Nancy Gibbs

Gibbs, a former writer and editor in chief at TIME, is the director of the Shorenstein Center and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of the Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She is the co-author, along with Michael Duffy, of two best-selling presidential histories: The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity and The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House.  

Recent Articles

How America Can Still Come Together

Former TIME editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs writes that Americans are largely in agreement on key issues and need unity in the face of violence.

By Nancy Gibbs

The Debate Was a Mess. Where We Go From Here

Debates are a test of candidates; post debates are a test of everyone else.

By Nancy Gibbs

How the Press Can Rebuild Trust This Election

In an unprecedented year, the core of journalism remains the same

By Nancy Gibbs

Humans still need to oversee the internet

Former TIME Editor-in-Chief Nancy Gibbs makes the case for humans in the age of AI.

By Nancy Gibbs

Gibbs: A Historic—and Entirely Predictable—Indictment

'The scandal of Donald Trump’s passage through public life rests both in what he has done and what he has left undone'

By Nancy Gibbs

The Impact of TIME’s First Cover

Nancy Gibbs, the first woman to be editor-in-chief of TIME, on the lasting influence of the magazine's 1923 debut.

By Nancy Gibbs

Bob Dole, Senate Legend Who Championed Compromise, Dies

Nothing in Dole’s life was easy, and that’s the way he wanted it

By Nancy Gibbs

Why America Needs to Restore Moral Leadership

Like our pandemic response, the U.S. Capitol riot is the latest cataclysm to be blamed on a failure of imagination. Who could imagine a virus that crashes the entire global operating system, or an attack...

By Nancy Gibbs

What Numbers Mean in the Coronavirus Crisis

“Could the number two change its properties?”That was the question on the philosophy exam that convinced me long ago that I was not cut out to study philosophy. Though I didn’t know what it was...

By Nancy Gibbs

Why TIME Revisited a Century of Women and Influence

Throughout its history, editors of TIME aimed their curiosity at those who broke free of gravity. Week after week, year after year, the magazine featured an individual on the cover, often from Washington but also...

By Nancy Gibbs

The Danger of Donald Trump’s Ignorance

Ignorance is different than deceit and sometimes more dangerous.

By Nancy Gibbs

Joe Biden and the Hard Choices for Democrats in 2020

We all learned back on the playground that whoever makes the rules of the game stands a better chance of winning it. It’s an uncomfortable lesson, one that requires us to accept that norms are...

By Nancy Gibbs

How Donald Trump Lost by Winning

And what it means for voters and future presidential candidates

By Nancy Gibbs

Trump Shocks. His Opponents Bore. How the 2020 Election Will Expose Whether Americans Can Still Pay Attention to What Matters

As the presidential rollouts begin, the contenders will tell us what to expect of them—as they calculate what to expect of us. What will it take to capture our imagination and, even more urgent, our...

By Nancy Gibbs

What There Was To Be Grateful For in 2018

It’s a challenge to manage the year end inventory of blessings when so many ghouls and goblins haunted 2018. The gangsters. The politicians. The politicians who turned out to be gangsters. The fires and floods...

By Nancy Gibbs

A Revolutionary Suggestion for Word of the Year: Listen

An act of courage, in a year of shouting and division

By Nancy Gibbs

Inside the Surprising Friendship Between George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton

"The connection surprised both men," said Duffy and Gibbs

By Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs

The Only Way to Fight Hate

A TIME special report

By Nancy Gibbs

Vote Like It Matters. Because Then It Will

Just because the Leading Man commands center stage, through all the acts of comedy and tragedy and farce, does not mean he gets to decide how the play turns out. Every year, come November, the...

By Nancy Gibbs

How the Media Can Help Rebuild Trust in America

What to do about eroding faith in our institutions, neighbors and the notion of truth itself

By Nancy Gibbs
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