Before there were Twitter followers and multimedia platforms, and before there were journalists whose individual brands rivaled their employers, there was Bill Kurtis. With his trademark baritone, Bill was the iconic WBBM-TV
news anchor known to generations of Chicagoans. He famously helped break one of the biggest scandals in the Vietnam War—the Agent Orange contamination of American soldiers. Retiring from CBS after 30 years, Bill made science a thrill ride on his Peabody Award winning PBS series, The New Explorers. He hosted hundreds of episodes of Cold Case Files and Investigative Reports on A&E, and American Greed on CNBC produced by
his own company, Kurtis Productions. Bill also co-hosted NPR’s weekly news quiz program, Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! with Peter Sagal for 12 years, retiring in May of this year. His memoir, WHIRLWIND: My Life Reporting the News, was released in September 2025.
Join us as Bill recounts moments in his 60-year career as a television journalist, illuminating some of the most iconic stories of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. His talk will include an insider look at how television evolved from an emerging news source to the dominating force in American media
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