effective September 27, 2018 The Cardinal Conversations website can be found at cardinalconversations.stanford.edu with information related to upcoming events and programming.

This page serves as an archive for the events hosted at the Hoover Institution from January - June 2018.

In January 2018 Stanford University launched a new series of conversations on burning issues of our time, featuring some of today’s leading thinkers. The series was jointly hosted by the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the Freeman Spogli Institute and has now transitioned to the Office of the Provost.

At a time when attempts are being made on both the far left and the far right to limit what can be discussed on university campuses, Stanford’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and provost, Persis Drell, signaled their commitment to free speech. On November 7, 2017, they announced that preparations were underway for “a series of discussions with well-known individuals who hold contrasting views on consequential subjects.”

The idea for this series originated with a diverse group of undergraduates, with views ranging across the political spectrum, all of whom felt that more could be done to air contested issues on our campus. The series was given the name “Cardinal Conversations,” because it seemed better to have conversations than either lectures or debates.

Cardinal Conversations events are exclusively for current full-time Stanford University students, faculty, and staff.