What happens when 6,595 people, 17 cats and dogs and two rare bonobo apes descend from the sky into Gander, a small town of 9,600 in Newfoundland, Canada? This is the basis of the musical Come From Away, opening at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on Nov. 28. The play, set on Sept. 11, 2001 and the five days that follow, is a true story of the kindness of strangers and what transpired when 38 planes were diverted to Gander’s airport after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

On Oct. 16 — exactly three weeks before Election Day 2018 — USC Annenberg convened a panel of political experts to discuss the home stretch of this election cycle.

Intellect and empathy. Anna Deavere Smith credits her grandparents with instilling these qualities in her as a young girl growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. Now, as an actor and playwright, she relies on intellect and empathy to help her master myriad roles on stage and screen from hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus on Nurse Jackie to HBO’s Notes from the Field, in which she portrays 19 real-life individuals along the school-to-prison pipeline.

Journalists from the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and NBC4 joined USC Annenberg professor Vince Gonzales to discuss and share insight about fake news in an “Investigative Journalism in the Era of Facebook and “Fake News” panel at Wallis Annenberg Hall on April 5.

For USC's 2017 Day of SCervice, USC Annenberg hosted a morning workshop, Learning the Art of Storytelling, where alumni were paired with local high school journalism students to share their story. The alumni used their talents learned at USC Annenberg to teach the students what makes a compelling story and how to capture it in video form.

This year’s Kenneth Owler Smith (KOS) Symposium, in its 27th year, was hosted by the USC Annenberg’s Center for Public Relations and included a full roster of events.

Following screenings of the five-episode EPIX docuseries America Divided, the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism hosted a discussion to promote dialogue and further understanding around the critical issues affecting the U.S. The March 22 panel featured Price Dean Jack H. Knott, Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, America Divided executive producer Norman Lear, EPIX CEO Mark S. Greenberg, show creator Solly Granatstein, show producer Leah Natasha Thomas and USC Schwarzenegger Institute Global Director Bonnie Reiss, who moderated the conversation.

Robots. Holograms. Augmented reality. A crowd of enthusiasts, and even Robert Iger.