T-Squared: The Texas Tribune Festival welcomes NBCUniversal News Group leaders to lineup

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When we announced our full program for this year’s Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 21-23 in downtown Austin, our schedule was already bursting at the seams with nearly 300 speakers and 125 panels on topics ranging from education and Texas’ energy future to the 2024 races for U.S. Senate and president and the state of democracy.

Today, we’re thrilled to share big TribFest news that promises an even more compelling three days of conversation on the politics, policy issues and news that dominate headlines but also demand our civic attention. Joining us to lead these conversations is a star-studded slate of news leaders, anchors, correspondents and contributors from NBCUniversal News Group, including Rebecca Blumenstein, Chuck Todd, Chris Hayes, Katie Phang and many more.

Hayes brings his MSNBC podcast “Why is This Happening?” to TribFest on Saturday, Aug. 23, for a live taping at the Paramount Theatre. Joining him will be Andrew Weissmann, former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s fraud section and a former FBI general counsel, and MSNBC legal analyst Mary McCord. McCord and Weissman are co-hosts of the hit MSNBC podcast “Prosecuting Donald Trump.”

That same afternoon, Blumenstein, president of editorial at NBC News, will join Tribune Editor-in-Chief Sewell Chan for a conversation on trust, truth and what the network’s audience needs.

Todd, chief political analyst for NBC News and outgoing moderator of “Meet the Press,” will sit down Saturday afternoon with Will Hurd for a one-on-one conversation on the former Texas congressman’s race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

And also on Saturday, Phang, host of MSNBC's “The Katie Phang Show,” will lead a discussion about gender, politics, policy and the next election with Joyce Vance, a distinguished professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and a former U.S. attorney; writer and podcast host Molly Jong-Fast; and author and psychologist Mary Trump.

Other NBCUniversal leaders at TribFest include Julián Castro, MSNBC political analyst and former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development; Frank Figliuzzi, retired assistant director at the FBI and national security analyst at NBC News; Garrett Haake, senior Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News; Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan Law School professor and former U.S. attorney; Ali Vitali, Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC; NBC News technology correspondent Jacob Ward; and author Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst for MSNBC.

We’re grateful to be working with NBCUniversal News Group this year and hosting these leading media voices and contributors. Their critical perspectives help us to better understand our world but stimulate conversations among TribFest attendees. These conversations — across our diverse backgrounds and political differences — are the real power and potential of TribFest.

Only 22 days until we gather in downtown Austin for this one-of-a-kind festival. Get your tickets now to be part of the conversation!