An Evening with Ben Rhodes in conversation with L. Felice Gorordo

Author Ben Rhodes visits to celebrate the release of his new book, “All We Say,” in conversation with moderator L. Felice Gorordo. Tickets are required; each ticket admits two guests and includes one copy of “All We Say” ($35 plus tax), distributed upon entry. Additional copies will be available for purchase at the event.

In “All We Say,” Rhodes traces 250 years of American identity through fifteen speeches, some legendary, others nearly forgotten, that have shaped the country’s ongoing argument with itself. From Benjamin Franklin’s appeal for compromise at the Constitutional Convention to Donald Trump’s rhetoric against democratic norms, Rhodes examines how oratory has both reflected and redirected the nation. Drawing on his decade writing for President Barack Obama, he explores what makes a speech endure and why the spoken word holds a singular power in American democracy. The result is a portrait of a nation caught between two competing stories: one rooted in inheritance and exclusion, the other in equality and belonging.

Rhodes is the author of the New York Times bestsellers After the Fall and The World as It Is, co-host of Pod Save the World, and a former deputy national security advisor to President Obama. The evening will be moderated by Felice Gorordo, CEO of Embark and former U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank.