Upcoming Speakers

Mike Breen and Walt “Clyde” Frazier

Tuesday, September 29 | 7:30 p.m.
Mayo Performing Arts Center | Morristown, NJ

Mike Breen

Veteran NBA play-caller Mike Breen is the lead voice for the NBA on ESPN and ABC, including the NBA Finals and NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC. Breen has called the NBA’s premiere event a record-setting 21 times through the 2025-2026 season.

Breen is also the lead play-by-play announcer for New York Knicks telecasts on MSG Network alongside courtside partner, Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier. The duo first started calling Knicks games together on the radio in 1991 and have been part of MSG Network’s telecasts since 1998.

Breen has done NFL play-by-play for NBC and FOX and covered the WNBA at NBC, as well as men’s and women’s basketball at the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

Breen won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Personality/Play-by-Play in 2022, 2023, and 2024. He was honored with the Sports Play-by-Play Award and Governors’ Award at the 2nd Annual New York Sports Emmy Awards in 2024. Breen is also the recipient of the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award. In 1998, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association named Breen “Broadcaster of the Year” in his native state of New York.

A Fordham University graduate, Breen began his career in radio at WEOK/WPDH in Poughkeepsie, New York. He worked in local radio and television in the New York area, including WNBC-AM, SportsChannel, MSG and, most prominently, on Imus in the Morning on WFAN-AM and simulcast on MSNBC.

Walt “Clyde” Frazier

Legendary New York City sports icon, Walt “Clyde” Frazier can be seen and heard at every New York Knicks game weighing in with solid sports commentary and well-seasoned talking points. Known to younger basketball generation as “the voice of the Knicks”, Walt Frazier dishes out his trademark rhymes and wows them courtside with his fashionable styles, blending colors, textures and patterns into a mesh of cool retro and today’s latest trends.

Walt Frazier added another dimension to his already colorful career in April of 2012, when he partnered with Michael Weinstein of Ark Restaurants, Corp and opened Clyde Frazier’s Wine & Dine in NYC on 10th Ave and 37th street, a celebration of the unique style of Clyde Frazier. Frazier’s likeness can now also be seen on “The Ride of Fame” double-decker, open-top tour bus riding around NYC with sightseers every day.

Drafted to the NY Knicks in 1967 and their first-round pick, Walt Frazier is one of the most decorated players in the history of the game. Inducted into the basketball Hall Of Fame in 1987, he also holds membership distinction in the Top 50 Players in NBA History and is a seven-time, NBA All-Star.

The star basketball player shows no signs of slowing down. Walt Frazier’s career has been a paradigm of diversity. With his sports commentary, for 10 years he was seen in frequently-aired television commercials touting “Just for Men”. He has endorsed the PUMA sneaker brand since the ‘70s and participates in many motivational speaking engagements.

Walt Frazier also founded The Walt Frazier Foundation in 1985 with a mission to help children, through mentoring programs and education. The organization provides internships to help youngsters get off to a good start in their chosen professions. Walt Frazier has a solid commitment to sharing his expertise with young, future basketball players at his summer camp.

Currently, he is at work on his 8th book, which focuses on health and fitness and is a testimony to how he lives his life — eating healthy, exercising regularly and practicing yoga. Walt Frazier was a spokesman for the NBA’s “Dribble to Stop Diabetes”, a national campaign encouraging fans to be active, make healthy lifestyle choices, and to learn more about diabetes prevention and management. He was a spokesman for Healthfirst’s healthy living campaign, going to schools and communities promoting better choices with eating.

Michael Douglas
Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning actor, producer, and author

Moderated by Ben Mankiewicz, Primetime Host of Turner Classic Movies

Monday, November 2 | 7:30 p.m.
Mayo Performing Arts Center | Morristown, NJ

Michael Douglas is a rare Hollywood powerhouse who has achieved pinnacle success as both an elite actor and an independent, Oscar-winning producer. Douglas’s early career firmly established his dual-threat capability to lead in front of the camera and drive culture from behind it. In 1975, he broke into independent feature production with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a masterpiece that won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and grossed over $180 million. He followed this landmark success by producing and starring in the politically influential nuclear thriller The China Syndrome in 1979. By the 1980s, Douglas was actively defining the cinematic landscape. He doubled as actor and producer for the massive romantic- adventure hit Romancing the Stone before starring in two of 1987’s biggest cultural milestones: the psychological phenomenon Fatal Attraction and Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. His definitive portrayal of ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the latter earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. This momentum carried through the 1990s and early 2000s, cementing his versatility with genre-defining hits like Basic Instinct, David Fincher’s The Game, and the multi-Academy Award-winning crime-drama Traffic.

