On the Issues with Mike Gousha features Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar

January 16, 2019

 MILWAUKEE — Thought-provoking playwright Ayad Akhtar will be the next guest for “On the Issues” with Mike Gousha. The event will be at ˜ˇÍ¸˛Ę Law School, Thursday, Jan. 17, at 4 p.m. in the Lubar Center at Eckstein Hall, 1215 W. Michigan St.

Born in New York and raised in Milwaukee, Akhtar is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and actor. He won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Disgraced, a searing look at contemporary attitudes toward religion.

Akhtar has a longstanding relationship with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, which will be presenting his most recent play, Junk, beginning Jan. 18. Junk—as in junk bonds—is set in the financial world of the 1980s, a time when Akhtar says money entered our culture in a big way. As Akhtar put it in a 2017 interview with Bill Moyers, “To understand how the world is put together today…you need a deep understanding of finance.”

Gousha, an award-winning journalist, continues his “On the Issues” series of provocative and insightful interviews with local and national public officials, journalists and other newsmakers throughout the year. A complete schedule is available online.

Through public programming such as the Marquette Law School Poll, debates featuring candidates in significant political races, Gousha’s “On the Issues” conversations with newsmakers, public lectures by leading scholars and conferences on significant issues of public importance, the Law School serves as the region’s leading venue for serious civil discourse about law and public policy matters.

Podcasts are available for all “On the Issues” events by visiting the law school (law.marquette.edu) shortly after the event.