On program series such as Midday, MPR has routinely broadcast speeches from The National Press Club, a meeting place in Washington for newsmakers and journalists. Addressees range from politicians, artists, to individuals of finance/business.
October 9, 1973 - Dr. Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist and writer, speaks at the National Press Club. Topic of Mead’s speech is “The State of the Sexes.”
September 1, 1976 - A broadcast of Independent presidential hopeful Eugene McCarthy speaking at National Press Club. Topic of address is presidential race, the debates, and two-party system.
November 16, 1977 - Broadcaster and writer Eric Sevareid bids goodbye to the National Press Club on the eve of his retirement.
August 24, 1978 - Author James Michener speaks before the National Press Club, discussing the state of the novel and talks extensively about many contemporary American writers.
January 15, 1979 - Alex Haley discusses his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Roots: The Saga Of An American Family at a National Press Club luncheon. He wrote most of the novel in a Club office.
April 19, 1979 - Veteran actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, married for 36 years and performing together in "The Gin Game," speak to the National Press Club about their experiences in the acting profession.
October 30, 1979 - Human rights activist Joan Baez speaks before the National Press Club on the plight of the refugees of Kampuchea.
April 18, 1983 - Jewish author Eli Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, speaks at a Survivor's Conference with other death-camp survivors. Program includes some excerpts from Wiesel’s book, Night, read by Arthur Hoehn.
July 28, 1983 - A Midday broadcast of National Press Club with author and professor Zbigniew Brzezinski on communism.
December 15, 1983 - A Midday broadcast of Edwin "Ed" Meese, III as guest speaker at the National Press Club. Edwin "Ed" Meese, III (born December 2, 1931) is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan gubernatorial administration (1967-1974), the Reagan presidential transition team (1980), and the Reagan White House (1981-1985), eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th attorney general of the United States (1985-1988).