“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House,” featuring noted journalist Carl Bernstein and political satirist P.J. O’Rourke, will be at 2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.
In this free presentation for the campus community, the two writers will offer their perspectives on government, politics and the inner-workings of Washington, D.C.
Online reservations are required to attend; group reservations for classes can be arranged by calling Joanne Kendrach, events and special projects, at 704-687-5839.
Bernstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has covered government, politics and the hidden stories of Washington, D.C., for more than 40 years. Best-known for his early 1970s collaboration with Bob Woodward that broke the Watergate story for the Washington Post, Bernstein is the author of “All the President’s Men” and “A Women-in-Charge: The Life of Hillary Clinton.” Currently, he is working on several multimedia projects, including a TV series about the U.S. Congress, and a memoir about growing up at a Washington newspaper during the Kennedy era.
A best-selling author, O’Rourke has established himself as one of America’s premiere political satirists. He has written 16 books, including “Parliament of Whores,” “Eat the Rich,” “Don’t Vote – It Encourages the Bastards” and his most recent “The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way … And It Wasn’t My Fault … And I’ll never Do It Again.” A H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, O’Rourke is a weekly columnist for the Daily Beast, contributing editor for the Weekly Standard and a frequent panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”
Bernstein and O’Rourke’s appearance is part of the annual Chancellor’s Speaker Series, sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. The series brings influential thought-leaders to the Queen City to address a wide range of topics; previous speakers included Erskine Bowles/Alan Simpson, Michael Beschloss, Jeffrey Toobin and Charles Best.