Please join the Institute of Politics in person as we welcome Huma Abedin, top aide and longtime advisor to Hillary Clinton, in conversation with IOP Executive Director Zeenat Rahman. They will discuss Ms. Abedin’s new memoir, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds. 

The book is the story of young woman coming into her own in pressure-cooker jobs and her deeply personal relationship with Hillary Clinton as a mentor, confidante, and role model. Ms. Abedin’s memoir takes readers through a journey in which both women experience extraordinary personal and professional highs in addition to unimaginable lows. 

Ms. Abedin has spent her entire career in public service and national politics, beginning as an intern in First Lady Hillary Clinton’s office in 1996. After four years in the White House, she worked in the US Senate as Senior Advisor to Senator Clinton and was traveling Chief of Staff for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Department of State. Huma served as Vice Chair of Hillary for America in 2016, resulting in the first woman elected nominee of a major political party. She currently serves as Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff.

Copies of Both/And will be for sale at the event.

In this beautifully written and propulsive memoir, Huma Abedin--Hillary Clinton's famously private top aide and longtime advisor--emerges from the wings of American political history to take command of her own story.

Interlocutor - BOZOMA SAINT JOHN
Bozoma Saint John is Global Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix, the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 200 million paid memberships in over 200 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Before joining Netflix, Saint John served in executive roles at Endeavor, Uber, Apple Music & iTunes and PepsiCo. Bozoma has been inducted into Billboard’s Women in Music Hall of Fame (2018) and the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement (2014), and has been included in The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100 list (2018) and Forbes' The World's Most Influential CMO's (2018, 2021).

Signed books available.

In her beautifully written and propulsive new memoir, Huma Abedin — Hillary Clinton’s famously private top aide and longtime advisor — emerges from the wings of American political history to take command of her own story. The daughter of Indian and Pakistani intellectuals and advocates, Abedin grew up in the United States and Saudi Arabia and traveled widely. Her relationship with Clinton has seen both women through extraordinary personal and professional highs, as well as unimaginable lows. Here, for the first time, is a deeply personal account of Clinton as mentor, confidante, and role model. Abedin’s memoir is also the candid and heartbreaking chronicle of her marriage to Anthony Weiner, what drew her to him, how much she wanted to believe in him, the devastation wrought by his betrayals — and their shared love for their son. Abedin’s journey through the opportunities and obstacles, the trials and triumphs, of a full and complex life is a testament to her profound belief that in an increasingly either/or world, she can be both/and. Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds (Scribner) grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood — and work — with wisdom, sophistication, and clarity. Abedin will be joined in conversation by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things.

Presented by Powell’s Books.

Kal Penn and Huma Abedin had vastly different journeys into the world of American politics. As a collegiate-level White House intern during Hillary Clinton’s time as the first lady, Abedin never predicted she’d go on to witness some of the most crucial moments in America’s modern political history; including Clinton’s watershed nomination as the first female candidate for president. Penn, too, has both witnessed and shaped political history as a liaison for the Obama administration—something that he, a prominent Hollywood actor who’d experienced countless discriminations in the entertainment industry, never saw coming.

While their foray into politics were poles apart, Abedin and Penn do share a similar vision of the American Dream molded by their immigrant families. In their own professional endeavors—from Penn’s shift to politics to Abedin’s powerful tenure as Hillary Clinton’s right-hand woman—they’ve done more than just manifest this dream. Instead, they’ve disrupted it’s very core.

Together at INFORUM, Huma Abedin and Kal Penn will bring to life the remarkable experiences they’ve detailed in their new memoirs, Both/And and You Can’t Be Serious, respectively. In doing so, they will provide the audience with more than just powerful insights toward the meaning of the American Dream—instead, they’ll challenge its “one size fits all” narrative in order to reconstruct its meaning for a more inclusive future.

Presented by The Commonwealth Club of California.

Presented by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Currently Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Huma Abedin began as an intern for the former first lady in 1996. In the interim she has served in the U.S. Senate as senior advisor to Senator Clinton, worked as traveling chief of staff for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, was the deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of State, and was vice chair of Hillary for America in 2016. In her candid new memoir, Abedin tells the story of her upbringing in the United States and Saudi Arabia by Indian and Pakistani parents, her heartbreaking marriage to Anthony Weiner and their shared love for their son, and some of her most extraordinary career experiences.

Purchase of book with ticket includes a signed book plate.

In her new memoir Both/And Hillary Clinton’s famously private top aide and longtime advisor — emerges from the wings of American political history to take command of her own story.

From her deeply personal relationship with Hillary Clinton as mentor, confidante, and role model which has seen both women through extraordinary personal and professional highs, as well as unimaginable lows, It’s also a timeless story of a young woman with aspirations and ideals coming into her own in high-pressure jobs and a testament to the potential for women in leadership to blaze a path forward while supporting those who follow in their footsteps. Both/And grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood — and work.

Presented by Politics and Prose.

Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top aide and longtime advisor, discusses her propulsive new memoir and takes command of her own story.

From her deeply personal relationship with Hillary Clinton as mentor, confidante, and role model which has seen both women through extraordinary personal and professional highs as well as unimaginable lows, Both/And is also a timeless story of a young woman with aspirations and ideals coming into her own in high-pressure jobs. A testament to the potential for women in leadership to blaze a path forward while supporting those who follow in their footsteps, Both/And grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood—and work.

Joy-Ann Reid is the host of “AM Joy” on MSNBC, the author of the books Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide, We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama, and The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story. She co-hosts the podcast Reid This / Reid That with journalist and “New York Live” co-host Jacque Reid.