City Arts & Lectures

Our guest is Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of today’s most respected voices on race relations in the United States. Catapulted to fame with the publication of “Between The World And Me,” Coates has maintained his focus on institutional injustice, as well as the very personal work of honing his writing craft. In his newest work, Coates tackles fiction. “The Water Dancer” merges slave narrative and fantasy,...

Our guest is Ta-Nehisi Coates. His debut novel, “The Water Dancer,” merges the slavery narrative with fantasy, and draws on themes, stories, and research from his past non-fiction, including from his books “Between the World and Me” and “We Were Eight Years in Power.” On October 14, 2019, Ta-Nehisi Coates came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to talk with fellow writer Michael Chabon about craft, t...

Known to many as a travel writer,  Pico Iyer is not so much a guide to foreign lands as he is a sage interpreter of our interior lives. His many books include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, and The Art of Stillness, a poetic investigation of the benefits of quiet contemplation and travel to “nowhere.” With his two newest works, Iyer turns his attention to Japan, his adopted home...

This week, we pay tribute to the activist, essayist, and critic Susan Sontag. 15 years after her death, Sontag's perspectives on language, sexuality, and politics still resonate. She elevated art forms like film and photography, and believed that dedication to high culture was in itself a form of activism. On October 2, 2019, biographer Benjamin Moser and writer and activist Rebecca Solnit came to...

Our guests are former California governor Jerry Brown and journalist Miriam Pawel. In 1975, Jerry Brown became the youngest governor in modern American times. Three decades later, he returned as the oldest, to face unprecedented challenges, including rampant wildfires and a statewide financial crisis.  Miriam Pawel has just written a biography of the Brown family - a dynasty that led the state for...

Poet, artist, and musician Patti Smith first gained recognition in the 1970s for her merging of rock and poetry. Later, she would become a punk icon and the author of numerous books including “Just Kids,” and “M Train.”   Her new memoir “Year of the Monkey” is a beautifully written account of loss and friendship -- over the course of a single year. On October 7, 2019, Patti Smith came to the Sydne...

Demi Moore is an actress, producer, director and activist known for her roles in St. Elmo’s Fire, Ghost, A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and G.I. Jane, among many others. For decades, Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been far from the spotlight — or the headlines. In her memoir "Inside Out", Moore opens up about her...

Our guests this week are Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who first broke the story of Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct. They’ll talk about the many obstacles Weinstein created to stop women from going public with their stories, and how he prevented reporters from investigating. Their new book, “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite...

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks about the oil and gas industry’s impact on democracy around the world, tying in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, and more. On October 6, 2019, Rachel Maddow came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to read from her new book “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive...

Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for the New Yorker and has written numerous books at the intersection of sociology, economics, and behavorial science. Gladwell has now brought his passion for storytelling to the world of podcasting with two projects: the music podcast “Broken Record”, and “Revisionist History”, which reexamines the past and asks whether we got it right the first time. He came t...

Jen Gunter is a physician who's been nicknamed "Twitter's resident gynecologist", whose new book is "The Vagina Bible". Within the private confines of her examining room, women ask deeply personal questions and share intimate details about their bodies rarely discussed in public. How can it be that so many women can know so little about their own bodies? Dr. Gunter is determined to help them know...

This week, a conversation about privacy, ethics, and organizing in the world of technology. Who benefits from the lack of diversity in the tech industry? Does artificial intelligence reflect the biases of those who create it? How can we push for regulation and transparency?  These are some of the questions discussed by our guests, Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of AI Now at NYU and the founder of...

Before Amor Towles became a bestselling writer, he spent two decades working for an investment firm, staying countless nights at luxury hotels. That’s where he had the idea for "A Gentleman in Moscow", the story of a Russian aristocrat who is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to a lifetime of house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel. Amor Towles came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on Ju...

A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker now writing for The Atlantic, George Packer has reported extensively on global unrest, from Bosnia, to the Iraq War, to the civil war in Syria. In his new book “Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century,” Packer writes about one of America’s greatest diplomats. He compares Holbrooke’s larger than life character, utterly self-absorbed,...

Jared Diamond, the author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” discusses his new book about the rise and fall of civilizations around the globe. "Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change" combines history, geography, economic, and cultural analysis. Its broad scope and vast historical sweep are what fans of Diamond have come to appreciate. On May 15, 2019, Jared Diamond came to the Sydney Goldstei...

Maker Adam Savage, best known as the host of Mythbusters, and artist Tom Sachs have long been obsessed with outer space - from the engineering and aesthetics of NASA to the immensity of interstellar exploration. The gear, architecture, fashion, and dreams are all part of an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through January 2020, “Far Out: Suits, Habs, and Labs for Outer Space”....

In 2015, Anand Giridharadas delivered a speech at the Aspen Institute that took direct aim at the philanthropists and thought leaders in attendance. Giridharadas argued that the corporate world’s attempts at doing good, and many of the goals and deeds of philanthropy, actually do great harm by preserving a corrupt and unfair system of capitalism. The speech made waves, and inspired the book “Winne...

David Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times, and a regular on PBS News Hour and Meet The Press. In his new book, “The Second Mountain,” Brooks writes about his religious and spiritual journey, our country’s current political state of detachment, and how he learned to move from a state of disengagement to one of fulfilling connection in his personal life. On May 1, 2019, David Brooks came to...

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report that served as a stark wake up call for many in the movement to combat climate change. Its key takeaway -- we only have about 12 years for aggressive action to keep global warming below one and a half degrees Celsius. Since then, the climate movement has experienced a surge of action, from school strikes in cities acros...

Samin Nosrat and Lindy West join us this week to talk about how they developed their individual voices, the process of adapting their work for television, and how to make delicious food. Samin Nosrat is author of the cookbook “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” and the executive producer of the Netflix series of the same name. Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Her essay colle...

A staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, Jelani Cobb writes with eloquence and urgency on topics of race, politics, history, and culture. He is a professor of journalism at Columbia University, and the author of several books including “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” On April 16, 2019, Jelani Cob...

Whether writing about the business of baseball, or the strange and surprising subcultures of the financial world, Michael Lewis has a penchant for iconoclasts of industry, and characters so fascinating they seem imagined. Several of his bestselling books, including “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” have been made into movies. On April 11, 2019, Michael Lewis came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to...

Our guests are Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, hosts of “Still Processing”... a culture podcast from the New York Times. Each week, Wesley, a critic-at-large, and Wortham, a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine, lovingly debate pop-culture products and people, from queerness to unpacking black male privilege, Michael Jackson to Marie Kondo. On April 10, 2019, Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morr...

In 2018, Stacey Abrams made United States history when she became the first black woman to be nominated by a major party for governor. Despite winning more votes than any other Democrat in Georgia’s history, Abrams lost the hotly contested election. But her impact can’t be understated. Abrams continues to work against voter suppression, and her plans to run for future office are a major source of...

Ruth Reichl served as restaurant critic for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, before becoming Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine during the Golden Era of print journalism. In her latest memoir, “Save Me The Plums,” Reichl reveals the realities of her time at Gourmet, and the lasting ways in which she innovated food journalism as we know it. On April 9, 2019, Ruth Reichl came to The Sy...