Former NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg to headline Leopold Lecture

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Former NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg to headline Leopold Lecture

Author and award-winning legal affairs correspondent will speak at Northwestern Oct. 21

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Nina Totenberg, veteran legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, will be the featured speaker for Northwestern University's 36th annual Leopold Lecture.

Totenberg will reflect on the U.S. Supreme Court, top legal issues affecting everyday Americans and the important cases being considered by the court. Her conversation partner is Laura Beth Nielsen, Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition Chair and professor of sociology at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern.

The lecture will take place at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 21 at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St. in Evanston. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Members of the public can submit a question and register online here.

As dean of the press corps covering the Supreme Court and one of the country's most respected journalists, Totenberg has covered headline-making judicial cases for more than 40 years for NPR, where her reports were regularly featured on "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition" and "Weekend Edition."

Totenberg is the author of "Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships" (Simon and Schuster, 2022), a tribute to her nearly 50-year friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

In addition to winning every major journalism award in broadcasting, Totenberg holds the distinction of being the first radio journalist to have won the National Press Foundation's "Broadcaster of the Year" award in 1998. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame by the Museum of Broadcast Communications in 2023.

About the Annual Leopold Lecture
The Leopold Lecture series has brought a variety of distinguished speakers to the Northwestern campus, including U.S. Senators Russ Feingold and Richard Lugar, presidential nominee George McGovern and former Mexico President Vicente Fox.Professor Leopold's undergraduate students established the Richard W. Leopold Lectureship within the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in 1990 to honor the late eminent diplomatic historian and dedicated educator. For more than 40 years, most of them at Northwestern, Leopold distinguished himself as an attentive teacher.

Generations of undergraduate students, many of whom enjoy successful careers as educators, writers, lawyers and public officials, remember Leopold's scholarship, teaching and friendship. The lectureship honors Leopold's contribution to the University and recognizes his enduring influence on the lives of his students.