New Orleans Book Fest sees lines for Nobel prize winners, other high-profile speakers

The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University has earned the nickname “Mardi Gras for the Mind.”

Under mostly sunny skies Friday at Tulane’s Uptown campus, "Disney World for the mind" might have been the better comparison as thousands of fest attendees queued up in long lines to attend talks from a roster of high-profile speakers and authors.

Panelists and speakers for the first full day of the event included immunologist Anthony Fauci, journalist Connie Chung, political strategists David Axelrod and Karl Rove, Nobel Prize-winner Jennifer Doudna and more.

Despite the extended wait times — a side effect of the free event’s growing popularity — festgoers were in great spirits.

“I’ve been hearing about the fest for four years,” said Fay Kimbrell, who with her daughter Mia Rouse was queued up to see a presentation called “Who Is Government,” featuring comic and TV host W. Kamau Bell. “Being around engaged people all in one space is so nice.”

A few feet away in the same line, returning attendee Robin DeLamatre said there’s one big difference this year.

“It’s packed,” she said. “By the time we got in to see Dr. Fauci, it was half over, but we all said it was worth it to only see half.”

Founded 15 years ago by former New Orleans first lady Cheryl Landrieu, Book Fest began as a small children’s book gathering at the St. Charles Avenue branch of the New Orleans Public Library. It grew dramatically when co-chair Walter Isaacson, the biographer, former Time magazine editor and now Tulane faculty member, worked with Landrieu to bring it to campus in 2022.

Last year’s event, which drew an overflow crowd to a talk by former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, attracted about 15,000 people, according to organizers.

By the looks of it, this year’s iteration is even more crowded.

On Thursday night, more than 2,300 people heard a conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, who on Monday broke the story about the Trump administration's Signal chat leak.

Friday morning, a similar number lined up to hear Fauci talk about his new book, "On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service."

The discussion touched on Fauci’s upbringing as the son of a pharmacist in Brooklyn, the "diabolical" slashing of science and health funding, late night phone calls from President Donald Trump, COVID origin theories, the rise of vaccine misinformation and "what keeps him up at night."

Big lines continued throughout the day and spread to Tulane’s dining hall, where more than a few students looked bewildered by the number of parent- and grandparent-aged people looking for cafeteria food.

Despite plenty of political content, Book Fest's 10 stages featured talks about many other topics, including science, religion, history, fiction, food, art, sports and media.

During an 11 a.m. presentation in Tulane’s business complex, former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning and his son Cooper proved that Peyton and Eli aren’t the only family duo that can entertain an audience.

Several hundred people gathered to hear Archie tell stories from his career and assess the next crop of NFL passers, many of whom spend time at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La.

“Last year we had a kid from Guam, and one from Finland, and I never saw someone so sunburned in my life,” Cooper Manning said.

Nearby, at McAlister Auditorium, pioneering journalist Connie Chung was talking about the early days of her reporting career when she was one of very few women in the business.

“I was so aggressive, and I wanted to be Mike Wallace on '60 Minutes,'” she said.

Chung described experiences that didn't sound too far removed from the sexism satirized in the “Anchorman” films.

“Some male anchors have ‘big shot-itis,’” she said. “It’s an inability to stop talking, combined with unrelenting hubris, a huge ego and delusions of sexual prowess. I found them to be insufferable, frankly.”

While Chung was telling unflattering stories about former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a high-profile government official from a more recent era was at Tulane's Dixon Hall, discussing war strategy and leadership.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, analyzed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“I don’t believe [Israel] has the right campaign designed,” he said. “I agree that they should destroy Hamas, keep it from governing again and get the hostages back. The problem is their campaign has not achieved that.”

Another long line led to the 1 p.m. conversation between Axelrod and Rove, dueling political strategists who have a “buddy cop” vibe onstage.

Rove got big laughs for his Trump impersonation, and the two traded friendly jabs throughout.

Neither was surprised by the result of the 2024 presidential election.

“I expected Trump to win,” Rove said. “It’s hard for the Democrats to run that far ahead of Joe Biden, whose approval rating was around 37%. I am surprised he won all the battleground states, though.”

They agreed that Kamala Harris’s TV appearance on “The View,” during which she failed to distinguish her policies from Biden's, was a major misstep.

Axelrod said his party has to make changes to win back trust from one of its core constituencies.

“The sense is Democrats have approached working people not as allies and peers but as missionaries and anthropologists,” he said. “The message has been, ‘We’re here to help you to become more like us.’”

Rove said Trump is not without his challenges, either. One big one is that income is rising at a quarter of the rate of inflation.

“He’s out there saying everything's going great, but it’s not resonating with what ordinary people are feeling in their lives … and it’s going to get worse with tariffs," he said. "Can you imagine what happens when people go to buy school clothes for their kids next fall, and it costs 25% more?”

Book Fest expanded this year to take up more space on campus. Organizers also have broadened programming to include new sessions on humor and cooking, plus content aimed at younger readers. Overall, there will be more than 200 speakers participating in 90 panels, plus book signings, a culinary symposium, family activities and a closing concert.

Multiple tents on Tulane's quad bring to mind Jazz Fest, just without the smell of horse manure — and no porta-potties. The temporary village is home to smaller stages, a bar, a bookstore and an area reserved for book signings.

The event continues Saturday, when there will be programming designed for families.

Novelist John Grisham and New Orleans-born nonfiction writer Michael Lewis will share the stage at McAlister Auditorium, while a Dixon Hall panel showcases a new generation of talents: novelists Alison Espach and Casey McQuiston. 

Isaacson will interview historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and statistician Nate Silver will talk about the "art of risking everything."

Staff writer Emily Woodruff contributed to this report.