Adapting effortlessly to the modern media landscape, Douglas has continued to dominate premium television and major cinematic universes in recent years. He brought his legendary screen presence to global blockbuster territory by portraying Dr. Hank Pym across Marvel’s highly successful Ant-Man trilogy and Avengers: Endgame. Concurrently, his work in prestige television has garnered immense critical acclaim. He earned an Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for his transformative role as Liberace in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra , and later starred in Netflix’s hit comedy series The Kominsky Method, capturing a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations across its three- season run. In 2024, Douglas took on the historical title role of Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ limited series Franklin, continuing his lifelong tradition of anchoring high-profile, impactful storytelling.

Beyond his cinematic achievements, Douglas’ legacy is defined by historic accolades and dedicated philanthropy. Appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan, he has spent decades advocating for nuclear non-proliferation and the control of small arms. His profound impact on the arts has been recognized with the industry’s highest honors, including the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Producers Guild Award, and the New York Film Society’s Charlie Chaplin Award. Internationally, he was named a “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” in France and holds the distinction of being the only American ever awarded two French César Awards for Career Achievement.

Deeply committed to supporting his peers, Douglas hosted the Michael Douglas and Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament for over a decade, raising more than $13 million for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, proudly proclaiming, “We are an industry that takes care of their own.”

In his memoir, One Helluva Ride, Douglas brings readers on a journey from his childhood to the present, offering an unfilitered view into growing up in his father’s shadow, the twelve films that defined his career, his personal struggles with infidelity, substance abuse, and cancer, and the storybook marriage to Catherine Zeta-Jones that changed his life.

Michael Douglas is a living legend who, in sharing his journey, offers lessons for building a better career, a better life, and a better world.

Ben Mankiewicz is the primetime host of Turner Classic Movies. When he made his TCM debut more than 20 years ago in September 2003, he became only the second host hired in the network’s history. During his career at TCM, he has introduced thousands of movies on the air. Additionally, he’s become one of the best interviewers in the business, leading thoughtful and entertaining long-form conversations with more than two hundred of the industry’s top talents, including Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, Sophia Loren, Martin Scorsese, Harrison Ford, Warren Beatty, Spike Lee, Robert Redford, Pam Grier, Quentin Tarantino, Faye Dunaway, Lou Gossett, Jr., and Michael Douglas. Oh, and Tom Hanks.

Mike Francesa and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo
Sports commentators and iconic radio host duo of Mike and the Mad Dog

Monday, March 15, 2027 | 8:00 p.m.
Mayo Performing Arts Center | Morristown, NJ

Pioneer. Broadcasting icon. Radio legend.

All describe Mike Francesa, the voice of New York sports for two generations and widely recognized as the no.1 sports-talk show host in radio history.

Francesa dominated the airwaves on WFAN for over 35 years; first teaming with Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo for 19 years to create the legendary “Mike & the Mad Dog” program, acclaimed to this day as the best and most important sports-talk program ever. Later he continued that dominance as a solo performer until stepping away in 2018.

Intelligent, opinionated and highly entertaining, Mike was the first local sportscaster to be named to the National Radio Hall of Fame and is a member of multiple Halls and the winner of multiple Marconi Awards (radio’s highest honor). In a poll of radio’s Top 100 all-time performers Mike and Howard Cosell were the only sports personalities to finish in the top 25. (Cosell 14th and Francesa 23rd).

Francesa began his broadcasting career at CBS Sports, where he spent 14 years broadcasting the NFL, college football and the NCAA college basketball championship. A fixture on television, Mike created a Sunday night sports program for NBC, which runs to this day, and also had programs on MSG and the YES Network.

In recent years Francesa has worked exclusively for Rush Street Interactive. The popular Mike Francesa Podcast can be found on the Bet Rivers Network. His enduring presence has helped grow the Bet Rivers brand both nationally and in New York.

The Long Island native is a graduate of St. John’s University and he has been honored with the school’s President’s Medal, the institution’s highest award. Mike and his wife, Roe, have three children Jack, Emily and Harrison.

Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo
SiriusXM Host, ESPN’s “First Take” Contributor

Renowned sports talk personality Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo headlines SiriusXM’s sports talk channel Mad Dog Sports Radio, where he hosts its anchor program, Mad Dog Unleashed, live every weekday afternoon. Russo also serves as SiriusXM’s “baseball ambassador,” hosting shows and specials and appearing regularly on the channel to comment on MLB news and issues. Russo joined SiriusXM Radio in 2008.

