Join us for an evening with Melinda French Gates in conversation with Michele Norris as they discuss Melinda’s book, The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward. Ticket includes admission for one and a hardcover copy of The Next Day. 

In The Next Day, Melinda offers a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, drawing from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. Melinda reflects, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, her life after divorce, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more. 

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all.

Learn more at melindafrenchgates.com. 

Melinda will be donating her proceeds from The Next Day to charitable causes. 

This event is presented in partnership with Politics and Prose.

*GW Community Tickets are offered in-person only at the Lisner Auditorium box office to valid GWorld ID holders while supplies last. GW Community Tickets are 20% off regular price and limited in quantity and location. There is a 2 ticket limit per ID, any additional tickets may be purchased at full price.  All sales are final, no refunds or exchanges. Contact gwticket@gwu.edu for box office opening times.

Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. For over 25 years, Melinda has led efforts to unlock a healthier, more prosperous, more equal future. Today, she heads Pivotal, an organization she formed in 2015 that works to accelerate the pace of progress and advance women’s power and influence in the U.S. and around the world. Previously, she founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, where, for more than two decades, she set the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropy. Melinda is also the author of the bestselling book The Moment of Lift and the creator of Moment of Lift Books, an imprint publishing original nonfiction by visionaries working to unlock a more equal world. 

Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas and attended Duke University, where she received a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics and an MBA. She spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. Melinda has three children—Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe—and lives in Seattle, Washington. 

Michele Norris is one of the most trusted voices in journalism. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity (Simon & Schuster Jan 2024.) The beautifully designed book explores a cauldron of cultural issues during the period bookended by the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and punctuated by a global pandemic, the overturning of Roe v Wade and the storming of the nation’s Capital. Michele is the Host of the podcast, “Your Mama’s Kitchen” produced by Higher Ground Studios. She has also worked as a Columnist for The Washington Post Opinion Section. Her voice will be familiar to followers of public radio, where from 2002 to 2012 she was a host of National Public Radio’s afternoon magazine show, “All Things Considered.” Norris is also the Founding Director of “The Race Card Project,” a Peabody Award Winning narrative archive where people around the world share their experiences, questions, hopes, dreams, laments, and observations about identity—in just six words—as the starting point for conversations about race and belonging. Her work at “The Race Card Project” was the foundation for her new book. Norris is also a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow.

She has received numerous awards for her work, including Emmy, Peabody and Dupont Awards. In 2022 she received the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. Norris was named “Journalist of the Year” in 2009 by the National Association of Black Journalists. Before joining NPR in 2002, Michele spent almost ten years as a TV correspondent for ABC News in the Washington Bureau covering politics, policy and the dynamics of social change. She has also worked as a staff writer for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

Norris was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University and has served as a Sine Fellow at American University. In 2022 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is a judge for The Chancellor Awards and a board member for the Peabody Awards. She is also a board member of the President Obama oral history project at Columbia University and the storytelling committee for the Obama Presidential Center under construction in the South Side of Chicago.