If there is one thing that Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter Nicholas Kristof has learned over his decades of reporting for The New York Times, it’s this: Side by side with the worst of humanity, you always see the best. It’s a lesson he’s taken to heart. In this inspiring talk based on his upcoming memoir, Kristof shares some of these stories and his life as a journalist, from growing up on a farm in small-town Oregon to reporting from every corner of the world. He’ll talk about some of the greatest members of his profession and introduce you to extraordinary people he has met. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic and continue to dedicate his life to the pursuit of truth.

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering global humanitarian crises and suffering around the world, New York Times columnist and author Nicholas Kristof thought he had seen it all. But what has surprised him the most are the problems and hopelessness happening right here in the United States. An epidemic of despair, he calls it. But it’s not all bad news. In this talk, Nicolas shares how we can solve today’s problems and make a difference in homelessness, addiction, educational failure and poverty, and how young people are needed to play a crucial role.

This generation of students is full of passion to change the world, but they need tools to do so more effectively. Nicholas Kristof offers specific advice, drawn on his years as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and human rights advocate. His talk provides valuable guidance on whether to start a new organization or join an existing one, how to tell stories and build empathy, and whether to focus on needs at home or those abroad. He argues that although students sometimes perceive the problems of the world as too vast to affect, in fact, it's entirely possible for students to have an impact on the world. And as they help others, they'll also enrich themselves.

Based on their new, critically acclaimed book, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, Kristof and WuDunn share a harrowing account and detailed look into the epidemic of depression, unemployment, poverty and addiction that is plaguing the working class across America – and the government's failure to address it. Available to speak separately or together, Nick and Sheryl are passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless and telling the hard truths that need to be told. Known for their moving storytelling and incomparable insights into the events that shape our world, they leave audiences inspired to drive change, take on challenges and make a difference.

Nick Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn’s New York Times bestseller, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope has been called an “absolute must-read for anyone working in the field of healthcare, public policy and public health.” Weaving sobering data about America’s explosion of addiction, chronic disease, and suicide with the moving personal stories of Kristof’s own hometown in rural Oregon and their knowledge of healthcare around the world, the Pulitzer Prize winners provide an unflinching look at the root causes of diseases of despair and America’s declining life expectancy. Their multifaceted solutions champion public health approaches that include greater access to healthcare, understanding the social determinants of health, childhood education, addiction treatment vs. incarceration and addressing the connection between adverse childhood episodes and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Appearing individually or together, they place human faces on the impact of approaches and policies, providing a hopeful way forward from a crisis of the vulnerable to greater equity, access and health.

Nicholas Kristof explores a revolution now underway in philanthropy, giving individuals much greater chance to have impact at home and abroad. Drawing from his best-selling book and PBS documentary, he looks at donations, volunteering and advocacy, as well as hybrids between non-profits and for-profits. He cites the revolution in evidence-based interventions, such as early childhood education – and even introduces rats that have been trained to sniff out land mines as an example of innovation.

Drawing from his best-selling book, Half the Sky, which became an acclaimed PBS series filmed in 10 countries, Nicholas Kristof contends that the greatest moral challenge of the 21st century, akin to fighting slavery in the 19th century or totalitarianism in the 20th century, is gender inequity around the world.  He explores the kinds of repression women face, including sexual violence, early marriage, female genital mutilation, forced prostitution and maternal mortality, which claims one woman every 90 seconds. He also identifies solutions in health care, education and economic empowerment for women and girls. Above all, he notes that there is a huge gain to be had if a society educates girls and ushers those educated women into the labor force. Kristof also explores areas in which the West has more to do at home to create gender equity, including domestic violence and sex trafficking.

Ever year in America, some 100,000 underage girls are trafficked into the sex trade. These are mostly home-grown American girls, and they are victims of a crime – yet too often, they are the ones arrested even as the pimps and johns go free. Nicholas Kristof has spent decades covering sex trafficking at home and abroad and offers some extraordinary stories and lessons from his work.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner talks about how he journeyed from a sheep farm in Oregon to covering wars and genocide around the world. Nicholas Kristof invites audiences to wrestle with ethical dilemmas that he faced: Do you help a dissident flee a repressive country, do you lie to a warlord, and should you listen to a president's private conversation with his political adviser that you've inadvertently recorded? Kristof relates his frustrations with what he sees as America's overuse of the military toolbox around the world and underuse of education and women's empowerment toolboxes, and his conviction that women's rights are one of the great challenges worldwide in the 21st century. Finally, he explains how it is that someone can spend decades covering genocide, sex trafficking, leprosy, war and starvation and yet emerge feeling pretty cheery about humanity and about our capacity to do the right thing.