Wednesday, March 29
At First United Methodist Church in Sarasota
A former U.S. Air Force special operations pilot and a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Peterson is a conflict journalist and author of “Why Soldiers Miss War,” as well as several fiction collections. He is also a Sarasota native and a graduate of Pine View School.
“From the day Putin’s missiles rained down on Ukraine, Peterson interviewed soldiers at the front, people in the shelters, survivors in the war’s wreckage, and experienced his own family’s daily struggles. This is a rare opportunity to feel, see, and understand this battle for freedom.”
(March 13, 2023) Kiev-based foreign correspondent Nolan Peterson has been reporting on conflict from Ukraine for eight years, which makes him a unique eyewitness since the Russian Invasion last year. He was the first U.S. journalist to be embedded with the Ukrainian army. A former U.S. Air Force special operations pilot and a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Peterson is a conflict journalist and author whose adventures have taken him to all seven continents. A Sarasota native and graduate of Pine View School, he is the author of “Why Soldiers Miss War,” as well as several fiction collections. Peterson will be speaking as part of Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning’s (SILL) “Global Issues” series, Wednesday, March 29, 10:30 a.m., at the First United Methodist Church, 104 S Pineapple Ave, Sarasota. Tickets are $10. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit SillSarasota.org or call 941-365-6404.
“From the day Putin’s missiles rained down on Ukraine, Nolan has interviewed soldiers at the front, people in the shelters, survivors in the war’s wreckage, and experienced his own family’s daily struggles. This is a rare opportunity to feel, see, and understand this battle for freedom,” says Bob Deutsch, SILL’s president.
As a war correspondent, Peterson has reported extensively from the front lines in eastern Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He’s also reported from the flight deck of a US aircraft carrier off the coast of Syria, embedded within a migrant caravan crossing Mexico, and retraced the path of Tibetan refugees on a solo hike across the Himalayas from Nepal to China. His work has been published by numerous news outlets, including CNN, Fox News, the BBC, Newsweek, the Heritage Foundation, Coffee or Die Magazine, and many others. A Sarasota native, Peterson graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in French. He attended graduate school at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, from 2004 from 2006, where he studied politics and French literature. After leaving the Air Force in 2011, Peterson completed a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism where he was a McCormick Foundation fellow.
Peterson’s unique life experiences are the bedrock of his unique writing and journalism style. In addition to his time in the military and work as a journalist, he ran a marathon across a glacier in Antarctica, swam across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia, climbed mountains in the Himalayas, and completed Ironman triathlons. He travelled to all seven continents before age 30. Peterson currently lives in Kiev with his wife Lilya.
About the Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning
The Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning (SILL) is a non-profit organization that offers an expert lecture series to provide information on and discussion of the arts and contemporary global issues. SILL is guided by an all-volunteer board committed to modest pricing and enhanced outreach. Visit SillSarasota.org.