Imagine, if you will, Ted Koppel’s mantlepiece. What rests upon it could topple it: Forty-two Emmys. Eight Peabodys. Eleven Overseas Press Club awards. And so many more. There’s a reason he’s received so many prestigious prizes– for 25 years, he anchored ABC’s Nightline, a nightly news show that fed our appetite for information and the latest news during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Koppel’s show became a trusted source for news, domestic and foreign policy insight, and cultural trends. Following his retirement from “Nightline,” Koppel continues to exercise his journalism chops by contributing to BBC News, NBC News, and is a senior news analyst for National Public Radio.
Ted Koppel’s latest investigative reporting takes him to the frontiers of computer hacking attacks, and its perils to our government and our personal lives. Koppel explores the very real threat of cyberattacks as weapons of mass destruction. In his new book, Lights Out, (which is included with every ticket for this program), Ted Koppel exposes our lack of preparation for a cyberattack on our urban power grids– a catastrophe which according to experts, including President Obama, is not a matter of if, but of when such an attack would occur. The impact on our lives is unimaginable, unthinkable. If Lights Out were written as a novel, it would be a terrifying thriller, another chapter in the Mission: Impossible series, for example. But this is non-fiction.
Cyberattacks aren’t terribly funny. But Paula Poundstone is. And she helps to make everything more clear with her straightforward questions and hilariously irreverent insights. We are not alone in our estimation that Paula is one of the funniest comedians working today: Comedy Central ranks her as one of the best American comedians of all time. She was the first woman to host the Washington Press Club dinner, and is the spokesperson for the esteemed American Library Association. She’s had comedy specials on HBO and Bravo, has appeared regularly on late night television. You can catch her comedy acts all over the country, and hear her on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me,” NPR’s most popular radio show thanks to Paula.
