PBS Reporter, Chicago Tribune Editor And Radio Lab Founder Set For IU Media School's Speaker Series

BLOOMINGTON -- The Indiana University Media School's upcoming spring speaker series will have a strong public broadcasting connection.

PBS correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro, founder of the Under-Told Stories Project; Gerould Kern, editor and senior vice president at the Chicago Tribune; and Radiolab founder and host Jad Abumrad will visit IU Bloomington to deliver talks that are free and open to the public.

Fred de Sam Lazaro

Fred de Sam Lazaro will open the speaker series Jan. 29 with a presentation at 4:30 p.m. in Room 1060 of the Global and International Studies Building, 355 N. Jordan Ave. The title of his presentation will be “Making the Foreign Less Foreign: The Under-Told Stories Project.”

A PBS NewsHour correspondent since 1985, De Sam Lazaro has reported from more than 60 countries, covering topics that often are under-reported in mainstream media. In 2015 alone, he searched for stories in China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Gerould Kern

Gerould Kern will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 in the auditorium of Ernie Pyle Hall, 940 E. Seventh St. The title of his presentation will be “Does Mission Matter? Journalism on the Digital Front Line.”
The Chicago Tribune's senior vice president and editor, Kern has worked in newspapers since graduating from IU with a journalism degree in 1971 and has been on the frontlines of the industry’s electronic transition.

He has guided the Tribune’s transformation from a traditional news outlet to a dynamic digital source with unique features, such as Blue Sky innovation, a section of the paper reserved for news about innovations and entrepreneurship; and oversaw the expansion and redesign of the print and digital products.

Jad Abumrad

Jad Abumrad will wrap up the series o March 21 with a presentation, "Gut Churn," at 7 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.

Abumrad blends his interests in music and storytelling for his innovative radio show, Radiolab, which now reaches more than a million people each week -- an audience on public radio second only to that of "This American Life."

With co-host Robert Krulwich, Abumrad presents a variety of topics -- including an interview with the country’s first transgender mayor and a scientific perspective piece on the Ebola outbreak -- with original music and commentary complementing the interviews.