Des Moines, September 30 — On the campus of Drake University, a significant event is unfolding as the 4th Annual Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business approaches, featuring prominent journalists Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson as headline speakers for the event titled ‘Decoding America’s Tech Moment.’ The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Knapp Center on Drake’s campus in Des Moines, Iowa. The event is free and open to the public, with a livestream available at live.drake.edu.
Karen Hao is a best-selling author and award-winning reporter specializing in artificial intelligence; she was the first journalist to profile OpenAI and authored the book ‘EMPIRE OF AI,’ which became an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, a New York Times notable book, and winner of six awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. She serves on the board of AI Now, co-created the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, and launched the AI Resist List to highlight grassroots efforts challenging dominant AI narratives.
Nicholas Thompson has been CEO of The Atlantic since 2021, during which the publication won three National Magazine Awards for General Excellence, three Pulitzer Prizes, and was named Digiday’s Publisher of the Year. Prior to The Atlantic, he was editor-in-chief of WIRED and editor of NewYorker.com.
He is also a cofounder of The Atavist (sold to WordPress) and Speakeasy.ai (sold to Amplica Labs), a board member at ProRata.AI and The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and author of ‘The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War.’ Thompson produces a daily tech policy video for LinkedIn and has approximately two million followers across social media platforms.
Dr. Alanah Mitchell, dean of Drake’s Zimpleman College of Business, stated that the university is ‘thrilled to welcome Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson—two of the foremost tech journalists in the world—to our campus,’ emphasizing their ‘deep, behind-the-scenes knowledge of the rapidly evolving tech industry and the vast implication of AI’ as critical to public understanding of technology’s impact on society.
The Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business is a signature event of the Zimpleman College of Business, funded by a gift from the Bucksbaum family, and aims to bring distinguished leaders in business and economics to Des Moines to engage students, faculty, and the community.
