Zagoren Lecture Honors Women’s History Month & Features Whitney Pennington Rodgers ‘07
“Rising Above the Noise: Disrupting Communication in a Distracted, Divided World”
In honor of Women’s History Month in March, the AADC proudly presents the 2024 Virtual Zagoren Lecture, “Rising Above the Noise: Disrupting Communication in a Distracted, Divided World” on Thursday evening, March 21, at 7:30 pm ET via Zoom. Register online to join us for this virtual event.
We’re living in uncharted times for information exchange, says Whitney Pennington Rodgers ’07, Current Affairs Curator at TED, who will deliver this year’s lecture. Our free virtual event with this award-winning journalist, curator, and storyteller will address today’s most urgent topics in her lecture, “Rising Above the Noise: Disrupting Communication in a Distracted, Divided World.” Our lecturer will unpack the challenges we face communicating meaningful ideas in an increasingly divisive climate.
Never before have news, ideas and content been so readily available as through the internet and social media. Virtually anyone can know anything at any time. This access has ushered in a golden age of innovation and connectedness while simultaneously upending communication as we know it — creating conditions for click bait, echo chambers and misinformation to thrive.
At best, it’s hard to know which voices and sources to trust in the media. At worst, freedom of speech is on the line.
Pennington Rodgers will examine this current moment in the media, unpack the challenges we face communicating meaningful ideas in an increasingly divisive climate, and explore how we can share critical ideas and information with lasting impact.
The virtual, free Zagoren Lecture, is open to our AADC community, the Rutgers community and the public. This annual lecture features an alumna and honors the late, long-time former AADC Executive Director Adelaide Marcus Zagoren ’40. Daughter Laura Zagoren Baron ‘70 continues to honor her mother’s legacy, playing an integral part in the speaker selection and through her continuing involvement and support of our AADC community.
About Our Speaker
Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Class of 2007, is an award-winning journalist and the Current Affairs Curator at TED where she curates and interviews speakers who address the most urgent topics of the moment.
Prior to joining TED, Whitney was a video journalist at NBC News where she produced for NBC’s primetime news magazines Dateline NBC and Sunday Night. Whitney earned a duPont-Columbia Award and a News & Documentary Emmy for her contributions to the Dateline NBC hour, “The Cosby Accusers Speak” — an extensive group interview with 27 of the women who accused entertainer Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct.
Whitney has worked at NBC’s in-house production company Peacock Productions, The TODAY Show, Nightly News, Rock Center and New Jersey-centric public affairs shows Caucus: New Jersey and One-on-One with Steve Adubato. Prior to beginning her career in media, she had a short stint as a fourth-grade teacher through the Teach for America program.
Whitney is a proud Douglass College alumna and a Rutgers University graduate. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts in journalism and media studies. She completed her Master’s of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where she produced a documentary about recruitment of nonblack students at historically black colleges and universities.
