It was my experience at Washington University that really gave me my appreciation for the democratic process.”
Michael Isikoff AB ’74
This month, the Gephardt Institute hosted investigative journalist Michael Isikoff AB ’74, a WashU alumnus and Visiting Civic Fellow.
An award-winning journalist and bestselling author who worked as an investigative reporter for The Washington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and Yahoo News, Isikoff is also the author of four New York Times best-selling books. Read his bio.
“I have to say, I was truly impressed by the WashU students I had the opportunity to talk to,” he said, after taking part in panels and roundtables, and striking up many conversations as he revisited his alma mater. “They were very involved, engaged, interested, and curious about our political process, about the state of our democracy, about the upcoming election. That really leapt out at me.”
On Sept. 9, Isikoff returned to WashU for a three-day visit in which he spoke in a Chancellor’s Fireside Chat, visited classrooms to discuss topics like reporting on international relations and terrorism, and lent expert commentary to a presidential debate.
Jump to: Civic Café Presidential Debate Watch Party | 9/11 panel and guest lectures
Chancellor’s Fireside Chat with Valerie Jarrett and Michael Isikoff AB ‘74
On Monday, Sept. 9, Chancellor Andrew Martin hosted Isikoff and Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Barack Obama Foundation CEO, for a Chancellor’s Fireside Chat in Graham Chapel.
After opening remarks by Gephardt Executive Director Stephanie Kurtzman and in front of a full house of WashU students, alumni, faculty, staff, and guests, the chancellor engaged Jarrett and Isikoff with a series of questions centering on democracy.
“For me, it was my experience at Washington University that really gave me my appreciation for the democratic process, including right here in Graham Chapel,” said Isikoff, who attended WashU during the Vietnam War and was active in social movements on campus, when asked what democracy means to him. “There was nothing I enjoyed more during my time at WashU than being able to hear speakers from all across the political, philosophical, ideological spectrum.”
Jarrett, who served for eight years as a senior advisor to President Barack Obama, explained that she feels democracy is “the best and messiest form of governance.”
“It requires those in positions of power, not the people but the people who were elected by the people, to adhere to the rule of law and to oversee a system that ensures everybody else adheres to the rule of law,” she said. “It requires smooth and orderly transitions of government. It requires people to vote; you can’t be in control of who’s representing you, if you don’t participate in the process.”
After a wide-ranging conversation that included discussions of their education, careers and their thoughts about activism and free speech on college campuses, Rep. Dick Gephardt offered closing remarks.
“We had, through their wisdom and experience, a lot of important observations about what [maintaining a democracy] entails,” he said. “In a democracy, in self government, process is everything. Everything. And what these great people conveyed today is that the job of keeping the process going successfully will never end.”
Read Student Life’s coverage of the Chancellor’s Fireside Chat here.
Civic Café: Presidential Debate Watch Party with Michael Isikoff and Rep. Dick Gephardt
After a day in which Isikoff met for lunch and dinner with student civic leaders—including students from Student Life, where Isikoff was an editor during his time as a WashU student—he joined Rep. Gephardt to provide expert commentary at a special Civic Café on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Civic Café is a dinner-and-dialogue event held on Tuesdays, in which students gather to learn from and discuss civic topics with civic leaders and experts. Because of the timing of the Sept. 10 Presidential Debate, Isikoff and Rep. Gephardt agreed to host a special Civic Café debate watch party and provide expert analysis and commentary.
Rep. Gephardt is an experienced debater after his career of public service, while Isikoff has reported on presidential and federal politics for decades as a journalist.
Most voters want to look at the two human beings that are running against one another, and figure out: Who do I like? Who do I trust? Who do I want to give this responsibility to?”
Rep. Dick Gephardt
While typical Civic Cafés are attended by between 20 and 30 students, an unexpected-but-welcome eager response by the WashU community meant that the Sept. 10 event had to be moved from Gephardt Institute’s home at Stix House, to Hillman Hall where large classrooms could accommodate the 247 students, faculty, and staff members who attended.
The Sept. 10 Civic Café kicked off at 7 p.m. ET with remarks by Kurtzman, then moved into a Q&A session—before the 8 p.m. ET debate start time—in which WashU Votes Co-Chairs Amelia Letson ’25 and Hannah Pignataro ’26 posed debate questions for Rep. Gephardt and Isikoff.
“It was very cool to interview someone who has experience on a debate stage, and then Michael Isikoff obviously has a lot of experience reporting on politics, so it was definitely interesting to get his perspective on it,” Letson said. “I think there is a lot that comes up with debates in real time that you can’t expect, so watching them react to all this was really interesting and fun.”
Rep. Gephardt explained that he ran for the House of Representatives (and won) 14 times in the region, and he debated his opponents in each of those elections.
“Most voters want to look at the two human beings that are running against one another, and figure out: Who do I like? Who do I trust? Who do I want to give this responsibility to?” said Rep. Gephardt. “There are some voters that want to know your position on everything, and you better be competent. But the main thing to me is that you want to make a judgment, a human judgment, about two human beings. Who do I really want to vote for? It’s that simple.”
Letson asked Isikoff about procedural rules and if he felt it would impact the substance of the debate. Isikoff wasn’t sure the rules would make much of a difference,
“The American public pretty much knows everything they’re going to want to know about Donald Trump, right?” he said. “If they think he’s likable, there isn’t anything he’s going to do on that stage that is going to diminish that.
