City Arts & Lectures

 Kristin Hannah’s award-winning, best-selling novels, including the international hit The Nightingale , celebrate the all-too-often forgotten power of women across history. Her newest book, The Women , tells the story of one woman coming of age in the turbulence of 1960s America. In the process, Hannah shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. An int...

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, two of today’s most significant intellectuals, examine extremism and other contemporary movements in their new book, End Times Fascism . It’s a scathing investigation of, and strategies for fighting against, the Christian nationalists, Silicon Valley reactionaries, and populist survivalists who define the contemporary, apocalyptic right.  An award-winning journalist,...

Our guest this week is Emily St. John Mandel, a writer whose work experiments with literary noir, speculative fiction, and horror.  Her bestselling books include The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility, and her post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven was adapted into a limited series for HBO. This year, Mandel returns with her new novel Exit Party , diving into a future United States locked in a new...

Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson has dedicated his career to helping the poor, defending the incarcerated, and fighting for equality and justice. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.  The nonprofit has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of incarcerated people,...

This week, we remember the life of writer, poet, farmer, and environmentalist Wendell Berry, by listening back to a 2010 conversation with fellow writer and activist Michael Pollan.  Berry was of America’s most influential voices on agriculture and the environment, and he wrote with a calm and compelling vision about our relationship with the land, our work, and our communities. Among his best-kno...

This week, we remember the life of Gloria Steinem – legendary feminist, activist, and journalist, with a rebroadcast of a conversation recorded in San Francisco on November 9, 2015. For more than half a century, Gloria Steinem was one of the most influential voices for women’s rights, equality, and social justice. Steinem began her journalism career in New York, gaining national attention with an...

Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, is one of today’s leading voices addressing issues of income inequality.  Reich served in three presidential administrations, and recently retired from teaching at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Policy after nearly 20 years.  His classes were among the most popular on campus, and the end of his teaching career inspired the documentary...

Essayist and novelist Edwidge Danticat moved from Port-au-Prince to the United States at the age of twelve and began writing about Haitian culture and the immigrant experience when she was just 13. Danticat has gone on to write numerous critically acclaimed books, and currently teaches at Columbia University. On August 3, 2026, Danticat talked  about her most recent novel, Dey, with Lisa Armstrong...

Emmy-nominated actress and activist Laverne Cox rose to fame through her role on Orange is the New Black , quickly becoming an important voice for transgender rights. In her debut memoir Transcendent , Cox delves into her traumas, gender identity, transition, and, in the end, her journey to healing. Laverne Cox spent years tirelessly working to make it as an actress before her breakout, Emmy-nomin...

This is an encore presentation of a program originally broadcast in October of 2025. Arundhati Roy’s internationally best-selling novels include The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.  Her nonfiction works engage elegantly and passionately with class and power, among other issues.  Roy’s new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, examines her childhood in Kerala, India, and a moth...

Dr. Vivek Murthy served as the Surgeon General of the United States under both Presidents Obama and Biden.   In that capacity, Murthy shaped the federal response to the opioid epidemic, the rise of e-cigarettes, the Flint, Michigan water crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Murthy has pushed to reduce access to social media for young children, pointing out the harmful effects of bullying, a lack of...

Yotam Ottolenghi is a celebrated chef and bestselling cookbook author whose newest book, Simple Too , comes out in October 2026. He is the restaurateur and chef-patron of six London-based Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants.  Ottolenghi has been a weekly columnist for The Guardian (UK) for over sixteen years and is a regular contributor to The New York Times . His commitment...

  Eddie Huang has found success in a dizzying variety of fields, including law, comedy, food, and literature. In his 2013 memoir -  Fresh Off The Boat - Huang described a tumultuous childhood as the son of Taiwanese immigrants, and a colorful path to forming his own identity – making his way through numerous subcultures and career paths – from law to fashion, comedy and now restaurants. Fresh Off...

