H.R. McMaster
- Jon Meacham (2009, 2017)
- Marc Micozzi
- Arthur S. Miller
- George Mitchell
- Pat Mitchell
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Greg Mortenson
- Bill Moyers
- Robert Mueller
- Brian Mulroney
- Maajid Nawaz
- Marion Nestle
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- Bob Newhart
- Edwin Newman
- Peggy Noonan
- Queen Noor
- Diana Nyad
- Barack Obama
- Michelle Obama
- Soledad O’Brien
- Nate Parker
- Esther Perel
- Shimon Peres
- H. Ross Perot
- T. Boone Pickens
- Platon
- David Plouffe
- Michael Pollan
- Colin Powell (1994, 2006)
- Samantha Power
- Vladimir Pozner
- William Proxmire
- Charles Rangel
- Feisal Abdul Rauf
- Robert Redford
- Richard Reeves
- Robert Reich
- Daphne Maxwell Reid
- Tim Reid (2012, 2013)
- Carl Reiner
- Maria Ressa
- Condoleezza Rice
- Cal Ripken, Jr.
- Cokie Roberts
- Ken Robinson
- Mary Robinson
- Smokey Robinson
- Andy Rooney
- Warren Rudman
- Louis Rukeyser
- William Rusher
- Mark Russell
- Tim Russert (1999, 2000, 2005)
- Burt Rutan
- Dick Rutan
- Carl Sagan
- Zainab Salbi
- Pierre Salinger
- Michael Sandel
- Joel Sartore
- Diane Sawyer
- Joe Scarborough
- Helmut Schmidt
- H. Norman Schwarzkopf
- Brent Scowcroft
- Robert Shiller
- Martin Short
- Jeremy Siegel
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Rodney Smolla
- Larry Speakes
- Steven Spielberg
- Brandon Stanton
- Gloria Steinem
- Bryan Stevenson
- Martha Stewart
- Kimberley Strassel
- Amber Straughn
- Kara Swisher
- Sheila Tate
- Margaret Thatcher
- Fred Thompson
- Baratunde Thurston
- Krista Tippett
- Alvin Toffler
- Lily Tomlin
- Calvin Trillin
- Garry Trudeau
- Desmond Tutu
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Paul Volcker
- Rick Wagoner
- Chris Wallace
- Mike Wallace
- Barbara Walters
- Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Erik Weihenmayer
- Cornel West
- Isabel Wilkerson
- George Will
- Thomas Chatterton Williams
- Russell Wilson
- Oprah Winfrey
- Tom Wolfe
- Bob Woodward
- Kym Worthy
- Robin Wright
- Michele Wucker
- Fareed Zakaria
EXPLORE THE CURRENT SEASON
-
John Green
Perpetually Curious
April 18, 2026 -
Tracee Ellis Ross
Unapologetic Joy
March 21, 2026 -
Joe Manchin, Andrew Yang, & Justin Amash
The Two-Party Problem
February 21, 2026 -
Sanna Marin
Europe's Next Generation
January 17, 2026 -
Ted Koppel with Amna Nawaz
40 Years: Moments That Mattered
November 22, 2025