Join us for a conversation with
Beppe Severgnini
Columnist and editor, Corriere della Sera
Moderated by
Richard Lui
Anchor and Correspondent, MSNBC
On May 4, 2020, Beppe Severgnini wrote in The New York Times that “the first country outside Asia to experience the coronavirus pandemic on a large scale was Italy. It was the first to go into lockdown and impose a national quarantine, on March 9. And it is the part of Europe that suffered most. As of May 3, 29,000 people were known to have lost their lives because of Covid-19."
Italy was "Europe's Covid-19 guinea pig" said former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The most stringent restrictions on freedom of movement imposed in Europe since the Second World War were placed on the population.
Join us for this webinar for a conversation with prominent Italian columnist Beppe Severgnini and media correspondent Richard Lui about the Italian reaction to the pandemic and their faith in the EU, how Italy coped, what is happening at the present and what's next.
Guest Speaker
BEPPE SEVERGNINI
Beppe Severgnini is a columnist and an editor at Corriere della Sera, which he joined in 1995. He was the editor-in-chief of its weekly magazine 7, from 2017 to 2019, and he created the blog Italians in 1998. He became a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times in 2013. His writing has appeared in The Financial Times and The Economist, where he was the Italy correspondent from 1996 to 2003.
He is the author of seventeen books, including the American bestsellers Ciao, America! An Italian Discovers the U.S. and La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind. His most recent books are Italiani si rimane (Solferino, Milan 2018), a memoir; and Off the Rail: A Train Trip Through Life (Berkley, New York 2019).
Mr. Severgnini studied law at the University of Pavia. As a foreign correspondent, he was posted in London, Moscow and Washington; he also covered Eastern Europe, China and the Middle East. He teaches at the School of Journalism of the University of Milan, and he has been a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an Isaiah Berlin visiting scholar at Oxford University and a visiting fellow at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
In 2001, Mr. Severgnini was made an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and in 2011 the president of Italy conferred on him the title of commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. He lives near Milan with his wife and son.
Moderator
RICHARD LUI
Richard Lui is an American journalist and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. Previously, he anchored at CNN Worldwide. Lui focuses on stories related to humanitarian issues, and his enterprise reporting has included topics of gender/racial equality, affordable housing, and human trafficking.
Because of his work in these areas, NGOs have invited Lui to help their organizations. Along with Freida Pinto and Marcia Cross, Lui is ambassador for Plan International USA, part of a 70-country federation working for child gender equality. He also is an ambassador for the Epilepsy Foundation, and the anti-slavery organization Not For Sale. Lui is a UN Foundation Fellow, and sits on the President's council for America's largest food source to the poor, Food Bank for New York City. His community work spans 30 years and six continents. He has received civil rights awards from several national organizations, including AAAJ (the equivalent of the NAACP for AAPIs), AAJA, WWAAC, and OCA.
Lui is an active columnist, contributing to publications. Most of his writing, speaking, and social media activity involve issues related to his charitable and humanitarian work. In the last several years, Lui spoke at over 200 events, and twittercounter.com has him in the top 1%.
He anchors the Western edition of Early Today on NBC and various programs on MSNBC from 30 Rockefeller Plaza. At CNN Worldwide, he became the first Asian American male to solo-anchor a daily, national cable news show in the U.S.
Before journalism, Lui spent 15 years in business with Fortune 500 and tech companies. He patented a global payment system and co-founded a Citibank carve-out. Business Insider recognized Lui as one of 21 dynamic careers to watch alongside Mark Cuban and Warren Buffett.