Ari Shapiro, host of NPR’s All Things Considered, will be the speaker at the 56th Annual Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture.
The event is free and open to the public, and will be Monday, April 21, at 6 p.m. in the University Theatre. Those planning to attend are asked to register in advance.
“All Things Considered” is the most-listened-to afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the U.S., with more than 13 million listeners per week. It began on NPR in 1971.
Shapiro has covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and news from five continents and most of the 50 states. Before becoming an All Things Considered host in 2015, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in London. Shapiro took on that role after four years as White House correspondent during the Obama presidency. In 2012, he embedded with the presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney. He was NPR’s justice correspondent for five years during the George W. Bush administration.
His work has been consistently recognized by his peers. He has won three national Edward R. Murrow awards. He was named “Journalist of the Year” in 2023 by NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ+ journalists.
The Columbia Journalism Review honored him with a laurel for his investigation into disability benefits for injured American veterans. The American Bar Association awarded him the Silver Gavel for exposing the failures of Louisiana’s detention system after Hurricane Katrina. He was the first recipient of the American Judges’ Association’s American Gavel Award for his work on U.S. courts and the American justice system. And at age 25, Shapiro won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for an investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission.
The Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture Series was established in 1966 by the late Howard H (Tim) Hays, then editor of The Press-Enterprise, in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside. Hays spent 51 years at The Press-Enterprise including — later — as owner and publisher for the newspaper. He was a leader in establishing a University of California campus in Riverside. In 1997, his son Tom Hays endowed the lecture and the Hays name was added to the title in honor of Tim Hays. Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corporation, former owner of The Press-Enterprise, has provided generous support for the series.
In recent years, Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture Series presenters have included journalists Michael Barbaro, host of the popular New York Times podcast “The Daily”; Soledad O’Brien of CNN, and Nikole-Hannah Jones of The New York Times.
The lecture will be at 6 p.m. at the University Theatre and is open to the entire campus community and to the public. Chancellor Kim Wilcox will emcee the event, and UCR Creative Writing Professor Susan Straight, a National Book Award finalist, will moderate a Q&A session. A 5 p.m. reception that is free and open to the public at The Barn will precede the lecture.
Audience members can submit questions online ahead of the lecture. Complimentary Parking is available in Lot 6 by registering one's vehicle in advance. Email questions to specialevents@ucr.edu.
