David French
Thu March 11, 2027 at 6:30PM
Chan Centre, Chan Shun Concert Hall
Get TicketsBundles on sale Nov 12, single tickets on sale Dec 3
about the speaker
David French took an unconventional path to journalism. Born in Alabama and raised in a small town in Kentucky, he attended Lipscomb University in Nashville before graduating from Harvard Law School. He spent years as a commercial litigator before shifting to constitutional law, briefly serving as a lecturer at Cornell Law School in 1999.
In 2006, French obtained an age waiver to join the Army’s JAG Corps. He deployed to Iraq and served with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Diyala Province during the height of the Surge in 2007, earning a Bronze Star.
Over a 21-year legal career, he worked for both commercial and public interest law firms, spending much of it defending free speech, religious freedom, and due process in courtrooms nationwide. French also served as president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
In 2015, French changed careers, joining National Review as a senior writer. He left in 2019 to help launch The Dispatch, later becoming a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and joined The New York Times as a columnist in 2023.
He is a New York Times bestselling author, most recently of Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation, which examines the roots of American polarization and the case for engaging across political divides.
About the series
The return of Donald Trump to the White House has been described as a rupture – from democratic norms, from the post-war alliance system, from established economic models, and from the rules-based international order the United States itself built. Historians remind us, however, the pressures at play in this political moment are not new. American unilateralism, economic disruption, and democratic backsliding have deep roots and did not necessarily arrive with any one administration.
moderator
Andrew Coyne
with David French
Globe and Mail columnist and a weekly panelist on CBC’s The National
Andrew Coyne
with David French
Globe and Mail columnist and a weekly panelist on CBC’s The National
Andrew Coyne is a columnist for The Globe and Mail. Raised in Winnipeg, he is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. He has worked previously for The National Post, Maclean’s and Southam News, contributing as well to a wide range of other publications in Canada and abroad, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and The Walrus. He is also a weekly panelist on CBC’s The National.
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