2008-09 Bryan Series speakers Khaled Hosseini and Tim Russert are on Time’s
fifth annual list of the world’s most influential people. The magazine
published the list in its May 12 issue. Hosseini opens the series Oct.
24 and Russert appears Nov. 18.
In describing the selections for the Time
100, editors stated that “Influence is hard to measure, and what we
look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose
discoveries transform the world we live in.”
First Lady
Laura Bush, who wrote Hosseini’s profile, said, “Not many people write
successful first novels. Still fewer are able to change the world with
their writing. Khaled Hosseini has done both.”
Bush
added: “Hosseini’s writing has invited many to look beyond the
post-9/11 stereotypes about his birth country. We have grown to see
Afghanistan as a land of men and women, each with their own hopes and
longings for love.”
Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said
of Russert, “Every Sunday, more than 4 million Americans tune in to
Meet the Press seeking help in trying to understand the issues and the
candidates. They choose that program because Tim Russert is among the
most astute, discerning and relentless pursuers of truth in the nation,
and has been for years.”
Cuomo added: “His extraordinary
success is more than enough to make him respected, but he adds to that
a genuineness as a human being that makes him as easy to like as he is
to admire.”
George Mitchell, who spoke in the Bryan Series in February 2004, was also among the Time 100 this year.
For more information, visit http://www.time.com.