2025 Howard & Virginia Bennett Forum on the Presidency

 

TRUMAN’S LEGACY. AMERICA’S FUTURE.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

6:30 PM CST  |  Onstage & Online
Unity Temple on the Plaza  |  Kansas City, Missouri
Please note: This is a Members-only ticketed event.

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Eighty years after President Truman helped end World War II and laid the groundwork for a new era of international cooperation and democratic alliances, the world faces rising tensions and growing uncertainty about America’s direction—at home and abroad.

Featuring political commentator Anna Palmer (Punchbowl News) in conversation with historian David Greenberg and U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake, the 2025 Bennett Forum on the Presidency will examine the world Truman built and the state of his legacy.

What can we learn from 1945—and how should it guide us in 2025?

[CC] This event includes real-time closed captioning for all attendees.

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The 19th Annual Bennett Forum on the Presidency is offered exclusively to Truman Library Institute members and VIP guests. 

• Student / Teacher level = 1 free ticket
• Basic level = 2 free tickets
• Family level and higher = 4 free tickets

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Not yet a Member? Annual memberships start at just $35 and offer nationwide benefits.

JOIN & RSVP

When you activate your Membership, you will receive an email with your Members-0nly registration link for the 19th Annual Bennett Forum on the Presidency. 

Featured Guests

AMBASSADOR JEFF FLAKE recently served as the United States Ambassador to The Republic of Türkiye.

Prior to his ambassadorial service, Ambassador Flake represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 2013 to 2019. He also represented Arizona in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013. Before entering Congress, Ambassador Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, and he directed the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia during that nation’s transition to independence.

Ambassador Flake holds a BA degree in International Relations and an MA degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University. He has guest lectured at Stanford, Princeton and Yale, and he was a Resident Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Arizona State University, and as Chairman of the Board of World Trade Center Utah. He also serves as a visiting fellow at Brigham Young University.

In January of 2025, Ambassador Flake was knighted by the Swedish Government, receiving the “Royal Order of the Polar Star” for his pivotal role in securing Sweden’s accession to NATO while serving as Ambassador to Türkiye. He is the author of the New York Times best seller Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.

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DAVID GREENBERG is a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a frequent commentator in the national news media on contemporary politics and public affairs. He specializes in American political and cultural history. His most recent book, John Lewis: A Life (Simon & Schuster, 2024), a biography of the civil rights hero and congressman, has been called “panoramic and richly insightful” by Brent Staples in the New York Times Book Review, and a book that “sets a new standard” for political biography. His first book, Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image (W.W. Norton, 2003) won the Washington Monthly Annual Political Book Award, the American Journalism History Award, and Columbia University’s Bancroft Dissertation Award.

Formerly a full-time journalist, Greenberg is now a contributing editor to POLITICO Magazine, where he writes a regular column. He previously served as managing editor and acting editor of The New Republic (and later a contributing editor); at Slate he pioneered the History Lesson column, the first-ever column by a professional historian to regularly analyze current affairs in light of their history. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Daedalus and many other scholarly and popular publications.

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ANNA PALMER, moderator, is a trusted voice on the latest—and most accurate—news on congressional leadership, the lobbying industry, presidential campaigns, and the politics of governing. She is the co-founder and CEO of Punchbowl News, a news community focused on power, people, and politics in Washington. Named after the Secret Service’s nickname for the Capitol, the company covers congressional leadership and the White House, and tracks the industries and companies trying to influence them.

From 2016 to 2020, Palmer worked alongside fellow Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman to co-author the top-rated POLITICO Playbook franchise. Together, they chronicled President Donald Trump’s first term and his relationship with top Congressional leaders. Under their leadership, the platform more than doubled in revenue and tripled its readership. They also created a widely acclaimed daily podcast, afternoon newsletter, and event series featuring interviews with movers and shakers in business and politics from across the country about pressing issues of the day. Palmer joined POLITICO in 2011 and was the publication’s senior Washington correspondent. She also led Women Rule, POLITICO’s nation-leading platform aimed at expanding leadership opportunities for women, and hosted the critically acclaimed “Women Rule” podcast. In 2019, Palmer and Sherman authored The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America, which told the inside story of Congress in the first two years of the Trump Administration and was an instant New York Times and national bestseller.

In addition to being a high-profile reporter and bestselling author, Palmer has spoken and moderated conversations at the World Economic Forum, the Milken Institute Global Forum, UN General Assembly, Aspen Ideas Festival, Texas Tribune Festival, and SXSW, and is a frequent political commentator on CNN, Fox News, NBC and MSNBC.

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MEMBER RSVP

JOIN & RSVP

Annual memberships start at just $35 and offer nationwide benefits. When you activate your Membership, you will receive an email with your Members-0nly registration link for the 19th Annual Bennett Forum on the Presidency. 

About the Forum on the Presidency

The Howard & Virginia Bennett Forum on the Presidency was established in 2006 by Mary and Michael Johnston to fulfill President Truman’s vision for his presidential library as a “classroom for democracy.”