Drew Forum 2016-17: Baseball, Politics and Comedy

September 2016 – From baseball and politics to comedy, Drew Forum speakers will display a lot of range this fall and winter.

Between September and February, the Drew University series will feature Seth Meyers, host of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers; Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred; New York Times columnist Gail Collins and political players Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer.

Baseball’s boss

Drew Forum begins Sept. 8 with Manfred, who succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner last year. He’ll be interviewed by Ira Berkow, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and former sports columnist at The New York Times.

The interview—part of a Forum miniseries known as In the Game—comes a few weeks before the start of the league’s playoffs and as Manfred mulls ways to speed the pace of games. Before taking the top job, Manfred was MLB’s chief operating officer and, in his early days as commissioner, he has been a thoughtful, accessible and frank leader.

The Presidential race

Talking politics—including the 2016 Presidential race—will be Collins on Sept. 27 and the duo of Favreau and Pfeiffer on Nov. 3.

Collins writes a column about American politics and culture that appears twice a week on the Op-Ed page of the Times, which she joined in 1995. She’s also the author of six books, including Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Scandal and American Politics. Earlier in her career, she was a reporter and columnist at New York Newsday and New York Daily News.

Favreau is the former chief speechwriter for President Barack Obama and Pfeiffer was a longtime advisor to Obama—both as president and senator. Together, they host a weekly podcast called Keepin’ It 1600 that examines the Presidential race through the eyes of pundits, politicians and media figures. At Drew Forum, they’ll be interviewed by Political Science Professor Phil Mundo.

Some laughs

Delivering the comedy is Meyers, on Feb. 4. He’s now in his third season at Late Night, and before that, spent 13 years at SNL, serving as head writer and becoming an anchor on the show’s Weekend Update segment.

With the exception of Meyers, the speakers will appear at The Concert Hall inside the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts at Drew. Meyers will appear at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Each event begins at 8 p.m.

Tickets for Meyers’ appearance are on sale here and tickets for the other speakers are available here.

Drew Forum, now in its 22nd year, is sponsored by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and features the Thomas H. Kean Visiting Lectureship in History and Political Science, established by the former New Jersey governor and Drew president. Previous speakers include David McCullough, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, John Oliver, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leon Panetta and Condoleezza Rice.

About Drew University

Drew University, a Phi Beta Kappa liberal arts university, includes the College of Liberal Arts, the Drew Theological School and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. Drew is located on a beautiful, wooded, 186-acre campus in Madison, New Jersey, a thriving small town close to New York City. It has a total enrollment of more than 2,000 students and has 145 full-time faculty members, 94% of whom hold the terminal degree in their field. The Theological and Caspersen Schools offer MA and PhD degrees and the College confers BA degrees in 30 disciplines.

Drew is dedicated to exceptional faculty mentorship, a commitment to connecting the campus with the community and a focus on experiential learning. Particularly noteworthy opportunities for undergraduates include the Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti (RISE), home of 2015 Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine and Drew Fellow William Campbell, the Drew Summer Science Institute, the Center for Civic Engagement, as well as the Wall Street Semester, Semester at the United Nations, Semester on Contemporary Art and Semester on Communications and Media in New York City and several international semester programs. The University also houses the Center for Civic Engagement, the Drew Summer Science Institute, the Center for Religion, Culture & Conflict, the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, an independent professional theater, as well as the United Methodist Archives and History Center and one of the country’s leading concentrations of materials on Willa Cather.