--- title: Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? | TIME description: Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers share their picks for the 2011 Person of the Year canonical: https://time.com/video/3UapJ6fe/ og:title: Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? og:description: Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers share their picks for the 2011 Person of the Year og:url: https://time.com/video/3UapJ6fe/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3UapJ6fe/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? twitter:description: Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers share their picks for the 2011 Person of the Year twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3UapJ6fe/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011? [Watch (HLS stream): Who Should Be TIME's Person of the Year 2011?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3UapJ6fe.m3u8) (8:42)  _Published 2011-11-09. Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers share their picks for the 2011 Person of the Year_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:19 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 1](/video/sUegcZ7S/) ### TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 1 [TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 3](/video/vx62RRLX/) ### TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 3 [TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 5](/video/sEPOGvNI/) ### TIME 2011 Person of the Year Panel - Part 5 --- ## Transcript I'm delighted to be here for our 2011 Person of the Year panel. It's such a hard year for Person of the Year, and, and today, these folks are gonna help us figure out who it is. Take it away Brian. What happened to the innovation and the spirit, and the drive of let's say, 1946? When we had just come home from changing the world, launching and winning this titanic struggle. You know, for a while at Willow Run, the plant in Detroit, we were making a B24 every 90 minutes? Every 90 minutes, without breaking a sweat. And now, where automobiles still using gasoline, our trains still generally travelling at the speeds that they brought our boys home from World War II at, in 1946. The one guy who changed our world, and I said to Seth Meyers as we walked across 6th Avenue, just look with me, on this one block walk, at how he changed the world. Watch the people walk by us. Watch the media and the world around you, and look at how we changed the world. Not only did he change the world, but he, he gave us that, that spirit again that something was possible. That you could look at a piece of glass or plastic. And move your finger, that's outlandish. You could make things bigger, or smaller like that. All the place you'll go, and all the way you will change forever the music, and television industries. So may he rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and the spirit he represents, are my nominee for person of the year. Well first of all I mean I think it's a, it's a wonderful idea and obviously there's no dispute that Steve Jobs impact has been monumental. To me this year it seems to me that, that the major kind of news stories and the major shifts globally and, and domestically have been made by individuals that have formed together to kind of resist, reject and oftentimes even topple leaders and individuals. And they've been movements of, of populism. And so kind of, I thought this year kind of the notion of the populists of, of these individuals that you know, domestically it's the, we have the Tea Party, the Occupy Wall Street movement, and then internationally the Arab Spring. Have been made up by individuals that are part of populist movements and, and you know, it almost seems like in a year where those movements have caused the greatest world shifts. An individual might. An individual as the person of the year almost might undercut the significance of those movements made by populists. Well, Professor Hill, you were a protestor yourself many years ago when you were testifying during the Clarence Thomas hearings. There is a spirit of protest and revolution abroad. Who is your person of the year? Well, [ COUGH ] since I am a decided minority here, [ LAUGH ] I, you didn't notice, right? [ LAUGH ] I think I've, I should have two or three [ LAUGH ] choices. Well, are you, are you playing the woman card or the black card? Well, I do, can I divide it up and get four? You can have then now, you can get both. [ LAUGH ]. I, you know, I, I, I like what both of you are saying about spirit. Because what we want is somebody who can capture the spirit of the times. It's captured by a movement. But if you want a face. There are two faces. And they capture different aspects of it. Of social justice. There was a, a young woman from Egypt. Who was one of the lead organizers of the Arab Spring, or Cairo Spring, I guess it's called. A woman named Israa Abdel Fattah. Who started out as an organizer of textile workers. And then joined the movement in Cairo, and has continued and now is organizing to help women be involved in the democracy that is coming to the region. The other person, I think, who has really captured. Something really essential in this country, in terms of her old personal spirit, but also the work that she has done. You'll probably say, well we can't. She's running for public office, but that's Elizabeth Warren. What she did to go in, to challenge Washington DC. Establishing an agency in a ca, in a climate that was really resistant to it. In an effort to protect the middle class, which is something she's been doing all of her life. I think it captures something that that is very important to not only where the country is now, but where we want to be going. But Grover, she probably wouldn't take a no tax pledge right? I mean, in fact, she's been she probably thinks corporations should pay more taxes, people should pay more taxes. your, your no tax pledge has really shaped the debate going on now. Who would be your person of the year and why? The Tunisian fruit vendor who [ COUGH ] sort of triggered the Arab Spring cuz I'm not sure I can find another person that you'd look to in, in Egypt or, and, and Libya, Syria. But Mohammed Bouazizi was the fruit vendor who had taken too much harassment from the police and the bureaucrats and just wanted to sell. Fruit, and the government was interfering with his ability to do that. And he burned himself. he, he did pass away Mohammed did this year. So hopefully it counts for this year. But I think he set off something that's. It wouldn't have happened without his act. At least not when it did. Hm. No it's a, it's a wonderful idea he set something in motion that really is extraordinary. Mario, who would you choose? I like Steve Jobs. I think he did a really good job in changing the way people actually behave. In terms of changing the way people think, I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan and I think the. Nutrition card and understanding food and nutrition and the world true near- famine aspect that we're headed to, and understanding how to socially do the right thing to create the food support that we're gonna need. As well as the water cleanliness that we're gonna need, is someone that's cool, but I would have to say that who's had the largest effect on the whole planet without us really paying attention, across the board and everywhere. Is the entire banking industry and their disregard for the people that they're supposed to be working for. Now Europe has to realize they haven't been paying the bills for a long time, and they're gonna get hosed. And the people that are gonna get hosed are the education, and the health people first. Just kinda like in our system, except they've been relying on it for a long time. So the way the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed, and taken most of it into their own hands. Is, is as good as Stalin or Hitler, in the evil guys that you guys have [ UNKNOWN ]. Right [ CROSSTALK ] And they're not here. They're just people that really had a huge effect on the the way the world's operating. So, Seth. Brian wasn't so funny. [ LAUGH ] We usually depend on him to be funny. [ LAUGH ] So Well I want, you know Brian mentioned our walk over here what he left out was I thought we had agreed that you would pick me if I picked you. [ LAUGH ] So if I look a little stunned at the Steve Jobs selection [ LAUGH ] I feel his contract has been broken. I would say if Europe's still around by the time you guys go to press. [ LAUGH ] I think Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy would have a, I think I, I think that how tied together this European crisis is to what's happening over here. I think maybe a lot people don't realize how scary it is, and. I think if you win Person of the Year for 2011, it's probably gonna be a bummer years from now. Cuz you'll be like, you know, I was Time person of the year. And they're like, oh, what year? 2011. [ LAUGH ] That's too bad. Love that year. Which is why I think I would join with Jesse. And I do think that sort of angry people [ LAUGH ] are the person of the year, because I think they're right to be angry, I think. You know the last time I was on this panel was 2008 where I think everybody agreed. It was almost it was fete accompli that Barack Obama was gonna be the person of the year. And we were in the middle of a financial crisis, we thought, I would have hoped, that by 2011 things would be better. I don't think they're better. 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