On March 31, 1999, Jared Diamond presented a condensed version of his talk on "How to Get Rich."

As part of the 2013 Induction weekend, Ken Burns (President of Florentine Films) and Ernest J. Moniz (U.S. Secretary of Energy) spoke about the challenges and opportunities for the arts and the sciences.

In an effort to draw attention to the extent of the humanities at two-year colleges, the Academy's Humanities Indicators conducted a national survey of community colleges and today releases the findings.

Ways to Engage with the Academy

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The Academy issued its first volume of papers in 1786.

The ASTC blog dives into the final report from the Public Face of Science initiative on Priorities for the Future, offering an overview and several important takeaways.

Online

The Academy marked the passing of cartoonist, author, and Academy member Jules Feiffer (1929–2025) by sharing his wonderful illustrated letter of acceptance that is on display at the Academy and is
also available online.

It is with profound sadness that the Academy notes the death of former Academy President Leo L. Beranek on October 10, 2016, at age 102. Dr. Beranek served as President from 1989 to 1994. He was an active and devoted member of the Academy.

Terence Blanchard, a member of the Academy and of the Commission on the Arts, is a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator. His contribution to Mixtape – an online gallery of poems, stories, song, videos, and visual art – is an illustrated and illuminating video in which he shares the journey from his musical childhood to becoming the first Black composer presented on the Metropolitan Opera stage.

Language immersion is needed to help address global challenges, yet U.S. citizens are falling behind. Nicholas B. Dirks, member of the Academy's Commission on Language Learning, offers his commentary.

The Academy shared a link to an opinion piece coauthored by James Fallows (Our Towns Civic Foundation), which highlights recommendations from the Academy’s Commission on Reimagining Our Economy that recognize the media as essential information infrastructure for a robust and resilient democracy.

The Academy celebrated Seamus Heaney’s birthday by sharing an audio recording of him reading “From the Frontier of Writing” and linking to a compete recording and transcript from his visit to the Academy in 1987.

The inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate in the United States, Amanda Gorman, impressed the country and the world when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Thousands of people who went online to learn more about her discovered a presentation and reading at the Academy on February 7, 2020.

On April 17, 2025, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., was honored with the American Academy’s Award for Excellence in Public Policy and Public Affairs. The award recognizes individuals for their distinction, independence, effectiveness, and work on behalf of the common good. The award was presented to Dr. Fauci for his significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and COVID-19. The event included remarks by Dr. Fauci and an interview with Academy President Laurie L. Patton. An edited transcript of the program follows.

Yuval Levin (American Enterprise Institute)'s Opinion Piece in the New York Times on the case for enlarging the House of Representatives; with the headline “Some Good Can Come Out of the Kevin McCarthy Fiasco.”