She Said: A Conversation with Megan Twohey

On October 5, 2017, The New York Times published an explosive article by investigative reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor breaking the news of former movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and abuse. For months Ms. Twohey and Ms. Kantor had confidential discussions with top actresses, former Weinstein employees and other sources, learning of disturbing long-buried allegations, some of which had been covered up by onerous legal settlements. The journalists meticulously picked their way through a web of decades-old secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements, pressed some of the most famous women in the world – and some unknown ones – to risk going on the record, and faced down Mr. Weinstein, his legal team, and his private investigators.

Within days of publication of the article, women who had suffered in silence for generations came forward, and over the next twelve months, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry would be outed for mistreating their colleagues. Ms. Twohey and Ms. Kantor (along with fellow journalist Ronan Farrow) received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and all made the list of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2018. Now, in their new New York Times bestselling book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, Ms. Twohey and Ms. Kantor examine the very heart of this social shift, reliving in real-time what it took to get the Weinstein story and giving an up-close portrait of the forces that hindered and spurred change.

FAN is excited to welcome Ms. Twohey back to her Evanston hometown for an evening conversation about the book and her life as a journalist. She is a 1994 graduate of Evanston Township High School, and a 1998 graduate of Georgetown University. She has focused much of her professional attention on the treatment of women and children. As a reporter with Reuters, she uncovered an underground network where parents gave away adopted children hey no longer wanted to strangers met online, and the series was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. While reporting at The Chicago Tribune, she exposed how police were shelving DNA evidence collected after sex crimes. In response to her articles, Illinois mandated the testing of every rape kit.

Ms. Twohey will be interviewed by Sarah Parisien, a senior at ETHS and a staff writer for The Evanstonian. She is a board member of Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR), and participated in the school sketch comedy, YAMO, as a co-director and performer for four years.