Connie Chung with Walter Isaacson | LIVE from NYPL

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Connie Chung is the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any news program in the U.S. Profoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions, yet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career in a white, male-centered world. Overt sexism was a way of life, but Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories. From showdowns with powerful men to stories behind some of her career-defining reporting, Connie is an unfettered behind-the-scenes tour of a singular life.

Connie Chung speaks about her memoir with biographer and historian Walter Isaacson.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

A trailblazing journalist for NBC, CBS, and ABC, Connie Chung shattered glass ceilings, paving the way for many women and Asians alike. In 1969, at the age of 23, the once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of DC and soon thereafter began working at CBS News as a correspondent.

Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories—battling rival reporters to get scoops that ranged from interviewing Magic Johnson to covering the Watergate scandal—and quickly became a household name. She made history when she became the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor any news program in the country. An entire generation of Asian women were named after her.

Walter Isaacson is a Professor of History at Tulane. He has been the editor of Time Magazine, the CEO and Chairman of CNN, and the CEO of the Aspen Institute. He is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City, a cohost of the PBS show Amanpour & Co., a contributor to CNBC, and host of the podcast Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies.

He is the author of Elon Musk (2023), The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).

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