A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist and Author Jodi Kantor

Please join us in celebrating Women's History Month as we welcome best-selling author and prize-winning investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, whose work reveals hidden truths about power, law, gender, technology and culture. Kantor will be in conversation with author Debby Applegate about her reporting and forthcoming book, How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work, in which she offers wisdom, strategy and a set of aspirations for young people to launch their careers and last their whole lives.

In recognition of Jodi Kantor's writing and many accomplishments, we are proud to be presenting her with the 2026 Grodin Family Fine Writers Award.

Over the years, Kantor's reporting has led to a now-ubiquitous invention that helps new mothers; paternity leave for workers at Amazon, the second-largest U.S. employer; and a global reckoning that shifted legal, corporate and social standards for treatment of women.

For the past two years, she has been working to shed light on one of our most critical, powerful and least-understood institutions: the Supreme Court. From the behind-the-scenes story of how the justices overturned the constitutional right to abortion, to the  leak of that opinion, and the display of provocative flags at the home of a justice associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Kantor's work has raised public concern and renewed calls from lawmakers to address ethical standards at the court.

In 2017, Kantor and fellow journalist Megan Twohey broke the story of decades of sexual abuse allegations against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Their work helped shift the culture, protect women around the world, and spur a chain of truth-telling that continues to this day. Along with a team of colleagues, they were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service, journalism's highest award. Kantor and Twohey went on to write She Said, about the Weinstein investigation, which the Washington Post called "an instant classic of investigative journalism," among accolades from many other publications. A 2021 film adaptation was called "a new entry in the pantheon of great newspaper movies." The two also adapted the book into Chasing the Truth, a guide for young journalists who want to tackle difficult stories.

From 2007 to 2013, Kantor covered President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Her best-selling book, The Obamas, about their behind-the-scenes adjustment to the jobs of president and first lady was published in 2012.

Kantor became a journalist by dropping out of law school - and never looking back. In 2003, she became the Arts & Leisure editor at The New York Times, and the youngest person in memory to edit a section of the newspaper. She has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Columbia Alumni medal, the George Polk Award, and Time Magazine's list of 100 most influential people of the year. Her work has earned praise across the political spectrum. In 2025 she joined The New York Times' Washington bureau's Supreme Court team full-time.  Kantor has a special love for mentoring younger journalists.

Debby Applegate

Applegate's first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Her second book, Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age, was a New York Times Editor's Choice for Best Books of 2021, and won an Earphones Award for best audiobooks of 2021.

There will be a Q & A period at the end of the program.

Elm Street Books will be on site to take orders for How to Start, which will be published on April 21, 2026, and sell copies of She Said, which Jodi Kantor will sign. A portion of the proceeds goes to Wilton Library.

Registration required. Please register online, or call (203) 762-6334.