In 2014, he joined MLB Network to host his first TV-based baseball talk show, High Heat with Christopher Russo, which features Russo’s signature energetic delivery and passionate opinions on all 30 Major League Baseball clubs, plus interviews with players, club personnel, baseball writers and broadcasters. He also makes appearances on ESPN’s First Take each Wednesday.

In 2022, Russo was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Known for having helped popularize the sports talk radio format across the country, Russo is a fan favorite for his feisty, unflinchingly candid approach to talking sports, and the unrestrained, rapid-fire delivery earned him the nickname “Mad Dog.” Russo joined SiriusXM after nearly 20 years in New York hosting the popular Mike and the Mad Dog show.

Russo is the author of two books – The Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time and The Mad Dog Hall of Fame: The Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of The Best In Sports.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and New York Times journalist and bestselling author Frank Bruni

Moderated by Drew University President Hilary Link

Tuesday, April 27, 2027 | 7:30 p.m.
Mayo Performing Arts Center | Morristown, NJ

Bret Stephens is an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times.

Since joining the New York Times in 2017, Stephens has written about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his commentary at the Wall Street Journal, and previously served as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he took at the age of 28. He has reported stories from Gaza to Greenland, and is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder,” published in 2014.

Bret is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder, released in November 2014, and is currently working on a book about the free world. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including three honorary doctorates, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 2022, the government of Russia banned him for life from visiting that country.

In addition to his work at The Times, in 2021 Bret became editor-in-chief of Sapir (sapirjournal.org), a Jewish quarterly published by the Maimonides Fund. The mission of Sapir is to offer ideas for a thriving Jewish future. He is also currently at work on a book about the future of the free world.

Bret was raised in Mexico City and holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an MSc. from the London School of Economics. He sits on numerous academic advisory boards and was a co-founder, with Garry Kasparov, of the Renew Democracy Initiative, an organization dedicated to advancing democratic principles throughout the world.

He and his wife, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic and entrepreneur, live near New York City and have three children.

Frank Bruni is a prominent journalist and bestselling author who has written for The New York Times for over 30 years. During that time, he has worked as a White House correspondent, the Rome bureau chief, the paper’s chief restaurant critic, and an op-ed columnist—the Times’s first openly gay one. He currently writes an enormously popular Opinion-section newsletter and is partnered with Bret Stephens in The Conversation, a weekly feature that models spirited but respectful discussion across the partisan divide. He has made frequent television appearances, including on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Bruni is also the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, teaching courses in journalism and media with an emphasis on ethics and morality. At Duke, he founded and hosts a series of onstage conversations, “Independent Thinkers,” that spotlights people whose views don’t fit tidily into one partisan or ideological box, and who attempt to straddle divides. In his course, “America in the Age of Grievance,” which grew out of his most recent book, The Age of Grievance, he discusses issues that are urgent on campuses today, including free speech and cancel culture.

Bruni is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including The Beauty of Dusk, a memoir detailing his adjustment to the sudden loss of vision in one eye and the acceptance of the reality that the same fate could befall the other at any moment. The result is a poignant and uplifting education in vulnerability, resilience, and optimism. It reached #5 on the nonfiction bestseller lists and earned rave reviews from people and publications including Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, People, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

The Age of Grievance is a deep dive into why Americans are so angry and what we can do about it. He makes the case that we’ve conflated legitimate causes and petty complaints, creating a condition of constant self-victimization. We obsess over how we’ve been wronged and who’s to blame, rather than focusing on civil, productive dialogue and constructive action. This culture of grievance has become the enemy of progress and poses a threat to American democracy.

“In this feverish era for America and the world, Frank Bruni is the doctor we need. His diagnoses of our fractured politics are clear and compelling. His prescriptions are designed to heal. And his bedside manner—the wise, charming voice that has made him one of America’s most admired commentators—helps the medicine taste like sugar.” —David Von Drehle, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Charlie.

In Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, Bruni attempts to soothe the status-driven panic of students and their parents as they navigate what he calls the “college admissions mania,” and makes the case that being rejected by your first-choice college may be a blessing in disguise.

Bruni is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Randy Shilts Award for his career-long contributions to the LGBTQ community and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Newspaper Columnist. Prior to joining The New York Times, Bruni worked at the New York Post and the Detroit Free Press, where he was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing.