As the foundation for Socratic discussion at the Seminars, readings speak to the heart of issues faced by leaders through millennia. What is the life well lived? How do you make decisions when choices are gradations of bad and worse? How do you find the courage to speak and act when silence is so comfortable and safe?

Required readings include works by Greek, American, Russian, Iranian and African men and women and span time, place and culture. Speeches, business essays and portions of plays or novels and film are all fair game. Whether they were scrolled in 347 BC or typed months ago, the readings are germane to decisions Fellows make every day. It is the Socratic discussion and the prism of different "takes" on text that bring the ideas to life.