At the Table with Tony is a series of conversations with Tony Brown, Professor Emeritus at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Tony is facing significant health challenges, and he is clear about his 2025 priorities. In addition to prioritizing his wife, Teddie, and his family, nurturing a generative, “grow together” friendship community that creates benefits for others is an important 2025 aspiration. At the Table with Tony helps him do that.
About Tony Brown
Tony Brown has taught leadership courses in enterprising organizational change, social entrepreneurship, moral development, socially responsible businesses, and public-private collaboration at Duke University. He founded the Hart Leadership Program's Enterprising Leadership Initiative, a program intended to engage, educate, and empower Duke students to pursue innovative solutions to University, community and global problems. He is a Professor of the Practice Emeritus at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke.
About Us
At the Table with Tony is produced and hosted by Penelope North. Penelope is a senior Biomedical Engineering student at Duke who has transformed her love of listening to podcasts into creating them. Her passion for connecting with and helping others lends itself perfectly for this project, hoping to inspire people to be a bit more like Tony Brown each day. Our consulting producer is Carol Jackson.
At the Table with Tony
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Let's connect!
This podcast connects Tony with 1,000 good friends and former students. We're exploring how Tony helps people define problems, excites them to act, and prompts them to think deeply about their core values. We hope this podcast acts as a makeshift classroom for Tony, giving all of us the unique opportunity to sit At The Table with him, to learn from him, with him, and from each other.
Episodes
Episode 6: at the table with tony
Fix a Crack in the Sidewalk with Hasnain Zaidi
When Hasnain Zaidi was in Tony Brown’s Social Entrepreneurship class at Duke, he dreamed up a plan for a campus food cart, Holy Crepe, that would fund impact ventures. Tony remembers it as “the best-planned failure” of the class. But the project taught Hasnain a lot, and his career has included successful entrepreneurial projects and other roles. Their conversation explores how to be a force for good and expanding the definition of impact. Tony says “work” is often misconstrued as your job. The real question we should be asking is ourselves is, “How do I make better decisions to enhance my results for the world and for myself?” Hasnain and Tony are joined at the table by Duke senior Penelope North.
Episode 5: At the Table with tony
Finding Your North Star with Linda Zhang
“I heard about Tony's class when I was a freshman. It's this elusive class that people talk about as the single class you have to take before graduating that will change your life forever,” Linda remembers. “I never took notes in most of my classes diligently, but I remember thinking. ‘I have to write down every single word this man says.’” Since graduation, Linda has worked in consulting, traveled the world as a private teacher, consulted for the Ministry of Education in Sierra Leone, served as chief of staff to a Nigerian university president and more – all in just 5 years! She says in her experience, your 20s are all about finding and refining your North Star. Linda and Tony are joined at the table by Duke senior Penelope North.
Episode 4: At the Table with Tony
Work/Life Balance with Anthony Vitarelli
Seeking success but being firmly grounded in your personal life is a big challenge for many of us. In this episode, Tony Brown sits down with Anthony Vitarelli. Anthony took lessons from Tony Brown’s Duke classes along with him in his professional journey, including stops at the US Department of the Treasury, the Supreme Court, the private financial sector and more. Anthony shares how he’s been able to address work-life balance even in such high-level roles.
Episode 3: At the Table with Tony
Finding Vocation with Jennifer Nagda
What is the difference between your career and vocation? How do you use intentionality to direct your life towards a fulfilling vocation? As Tony Brown says, “you can’t just sit down and say, ‘I'm going to decide on my vocation.’ It's like chasing love. You can't chase love.” In this episode, Tony explores vocation with his former Duke student Jennifer Nagda. For more than a decade, her work has centered on the rights and best interests of immigrant children in government custody and legal proceedings. “I think one of the things that I took from Tony's class was the importance of intentionality,” she says. “And that there is this aspect of thinking and framing and creating a plan and then getting busy doing. And you don't linger in between.”
Epoisode 2: At the Table with Tony
Considering Leadership with Tommy Sowers
Tommy Sowers took Tony Brown’s course Enterprising Leadership about 20 years ago at Duke. He sat in the third row at first, but soon moved up front, and was hooked. Tommy has actively leaned into leadership positions. After combat service, the Green Beret served in major roles in the political, governmental, academic, corporate, entrepreneurial, non-profit and philanthropic worlds. Most recently, he served as president of the nation’s fourth largest private jet charter operation and is now working with Duke students on tech ethics. Tommy talks with Tony about what he learned from Tony about leadership, and how he applied those lessons in his own career.
Episode 1: At the Table with Tony
Define the Life You Want to Live with Dan Kimberg
Episode 1 is a conversation with Dan Kimberg about the importance of defining the life you want to live and living it. In Tony’s Social Entrepreneurship in Action class 20 years ago, Dan and two classmates created a compelling plan to launch Student U, a nonprofit organization intended to support first-generation students in Durham, North Carolina. Student U continues to be a great success story in Durham, and Dan’s relationship with Tony has evolved from being a student in his class to a cherished friendship. The podcast is hosted by Duke student Penelope North.