City Arts & Lectures

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...

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist and futurist, and the co-founder of string field theory, a branch of string theory. Thanks to his many books, regular television appearances, and robust Twitter presence, Dr. Kaku is one of the rare scientists with an enormous public following, particularly among young people. In his newest book, “Our Destiny Beyond Earth,” Kaku argues that human civiliza...

Rachel Cusk is a writer of considerable range and depth, and her most recent works —  dubbed the “Outline” trilogy -- embody a new and distinctive style. The novels take the form of a succession of monologues delivered not by the protagonist, but by the people she encounters. Little is revealed about a central character who serves principally as a conduit for others. The themes and questions that...

Started three years ago in the media lab of California’s San Quentin Prison, the podcast Ear Hustle tells the daily realities of life inside prison, shared by those living it. On March 29, 2019, two of the podcast’s creators, visual artist Nigel Poor and former inmate Earlonne Woods, came to The Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Al Letson. After twenty-one years of incarceration...

Dr. Daniel Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry, and the author of multiple books on child-rearing, including “The Whole Brain Child” and “No Drama Discipline.” Siegel’s books are popular with parents and and teachers alike, with their strategies for cultivating calmer, happier children. While mindfulness techniques -- and patience -- help foster healthy brain development, Siegel also sugg...

Rebecca Solnit is a writer and activist whose work addresses a wide range of issues, from climate change to feminism, and literary criticism to police brutality. She is the author of over twenty books, including Hope in the Dark and   Men Explain Things to Me . On February 27, 2019, Rebecca Solnit came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco, to talk with Astra Taylor, a filmmaker and pol...

Among this year’s most acclaimed books is Tommy Orange’s debut novel “There, There”. The book begins with a poignant prologue describing the devastating history of genocide and violent removal of Native Americans from their lands, setting the stage for a contemporary story about the urban Native American experience in the city of Oakland. The characters’ lives are informed by their ancestors’ suff...

Preet Bharara served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, before being fired by President Trump within a few weeks of his inauguration. Bharara is the host of the podcast Stay Tuned with Preet , and author of the book Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law. On March 26, 2019, Preet Bharara came to the Sydney Goldste...

Marlon James is best known for “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, a sweeping, violent novel about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. His new novel  “Black Leopard, Red Wolf”  is the first in the “Dark Star Trilogy,” a fantasy series which James describes as an African Game of Thrones. On February 19, 2019, Marlon James came to the Sydney Go...

Michael Tubbs has devoted his political life to fighting economic inequality in Stockton -- the Northern California city where he was born and raised.  Elected Mayor in 2016, Tubbs has worked to reinvent the formerly bankrupt city. This past year, he spearheaded a universal basic income pilot program. Already identified as a rising figure in the progressive movement, Tubbs isn’t even thirty years...

Jad Abumrad is the creator and co-host of Radiolab, a program with a unique brand of storytelling that explores science, philosophy, and the human experience. Abumrad is also the creator of “More Perfect,” a podcast about how the Supreme Court shapes everything from marriage and money to public safety and sex. On February 8, 2019, Jad Abumrad came to The Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco t...

Rebecca Traister has spent her career writing about politics, media, and entertainment from a feminist perspective.  In her most recent book, “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger,” Traister tracks the history of female anger as political fuel - from suffragists protesting outside the White House during the First World War, to office workers vacating their building after Clarence...

Author Meg Wolitzer brings readers deep into the lives of others. A feminist thread runs through all of her work, including novels like “The Interestings” and “The Wife,” but nowhere is the subject of power more deeply investigated than in her newest book, “The Female Persuasion.” Campus assault, intergenerational feminism, debate, mentorship and ambition make it an especially timely story. On Jan...

Dr. BJ Miller is a palliative care expert who has spearheaded a nationwide effort to change the way we approach death and dying. Rather than hospitalization and endless attempts at sustaining life, Miller advocates for a mindful, human-centered model of care that embraces dying not as a medical event, but a universally shared life experience. On January 22, 2019, BJ Miller came to the Sydney Golds...

It has been twenty-five years since Jeff Tweedy founded the seminal alt-country band Wilco. The band still performs together, while Tweedy contributes his talents to other projects too - musical,  and now literary, with the publication of a 2018 memoir, “Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc.” Tweedy’s newest solo album, “Warm,” is his most personal to...

Our guests are activist and scholar Angela Davis, and historian Ibram X. Kendi. Throughout her lifetime, Angela Davis has been a passionate voice for human rights, working from the position that the battles for African American rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and prisoners’ rights, are interconnected. Dr. Kendi profiled Dr. Davis in his book “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History...

James Forman Jr., a legal scholar and author, has devoted his life to fighting institutionalized racism. In his book,  “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America,” Forman writes about the war on crime that began in the 1970s, examining the role that African American judges, prosecutors, and leaders played and how it contributed to the mass incarceration of people of color. On Decem...