A very public Pembroke alumni reunion was held on national television on March 18 when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg ’05 was interviewed by Walter Isaacson ’74 on the PBS program, Amanpour & Co.

Pete discussed with Walter his vision of the infrastructure opportunities the funds allocated to transportation by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan as the nation’s fourth historical transformational investment in America’s infrastructure – following those the interstate highway system during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950’s, the intercontinental railway system during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860’s, and the building of the Erie Canal and other navigable waterways during the early 19^th century as the country’s early economic arteries.

You can view the full interview here. https://youtu.be/sYNdUYPokRU

Speaking of Walter, his new book, The Code Breaker – Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race is already a New York Times bestseller.

It is a fascinating account of how Nobel Prize winner Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies, while at the same time posing the most profound of ethical and moral questions as this revolution has also given humans for the first time the ability to change our genetic make-up, and thus, the future of the human race.