Tanner Lectures on Human Values

Established in 1978, the Tanner Lectures on Human Values seek to advance and reflect upon scholarly and scientific thought relating to human values. Nine institutions, including Yale, permanently sponsor the lectures, which are funded by an endowment and other gifts received by the University of Utah from Obert Clark Tanner and Grace Adams Tanner. At Yale, the Tanner Lectures are hosted by the Whitney Humanities Center in collaboration with the Office of the President.

Appointment as a Tanner lecturer is a recognition of uncommon achievement and outstanding abilities. The lectureships are international and intercultural and transcend ethnic, national, religious, and ideological distinctions.

Yale first hosted a Tanner Lecture in 1989 with political historian John Pocock’s lecture on Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Distinguished lecturers at Yale have included Elaine Scarry, Salman Rushdie, Oliver Sacks, Paul Gilroy, Bruno Latour, Judith Butler, Fei-Fei Li, and Angela Y. Davis.

The Humanities Quadrangle against a bright blue sky

Atul Gawande | “How to Change Minds: Implementing Ideas in a Resistant World”

March 31 & April 1, 2027

Changing minds is among the hardest things humans try to do. Many of history’s most lifesaving ideas—from antiseptic practices to tobacco control—languished for decades before taking hold. But why do some ideas go viral while others stall? What makes the hard ones so tough? Drawing on struggles to persuade his own surgical colleagues to adopt proven advancements and insights from neuroscience to political history, Gawande will lay out how change actually happens: in stages, each demanding its own strategy, from reaching people who don’t yet see a problem to protecting gains once their made. It is a practical model for making a difference that lasts.

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH

Fish Chair of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Thier Professor of the Practice of Surgery at Harvard Medical School

Dr. Gawande is a renowned surgeon, public health innovator, and author, and is Professor of the Practice at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Gawande was Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID from January 2022 to January 2025. Prior to that, he was co-founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation where he is now Distinguished Professor in Residence, and Lifebox, a nonprofit making surgery safer globally. Dr. Gawande is also a longtime writer for The New Yorker. He has written four best-selling books, including Being Mortal, and produced three award-winning documentary films.

Atul Gawande

Past Tanner Lectures on Human Values