Speaker Series Lecture
Lisa Ling, host of National Geographic Explorer
Lisa Ling, host of National Geographic Explorer, will speak at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, later this month.
Ling’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of Penn State Behrend’s annual Speaker Series. Her talk will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 26, in the McGarvey Commons of the Reed Union Building.
Ling’s topic will be “National Geographic Reports: A Global Perspective,” and will include dramatic video clips from the television series’ signature human interest stories, including coverage of the devastating natural disasters of the past two years. When sharing her Explorer adventures, Ling advocates “having an open mind and heart to the issues surrounding us.”
Ling began working in television journalism at 16 as a reporter for Scratch, a nationally syndicated teen show filmed in her native Sacramento, Calif. At 18, she joined Channel One as a correspondent, eventually reporting from more than two dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Algeria, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, India, and Iran.
In 1999, Ling joined ABC’s daytime gabfest The View to offer a twentysomething perspective as counterpoint to Barbara Walters and company. She left the show a year later to return to international reporting as a contributing editor for USA Weekend.
Ling then accepted the directive of National Geographic founder Alexander Graham Bell “to cover the world and all that’s in it” as the first female host of television’s National Geographic Ultimate Explorer (the Ultimate was dropped when the show moved from MSNBC to National Geographic Channel). She has covered the looting of antiquities in war-torn Iraq, investigated the increasingly deadly drug war in Colombia, examined the complex issues surrounding China’s one-child policy, explored the phenomenon of female suicide bombers in Chechnya and Israel’s occupied territories, and exposed the hidden and dangerous culture inside America’s prisons.
Most recently, Ling has been named an investigative reporter and special correspondent for the Oprah Winfrey Show, where she’s reported on bride burning in India, gang rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and child trafficking in Ghana. Investigating dowry-related bride deaths in India was so disturbing that Ling said it’s given her nightmares.
“According to a billboard in the middle of Bangalore, 700 to 800 people die of traffic-related deaths each year,” Ling writes on the show’s Web site. “Roughly 1,200 women die every year of dowry-related deaths in Bangalore, but apparently that’s not worthy of a billboard.”
In addition to her television journalism, Ling is co-author with anthropologist Joanne B. Eicher of the book Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride, a compelling exploration of all things female. Each chapter reveals the actions that connect a woman with herself, her family, her community, and other women.
Ling has hosted the television special “Teen People’s 20 Teens Who Will Change the World,” and used footage from her reporting in Afghanistan to provide insight for “The Day It All Changed,” her forum for teens that aired in September 2001.
Lisa Ling’s Speaker Series lecture is sponsored by the Penn State Behrend Student Activity Fee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the Harriet Behrend Ninow Memorial Lecture Series Fund. The final Speaker Series lecture for the academic year will be NASA planetary scientist Christopher McKay. He will speak on Tuesday, April 17.
For more information about the series or to arrange special accommodations for participation, contact the Penn State Behrend Office of Student Activities or phone 814-898-6171.