PVLF 2025

Final Chapters of Book Fest 2024

Discover insights from New Orleans Book Festival 2024: Trump's rise, online education, America's founding, fictional thrillers, da Vinci's art, social media impacts.
on Mar 18, 2024

The third day of the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University kicked off with a crowded Kendall Cram Auditorium. Overflow spectators lined the room's walls to watch Kurt Andersen and Lawrence O'Donnell discuss Donald Trump's election to the president.

Andersen and O'Donnell discussed the circumstances that made Trump's presidency feasible.
O'Donnell identified one of these conditions as a societal trend away from humility and toward ego and self-promotion. Then came reality TV, which launched Trump's character. Andersen described how this narcissism permeated everything: "Show business became a part of every business."

Fox News' founding in 1996 and Sarah Palin's selection as a vice presidential nominee in 2008 were "various tears in the fabric of culture," according to Andersen, which led to Trump's presidency.

In the next time block, Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, spoke with Walter Isaacson on the Ford Foundation Stage in McAlister Auditorium on the future of online education in the age of artificial intelligence.

The educators explored how generative AI could improve educational accessibility by providing one-on-one instruction to any student with computer access. Khan claimed Khan Academy’s new AI instructor, Khanmigo, may be a “on-demand” tutor for pupils.

"I'm [from] a computer science background and [Khanmigo] is a better tutor," Khan went on to say. "When I watch my own children use it, [Khanmigo] is far more patient.”

Filmmaker Ken Burns hosted a panel discussion with historians Heather Cox Richardson and Jeffrey Rosen about how America's founding texts provide perspectives on current concerns.

According to the Declaration of Independence, the clash between egalitarian ideas and slavery would cause nearly a century of turmoil.

The panelists stated that the disparity between American ideas and behavior persists today.

"The American [Revolutionary] War is over," Richardson stated. "The American Revolution is still going on."

Stacey Abrams, a politician and author, met with television anchor and screenwriter Lawrence O'Donnell to talk about her latest fictional political thriller, "Rogue Justice."

Abrams said her work was inspired by the premise that the constitution does not specify what to do when a Supreme Court justice is unable to perform their duties.

Abrams began writing her novel over a decade ago, but no one believed the fantastical events she detailed could be true until the 2020 election.

O'Donnell, a scriptwriter for the fictional political TV series "The West Wing," said he, too, has seen reality catch up to fiction.

Burns and Isaacson discussed Burns' new project, which is a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci's curiosity. Following their discussion, audience members were treated to an extended sneak peek of the new film.

Burns said his passion with da Vinci originates from the artist's love of study and his scientific approach to art, which "speaks directly to the questions that animate us [as humans]."

Isaacson and Burns also talked on the cinematic aspects of da Vinci's most famous paintings.

"Certainly in The Last Supper it's almost like a Ken Burns documentary," Isaacson went on to say. "It's moving."

Authors Emmeline Clein and Lisa Wade concluded the day's proceedings by discussing how social media impacts self-image in the context of disordered eating and hookup culture on college campuses.

Clein stated that social media has been stigmatized as a venue for young women to reinforce disordered eating, but it is also a place for those who have been rejected by traditional treatment facilities to find validation and help.