“So, I think this debate is really about [Kamala Harris], and does she show a command of the issues? Does she project gravitas? Does she come off as authentic? I think those are the key questions about this debate.”
Initially, Rep. Gephardt and Isikoff offered commentary on the debate during commercial breaks, but eventually held off until after the debate to offer fuller analyses. Though it was a late night for the audience, most stayed until well after the debate ended to hear from the duo and meet them.
“It’s a testament to how important this election is to our WashU community,” said Kurtzman. “The fact that so many people wanted to watch the debate in community with each other—and to hear from experts like Michael and Rep. Gephardt—that they stayed relatively late into the night, really speaks to our students’ level of attention and engagement with key issues our country is facing on the eve of the presidential election.”
For Pignataro, the Civic Café Presidential Debate Watch Party was an opportunity to not only share important election information, but to get students excited to participate.
“We were really happy to have such a large turnout,” said Pignataro. “Students feel a lot is at stake in this election, and the debate was especially interesting for them because we had such special guests. A lot of people wanted to watch the debate in community, because it’s really fun to talk to your neighbor about what you heard, and discuss those ideas.”
Isikoff speaks at 9/11 panel, joins class sessions, meets with students and faculty
With his long history as an investigative journalist and author, Isikoff was a popular guest around WashU’s campus during his three-day visit.
Upon his arrival on Monday, Sept. 9, Isikoff met with Kurtzman, Rep. Gephardt, and members of the Gephardt Institute staff at Stix House. Following the Chancellor’s Fireside Chat, Isikoff and Rep. Gephardt returned to Stix House for a reception with Gephardt-involved WashU students, National Advisory Council members, and other friends of the Gephardt Institute.
On Tuesday, Sept. 10, Isikoff joined a lunch and roundtable discussion with student civic leaders, facilitated by Gephardt Institute Community Engagement Manager Sarah Nash. Held in the Danforth University Center, the discussion included Civic Scholars, St. Louis Fellows, and student reporters and editors from Student Life, WashU’s student-run newspaper.
Among the highlights of the day was a guest lecture delivered by Isikoff to the “US-China Relations from 1949 to Present” course, taught by Associate Professor Zhao Ma. Isikoff even presented an article on the topic he had written while a student, and described his experiences covering the topic as a professional journalist.
Then on Wednesday, Sept. 11, Isikoff met with WashU School of Law faculty and Dean Stefanie Lindquist for a meet and greet. The brunch event preceded a discussion in Anheuser Busch Hall entitled “Terrorism, Torture, and the Long Legal Shadow of 9/11.”
Isikoff reported extensively on the attack and wrote (with co-author David Corn) the book, “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War.” In the discussion facilitated by MJ Durkee, the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law, he offered insight into the legal missteps in the aftermath of 9/11, including the failures in holding the perpetrators accountable and the resurgence of ISIS following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Before departing WashU that evening, Isikoff reiterated what he learned as he toured his alma mater and met with students, noting that they bucked his perception.
“My general impression of college students in recent years has been they haven’t been all that engaged. They focus on their studies, and they kind of have tuned out a little bit on the world around them,” he said. “And what I found here at Washington University was completely the opposite.”
About Michael Isikoff AB ‘74
Michael Isikoff is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author who has worked as an investigative reporter for The Washington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and Yahoo News. He is the author of four New York Times best-selling books: “Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President and the Plot to Steal an American Election” (with Daniel Klaidman); “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump” (with David Corn); “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War” (also with David Corn) and “Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story,” which chronicled his own reporting of the Monica Lewinsky story.
In 2015, Isikoff wrote and produced “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays,” a widely acclaimed documentary about the FBI’s “sex deviates” program— a film that was screened at the National Archives and won an Edward R. Murrow award. He was the lead reporter on a Newsweek team that won the National Magazine Award for coverage of the events that lead to Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
In 2009, Isikoff was named on a list of the 50 “Best and Most Influential Journalists” in the nation’s capital by Washingtonian magazine. Isikoff graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in 1974 and received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
About Valerie Jarrett
The Honorable Valerie Jarrett is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of the Barack Obama Foundation. She is also a Senior Distinguished Fellow at The University of Chicago Law School. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward.
She serves as Board Chairman of Civic Nation and serves on the boards of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Sweetgreen, Inc., Ariel Investments, The University of Chicago, Sesame Street Workshop, and The Economic Club of Chicago. Jarrett also serves on the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Advisory Board, the Bank of America Enterprise Executive Development Council, and the Microsoft Advisory Council.
Ms. Jarrett was the Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2009-2017 making her the longest-serving senior advisor in history. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. Ms. Jarrett worked throughout her tenure at the White House to mobilize elected officials, business and community leaders, and diverse groups of advocates. She led the Obama Administration’s efforts to expand and strengthen access to the middle class and boost American businesses and our economy. She championed the creation of equality and opportunity for all Americans, and economically and politically empowering women in the United States and around the world. She oversaw the Administration’s advocacy for workplace policies that empower working families, including equal pay, raising the minimum wage, paid leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and affordable childcare, and led the campaigns to reform our criminal justice system, end sexual assault, and reduce gun violence.
Ms. Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company in Chicago, the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago, Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and practiced law for ten years in the private and public sector. She also served as the director of numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards including leadership positions as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, Vice Chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees, Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Chair of Chicago Transit Board.Ms. Jarrett has also received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” Award. Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.