Provost's Lecture Series
A partnership of the Office of the Provost and the OSU Foundation to bring renowned thinkers, writers, scientists, artists and leaders to OSU to engage, challenge and inspire.
Featuring Diana B. Henriques: Award-winning Financial Journalist and Author
Why Financial History Matters: From Coolidge to Cryptocurrency
Rescheduled Date: Thursday, March 14, 2024
Time: 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Book Signing: 8:30 - 9 p.m.
The Provost's Lecture featuring Diana B. Henriques is the first lecture in the 2023-24 series. Henriques is an award-winning financial journalist and author. Her lecture titled "Why Financial History Matters: From Coolidge to Cryptocurrency" is a look at the road America has traveled since the "wild west" markets of the Jazz Age; from the reforms of the 1930s to the newest court cases confronting Wall Street's watchdogs, the talk is based on the author's newest book, "Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism." Following the lecture, Diana Henriques will engage in a moderated Q&A with Tim Carroll, Dean of the College of Business.

Diana B. Henriques is an award-winning journalist and author unearthing Wall Street's scandals and breaking news. In her formidable role at the New York Times, Diana investigates investment and securities regulation, white-collar crime, corporate governance, market volatility and more, setting her work apart for more than 30 years as detective, historian and modern-day narrator.
Diana's reach expanded across multimedia with her unmatched investigation into financier Bernie Madoff, perpetrator of history's biggest Ponzi scheme. Starting with her New York Times bestseller The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust, the book became the basis for the HBO film by the same name and the docuseries Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street. Detailing Madoff's rise and fall during his decades-long $65 billion investment scam, the Netflix series jumped to top ten most watched TV shows upon release in January 2023.
In September 2023 Diana will release her highly-anticipated book, Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and the Fight for the Soul of the American Market. Diana digs into the unregulated Wall Street of the 1920's and 1930's, the Crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression, leading to President Franklin D Roosevelt's fight to curb industry excess exacerbated by concentrated wealth. A follow-up to her book A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History, Diana presents parallels between financial drama one century ago and those affecting politics today.
Her legacy includes multiple Pulitzer Prize nominations as well as top awards for business and finance journalism. An authority in historical precedents and investment behavior, Diana is regarded as the go-to expert on the effects of September 11, 2001 on the financial community, the 2008 bank crisis and resulting Great Recession, and more recent headlines centered on US wealth markets including cryptocurrency.
Renowned for intelligent investigation and piercing insight, Diana distinguished her career as a trailblazer, breaking the glass ceiling when few women gained roles on Wall Street. She engages audiences with her singular perspective, putting lessons from complex financial history into everyday simplicity. Passionate for rectifying wrongs and holding lawbreakers accountable, Diana shares the mistakes of the past as cautionary tales for today's economy in hopes of preventing future calamity.
The lecture will be streamed on live.oregonstate.edu.
Closed captioning will be available for the entire lecture.
For accommodations please contact [email protected].
Upcoming Speakers

Michael Pollan
April 2, 2024

W. Kamau Bell
January 31, 2019

Michael Beschloss
November 10, 2015

Richard Besser
April 13, 2015

Robin Chase
March 8, 2017

David Eagleman
October 27, 2021

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
November 9, 2020

Mae C. Jemison
February 4, 2021

Mary Karr
April 13, 2022

Ibram X. Kendi
April 14, 2021

Maya Lin
April 26, 2018

Ruth Reichl
February 17, 2016

Laurie Santos
April 4, 2023

Cheryl Strayed
January 15, 2015

Sam Quinones
November 14, 2022