This week, our guest is Bella Freud, clothing designer and host of Fashion Neurosis,  a conversation podcast about the connection between clothes and identity. It features an unconventional set-up: guests lie on a couch, and Freud asks questions from a nearby chair, out of their view – in the manner of her great-grandfather, the legendary psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The interviews with actors, wr...

This week, our guest is David Szalay. His novel – Flesh – was winner of the 2025 Man Booker Prize. The story begins in Hungary, and it stays close to a protagonist who moves somewhat aimlessly through life, rarely exhibiting any self-reflection. Szalay says that he wanted to write a character whose experience of the world is entirely physical, not psychological.  Critics and fellow writers like Za...

 This week, our guest is Elizabeth Pryor – a professor of history at Smith College, whose work focuses on the histories of race and slavery in the United States. Pryor’s memoir, Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me, is about growing up as the Black Jewish daughter of comedian Richard Pryor. It also traces the painful evolution of the N-word from the era of slavery to today –...

 This week, our guest is Lena Dunham, best known as the creator of Girls, an HBO series about a group of 20-somethings that one critic called “a generational event.” Her most recent television series, Too Much , is about a New Yorker who moves to London to find her way out of heartbreak. On May 17, 2026, Dunham came to the SGT to talk about her memoir, Famesick, with her close friend, journalist M...

José Andrés is widely recognized for both his culinary achievements – including two Michelin stars, and 40 restaurants worldwide – and his humanitarian work. As the founder of World Central Kitchen, Andrés has fed tens of millions of people across dozens of crises. The model is uncommonly nimble and effective; rather than warehousing aid, Central Kitchen activates local restaurants and cooks on th...

Ben Rhodes is a writer on U.S. and global politics. A contributor to the New York Times and MSNOW , and co-host of Pod Save the World , Ben has authored two New York Times bestsellers - After the Fall and T he World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House . His latest book, All We Say , is a sweeping look at the battle over American identity and the questions, “What does it mean to be American...

This week, our guest is Boots Riley, an Oakland-based filmmaker and founding member of the seminal hip hop group, The Coup. Like his music, Riley’s films are politically charged, tackling subjects like capitalism, racism, and class. His debut film, Sorry to Bother You and television series I’m A Virgo showcased a surrealist style, sci-fi tropes and comedy. His hyperkinetic energy is on display aga...

NOTE: This is a PODCAST-ONLY program - the titles and contents of Adam Mansbach's books have NOT been bleeped!   Adam Mansbach is a novelist, screenwriter, humorist, and cultural critic, as well as the author of the “children’s books” Go the F*** to Sleep and You Have to F***king Eat, and F***, Now There Are Two of You . His other books include Rage Is Back , The End of the Jews , and Angry Black...

This week, a conversation about children’s literature with author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen. Barnett is National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and the author of numerous children's books including “Sam and Dave Dig a Hole” and “Extra Yarn”. Jon Klassen worked on films like Kung Fu Panda and Coraline, before he decided to create books, like the best-selling Hat Trilogy. Kla...

This week, our guest is Jeff Hiller. The veteran comedian and actor is hardly a newcomer, but it’s his recent role on the television series Somebody Somewhere that has finally brought him widespread recognition. In 2025, he earned an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for that performance. Hiller talks about the journey in his memoir, Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year...

Demis Hassabis is an artificial intelligence researcher, scientist, and entrepreneur.  In 2010, he co-founded DeepMind, an AI research lab which is now part of Google. In 2024, Hassabis won a Nobel Prize for using AI to predict the 3D structure of proteins, critical for disease understanding and drug discovery.  He was also awarded a knighthood that year by King Charles III. On April 20, 2026, Sir...

Rabbi Sharon Brous is a leading voice at the intersection of faith and justice in America. She is the founding and senior rabbi of IKAR, a trail-blazing Jewish community based in Los Angeles.  Brous’s work has been featured in the New York Times , Los Angeles Times and Washington Post .  Her new book is The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World .  On April 23, 2026, Sharo...