Alexander Vindman
Monday, March 31, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Blvd., Houston, TX 77005
Click Here To Purchase Tickets!
The Progressive Forum is pleased to welcome back Lt. Col. (retired) Alexander Vindman, a leading national security expert and whistleblower whose role led to President Trump’s first impeachment.
Vindman will discuss his new book, The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself about Russia and Betrayed Ukraine, in a Q&A with Progressive Forum founder, Randall Morton. He will greet fans and sign books at the end of the evening.
“Alexander Vindman combines decades of experience in the US military and government with academic insight to explain how successive American administrations misjudged Russia and emboldened the Kremlin to start the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what went wrong and how it can be fixed.” – Serhii Plokhy author of The Russo-Ukrainian War
About The Folly of Realism:
Drawing on his extensive national security experience, Alexander Vindman explores how Western policies have emboldened Russian imperialism, culminating in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Vindman offers an in-depth look into policy makers’repeated short-sightedness regarding Eastern Europe, and proposes a long-term vision for curbing Russia’s dangerous expansionism. With first-hand accounts and interviews with foreign-policy leaders, The Folly of Realism is an incisive reckoning with past mistakes, with an eye towards combatting Russia’s escalating conflicts.
About Alexander Vindman:
Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, was the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House’s National Security Council. Previously, he served as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. While on the Joint Staff, he co-authored the National Military Strategy Russia Annex and was the principal author for the Global Campaign for Russia. He is a senior fellow for the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute, executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, senior advisor for VoteVets, and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Here, Right Matters, which he discussed at The Progressive Forum in October, 2022. Here is Vindman’s past speaker page with recordings of that discussion.
Generously sponsored by Mary Cubanski and Don Griffin, Rebecca and Scott McCay, and Lisa and Mustafa Parris-Conchinwala.
Click for complete event details
We encourage ride-sharing and early arrival for this possible sellout.
Theater doors open at 6:30 p.m. when ticket holders can take their seats.
Door search, no large bags. Please refrain from bringing backpacks and anything larger than a lady’s handbag into the event. Large items will be asked to be returned to your vehicle. All items are subject to search at the door.
Program is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Blvd, Houston, TX, 77005, across from Rice University.
Bring a barcoded ticket either on your phone, email, or printed ticket. Our greeters or box office can help you. Our box office will have your name on the guest list if you’re a ticket holder. Ushers will scan your tickets.
Free parking is available in the Congregation Emanu El campus garage. Enter on Sunset Blvd where uniformed officers will direct you. In case of a high-sale event, free overflow parking is available along with a free shuttle at nearby the Medical Clinic of Houston garage, 1707 Sunset Blvd. If the Emanu El garage is full, an officer will direct you to the overflow garage.
Ticket holders may pick up one free book at the Blue Willow Bookshop tables. Books are only distributed with a ticket at the event. We are unable to provide books after the event or for no-show tickets.
The speaker will sign books following the program, around 9pm.
Ticket prices are $155, $75, and $49 plus fees. In case of a high-sale event, the $39 Gallery section will be open with a high quality, direct view of stage with large screen TV monitors.
Private patron reception with the speaker begins at 6:15 p.m. with cash bar and complimentary dessert and coffee buffet for $155 ticket holders and those who have donated $1,000 or more in the past year. Reception located in the Oshman Multi-Purpose Room to the right of the main entrance, if entering from the parking garage. The speaker leaves the reception at 6:45 p.m. after a half-hour. So that everyone in the speaker greeting line has a chance to chat with the speaker, there is no book signing, autographing, or photography with the speaker in the speaker greeting line. In the rest of the reception room, photography and videography are welcome.
Box office services (credit card only) are available at the door on event night. In case of a sellout, there is no waiting list. Prior to event night, there are no tickets sold at Congregation Emanu El or any other physical location.
For box office assistance or for any other issues, please call 832-509-0262 or email boxoffice@progressiveforumhouston.org.
Guests who need special access are eligible for any ticket price. Ushers will seat special access guests in the aisles in the rear nearest restrooms. All rows are close to the speaker podium in the intimate seating environment.
During the lecture program, we will ask the audience to silence their personal digital devices, asking for no photography or videography.
Feel free to contact The Progressive Forum by email at staff@progressiveforumhouston.org.